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Apache is functioning normally

Sustainable living has become an increasingly important focus in today’s world, with individuals and communities alike seeking ways to reduce their carbon footprints. When it comes to building or renovating homes, sustainable practices and energy-efficient design have taken center stage. In response to this growth, several organizations offer certification programs to measure sustainability and push people to achieve more. But with numerous certifications and standards available, navigating the realm of sustainable building can be overwhelming.

Luckily, this Redfin article has everything you need to know. Learn what these programs are all about, and which one is right for your home. Whether you live in a house in Wilmington, NC, or are building a new home in Tampa, FL, read on to learn about the different certifications and requirements, so you can make informed decisions and choose the right path towards a greener home. 

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)

  • Focus areas: Whole building efficiency, including water, energy, materials, and air quality.
  • Property types: Commercial, residential, and public properties, and communities and cities. 
  • Benefits for homeowners: Pairs well with other certification programs and has a wide range of certification levels. 
  • Downsides: May not go far enough to reduce your carbon footprint.
  • Cost: $225 + additional fees. Pricing is reduced for members.

Established by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in 1993, LEED is arguably the most widely recognized green building certification system. LEED provides a framework for healthy, highly efficient, and cost-saving green buildings. It offers certification across a spectrum of building types and focuses on several key areas: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, innovation, and regional priority. 

The four LEED certification levels include Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum, which correspond to the number of points a project earns across these categories. Buildings receive annual audits to ensure they continue meeting necessary standards.

For more details, read our definitive guide: What Is LEED Certification? Tips for Homeowners

ENERGY STAR

  • Focus areas: Energy efficiency.
  • Property types: Products; commercial, residential, and public properties. 
  • Benefits for homeowners: ENERGY STAR buildings require 15% less energy than standard buildings, meaning you’ll save money over the long run. 
  • Downsides: ENERGY STAR is a fairly basic certification that only applies to energy use. This is best paired with other certifications.
  • Cost: $0-$1,500

The ENERGY STAR certification is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy. It aims to help businesses and individuals save money and protect the environment through superior energy efficiency. Most people associate ENERGY STAR with efficient appliances, but it also applies to buildings and houses.

Buildings that earn the ENERGY STAR label have to meet strict guidelines for energy efficiency, typically making them at least 15% more energy-efficient than standard buildings. Apart from energy efficiency, ENERGY STAR also provides tools and resources for improving water efficiency. 

For more details, read our definitive guide: ENERGY STAR Certification: What Homeowners Need to Know

Living Building Challenge

  • Focus areas: Complete building and property sustainability and regeneration. 
  • Property types: Commercial, residential, and public buildings and properties, and neighborhoods and cities. 
  • Benefits for homeowners: The LBC provides the most comprehensive certification, so you can be confident your home is actively restoring the environment. Living Building Certification also applies to an entire property, while most others only apply to just the building. 
  • Downsides: It is extremely difficult and time-consuming to fulfill every requirement, and can be expensive. 
  • Cost: $50-$250

The Living Building Challenge (LBC), administered by the International Living Future Institute, is likely the most rigorous and comprehensive green building certification in the world. It uses a regenerative design framework that requires projects to operate positively instead of just passively. 

The LBC comprises seven performance categories, or “Petals”: Place, Water, Energy, Health & Happiness, Materials, Equity, and Beauty. To be certified, a project must meet a series of ambitious performance requirements over a minimum of twelve months of continuous occupancy. Because of its difficulty, only four residential properties have received full certification. However, the LBC offers other certifications, including Petal certification and net-zero building certification.

For more details, read our definitive guide: Living Building Challenge Certification for Homeowners: Pros and Cons

BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method)

  • Focus areas: Whole property sustainability, including where materials come from and how much your home contributes to pollution. 
  • Property types: Commercial, residential, and public buildings and properties. 
  • Benefits for homeowners: Accessible worldwide.
  • Downsides: Not as comprehensive or flexible as some other programs.
  • Cost: Depends on the size and scope of the project. Assessors are also paid separately. 

Established in the UK in 1990, BREEAM is the world’s longest-running method of assessing, rating, and certifying buildings. BREEAM encourages designers, clients, and others to think about low-carbon and low-impact design, minimizing the energy demands created by a building before considering energy efficiency and low carbon technologies. BREEAM is comprehensive and also focuses on where products come from and who makes them.

