Millennials have made up the top-homebuyer demographic since 2016 and are likely to the primary demand segment for housing for decades to come. With a current force of 71 million in the population cohort, where Millennials end up moving and working may change the destiny of cities and states across the U.S. – both those …Read more
Affordability is the new battle cry across the U.S. as home prices continue to escalate at a rate much greater than the corresponding growth in incomes. This particular affordability issue is being driven by demand simply outstripping supply. From a construction perspective, the U.S. continues to under-build housing. In the 12-months ending April 2018, a …Read more
Jobs are everything. Period. Good news is that things are looking up. The U.S. added 223,000 net new jobs (preliminary) in May 2018, the best May gain since 2015. The unemployment rate dropped to 3.8 percent, a level last seen in April 2000 and matches a 50-year low. In the latest 12-months, the U.S. added …Read more
While the U.S. added 16.4 million people from 2010 to 2017 (rising from 309.3 Million to 325.7 million), that growth rate is not the same for all Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). Some MSAs grew strongly during the entire period, topping U.S. growth, yet other MSAs shrunk 5 percent or more – one even suffering a …Read more
While the typical American household earns a median income of $57,617 annually, there are some cities where more than one-half earn more than $70,000 per year. As usual, I invoke the TINSTAANREM axiom — There Is No Such Thing As A National Real Estate Market or a National Economy. The same is true about incomes. …Read more
Home prices are a pure function of the interaction of supply and demand. Strong job growth, rising wages (the average hourly wage in the U.S. is up 2.6 percent in the prior 12-months), rising rents and lack of supply is propelling prices upwards in most markets. In the latest 12-months the U.S. added 2.281 million …Read more
Jobs are everything to the economy – period. The following table shows the percent change in jobs for each state and the District of Columbia for the 12-months ending April 2018. The analysis is based on seasonally adjusted data as provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Only two states continued to post a loss …Read more
NOTE: The Bureau of Labor Statistics Restated Historical Data – So Many of These Data Points Have Changed From Prior Blogs The U.S. added 164,000 net new jobs in April 2018 and saw the unemployment rate drop from 4.1 percent (for the prior six months) to 3.9 percent, the lowest level seen since the end …Read more
My core economic line for the past 40 years has been that jobs are everything. Period. Jobs drive the economy. When it comes to homes, the only people that buy homes have jobs unless they have gray hair, blue hair or no hair – we call them retirees. And wherever housing sales go, so does …Read more
Real estate is a major component of the total U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with residential real estate alone making up 15.6 percent in Q3 2017 according to the National Association of Homebuilders. That activity spans from building and remodeling to marketing – which includes real estate agents. What markets are best for residential real …Read more