Q3 2016 Market Report: High Demand Continues to Put Pressure on Home Values
Now three-fourths of the way through 2016, the trends we’ve seen shaping the market throughout much of the year – namely, high demand for homes to buy and low supply of homes for sale, which have conspired to push up prices – look firmly entrenched.
Rapid Reaction: September Jobs Report
This morning’s jobs report offered another glimpse into what has been a solid employment picture. Despite creating only 156,000 jobs in September instead of the expected 175,000 jobs, job creation remained at a solid pace.
Annual growth in median rents nationwide has slowed considerably from last summer’s breakneck pace, offering some relief to renters struggling to pay less money to their landlords and put more money into savings for a home purchase. But just because rental growth is slowing down, doesn’t mean it’s not still growing – and incredibly quickly – in some of the nation’s hottest markets, according to the Zillow Rent Forecast, contributing to continued affordability concerns.
August Case-Shiller Forecast: New Home Price Peaks Within Sight
According to Zillow’s August Case-Shiller forecast, the national index and both smaller 10 and 20-city indices look set to keep growing at a very similar rate as they have been for the past few months.
July Case-Shiller: Two Straight Years of Stable Growth
July Case-Shiller data revealed a national housing market continuing to grow at a steady annual pace in line with both prior months and with our expectations. Seasonally adjusted prices fell very slightly from June on both the 10- and 20-city indices.
Rapid Reaction: August New Home Sales
August new home sales fell 7.6 percent from July, to 609,000 thousand units sold (SAAR), but remain 20.6 percent above last year's pace.
August 2016 Market Report: Steady as it Goes
From 10,000 feet, the U.S. housing market has been nothing if not predictable in 2016 – inventory has been down, home values have grown at a remarkably steady pace and sellers have largely been sitting pretty. None of these trends shifted meaningfully in August, though there are a precious few signs emerging that hint at potential changes on the horizon.
Halfway through 2016, an all-too-familiar housing affordability story continues to shape the U.S. housing market. Incredibly low mortgage interest rates are helping make homeownership more affordable, despite relatively rapid home value growth. But renting a home is decidedly unaffordable, even as growth in rents slows down.
Zillow Housing Confidence Index: Homeowners Got Swagger, But Buyers Increasingly Discouraged
Homeowners have a lot of swagger in today’s market, and for good reason – home values are rising, demand is high and homes are selling very quickly. But the same trends helping to buoy homeowner confidence are also proving increasingly discouraging for potential buyers, particularly among current renters, a critical imbalance that could have important impacts on the market going forward.
