Eye On Housing
Record-low mortgage rates offset record-high home prices to keep housing affordability steady in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI). Though affordability rates held firm, regulatory and supply-side challenges threaten to aggravate affordability problems in the year ahead. In all, 58.3 percent of new and existing homes sold… Read More ›
For a rising share of home buyers, housing affordability is improving. According to the Housing Trends Report for the final quarter of 2020, 38% of buyers are able to afford half or more of the homes available for-sale in their markets. A year earlier, that share was 21%. The increase is an indication that historically low mortgage rates continue to… Read More ›
Buyers’ perceptions about the availability of homes in the market are showing significant improvement, according to the latest Housing Trends Report. In the final quarter of 2020, 37% of prospective buyers expect their search for a home to get easier in the months ahead, while 54% expect it will be harder or stay the same. A year earlier, far fewer… Read More ›
According to NAHB’s latest Housing Trends Report, 15% of adults were considering a home purchase in the fourth quarter of 2020, up from 11% a year earlier. Further analysis reveals a significant shift in interest for newly-built homes during this period among prospective buyers. In the final quarter of 2020, 41% of buyers were looking for a newly-built home, more than… Read More ›
According to NAHB’s latest Housing Trends Report (HTR), the share of Americans who are considering the purchase of a home in the next 12 months was 15% in the fourth quarter of 2020, four percentage points higher than a year earlier and the largest year-over-year gain in the 3+year history of this series. The gain shows the COVID-19 pandemic continues… Read More ›
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Annual Resident Population of the United States as of July 1, 2020 was estimated at 329.5 million, increasing by 1.2 million from the previous year. In 2020, the Census estimated a growth rate of 0.35% on a national level, making the fifth consecutive year of a decline for the population growth rate. In… Read More ›
Record-low mortgage rates were not enough to offset inventory shortages and rising home prices as housing affordability continued to decline in the third quarter of 2020, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI). In all, 58.3 percent of new and existing homes sold between the beginning of July and end of September were… Read More ›
Despite low interest rates, a supply shortage coupled with rising home prices contributed to a decline in housing affordability in the second quarter of 2020, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI). In all, 59.6 percent of new and existing homes sold between the beginning of April and end of June were affordable… Read More ›
An earlier post revealed that 59% of buyers who were actively engaged in the process of finding a home in the second quarter of 2020 have spent upwards of 3 months searching for a home without success. Although the top reason long-time searchers haven’t pulled the trigger continues to be the inability to find an affordable home (39%), that share… Read More ›
Of the 11% of American adults considering a future home purchase in the second quarter of 2020, about half (49%) are not simply planning it, they are actively engaged in the process to find a home. That is a significantly higher share than the comparable figure a year ago (41%), which suggests that the COVID-19 crisis and its accompanying record-low… Read More ›