\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

By Kerry Smith<\/div><\/div>\n

Rising home prices and low inventory have made it difficult for lower-income Americans to buy a home \u2013 and even more difficult for Black Americans.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

WASHINGTON \u2013 The surging residential real estate market has led to record-high home prices and record-low inventory, which the National Association of Realtors\u00ae (NAR) and realtor.com call \u201cdouble trouble\u201d in their latest study, The Double Trouble of the Housing Market<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

According to NAR, it\u2019s increasingly difficult for consumers \u2013 particularly Black Americans \u2013 to achieve homeownership.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The report looks at the impact that rapidly escalating home prices and diminishing housing inventory has on housing affordability. Unlike previous affordability research, NAR says it considered affordability for all income groups, accounted for the affordability of homes currently available for sale instead of homes that have already sold, and provided affordability data by race for the 100 largest U.S. metro areas.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Nationally, households earning $75,000 to $100,000 have 400,000-plus fewer affordable homes to choose from compared to the start of the pandemic (245,300 in Dec. 2021 vs. 656,200 in Dec. 2019). That translates into one affordable listing for every 65 households, down from one affordable listing for every 24 households in 2019.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Total home valuation across the U.S. rose by an estimated $8.1 trillion from the first quarter of 2020 through the end of 2021. However, that wasn\u2019t accompanied by a rise in the homeownership rate, which remained steady at about 65%.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe housing wealth gain has been sizable over the past two years,\u201d says NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. \u201cHowever, due to the ongoing inventory shortage and rising interest rates, homeownership attainment will become especially challenging unless drastically more housing supply is available.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For households with higher incomes, some expensive metro areas \u2013 San Francisco, San Jose, Washington, D.C., for example \u2013 are more affordable than before the pandemic started due to increasing incomes and lower mortgage rates. Since 2019, household incomes rose 15% and 13%, respectively, in San Jose and San Francisco.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

