Zillow CEO Richard Barton on housing market today: ‘Homes are flying off the shelves’
Home prices in urban U.S. markets rose +15% in the three months through late January to US$315,000, slightly ahead of the annual pace in suburbia, according to data from brokerage Redfin Thursday, based on geographic designations developed by the Census Bureau. It was the largest one-year gain since they began collecting data in 1990.
US prices are now above the 2005 peak.
National Association of Home Builders analysis of Census Construction Spending data shows that total private residential construction spending rose +3.1% in December 2020 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of US$691 billion. Total private residential construction spending was +21% higher than a year ago.
The monthly gains are largely attributed to the strong growth of spending on single-family and improvements. Single-family construction spending rose to a US$365 billion annual pace in December, up by +6%.
This is in line with the strong readings of single-family housing starts.
Remodeling spending inched up by +0.4% in December. Meanwhile, multifamily construction spending was +18% higher since a year ago.
An post by NAHB earlier this month revealed that 69% of US home buyers who were actively engaged in the process of finding a home in 4Q 2020 spent upwards of 3 months searching for a home without success.
For the first time in this series history, the number one reason long-time searchers haven’t made a home purchase is because they continue to get outbid by other offers (40%), not because of their inability to find an affordably-priced home (33%).
The reasons are flipped from a year earlier, when 44% cited unaffordable prices and only 19% better offers by other buyers.