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.
Given growing U.S. housing market uncertainty caused by the recent Coronavirus outbreak, Zillow Group announced this week it will pause home buying in all 24 U.S. markets where Zillow Offers currently operates in response to local public health orders related to COVID-19.
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.
Total housing starts decreased 1.5 percent in February 2020 from an upwardly revised January reading to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.60 million units.
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 the latest quarterly National Association of Home Builders' Home Building Geography Index, nearly two-thirds of multifamily construction in the fourth quarter of 2019 occurred in "blue counties" where Hillary Clinton garnered the most votes in the 2016 election.
CoreLogic's latest Home Price Index is reporting this week that U.S. home prices nationwide rose both year over year and month over month in January 2020. Home prices increased nationally by 4% from January 2019. On a month-over-month basis, prices increased by 0.1% in January 2019.
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. net-lease investment reached record highs in 2019, with investors increasingly attracted to opportunities in high-growth secondary and tertiary markets.
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.
U.S. home price growth slowed considerably throughout most of 2019, with some pick-up in price in growth toward the end of the year.
According to the latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, U.S. builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes edged one point lower to 74 in February 2020.
