Eye On Housing
The price and availability of building materials again topped the list of problems builders faced last year, while interest rates (along with general inflation and negative media reports) moved considerably up the list. According to special questions on the January 2023 survey for the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, building material prices were a significant issue for 96% of builders… Read More ›
An earlier post revealed that 65% of buyers who were actively engaged in the process of finding a home in the fourth quarter of 2022 have spent 3+ months searching for a home without success. The inability to find an affordable home (45%) is the most common reason buyers looking for 3+ months can’t make a purchase. In second place… Read More ›
Dwindling housing affordability in the fourth quarter of 2022 caused the share of prospective home buyers who are actively engaged in the purchase process (i.e. who have moved beyond just the planning phase) to drop to 46%, down from 59% a quarter earlier. The share of prospective buyers fully engaged in the buying process declined in every region between the… Read More ›
Buyers’ outlook for housing affordability took a sharp negative turn in the final quarter of 2022, when a record high of 87% reported being able to afford fewer than 50% of the homes for-sale in their markets. The remaining 13% can afford the majority of homes available, less than half the 31% who could in the third quarter. Affordability expectations… Read More ›
After a brief respite earlier in 2022, buyers’ expectations of housing availability soured again at the end of the year. In the final quarter of 2022, the share of buyers who expect the home search to get easier in the months ahead dropped to 24%, down from 37% in the third quarter. In contrast, 66% expect the search to get… Read More ›
Interest for new home construction weakened in the fourth quarter of 2022, driven by high mortgage rates and elevated new home prices. The latest Housing Trends Report (HTR) shows that the share of prospective buyers looking to buy new construction dropped to 20% in the final quarter of 2022, down from 27% a quarter earlier. The latest decline in interest… Read More ›
The share of adults planning a home purchase in the next 12 months dropped to 13% in the final quarter of 2022, down from 15% in the previous quarter. The drop is not surprising, given that housing affordability worsened during this period, as mortgage interest rates surpassed 7.0% and reached levels not seen in nearly 20 years. In the third… Read More ›
An earlier post revealed that a record 70% of buyers who were actively engaged in the process of finding a home in the third quarter of 2022 have spent 3+ months searching for a home without success. Those buyers also have higher incomes and education levels than in previous quarters. The most common reason these long-term searchers cite for not… Read More ›
Higher interest rates are pricing out some (not all) buyers, but also transforming remaining prospects into active buyers. In the third quarter of 2022, 59% of prospective buyers had moved beyond the planning phase and become fully engaged in the buying process, up from 46% in the first quarter and 49% in the second quarter of the year. The share… Read More ›
Prospective buyers in the third quarter of 2022 are more likely to have higher levels of income and education than earlier in the year. This helps explain why affordability expectations have improved. In the third quarter of 2022, 69% of buyers could only afford a minority of homes for sale in their markets, a much lower share than in the… Read More ›