A rising story: home prices
Let’s review the housing market metrics for July. Housing starts: down. Single-family housing starts: down. Existing home sales: down. New home sales: down.
But against this backdrop of declines, there’s a major metric on the upswing: housing prices.
The headline from a recent Zillow.com news release tells the story: “Home values higher than ever in almost half of nation’s largest markets.”
Home values in Denver, Dallas and San Jose have appreciated most beyond the previous record-highs set at the peak of the housing bubble in the mid-2000s. Homes in Denver are almost 60 percent more valuable now than during the bubble, increasing from a median home value of $235,900 in April 2006 to a current median home value of $371,100.
The latest report from the National Association of Realtors shows the median existing-home price for all housing types in July was $258,300, up 6.2% from July 2016 ($243,200). July’s price increase marks the 65th straight month of year-over-year gains.
According to Zillow’s Real Estate Market Report, strong labor markets and steady income growth have pushed up home values in the nation's hottest markets more quickly than in others. Among the 35 largest housing markets, 15 have higher median home values than ever before.
Affordability is an issue, and inventory is even more of an issue, according to Zillow’s Svenja Gudell, chief economist.
"Home values are high, but affordability – while suffering a bit lately – is still OK, largely because of very low mortgage interest rates helping to keep monthly mortgage payments in check," said Gudell. "The more pressing issue is abnormally low inventory, which is translating into an extremely competitive environment for home shoppers. Bidding wars and homes selling for over asking price have been common themes in many markets this summer, and continued competition in the face of limited supply will only continue to push home values up going forward.”
For more major metric information, visit the Quikrete Industry Dashboard here.