Earth Advantage

  • Focus areas: Residential and low-income homes, and providing green home data for the general public through the Green Building Registry. 
  • Property types: Residential buildings. 
  • Benefits for homeowners: Extremely affordable and promotes sustainability in low-income developments. 
  • Downsides: Not as comprehensive as other certifications.
  • Cost: $0

The Earth Advantage Certification focuses on promoting sustainable building practices that improve the environment and society by creating better model codes, building standards, and certification systems. It certifies residential buildings, including single-family and multifamily, using different rating systems for both. Earth Advantage can also certify projects for LEED.

In general, Earth Advantage buildings are healthier, more energy-efficient, and offer a lower cost of ownership over the lifetime of the building. To receive certification, a home must meet stringent criteria across five categories: energy, health, land, materials, and water. 

SITES (The Sustainable Sites Initiative)

  • Focus areas: Planning, design, construction, and management of landscapes and other outdoor spaces. SITES does not verify buildings except in specific circumstances.
  • Property types: Commercial, residential, and public outdoor spaces. 
  • Benefits for homeowners: Promotes sustainable landscaping and healthy outdoor living. 
  • Downsides: Expensive and only applies to landscaping and outdoor areas. Best for large properties or paired with other certifications. 
  • Cost: $6,500-$9,500 (less expensive for members).

SITES is a sustainability-focused framework that ushers landscape architects, engineers, and others toward practices that protect ecosystems and enhance the benefits of ecosystem services. Landscape architects, designers, engineers, architects, developers, policy-makers, and others use SITES to align land development and management with innovative sustainable design.

SITES also partners with LEED to create complementary rating systems that you can use independently or in tandem. LEED applies to your project building and the site it is located on, and SITES applies to everything on your site, except your building (with a few exceptions). 

WELL Building Standard

  • Focus areas: Relationship between sustainability and human health, primarily in new construction.
  • Property types: Primarily commercial new construction, but offers residential as well.
  • Benefits for homeowners: WELL buildings are healthier for you and your family than many other certifications.
  • Downsides: It can be time-consuming or prohibitively expensive to incorporate WELL standards into an older building. 
  • Cost: $2,500 for registration + $0.16 per square foot of property.

The WELL Building Standard, founded by the International WELL Building Institute, focuses on building features that affect people’s health and well-being. Areas of concern include air, water, nourishment, light, movement, thermal comfort, sound, materials, mind, community, and innovation. The WELL Building Standard is the first standard to integrate human health and wellness into building certification.

WELL also partners with LEED to create a streamlined process for getting dual certification. 

Passive House (Passivhaus)

  • Focus areas: Reducing energy use in buildings.
  • Property types: Commercial, residential, and public.
  • Benefits for homeowners: Significantly reduced energy bills and comfortable indoor temperatures year-round. 
  • Downsides: Focuses entirely on energy use and is extremely rigid.
  • Cost: Determined by the examiner and varies widely depending on the square footage of the building. 

The Passive House Institute (PHI) based in Germany developed this certification system. Buildings that are certified as a Passive House must meet strict energy usage requirements, focusing on high-level thermal insulation, stringent airtightness, and maximum energy gains from the sun. The result is a building that uses significantly less energy for heating and cooling than traditional buildings, often reducing the energy needed by up to 90%.

Final thoughts

There are hundreds of other certification programs that focus on specific aspects of a building, such as water management and light pollution. Some are also catered to specific regions. If you’re looking to certify your home, do your research and establish a budget for membership, applications, and certifications, as well as design, planning, and maintenance. Additionally, you can hire a 3rd-party to certify your home, although that may cost more. 

Working towards a certified sustainable home is important and beneficial, but it can be cost-prohibitive. If you don’t have the budget for certification, read about a program’s requirements and try to incorporate them into your project; you don’t need to certify your home to make it more sustainable or even regenerative. No matter what you choose, incorporating sustainable practices into your lifestyle can help reduce your carbon footprint and contribute to a greener future.

Source: redfin.com

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Growing up in Orange County in the late 1970s, KL DeHart often wandered the Westminster Mall with her mother, checking out the latest fashions and seeing what movies were playing.

As a teenager, she spent many weekends there with friends playing pinball and skeeball at the arcade and shopping for trendy Chemin De Fer jeans.

Now, the mall is pocked with empty storefronts. At the remaining businesses, employees eagerly jump to help the few customers passing through.

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What may rise in its place, if developers and city officials have their way, is a new kind of mall, one that will include lawns, walking trails and thousands of apartments.

