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 ›
Tag Archive for ‘housing affordability’
COVID-19 Continues to Impact Home Purchasing Plans
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 ›
U.S. Population Growth Slows: Many States See Decline
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 ›
Lack of Inventory, Higher Prices Push Housing Affordability Near Two-Year Low
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 ›
Housing Affordability Hits 18-Month Low on Lack of Supply, Higher Prices
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 ›
Multiple Offers For Homes on the Market Are Becoming More Common
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 ›
Low Mortgage Rates Convert Prospective Buyers into Active Buyers
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 ›
Affordability Expectations Show Slight Improvement
According to the second quarter of 2020’s Housing Trends Report, only 24% of prospective buyers can afford at least half the homes available in their markets. The other 77% are able to afford fewer than half the homes. Although these results demonstrate housing affordability remains a serious challenge, buyers’ affordability expectations are slightly more favorable than a year ago, when… Read More ›
Expectations for Housing Availability See Slight Improvement
According to the latest Housing Trends Report, 63% of prospective home buyers in the second quarter of 2020 expect housing availability to become harder or stay the same in the months ahead, while 25% expect it will actually be easier to find a home to buy. These results show buyers’ expectations for housing availability have improved slightly from a year… Read More ›
Home Purchase Plans Have Not Significantly Changed Because of COVID-19
According to NAHB’s latest Housing Trends Report, the share of Americans who are considering the purchase of a home in the next 12 months was 11% in the second quarter of 2020, essentially flat when compared to the same quarter in 2019 (12%). In light of the COVID-19 crisis, this finding indicates that the overall propensity of Americans to want… Read More ›