Eye On Housing
Housing affordability has been a key driver of the suburban shift of home building activity over the last year and a half. As the following analysis from the NAHB Home Building Geography Index reveals, lower density markets in general have higher housing affordability conditions, which explains the shift in construction activity. The second quarter HBGI examined county-level Price-to-Income ratios. The… Read More ›
Housing affordability has gained increased attention in recent quarters due growing home prices and rents. For the second quarter of 2021, NAHB’s Home Building Geography Index (HBGI) explored a geographic measure of housing affordability using Price-to-Income ratios of all counties in the United States1 to map the geography of single-family and multifamily construction. The principal findings of this new classification… Read More ›
Soaring building material costs, high demand and low inventory have added tens of thousands of dollars to the price of a new home and caused housing affordability to fall to its lowest level in nearly a decade during the second quarter of 2021. According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI), 56.6 percent of… Read More ›
In the final quarter of 2019, a series-high of 82% of prospective buyers could afford less than half the homes available in their markets. The share went on to decline throughout 2020 (i.e. affordability perceptions improved), reaching 63% by the final quarter of that year. But affordability expectations have worsened recently. In the first and second quarters of 2021, the… Read More ›
The share of prospective home buyers looking to buy a newly-built home peaked at 42% in the fourth quarter of 2020, before falling to 38% and 33%, respectively, in the first two quarters of 2021. The drop is most likely the direct result of strong gains in new home prices in 2021, which have been driven by double-digit growth in… Read More ›
Recent Census data, combined with NAHB survey results, illustrate the way in which home buyers in the lower one-fourth of the market have been squeezed entirely out of the market for new construction, and forced to look exclusively in the stock of existing homes—where the inventory of homes available for sale remains in a historically low range (at a 2.5-month… Read More ›
Housing affordability weakened slightly during the first quarter of 2021 as rising material costs and supply shortages, along with expected increases in mortgage rates stemming from a growing economy, are likely to exacerbate affordability challenges in the year ahead. According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI), 63.1 percent of new and existing homes… Read More ›
For some home buyers, housing affordability has improved. According to the Housing Trends Report for the first quarter of 2021, 35% of buyers report being able to afford half or more of the homes available for-sale in their markets. A year earlier, that share was 23%. The increase is an indication that still relatively low mortgage rates continue to have… Read More ›
Sixteen percent of American adults are considering the purchase of a home in the next 12 months, according to NAHB’s Housing Trends Report for Qtr1’21. That is six points higher than the 10% with similar plans a year earlier. The increase marks the third (and largest) year-over-year gain in the share of prospective buyers in the series history. This steady… Read More ›
Of the 15% of American adults considering a future home purchase in the final quarter of 2020, 56% have moved beyond planning and are actively trying to find one to buy, up from the comparable 43% share a year earlier. This increase marks the fourth consecutive year-over-year rise in the share of prospective buyers who have become active buyers. Several… Read More ›