“It was the hip place to be, and it’s really faded out, but it’s just sad to see it go,” said DeHart, a 55-year-old massage therapist who still lives near the mall, in the house she grew up in. She is among the residents worried that the new apartments will increase traffic while doing little to solve the region’s affordable housing crisis.

In Orange County, the San Fernando Valley and suburbs throughout America, the mall was a gathering spot where there were few other places to hang out. It was where kids stocked up on the latest fashions and roamed in packs after school, spawning the term “mall rat.”

The 1980s cult classic “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” began and ended at the mall where the teens worked. In the 1995 film “Clueless,” a Beverly Hills teen retreated to the mall, which she described as a “sanctuary,” after failing to persuade a teacher to boost her grade.

Now, teenagers text with their friends and make TikTok videos. Their parents are more likely to shop online than at a brick-and-mortar store.

At the same time, Orange County is desperate for housing, with rents and home prices escalating and state laws requiring cities to zone for new construction. In a region where there is little undeveloped land and neighbors are likely to push back at new housing, some see declining malls as ideal places to build.

The Westminster Mall is “probably one of the largest areas of developable space that still exists in our time in this area,” City Manager Christine Cordon told the City Council during a meeting last November.

Cordon remembers taking the bus to the mall decades ago to pick out CDs at Best Buy.

“You’re too young as a teenager to hang out in an actual nightclub, so back in the day, where would you go? The mall,” said Karen North, a USC professor who specializes in social media and psychology.

“It became this default place to go because it had something for everybody. You never knew who you were going to bump into, but you were always guaranteed there was something going on and there would be people around.”

An aerial view of high-density housing in Huntington Beach in what used to be the footprint of the old Huntington Beach Center, which was long ago redeveloped into Bella Terra shopping mall, background.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

As envisioned in a plan adopted by the City Council last year, the new mall would contain at least 600,000 square feet of retail space. It would include up to 3,000 residential units and up to 425 hotel rooms, surrounded by a park with 17 acres of green space.

Teenagers could still hang out there — it just wouldn’t be the echoey indoor turf that Alicia Silverstone claimed in “Clueless.”

Orange County is catching on to a trend that has already taken hold farther north in the Los Angeles area, led by developer Rick Caruso with his Americana at Brand and Palisades Village malls and residences.

“This is really our opportunity to create something that we can be absolutely proud of for the next generation to create those same fond memories that I have and that others have in a fashion that is consistent with what the times are now,” Cordon said.

Bill Shopoff said his company, which purchased the Macy’s store and the former Sears store in the Westminster Mall last year, hopes to draw people back with shops, a hotel, townhouses and apartments.

Shoppers at the Irvine Spectrum Center.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Upscale malls like South Coast Plaza are thriving because “they have entertainment, food, there’s a reason to go there,” said Shopoff, president and CEO of Shopoff Realty Investments. “I think we need to do that in Westminster to
create a sense of something.”

As for who will rent or purchase the homes in his preliminary plan, Shopoff is counting on a modern type of suburban dweller — one who would rather walk to restaurants and other amenities than live in a single-family home with a yard.

Experts say that new laws, along with increased pressure from the state to build more homes, have convinced some local officials who might have been resistant to rezoning commercial properties in the past.

Roughly every eight years, California cities are assigned a certain number of new housing units they’re required to zone for. As part of the 2020 assessment, Orange County needs to make space for about 183,000 new units, shared among all its cities.

Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two pieces of legislation aimed at spurring housing development in corridors otherwise zoned for large retail and office buildings.

“Whether you want to call Orange County urban suburbia or suburban urbanism, it’s definitely shifting,” said Elizabeth Hansburg, co-founder and executive director of People for Housing Orange County. “We have an interesting mix of historic districts and tract housing of the ’40s, ’50s, ’60s and even the ’70s, but I don’t see us building like that again. It’s going to be interesting to see how families evolve in denser spaces.”

Colten Caballero plays on his scooter outside the MainPlace Mall in Santa Ana.

(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Elsewhere in Orange County, similar mall conversions are at various stages.

In Santa Ana, a 309-unit apartment complex is under construction on the parking lot of the Mainplace Mall, part of a larger project that will include more apartments, restaurants, courtyards and a music venue.

Simon Property Group has said it is open to adding residential zoning to its mall in Mission Viejo. In Brea, the company has proposed redeveloping 15.5 acres of the mall to include shops, a resort-style fitness center, apartments and a large central green space.

