Tag Archives: Housing Market

Total housing inventory increased by 3.2 percent to 2.29 million existing homes available for sale at the end of May, and is 1.8 percent higher than the 2.25 million homes for sale a year ago, the report says. Meanwhile, unsold inventory dropped down to a 5.1-month supply at the current sales pace for May, down from 5.2 months in April.

The market capacity for existing-home sales increased by 0.3 percent month-over-month and 12.5 percent year-over-year in May, while rising interest rates and a slight jump in unemployment countered equity-enhancing home price appreciation, according to First American.

"Given the strength of the housing market in most urban and suburban areas, and the connection many make to home prices and a strong economy, it's not too surprising that people living in those areas have a more positive economic outlook as reported by our survey," said Doug Robinson of NeighborWorks.

The study found that only about 18 percent, or 1.3 million, out of the 7 million impacted consumers had recovered enough by December 2014 to meet agency credit underwriting guidelines. The study also determined, however, that 2.2 million of the remaining 5.7 million consumers could potentially meet those underwriting guidelines over the next five years.

Candidates talking about the housing crisis on the presidential campaign trail, the authors said, is an excellent way to raise national public awareness and is a step toward finding solutions to the problems surrounding the housing industry, which include rising rents and diminished access to homeownership.

Americans appear to be keeping borrowing to a minimum and evading debt as the report noted that household borrowing was at its lowest rate since the end of 2013. Household debt increased at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the first quarter of 2015 totaling $13.6 trillion.

A slight decrease in the quits rate down to 1.9 percent (2.7 million quits) in April suggests that workers may be looking to better their situations, which could push wage growth in the coming months – a factor economists say will be a key driver in homeownership growth and new household formation.

According to the survey, of the three in five Americans that believe the housing crisis is not over, 41 percent believe we are “still in the middle” of the housing crisis, while 20 percent feel “the worst is yet to come.” This is an improvement from 2014 where 70 percent of Americans felt the housing crisis has not passed, while 77 percent felt the same in 2013.

Overall, from 2010 to 2030, UI estimates there will be four million more renters than homeowners while the homeownership rate falls from 65.1 percent down to 61.3 percent during that 20-year period. In that time, 22 million new households will need homes to rent or buy; UI estimates that 13 million of those will rent while nine million will buy.

While job growth continues to push meaningful income growth, the outlook for housing market growth is also improving, the GSE says. Of those surveyed, the share of respondents who say home prices will go up in the next 12 months increased to 49 percent, while the share who say home prices will go down dropped to 6 percent.