February Existing Home Sales Key Takeaways: Sales Remain Strong Despite Seasonal Blips
Existing home sales fell in line with expectations in February, dropping 3.7 percent from January to 5.48 million units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR), according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
February Home Sales Forecast: Supply-side Woes Continue
Zillow’s February home sales forecast calls for data released this week to show once again that demand from home buyers remains strong as the market moves toward peak home shopping season.
Healthy Housing: Where Higher Rents Are Correlated With Worse Health
There is a strong correlation nationwide between communities with higher median rents and a larger proportion of local residents in poor health – even when incomes in those communities are similar.
A Picture’s Worth: Where to Maximize Take-Home Pay and Job Opportunities
Where we live has an enormous influence on how we balance the competing demands of living, working and playing. We all (well, most of us) need to work, and communities with stronger labor markets widen our options. We all need a place to live, too, but housing is more costly in some places than in others. And our capacity for play comes out of everything left over from the fruits of our labor after taxes and housing costs – the price we pay to live in a civilized society.
Subdued new home construction activity in recent years is pushing up the price and age of those homes that do sell, and contributing to slower depreciation in value among aging homes that otherwise would become more affordable. As a result, those homes that are affordable for lower-income, renter households are increasingly older and potentially a lot more hazardous.
No Construction: Why Yesterday’s Luxury Home Remains Today’s Luxury Home
Reversing a trend from prior decades, homes built when the housing bubble first started to inflate and through the height of the housing boom have held their value better than older, existing homes over the same period. But a lack of new construction in more recent years means those homes that were new a decade ago still remain “new” relative to other existing homes, and are not depreciating in value fast enough to replenish the quickly dwindling supply of livable, but older, more-affordable homes.
Lack of New Homes Helping Drive New Construction Prices to Record Highs
Anemic new home construction activity in the wake of the housing bust is doing more than constricting overall inventory of homes for sale – it’s also helping push up both the price of those new homes that are built and the overall age of homes that do sell.
Live, Work and Play: Where to Maximize Take-Home Pay and Job Opportunities
Where we live has an enormous influence on how we balance the competing demands of living, working and playing. We all (well, most of us) need to work, and communities with stronger labor markets widen our options. We all need a place to live, too, but housing is more costly in some places than in others. And our capacity for play comes out of everything left over from the fruits of our labor after taxes and housing costs – the price we pay to live in a civilized society.
Close to Home: Why Stay-at-Home Parenting is Increasingly a Luxury
The share of U.S. children with a stay-at-home parent has plummeted since the 1970s, a result of changing demographics and social norms. With housing costs and child care among the two largest budget items for many working families, the shifts help explain both growing demand for child care and the evolving work-life balance of many U.S. families.
