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Millennials Choosing Suburbs Over The City

Millennials Choosing Suburbs Over The City

Parker Scott Properties Millennials Choosing Suburbs Over The City
Parker Scott Properties
Millennials Choosing
Suburbs Over The City

While it’s true that – among demographic groups – there are more young people living in urban centers than any other age group, new research shows that 47 percent of millennial homeowners actually bought in the suburbs. The data, from the Zillow Group’s Consumer Housing Trends Report, shows that, despite conventional wisdom, there are many young Americans that are drawn to the suburbs because they can provide more space and a lower cost of living. But not only are there a larger than expected number of young Americans buying in the suburbs, there are a growing number of young Americans buying in general. “Millennials are shaping the market more than anyone realized,” Jeremy Wacksman, Zillow’s chief marketing officer, said. “In fact, half of all buyers are under 36 and half of sellers are under 41.” The long rumored return of first-time home buyers appears to have officially started and that’s good news for the housing market. But this time around things are a bit different. For example, today’s first-time buyer isn’t shopping for the typical “starter” home. The research shows that – perhaps because they’ve waited longer to buy their first home – younger Americans are buying homes that are nearly as large as the typical “move-up” home. More here.

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Today’s Homeowner Stays In One Place Longer

Home Parker Scott Properties Blog
Parker Scott Properties Blog

There are a lot of things to consider when deciding whether or not to sell your house and move. Home values, your mortgage rate, school district, plans for the future, and proximity to friends and family all play a role. In other words, after buying a house, homeowners generally stay there for a handful of years – if only to avoid uprooting their life. These days, however, Americans are staying in their homes almost 60 percent longer than they did before the housing crash. Traditionally, homeowners moved every six years or so. Now it’s closer to 10 years. Lawrence Yun, the National Association of Realtors’ chief economist, recently told a meeting of real estate agents in Florida that sellers are staying in their homes for longer periods of time and, it may be holding the housing market back. But why would Americans be less likely to move now than they were a decade ago? For one, historically low mortgage rates. Homeowners that were able to refinance over the past few years, may be reluctant to risk losing their low rate. In other instances, people whose homes lost value during the last recession may have stayed in their current homes in hopes of selling once prices rebounded. All in all, it’s expected that there will be an increasing number of Americans looking to sell their home in the near future and, when that happens, the influx of for-sale inventory will help moderate prices and give buyers more choices when looking for a house to call home. More here.

 

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How Long Does The Typical Home Search Last?

Parker Scott Properties Clocks
Parker Scott Properties Clocks

You don’t want to feel rushed when choosing a home to buy. It’s a big decision and one you’ll be living with for many years to come. So it’s best to take your time and only make an offer when you find a house that’s really right for you. But though that’s true, you may wonder along the way if you’re taking longer than usual or seeing more homes than the typical buyer. So how long does the usual home buyer search for a home? Well, according to the National Association of Realtors, the length of the median home search has gotten longer over the past 30 years. In fact, buyers in 1987 searched a median of seven weeks before buying a house. In recent years, that’s risen to as much as 12 weeks – though it’s held steady at 10 weeks since 2014. During those 10 weeks, buyers typically look at 10 homes before finding one that fits their needs. That’s fewer than it used to be, but not by much. The median number of homes buyers see before purchasing has generally been between 10 and 12 homes for the past 30 years. More here.

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Home Sales Hit Highest Pace In A Decade

Parker Scott For Sale
Parker Scott For Sale

Autumn may typically be the time of year when home sales start to slow down but new numbers show sales of previously owned homes up for the second straight month and at their highest annual pace since February 2007. The data, from the National Association of Realtors, shows October sales up 2 percent over the month before and 5.9 percent above last year’s estimate. Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, says the past two months have been an autumn revival for the housing market. “October’s strong sales gain was widespread throughout the country and can be attributed to the release of the unrealized pent-up demand that held back many would-be buyers over the summer because of tight supply,” Yun said. “The good news is that the tightening labor market is beginning to push up wages and the economy has lately shown signs of greater expansion. These two factors and low mortgage rates have kept buyer interest at an elevated level so far this fall.” Sales were up in all regions, with the largest gains in the South, where home sales rose 2.8 percent. Also in the report, the typical home stayed on the market for 41 days in October, though 43 percent of homes sold in less than a month. More here.

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Rising Number Of Homeowners Are Equity Rich

Rising Number Of Homeowners Are Equity Rich

Equity rich may not be a phrase you’re familiar with but it refers to homeowners whose loan-to-value ratio is 50 percent or lower – meaning homeowners whose mortgage is less than half of their home’s appraised value. Simply put, a homeowner’s loan-to-value ratio refers to the amount of their home’s value that is borrowed. For example, if you were buying a house valued at $100,000 but only borrowing $50,000 to purchase it, your loan-to-value ratio would be 50 percent.

Parker Scott Properties Rising Number Of Homeowners Are Equity Rich
Parker Scott Properties
Rising Number Of
Homeowners Are Equity Rich

Naturally, the lower a homeowner’s ratio, the more equity that homeowner has. A recent report from ATTOM Data Solutions looked at homeowners across the country and found 23.4 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage were equity rich, an increase of more than 2.6 million from the same time last year. Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM, says the combination of people living in one place for longer periods and continued home price increases have led to the improvement. “Median home prices increased on a year-over-year basis for the 18th consecutive quarter in Q3 2016, and homeowners who sold in the third quarter had owned their home an average of 7.94 years – a new high in our data and substantially higher than the average homeownership tenure of 4.26 years pre-recession,” Blomquist said. More here.

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Garage Data Shows Us Where We Park It

Having a car isn’t really a choice for a lot of Americans – and even some of us that are lucky enough to choose whether or not to have a car decide to have one. Put simply, cars are a fact of life for most us. So it comes as no surprise that an analysis of Census Bureau construction data done by the National Association of Home Builders found that an increasing number of new homes have garages and the size of those garages is also on the rise. For example, the share of homes with a three or more car garage jumped from 11 percent in 1992 to 20 percent in 2005. And, in the past decade, new homes built without a garage have become almost non-existent. Robert Dietz, NAHB’s chief economist and senior vice president for economics and housing policy, breaks down the numbers in a recent article. “For new single-family completions in 2015, 61 percent of homes offered a two-car garage,” Dietz writes. “Another 24 percent of homes possessed a garage large enough to hold three or more cars. Just 6 percent of newly-built homes had a one-car garage, and only 1 percent possessed a carport. Another 9 percent of new homes had no garage or carport.” Additionally, of the 9 percent of homes without a garage, 23 percent were townhomes. More Here

Parker Scott Properties Garage Data Shows Us Where We Park
Parker Scott Properties Garage Data Shows Us Where We Park