Real estate investors bought 80,293 properties in Q4 2021, a record 18.4% of homes sold. Redfin reported that investor purchases were up from 43.9% YOY, though they fell 9.1% from Q3’s peak, likely due to stock shortages that impacted regular homebuyers and investors alike. Seasonality also contributed to the quarter-to-quarter drop, as the housing market typically slows in the winter. More than three-quarters of homes bought by investors (75.3%) were all-cash purchases. Atlanta saw the most investor activity in Q4 at 32.7% of market share, followed by Charlotte (32.1%), Jacksonville (29.8%), Las Vegas (29.2%), and Phoenix (28.4%). These are all popular destinations for moving Americans and have seen high demand during the Great Migration. “While record-high home prices are problematic…
“Million-dollar cities” skyrocketed in 2021, with typical home values reaching at least $1 million in a record 146 new U.S. cities. Zillow found there are now 481 cities where the average home is worth $1 million or more, and an additional 49 cities could make the list by mid-2022 if home appreciation continues at its current rate. Typical home values jumped 19.6% in 2021 as homebuyers faced severe stock shortages, causing bidding wars that pushed prices up. Homeowners gained $2.6 trillion in tappable equity in 2021, up by 35% YOY for an aggregate total of almost $10 trillion. In Q4 2021 alone, tappable equity rose by nearly half a billion dollars. “Home price appreciation over the course of 2021 was…
Home price appreciation and stock shortages are likely to continue through the first few months of 2022, as December saw price growth pick back up heading into the new year, a Realtor.com report shows. Though seller sentiment is positive, new listings are shrinking, squeezing the already competitive market. The number of homes actively for sale in January dropped 28.4% year-over-year (YOY), or 163,000 homes. Newly listed homes fell by 9.1% YOY and were 16.8% lower from typical 2017-2020 levels. The January national median listing price for active listings was $375,000, a 10.3% increase YOY and up 25% from January 2020. The median listing price for a typical single-family home increased 18.6% YOY. The report notes that though high home prices…
Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) fell 2.4 points to 71.8 in January, its lowest level since May 2020, the GSE reported. The full index is down 5.9 points year-over-year. Affordability concerns drove sentiment down, with four of the index’s six components falling month-over-month. Only 25% of respondents said they believed it’s a good time to buy a home, an all-time low for the survey, while 69% said it’s a good time to sell. “Consumer sentiment toward housing softened further in January – the HPSI fell 2.4 points to 71.8 – as affordability and supply constraints continue to limit home purchase opportunities, particularly among younger households,” said Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. Younger consumers…
Homeowners gained $2.6 trillion in tappable equity in 2021, up by 35% year-over-year for an aggregate total of almost $10 trillion, Black Knight’s December 2021 Mortgage Monitor reported. In just Q4 2021 alone, tappable equity rose by nearly half a billion dollars, resulting in the lowest total market leverage on record. The $2.6 trillion gain was the largest annual increase ever, more than double 2020’s record high of $1.1 trillion. The average homeowner has gained $48,000, for a total of $185,000 in available equity. “Home price appreciation over the course of 2021 was unlike anything that’s come before, and the incredible growth we’ve seen in homeowner equity is testament to that fact,” said Black Knight Data & Analytics President Ben…
Good Morning! Today is Monday, February 7. The White House said a Ukraine invasion could come “any day now.” The Dutch speedskater Ireen Wüst became the first person to win individual golds at five Olympics. New Jersey’s Democratic governor will lift the state’s school mask mandate. The Mortgage Note Reports CA Broker Calls Out UWM: Jason Vondrak of Prospect Home Finance announced he has laid off 50 employees and blamed UWM and its CEO, Mat Ishbia. loanDepot CEO Remains Focused On Long-Term Strategy After Mixed 2021 Results: The CEO of loanDepot says they will continue to focus on their long-term strategy to become the most trusted homeowner fulfillment company in the world after the company released their results for 2021,…
December 2021 saw a record annual surge in US home value, the largest gain seen in any December since at least 2001, according to a new analysis of Redfin’s Housing Value Index. U.S. home value rose 18.6% year-over-year (YOY) to $38.6 trillion. Austin, TX, saw home values double that, jumping 39.2% YOY. That shakes out to $365.9 billion, roughly the 2020 GDP of Ecuador and the biggest gain of any metro tracked by Redfin. December marked the 17th consecutive month of double-digit price gains as inventory shrank to a record low. Cape Coral, FL, saw the second-highest gains (36.9%), followed by Grand Rapids, MI (33.1%), Phoenix (32.8%), and Boise, ID (32.8%). Cape Coral and Phoenix have consistently made the list…
Home prices rose year-over-year (YOY) by 18.5% across the nation in December 2021, and by 1.3% from November, CoreLogic’s latest Home Price Index reported. Home price growth averaged 15% for 2021, which saw one of the hottest housing markets in decades. Q1 2021 started off with 10% appreciation but continued to grow, reaching 18% in Q4. By comparison, price appreciation for the full year of 2020 averaged only 6%. The states with the highest increases YOY were Arizona (28.4%), Florida (27.1%), and Utah (25.2%). The cities with the biggest gains were Phoenix (30.2%), Las Vegas (24.4%), and San Diego (22.4%). CoreLogic predicts that home prices will remain flat this month and rise by only 3.5% by next December. Comparing annual…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS Low-income and minority buyers will continue to be crowded out of the housing market in 2022, according to the director of research at the AEI Housing Center. The American Enterprise Institute is located in Washington, D.C., and during a webinar on Monday, Director of Research Tobias Peter said entry-level homebuyers are being replaced by borrowers with higher incomes in many markets. “When we tally up the entry-level share of all home sales, we’re finding that the entry-level, as of December of 2021, accounted for 52.7%, which is, of course, much down from before the pandemic. In December of 2019, it was at 59.9%, and when we started tracking this back in 2012, it was at 71%,” Peter…
The Great Migration is driving up inflation in the most popular destinations, a new Redfin report reveals. Looking at the correlation between inflation and migration in the metros, Redfin users are looking to move. Their analysis showed that high migration rates are linked to rising inflation. The tenth most popular destination in Q4 2021, Atlanta, saw inflation rise by 8.9% year-over-year in the same period, the highest inflation rate of all metros in their analysis. “Migration is one reason among many why the cost of everything from food to fuel is rising,” said Redfin Deputy Chief Economist Taylor Marr. “An influx of people moving to a popular, relatively affordable place like Atlanta increases demand for housing and transportation, pushing up…