However, the impact of the housing market changes affects some income groups more than others. In San Francisco, for example, households earning $100,000 to $125,000 can afford to buy 180 fewer homes now compared to December 2019. For those earning $125,000 to $150,000, there are about 300 fewer affordable homes.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn general, an increase in salary makes housing more affordable to a buyer. But due to the reductions in inventory over the last few years, today\u2019s buyers in large tech markets can actually afford a smaller number of homes than they could two years ago, despite an uptick in wages,\u201d says Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hale says the low inventory problem \u201cis particularly acute for some racial and ethnic groups who have faced greater hurdles to homeownership stemming from, among other things, lower incomes as a group.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Homeownership gap<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
According to the study, a significant and persistent racial homeownership gap exists in America. Since 2017, the annual homeownership rate for white Americans has remained above 70%; however, the homeownership rate for Black Americans has been slightly above 40% \u2013 nearly 30 percentage points lower.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
NAR and Realtor.com\u2019s look at housing affordability by racial group explained the differences in homeownership. Nationwide, 35% of white households and only 20% of Black households have incomes greater than $100,000. Approximately half of all homes currently listed for sale (51%) are affordable to households with at least $100,000 income, though that varies a lot by metro area.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cThe homeownership rate has been around 50% for all households in the expensive metro markets, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, and therefore it\u2019s becoming nearly impossible to afford a home, especially for Black households,\u201d Yun says. \u201cAt the same time, there are affordable markets that still provide opportunities to achieve homeownership as inventory at affordable price points is reasonably available.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
NAR and Realtor.com\u2019s study identified the top 10 most affordable U.S. housing markets for Black households:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\n
Akron, Ohio<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
Baltimore, Md.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
Birmingham, Ala.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
Dayton, Ohio<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
Detroit, Mich.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
McAllen, Texas<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
Memphis, Tenn.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
St. Louis, Mo.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
Toledo, Ohio<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
Youngstown, Ohio<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
To increase the nation\u2019s housing inventory, NAR advocates for all levels of government to include funding for affordable housing construction; preserve, expand and create tax incentives to renovate distressed properties; convert unused commercial space to residential units; and encourage and incentivize zoning reform.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
In addition, NAR says new-home construction should be boosted with an additional 550,000 units a year for 10 years, noting that would create 2.8 million new jobs and generate more than $400 billion in economic activity.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\u00a9 2022 Florida Realtors\u00ae<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
Go to Source<\/a>
\nAuthor: kerrys<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Kerry Smith Rising home prices and low inventory have made it difficult for lower-income Americans to buy a home \u2013 and even more difficult for Black Americans. WASHINGTON \u2013 The surging residential real estate market has led to record-high home prices and record-low inventory, which the National Association of Realtors\u00ae (NAR) and realtor.com call \u201cdouble trouble\u201d in their latest study, The Double Trouble of the Housing Market. According to NAR, it\u2019s increasingly difficult for consumers \u2013 particularly Black Americans \u2013 to achieve homeownership. The report looks at the impact that rapidly escalating home prices and diminishing housing inventory has on housing affordability. Unlike previous affordability research, NAR says it considered affordability for all income groups, accounted for the affordability of homes currently available for sale instead of homes that have already sold, and provided affordability data by race for the 100 largest U.S. metro areas. Nationally, households earning $75,000 to $100,000 have 400,000-plus fewer affordable homes to choose from compared to the start of the pandemic (245,300 in Dec. 2021 vs. 656,200 in Dec. 2019). That translates into one affordable listing for every 65 households, down from one affordable listing for every 24 households in 2019. Total home valuation across the U.S. rose by an estimated $8.1 trillion from the first quarter of 2020 through the end of 2021. However, that wasn\u2019t accompanied by a rise in the homeownership rate, which remained steady at about 65%. \u201cThe housing wealth gain has been sizable over the past two years,\u201d says NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. \u201cHowever, due to the ongoing inventory shortage and rising interest rates, homeownership attainment will become especially challenging unless drastically more housing supply is available.\u201d For households with higher incomes, some expensive metro areas \u2013 San Francisco, San Jose, Washington, D.C., for example \u2013 are more affordable than before the pandemic started due to increasing incomes and lower mortgage rates. Since 2019, household incomes rose 15% and 13%, respectively, in San Jose and San Francisco. However, the impact of the housing market changes affects some income groups more than others. In San Francisco, for example, households earning $100,000 to $125,000 can afford to buy 180 fewer homes now compared to December 2019. For those earning $125,000 to $150,000, there are about 300 fewer affordable homes. \u201cIn general, an increase in salary makes housing more affordable to a buyer. But due to the reductions in inventory over the last few years, today\u2019s buyers in large tech markets can actually afford a smaller number of homes than they could two years ago, despite an uptick in wages,\u201d says Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale. Hale says the low inventory problem \u201cis particularly acute for some racial and ethnic groups who have faced greater hurdles to homeownership stemming from, among other things, lower incomes as a group.\u201d Homeownership gap According to the study, a significant and persistent racial homeownership gap exists in America. Since 2017, the annual homeownership rate for white Americans has remained above 70%; however, the homeownership rate for Black Americans has been slightly above 40% \u2013 nearly 30 percentage points lower. NAR and Realtor.com\u2019s look at housing affordability by racial group explained the differences in homeownership. Nationwide, 35% of white households and only 20% of Black households have incomes greater than $100,000. Approximately half of all homes currently listed for sale (51%) are affordable to households with at least $100,000 income, though that varies a lot by metro area. \u201cThe homeownership rate has been around 50% for all households in the expensive metro markets, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, and therefore it\u2019s becoming nearly impossible to afford a home, especially for Black households,\u201d Yun says. \u201cAt the same time, there are affordable markets that still provide opportunities to achieve homeownership as inventory at affordable price points is reasonably available.\u201d NAR and Realtor.com\u2019s study identified the top 10 most affordable U.S. housing markets for Black households: Akron, Ohio Baltimore, Md. Birmingham, Ala. Dayton, Ohio Detroit, Mich. McAllen, Texas Memphis, Tenn. St. Louis, Mo. Toledo, Ohio Youngstown, Ohio To increase the nation\u2019s housing inventory, NAR advocates for all levels of government to include funding for affordable housing construction; preserve, expand and create tax incentives to renovate distressed properties; convert unused commercial space to residential units; and encourage and incentivize zoning reform. In addition, NAR says new-home construction should be boosted with an additional 550,000 units a year for 10 years, noting that would create 2.8 million new jobs and generate more than $400 billion in economic activity. \u00a9 2022 Florida Realtors\u00ae Go to Source Author: kerrys<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6146"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwfl4sale.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}