Real Estate Daily Market Update: November 13, 2017

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Monday, November 13

Home prices boom 10 years after housing crisis: realtor.com

U.S. median home sales price in 2016 was $236,000, 2 percent higher than in 2006.
31 of the 50 largest U.S. metros are back to pre-recession price levels. Austin, TX, has seen the largest price growth in the past decade: 63 percent. It’s followed by Denver, at 54 percent, and Dallas, at 52 percent.
Nationwide, realtor.com data show that listing prices have been up by double digits for the majority of 2017.

realtor.com

The biggest change on the housing scene over the past decade is that lending standards are the tightest they’ve been in almost 20 years.
The median 2017 home loan FICO score was 734, significantly up from 700 in 2006.
The bottom 10 percent of borrowers have an average FICO of 649 in 2017, up from 602 in 2006.

“Lending standards are critical to the health of the market,” said realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale. “Unlike today, the boom’s under-regulated lending environment allowed borrowing beyond repayable amounts and atypical mortgage products, which pushed up home prices without the backing of income and equity.”

realtor.com

In October, unemployment hit a 17-year low, at a rate of 4.1 percent. In 30 of the 50 largest U.S. metros, unemployment is less than half of 2010 levels.
In September, employment reached 79 percent in the 25-34 age group, back up to 2006 levels and 5 percent higher than 2010.
There are 600,000 fewer total housing starts and nearly 700,000 fewer single-family housing starts.

“The healthy economy is creating more jobs and households, but not giving these people enough places to live,” Hale said. “Rapid price increases will not last forever. We expect a gradual tapering as buyers are priced out of the market — not a market correction, but an easing of demand and price growth as renting or adding roommates becomes a more affordable alternative.”

realtor.com

Las Vegas; Tucson, AZ; and Riverside, CA — remained more than 20 percent below 2006 price levels at the end of 2016, at 25 percent, 22 percent, and 22 percent, respectively.