After a reprieve in the first quarter of 2023, buyers’ outlook for housing affordability turned bleaker again in the second quarter. According to the latest Housing Trends Report, 76% of buyers are able to afford less than half the homes for-sale in their markets, up from 73% in the first quarter of 2023. On the…
Increased levels of new home construction and sales are leading some buyers to expect the home search to get easier in the months ahead. According to the latest Housing Trends Report for the second quarter of 2023, 29% of prospective buyers are anticipating housing availability to ease up ahead, an improvement over the 24% and…
Higher interest rates have led millions of existing homeowners with mortgages under 4% to postpone plans to list their homes for sale, and for many prospective buyers, that supply vacuum has left newly built homes as the only game in town. That is the backdrop behind the strengthening of interest for new homes. According to…
Mortgage rates’ slow –but steady– march upwards combined with the return of home price gains are doing what they are predicted to: slow housing demand. According to the latest Housing Trends Report, the share of adults with plans to purchase a home within a year dropped to 15% in the second quarter of 2023, down…
Solid nominal wage gains (unadjusted for inflation) combined with lower mortgage rates and home prices helped to boost housing affordability in the first quarter of 2023, but ongoing building material supply chain issues and expected cooling of wage growth signal ongoing concerns for affordability conditions in the year ahead. According to the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing…
An earlier post revealed that 71% of buyers who were actively engaged in the process of finding a home in the first quarter of 2023 have spent 3+ months searching for a home without success. The inability to find an affordable home remains the most common reason buyers looking for 3+ months can’t make a…
Improvements in affordability expectations have led to an increase in the share of prospective buyers who have moved beyond just the planning phase of their home search: 56% report being actively engaged in the purchase process in the first quarter of 2023, up from 46% a quarter earlier. The share of prospective buyers actively searching…