A proposal to redevelop the Village at Orange mall to include housing along with retail has run into stiff opposition. Residents are voicing concerns about tall residential buildings looming above nearby single-family homes.

In Westminster, DeHart said that she and her neighbors who live in tract homes adjacent to the malls are not “NIMBYs” — an acronym for “Not In My Backyard.”

“That’s not what this is,” she said. “We’re asking legitimate questions, and we’re not getting answers.”

A view of what’s left of the Laguna Hills Mall, which will be turned into a mixed-use development.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

In Laguna Hills, the mall is being repurposed along the lines of Caruso’s Los Angeles-area developments, with up to 1,500 apartments, an upscale hotel, commercial office space and 250,000 square feet of stores surrounding a large green space.

On a recent day, a chain-link fence wrapped with a blue tarp surrounded the partly demolished main building, with the “Laguna Hills Mall” lettering barely legible.

A sign affixed to the fence featured a rendering of the new homes, asserting that “a brighter future is coming soon.”

The Macy’s sign has been removed from the Laguna Hills Mall.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Residents have voiced concerns similar to those of DeHart and her neighbors — traffic, overcrowding. But Laguna Hills Mayor Janine Heft said a change is needed.

“There’s a lot of nostalgia for what the mall used to be,” Heft said. “What we didn’t want was a blight, and that’s really what we had. We had this mall that hadn’t been kept up in years.”

On a recent afternoon, most of the sprawling Westminster Mall was deserted. The only activity was at an indoor playground near JCPenney.

Corrie Essex watched her 5-month-old son playing on a blanket as rain pounded on the glass ceiling.

She grew up in the San Fernando Valley and recalls listing the Northridge Mall as one of her favorite places in an elementary school assignment. Her mother took her and her siblings there to get burgers and go to the movies — a relatively inexpensive way to keep four kids occupied.

“We’d go all the time,” said Essex, 30, who now lives in Huntington Beach. “It was fun. Now, I hate the mall. It’s just not the same.
Nothing’s beautiful anymore.”

But on a rainy day like this one, it was a good place to take her son. And, noted her sister, 27-year-old Jessie Lane, there’s little danger of spending money — “it doesn’t have any bougie stores that we would want to buy anything from.”

Their mother, 57-year-old Rachel Lane, said she likes the idea of adding housing to malls.

But with the new outdoor designs, she wondered, “Where are we going to go when it rains?”

Source: latimes.com

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With a name like LowRates, you would expect their mortgage rates to be, low, right? Well, that’s the hope at least.

The good news is they post their mortgage rates on their website and update them daily. So you won’t have to guess or call them first to see where they stand.

You may have come across them while comparing mortgage rates online as they tend to advertise quite a bit on comparison websites.

If you’re wondering who they are, the company is actually the techy division of a larger mortgage lender called Sun West Mortgage Co., based out of Buena Park, CA (near Knott’s Berry Farm).

LowRates Mortgage Fast Facts

  • Retail direct-to-consumer mortgage lender
  • Offers home purchase loans, refinance loans, reverse mortgages, and more
  • Parent company is Sun West Mortgage Company, Inc.
  • Founded in 1980, headquartered in Buena Park, CA
  • Licensed to lend in 48 states, DC, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands
  • Sun West originated roughly $2 billion in home loans last year via retail channel
  • Also operates correspondent and wholesale lending divisions

While the LowRates name might be catchy, it’s actually just the consumer-facing online lender division of a much bigger company, Sun West Mortgage.

This is similar to Lower Mortgage, which is the online division of Homeside Financial.

Sun West Mortgage has been around a real long time, more than 40 years to be exact, but LowRates only seems to have come on the scene around 2013.

The parent company is located in Buena Park, CA (Orange County), while it appears LowRates is building out its corporate headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.

They operate as an online mortgage lender, meaning you can apply for a home loan remotely, whether you want to do so by phone or online.

Their loan menu appears to be vast, so you can get anything from a home purchase loan to a reverse mortgage and everything in between.

How to Apply for a Home Loan with LowRates

  • You can apply for a mortgage by phone or online
  • Once you fill out the application you’ll be matched with a loan officer
  • This individual will discuss available loan options and pricing
  • LowRates says it has fast turn times and can offer 20-day loan closings in some cases

LowRates says it offers a “24-hour loan center” for those who don’t have time to apply for a mortgage during regular business hours.

