Zillow believes they are about to be. In its most recent home price forecast update, Zillow anticipates a 6.5% increase in U.S. home prices from July 2023 to July 2024, marking a slight upward revision from their previous estimate of 6.3% made last month. To provide some context, historical data from Case-Shiller reveals that U.S. home prices have typically seen an average annual increase of 5.5% since 1975.
Homebuilder confidence experienced its first decline this year in August, reflecting the challenges posed by a 7% mortgage rate and dwindling housing affordability. The recent report from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) revealed a 6-point drop in builder confidence from July, resulting in a reading of 50.
New listings for single-family homes outpaced closed sales in June in Sarasota. That brought the inventory of homes for sale up to a much more reasonable level than it was in 2022. However, it continues to be challenging to transact at the lower price points in the market. Due to that, the median sales price continues to rise. While the market still favors seller’s, 2023 is shaping up to be a better time to be a buyer than what we saw in 2022. The infographic from Florida Realtors below contains more of the details.
While single-family home inventory levels in Manatee are thankfully higher this year than last, we didn’t see inventory build in June. Overall, the market remains fairly healthy when compared to 2022; however, more inventory would make a positive difference. The median price of homes has dropped slightly YoY; however, that doesn’t mean that home prices are falling. Rather, the lower end of the market is transacting at faster pace than it did last year, which is a good outcome for the county. The infographic from Florida Realtors below contains more of the details.
According to a recent survey conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Divvy Homes, home affordability has become so out of reach that two out of five Americans believe they would need to win the lottery to become homeowners. The survey, which involved 2,000 current non-homeowners, also revealed that only 53% of them are confident in their ability to own a home someday.