Dive Brief:
-
Rising home sales and too little inventory of for-sale properties sent home prices soaring in nearly every U.S. metropolitan area in the second quarter of this year, the National Association of Realtors revealed this week.
-
The median price of an existing, single-family home was $229,400, up 8.2% from the second quarter of 2014, NAR’s latest quarterly report said. The increase followed a 7.1% year-over-year price hike in the first quarter.
-
Sales of existing single-family homes and condos increased 6.6% between the first and second quarters of this year, NAR reported.
Dive Insight:
An ongoing rise in home values benefits homeowners with property to sell, as those sales help them build wealth.
At the same time, however, higher costs in 93% of the 176 U.S. metros mean more lower-income buyers are priced out of the market.
"Inequality is growing in America because the downward trend in the homeownership rate means these equity gains are going to fewer households," Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said in a press release.
To purchase a single-family home at June’s national median price, a buyer would need a 5% down payment and an income of $49,195, or 20% down and a salary of $41,427, the NAR said. The median income of American families is $66,637.