It’s unclear if this a human-staffed situation, or simply an online form that can be accessed at all hours. I’m going with the latter.

Anyway, your first step is to fill out the loan application, which can be done online or by phone.

If you visit their website, simply click on “Apply Now” to get started. This will send you to their online mortgage application, which requires you to provide personal and property information.

Once completed, you’ll be paired with a mortgage loan officer who will assess your financial situation and suggest loan options. They will also discuss loan pricing with you.

However, it might be better to get pricing first by calling them up, then only apply if you’re happy with what you see/hear.

While it’s unclear how the rest of their loan process works, they do have an online loan portal borrowers can use to manage their loan, upload required documents, and check status 24/7.

Additionally, they aim to close loans fast and say they’ve got some of the best turn times in the industry thanks to their embrace of technology, with 20-days closings possible in some cases.

Loan Programs Available at LowRates.com

  • Home purchase loans
  • Refinance loans: rate and term, cash out, and streamline
  • Home renovation loans and new construction loans
  • Conventional loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
  • Government-backed mortgages: FHA, USDA, and VA
  • Jumbo home loans
  • Fixed-rate mortgages: 10, 15, and 30-year loan terms
  • Adjustable-rate mortgages:

LowRates appears to have a very complete lending menu, with everything from home purchase loans to construction/renovation and reverse mortgages.

You can get a conforming home loan backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, or a jumbo loan that exceeds the conforming loan limit if the subject property is pricey.

They provide financing on primary residences, vacation homes, and investment properties, so you should be covered regardless of property type and occupancy.

With regard to loan type, you can get a fixed-rate mortgage in a variety of different loan terms (including a 10-year fixed mortgage), or an adjustable-rate mortgage, such as a 5/1 or 7/1 ARM.

You shouldn’t be limited in any way when it comes to mortgage loan choice, which is a plus.

LowRates.com Mortgage Rates

The good news is LowRates actually posts its daily mortgage rates online, which a lot of mortgage companies do not.

I suppose they kind of have to, given their name, but I’m glad they do because that boosts their transparency score.

Anyway, at the time of this writing, their mortgage rates appeared to be pretty competitive relative to other lenders across all loan types, including conventional, FHA, and VA.

Their conventional rates had the same interest rate and APR, meaning LowRates doesn’t charge lender fees, at least on those particular loan scenarios.

So taken together, their rates look pretty good, seeing that you don’t need to pay mortgage discount points or other fees to obtain them.

Either way, you can see their rates for yourself if and when you visit their website, then compare them to other lenders you’ve got your eye on.

Make sure you consider both the rate and APR to get an apples-to-apples comparison.

While LowRates doesn’t seem to tack on points to their loans, it’s unclear if they charge other things like a loan origination fee, underwriting/processing, and so on.

LowRates Reviews

First off, their parent company Sun West has a very solid 4.8-star rating on Google from more than 1,600 customer reviews.

On Zillow, LowRates specifically has a 4.94-star rating out of 5 from roughly 125 customer reviews, which makes them close to perfect.

Additionally, a good portion of those reviews indicated that the interest rate was lower than expected, a good sign given their name.

On Bankrate, the company has a 4.6-star rating from about 65 reviews, which while not a large sample size, is at least very positive.

Their parent company is Better Business Bureau accredited and has been since 2018, and currently holds an ‘A+’ rating based on its history of customer complaints.

It’s also got a 4.69/5 rating on the BBB website, which is impressive since BBB customer reviews are often quite poor.

All in all, LowRates seems to have quality feedback from customers, though the sample size could be larger, and hopefully will grow over time.

They are backed by a billion-dollar mortgage lender and appear to have an extensive menu of loan programs available.

Assuming both mortgage rates and customer service are good, they could be a good choice for your home loan needs.

LowRates Mortgage Pros and Cons

The Good

  • Presumably offer very competitive mortgage rates
  • Their rates are advertised daily on their website
  • Do not charge borrowers an application fee
  • They offer 20-day loan closings (fast turn times)
  • You can apply directly from their website without human interaction
  • Offer a ton of different loan programs
  • Excellent customer reviews
  • A+ BBB rating for their parent company
  • They service their home loans (as opposed to transferring them)
  • Free mortgage calculators and home buyer’s guide on their website

The Maybe Not

  • Not licensed in Georgia or Massachusetts
  • Unclear what lender fees they charge
  • Limited physical locations

Source: thetruthaboutmortgage.com

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A recent survey shows that most Americans would rather invest in real estate than in the stock market. On today’s State of the Market podcast, we discuss why we prefer investing in housing over publicly traded companies. But we also talk about the challenges that come with owning rental property. Plus, we cover breaking stories in the real estate sphere, including news of forbearance requests dropping to their lowest levels since March 2020.

