Tag Archives: virginia
Some urban homes values in the US outpacing traditional suburbs
Homes values in some urban areas in the United States are outpacing the value of homes in the suburbs in most top tier metros, new analysis has found. City life is gaining in popularity and high-end condos are popular in Boston, Washington, D.C., Seattle, and other cities with fast changing downtowns, according to a report from real estate firm Zillow. It points out that homes in the suburbs, a longstanding symbol of the American Dream, have typically been worth more, on average, than homes in urban areas. While that is still true in much of the country such as Nashville, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Richmond in Virginia, elsewhere things are changing. The change is most marked in in Boston, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco where the mean value of urban homes has recently surpassed the mean value of homes in suburban areas. And urban homes are gaining ground in Denver, Phoenix, and Chicago. The shift reflects demographic trends of millennials delaying family life and choosing condos, and shifting preferences, as people seek walkable neighbourhoods with urban amenities, the research suggests. It has vast implications for low income people who have traditionally lived in cities to be near services and employment. Zillow recently found that, in San Francisco and Seattle, high income people are making shorter commutes to downtown, while low income people are traveling much further to get to work in the urban core. Zillow based its analysis of urban and suburban home values on a survey of how people define their own neighbourhoods as either urban, rural, or suburban and then used characteristics of those places to extrapolate the results and define ZIP codes all over the country. By looking at home values within those areas, Zillow could see how home values have fared in each type of place over the years. ‘This trend, in part, reflects home buyers' changing preferences, as they seek amenity-rich, dense and walkable areas that are often closer to their workplace,’ said Zillow chief economist Svenja Gudell. ‘In the future, this lifestyle trend will change some suburbs as we know them, and they'll start to feel more urban as buyers move further from city centres in search of affordable housing in communities that still feel urban,’ she added. Nationally, suburban home values grew 5.9% in 2015, while urban home prices increased by 7.5%. In 1997, urban home values grew at 3.8%, slower than suburban values which grew 4.1% that year. On a per square foot basis, home values for urban areas are way up, indicating that people are willing to pay more for less space to live in the city. In Washington, D.C., for example, urban homes in 1996 cost 6% more per square foot than suburban homes. Today, they cost 41% more per square foot. Continue reading
US home foreclosures continuing to fall, latest data shows
Foreclosures in the United States are continuing to decline with the latest data showing they fell 30% in December year on year, the sixth consecutive month with an annual decrease in foreclosure starts. However, the figures from real estate data firm RealtyTrac also shows that bank repossessions (REOs) in December increased 65% from a year ago, the 10thconsecutive month with an annual increase in REOs. ‘In 2015 we saw a return to normal, healthy foreclosure activity in many markets even as banks continued to clean up some of the last vestiges of distress left over from the last housing crisis,’ said Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac. ‘The increase in bank repossessions that we saw for the year was evidence of this clean up phase, which largely involves completing foreclosure on highly distressed, low value properties,’ he explained. ‘Meanwhile, local economic problems became a larger driver of foreclosure activity in 2015 Examples of this are Atlantic City, New Jersey, which posted the nation’s highest metro foreclosure rate for the year, along with several heavy oil-producing markets in Texas and Oklahoma where foreclosure activity increased in 2015, counter to the national trend,’ he added. Counter to the national trend, 24 states and the District of Columbia posted an increase in foreclosure activity in 2015 compared to 2014, including Massachusetts up 55%, Missouri up 50%, Oklahoma up 36%, New York up 24% and Texas up 16%. Among the nation’s 20 largest metro areas, six posted year on year increases in foreclosure activity in 2015. In Boson they were up 44%, up 38% in St. Louis, up 25% in Dallas, up 22% in Detroit, up 9% in New York and up less than 1% in Houston. A total of 569,835 properties started the foreclosure process in 2015, down 11% from 2014 and down 73% from the peak of more than 2.1 million foreclosure starts in 2009 to a 10 year low. Bucking the national trend, foreclosure starts increased in 2015 in 16 states, including Oklahoma up 92%, Massachusetts up 67%, Missouri up 28%, Virginia up 23%, Nevada up 14% and Arkansas up 14%. A total of 449,900 properties were repossessed by lenders in 2015, up 38% from 2014 but still 57% below the peak of nearly 1.1 million bank repossessions (REOs) in 2010. The median price of a bank owned home in 2015 was 41% below the median price of all homes, the biggest bank owned discount nationwide since 2006. ‘That may be surprising to some, but demonstrates that in a healthy real estate market foreclosures are no longer mainstream, but instead are back to being a market niche of properties with problems that many buyers do not want to tackle,’ said Blomquist. Bank repossessions (REOs) increased from a year ago in 41 states and the District of Columbia. Some of the biggest increases were in New Jersey which was up 226%, New York up 194%, Texas up 115%, North Carolina up 108%, and Oregon up 96%. Foreclosures in… Continue reading
Buying is still cheaper than renting in many US housing markets
Buying a home in the United States is still more affordable than renting in the majority of markets, according to the latest analysis from real estate data firm RealtyTrac. But the opposite is true in markets with the biggest increase in the millennial share of the population over the last six years, the research also shows. In the 473 counties covered by the research, the fair market rent for a three bedroom property in 2015 needed an average of 27% of median household income, while buying a median priced home required an average of 25% of median household income based on the median sales price in November. Buying a median priced home was more affordable than renting a three bedroom property in 68% of the counties analysed, representing 57% of the total population in those counties. But in the 25 counties with the biggest increase in millennials between 2007 and 2013, fair market rents for a three bedroom property in 2015 required 30% of the median household income on average while buying a median priced home required 36% of median household income on average. For the analysis millennials were defined as anyone born between 1977 and 1992. ‘First time buyers and potential boomerang home buyers are stuck between a rock and a hard place in today’s housing market. Many of the markets with the jobs and amenities they want have hard-to-afford rents and even harder to afford home prices while the more affordable markets have fewer well-paying jobs and tend to be off the beaten path,’ said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. ‘Those emerging markets with the combination of good jobs, good affordability and a growing population of new renters and potential first time buyers represent the best opportunities for buy and hold real estate investors to buy low and benefit from rising rents in the years to come,’ he added. The top markets with the biggest increase in the percentage of millennials over the past seven years were counties in Washington D.C., San Francisco and Denver, all of which saw an increase of more than 50% in the share of the population that is millennials. Other markets in the top 25 for biggest increase in millennials included counties in New York, Nashville, Portland, St. Louis, Seattle, Charlotte, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Orlando, Austin, Des Moines and Midland, Texas. The average 2015 fair market rent in these top 25 counties is $1,459, some 19% above the national average for all counties analysed, the data also shows. On average 2015 fair rents increased 3% from a year ago in these counties, with the standouts being Denver County and Midland County, Texas, both of which saw fair market rents increase more than 2%. Median home prices increased 8% from a year ago in these counties on average compared to an average 7% increase among all counties analysed nationwide while the average unemployment rate among these counties was 5.2% in October compared to an average of 5.5% for all… Continue reading
