HOUSINGNEWS REPORT
LEAD ARTICLE
U.S. HOME PRICES AT NEW ALL-TIME HIGH YOY PCT CHANGE MEDIAN SALES PRICE
We’re definitely not in a bubble. We have a handful of markets that are frothy and probably have hit an affordability wall of sorts but the fact of the matter is, while prices nominally have surpassed the 2006 peak, we’re not talking about 2006 dollars.”
$300,000
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$100,000
RICK SHARGA EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT TEN-X.COM IRVINE, CALIFORNIA
$50,000
$0
Home Price Appreciation Accelerating And home price appreciation accelerated in both the first and second quarter of 2017 after slowing in all four quarters of 2016. Out of 108 metropolitan statistical areas analyzed by ATTOM in its Q2 2017 Home Sales Report, 68 markets (63 percent) have exceeded pre-recession peaks. Strong home price appreciation is making homes less affordable than historic norms in a growing number of markets — 45 percent of 464 U.S. counties analyzed in the ATTOM Q2 2017 Affordability Index were less affordable than their historic norms, an eight-year high. Economists See Clear Skies Ahead Despite admitted affordability headwinds, national housing market experts continue to see clear skies
“We’re definitely not in a bubble,” Rick Sharga, executive vice president at Ten-X.com, an online real estate marketplace, told Seeking Alpha in August. “We have a handful of markets that are frothy and probably have hit an affordability wall of sorts but the fact of the matter is, while prices nominally have surpassed the 2006 peak, we’re not talking about 2006 dollars.” Even at the local level in Los Angeles County — one of the nation’s hottest housing markets where affordability levels have dropped below their historical averages for two consecutive quarters in the first half of 2017, according to the ATTOM Q2 2017 Affordability Index — local experts don’t see even a hint of a housing bubble.
ahead, dismissing concern about a repeat of the housing boom-bust of the last decade. “Housing remains a bright spot,” said Freddie Mac in its June 2017 economic outlook. “Year-to-date total home sales and housing construction are the highest in years.” “Home prices continue to climb and outpace both inflation and wages,” said David M. Blitzer, Managing Director and Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “Housing is not repeating the bubble period of 2000- 2006: price increases vary across the country unlike the earlier period when rising prices were almost universal; the number of homes sold annually is 20 percent less today than in the earlier period and the months’ supply is declining, not surging.”
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JULY 2017 | ATTOM DATA SOLUTIONS
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