The summer heat also brought with it rising home prices, which reached levels not seen since before the housing crisis. Now, however, as the heat subsides and we move into autumn, high home prices are not leaving.
Actually, data from realtor.com predicts we will have the hottest fall in a decade, and I’m not talking about temperatures. The housing market continues to see a rise in home prices and a drop in inventory.
While this is great news for sellers or homeowners, the news isn’t as welcome to potential homebuyers.
While some news reports, like this one here, as well as online real estate listing services, such as Trulia, say now is a good time to buy a home, mortgage-wise, there are several other factors to consider before jumping into the housing market.
In other words, here's why you should wait to buy a home.
Inventory also remains down as less than 450,000 new listings came on the market in September, while the median home price rose 9% from last year to $250,000, a new high for the month, according to the data from realtor.com.
In August, Lawrence Yun, the National Association of Realtors Chief Economist, said that without new housing construction, the housing recovery could stall.
Housing inventory declined annually for 15 consecutive months, and properties closed 11 days quicker than August last year, according to the Pending Home sales report by NAR.
These constraints keep home buyers out of the market, despite mortgage rates being at historical lows. Last week, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage decreased again to a 10-week low, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey.
This trend looks like it will continue not just in the fall, but even into 2017.
The trials that plagued the California housing market in 2016 aren’t expected to get too much better in 2017 as the real estate market is projected to face another year of supply shortages and affordability constraints, according to the "2017 California Housing Market Forecast" released by the California Association of Realtors.
And California isn’t the only hot market. HousingWire recently took a deeper look into Dallas’ housing market as we raised these questions: At what point does a booming market become an overheating one? Can we really pinpoint when San Francisco crossed the line? Has Dallas crossed it yet?
While it may not have crossed the line just yet, there is no doubt that affordability constraints continue to tighten in the city.
Nationally, home affordability is at its worst level in seven years, with 24% of the U.S. county housing markets less affordable than their historic affordability averages in the third quarter, the most recent ATTOM Data Solutions Home Affordability Index for third quarter 2016 recorded.
However, not all hope is lost. The most recent S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices results showed that household incomes are actually rising faster than home prices, leading some experts to believe the affordability crisis could be almost over.
