News & Trends

More Millennials are starting families and want to buy homes, but they heading into a housing market with inadequate inventories and rising prices, a new study says.

In addition existing homeowners are reluctant to sell their homes because there is not enough inventory for them to find another home to buy says First American Financial Corporation in a release.

Low inventories, high demand and declining affordability

“As more and more Millennials marry and have children, among the strongest determinants for the desire to be a homeowner, demand for housing will remain robust. However, the housing market faces a dilemma that is restricting the inventory of homes for sale,” Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American, said in the release.

Mortgage payments are unaffordable in many of the nation’s largest markets as low home inventory pushes prices higher leading more to continue renting, according to a new study.

"Homes have gotten so expensive in many major cities that even with low mortgage rates, monthly costs for homes that are currently for sale are starting to be unaffordable," Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Svenja Gudell, said in a release.

 "Down payments are a top concern for today's homebuyers, but the reality is that monthly costs are becoming unaffordable as well. Low inventory is pushing sticker prices higher, and when mortgage rates start to rise, monthly payments will be driven further into unaffordable territory,” Gudell said.

The U.S. will need 325,000 new apartments, especially in the West,  every year between now and 2030 to meet the growing demand as more people move away from buying houses and choose apartments, according to a release of a new study from Hoyt Advisory Services

The new study commissioned by the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) and the National Apartment Association (NAA) says the growing demand for new apartments is due to the delayed marriages, the aging population and international immigration.

Although nationwide one-bedroom apartment rent has nearly returned to the January 2017 mark of $1,016 — after a March low point of $1,003 — in certain cities, rent prices have been more volatile, according to a new release from Abodo.com.

For the first time this year,New Orleans has fallen out of the nation’s top 10 for greatest rent rises. In its stead, Philadelphia, PA, leads the pack with an 11.7% increase — one of the largest rent hikes this year, second only to an 11.8% increase in NOLA for April 2017.

The substantial rise in Philly rents is surprising, since for much of the year, the City of Brotherly Love has seen only decreases in rent prices.

See all the apartment rent charts from Abodo.com here.

Protests by Portland Tenants United  happened for the second year in a row at the annual awards ceremony of a Portland property management association as pickets showed up at the event, according to various reports.

The protesters were at Multifamily NW’s annual recognition ceremony for outstanding work by property managers in the Portland area, called the ACE awards, held by Multifamily NW which is an association promoting quality rental housing.

Demonstrators lined the sidewalks around the event. There was no report on how many demonstrators were at the event.

Zillow has launched a new program called instant offer that allows homeowners to get offers from real estate investors as well as local Zillow premier agents, according to a release.

Zillow says the program, which is being tested in Las Vegas and Orlando, as way for homeowners to sell their homes quickly by providing them with offers from investors and a comparative market analysis (CMA) from a local real estate agent, as an estimate for what the home might fetch on the open market. In addition to investors being required to use an agent, should a homeowner select an investor’s offer, Zillow will also offer to connect them with a local agent to represent them throughout the transaction.

Rents are rising in the suburbs as many renters are looking outside of city centers for more affordable housing, causing rent payments to grow faster in the suburbs than urban areas

As rents become more expensive, renters are starting to look for cheaper housing options outside downtown cores, according to a release from Zillow.

A new study has measured the obstacles millennial renters who are currently living at home would face if they chose to move out and rent, according to apartment search company Abodo.com.

“It's our job to help people of all ages find apartments, and we know that a lot of renters are younger
 adults specifically millennials,” Sam Radbil, senior communications manager for Adobo.com said. “And with recent research showing that millennials are living at home more than ever before, we set out to uncover why this is happening, and also where this is happening most."

Technology advances have changed the time it takes to sell a home and sales can now be done much more quickly than in past years, according to new research from John Burns Real Estate Consulting.

Technology has permanently taken two months off the time required to sell a home,” Rick Palacios Jr, Director of Research for the consulting firm writes.

New real estate technology empowers:

• A new group of highly informed, quick-close, all-cash buyers
• Very informed homeowners who are increasingly choosing to rent the house rather than sell it, or to sell the home themselves to an all-cash buyer

Traditional first-time and move-up home buyers have a competitive disadvantage in this new market, Palacios says.

The growing trend of tiny homes with luxury amenities was featured by Clayton Homes new Designer Series Tiny Homes and shown during Warren Buffett’s annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting this past weekend.

“The tiny home movement is driven by people who want to downsize their living space with an efficient, stylish home design,” Jim Greer said a release. “By listening to our customers, we started to see a growing demand for minimalism, high-quality materials and increased functionality.”