Home Values Are Back, Except Where They’re Not
The median U.S. home value is back to its pre-recession peak, but not all markets behave the same. Denver recovered years ago, while Las Vegas still has a long way to go.
Southern Comfort: First-Time Home Buyers Will Find More Favorable Conditions in the South
First-time home buyers looking for friendly market conditions would do well to avoid the busy, headline-making markets in the West and the Northeast, and focus their search instead on homes in slower-moving, more sedate Southern and Midwestern metros.
Q4 2016 Negative Equity Report: Improvement Continues, But at a Much Slower Rate
The annual pace at which negative equity receded slowed dramatically in 2016, further proof that even as the housing market continues to put the boom and bust behind it, some scars will take a lot longer to heal.
January 2017 Market Report: The Rest Overtake the West
In January, U.S. median home value growth continued to accelerate year-over-year, the 22 month out of the past 23 in which annual growth was similar to or faster than the prior month. But while the national trend has remained roughly the same for two years, a slowdown in growth in a handful of pricey West Coast markets, particularly in California, has opened the door for more affordable markets in the South to top the list of the nation’s fastest-growing metros.
December 2016 Market Report: What Could Flattening Rents Mean for 2017?
A months-long streak of accelerating home value growth was met with an equally long stretch of flattening rents to end 2016, a trend with interesting implications for the housing market as a whole as attention turns to the busy 2017 home shopping season to come.
Q3 2016 Negative Equity Report: Bottom Heavy
Negative equity continues to recede as home values keep rising and the market inches ever closer to fully, finally regaining all value lost during the recession. And crucially, as home value growth among less-expensive homes outpaces growth at the higher end, negative equity is falling at a faster clip among entry-level homes – the exact kinds of homes sought by all-important first-time home buyers.
A lack of new home construction in the wake of the housing bust – especially in some of the nation’s hottest and most desirable housing markets – coupled with an aging housing stock is leading to a bump in the share of homes listed for sale in need of a little TLC.
