Housing accessibility in the US has reached its lowest level in ten years

Housing accessibility in the US has reached its lowest level in ten years due to rising house prices and interest rates, according to the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity. A total of 57.1% of new and existing homes that were sold in Q2 2018 were available to families with an average income level of 71,900 USD. This is a decline compared to the first quarter of the year, when 61.6% of the homes sold were available to middle-income people and was the lowest since mid-2008.

The average house price in the US jumped from 252,000 USD in the first quarter to 265,000 USD in the second quarter, which is the highest quarterly average in the history of the index. At the same time, the average interest rate on mortgages increased by more than 30 basis points in the second quarter to 4.67%, compared to 4.34% in the first quarter.

"Limited stock and rising construction costs are the factors that reduce the number of dwellings and put pressure on their prices", said Randy Noel, president of the National Housing Construction Association of the United States (NAHB). "At the same time, duties on imports of timber from Canada into the United States undermine the accessibility of housing. The builders fail to manage these costs so that the price does not exceed the expected wage growth", added he.

"The growing number of households, along with strong economic growth in the second quarter, which stimulates employment growth, will support housing demand in the second half of 2018", said NAHB chief economist, Robert Dietz. "But growing concerns about the trade war and the expectation of higher mortgage rates are additional obstacles that affect housing accessibility", added he.

The city of Syracuse, New York, is the most affordable housing market in the US, where 89.1% of the new and existing homes sold there in the second quarter were available to families with the average income for the region of 74,100 USD. At the same time, the most affordable smaller markets in the country are in the same state. About 97% of the sold homes in Elmira, New York, were available in the second quarter for families with an average income of 71,000 USD.

For the third consecutive quarter, San Francisco is the most inaccessible large US housing market. Only 5.5% of homes sold there in the second quarter of 2018 were available to families with an average income for the region of 119,600 USD.

The other major cities at the bottom of the Accessibility rating are also located in California - Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Anaheim-Santa Ana-San Juan, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara and San Diego-Carlsbad.

All five most inaccessible small residential markets are also located in California. At the bottom of the list is Salinas, where only 9.8% of the new and existing homes sold were available to families with a median income of 69,100 USD.

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://financeandmarkets.com/housing-accessibility-in-the-us-has-reached-its-lowest-level-in-ten-years/

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