The median U.S. home price in the first quarter of 2020 was unaffordable for average wage earners in 319 of 483, or 66 percent of the U.S. counties analyzed in the report.
It has been a wild ride for mortgage rates over the past month, which touched record lows then rebounded just as fast.
Sales of newly built, single-family homes fell 4.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 765,000 units in February 2020, coming off a sharp upward revision in January 2020.
According to the National Association of Realtors, U.S. existing-home sales climbed substantially in February 2020 after a slight decline in January.
The average annual gross rental yield (annualized gross rent income divided by median purchase price of single-family homes) among the 389 counties is 8.4 percent for 2020
As of the date of publishing this story, there have been over 115,000 confirmed Coronavirus cases around the world in 110 countries that are now reporting over 4,000 deaths.
According to Las Vegas Realtors, existing local home prices finally broke their all-time record in February 2020, while the housing supply keeps shrinking.
According to Freddie Mac's latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.45 percent in late February 2019.
Over 1.52 million U.S. single-family homes and condos in the United States are vacant, representing 1.5 percent of all homes.
U.S. builder confidence in the market for new multifamily housing remained unchanged in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Sales of newly built, single-family homes rose 7.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 764,000 units in January, coming off an upward revision in December 2019.
Strong demand from both domestic and foreign investors, combined with moderate economic growth, is expected to keep capitalization rates for U.S. commercial real estate assets broadly stable in 2020.
Freddie Mac's latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey is reporting this week that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in the U.S. was the lowest in three years. As rates fell for the third consecutive week, markets staged a rebound with increases in manufacturing and service sector activity.
Twenty-six percent of online home searchers looked to move to another U.S. metro area.
The local housing market kicked off the new decade with home prices and sales increasing from the same time last year, but giving back gains made in December 2019.
Mortgage applications increased 5.0 percent from one week earlier. The previous week's results included an adjustment for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
The National Association of Home Builders' latest 55+ Housing Market Index is reporting this week that U.S. builder confidence in the single-family 55+ housing market dropped four points to 68 in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and wildfires typically bring an increase in mortgage delinquency rates across the U.S., taking 12 or more months before normalizing to pre-disaster rates.