Listen to today’s show and learn:

  • Normalcy starts to return to New York [1:37]
  • Skyline Tower sales on fire – signs of a comeback in Long Island? [2:48]
  • Lean pickings with twice as many agents as listings in Boston [5:22]
  • New forbearance requests at lowest level since March 2020 [8:57]
  • Oakland pushes to bring multi-family housing into single-family neighborhoods [12:38]
  • Texas court opens eviction flood gates [18:43]
  • Survey shows that people prefer investing in real estate over stocks [24:38]
  • Offerpad makes moving easier for sellers with 60-day extended stay [30:06]

Kelly Skeval

Kelly moved to Ithaca in 2005 after attaining her degree in Veterinary Technology and continued her career in veterinary medicine at Cornell University until her first child was born. Kelly had an active interest in real estate long before her and her husband, a Trumansburg native, decided to purchase their first home. When they did, they turned it into an owner occupied duplex and were able to use that foundation to further expand their real estate portfolio to include 5 properties and 10 units.

In addition, Kelly and her husband owned a home energy auditing business. Being a BPI certified energy auditor she was able to assess homes and building envelopes then make recommendations to homeowners on how to make improvements that would save energy and make their homes more efficient.

It is Kelly’s knowledge in many aspects of real estate including but not limited to single family buying and selling, rental properties, new construction, property management, building envelopes and business ownership that make her an ideal person to help you in your real estate endeavors. Purchasing or selling a home is a big decision and Kelly prides herself on offering quality customer service along with knowledge and compassion.

In her spare time, Kelly enjoys spending time with her husband and their two small children exploring the Fingerlakes region and all that it has to offer.

Related Links and Resources:

Thank You Rockstars!
It might go without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway: We really value listeners like you. We’re constantly working to improve the show, so why not leave us a review? If you love the content and can’t stand the thought of missing the nuggets our Rockstar guests share every week, please subscribe; it’ll get you instant access to our latest episodes and is the best way to support your favorite real estate podcast. Have questions? Suggestions? Want to say hi? Shoot me a message via Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or Email.
-Aaron Amuchastegui

Source: hibandigital.com

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Today’s homebuyers are learning that finding a move-in ready home in a good location that they can comfortably afford is about as rare as a winning Powerball ticket.

A dire housing shortage has kept prices strong and competition fierce among buyers despite high mortgage interest rates. That’s left less than a quarter of the roughly 1.1 million home listings within financial reach of the typical American household, according to a recent joint report from the National Association of Realtors® and Realtor.com®.

The housing market is short about 320,000 listings within the price range of buyers earning the median household income of $75,000 a year. These buyers can generally afford homes up to $256,000. (Listings for single-family homes, condos, townhomes, row homes, and co-ops included only existing homes and did not encompass new construction.)

“The country has the largest shortage of homes in the price range that middle-income buyers can afford,” says NAR Senior Economist Nadia Evangelou. “That can explain why the competition is strongest for these homes.

“We hear again and again that in order to address the housing affordability issue we need to add more housing to the market,” she adds. “We need to add more homes that middle-income buyers can afford.”

Even those making $100,000 can afford only about 38.6% of the homes on the market. And those needing mortgages are faced with rates nearing 7% for 30-year fixed loans, pushing monthly mortgage payments up into the stratosphere.

The problem has worsened significantly over the past five years. In 2018, there were about 810,000 homes on the market that middle-income buyers could afford. That’s compared with nearly 263,000 in April of this year.

The affordability crunch is even worse for people of color. About two-thirds of Black Americans and 59% of Hispanic Americans have household incomes below $75,000. That’s compared with 48% of white Americans and 37% of Asian Americans.

“Our country needs to add at least two affordable homes for middle-income buyers for every home listed for upper-income buyers,” Evangelou says.

Where middle-income buyers can find the fewest affordable homes for sale

San Jose, CA

(Getty Images)

Not surprisingly, the nation’s most expensive metropolitan areas had the fewest homes priced for middle-income buyers. In the whole state of California, just 3.7% of all home listings in April were affordable for buyers earning $75,000 or less.

The issue was the most acute in Silicon Valley’s San Jose, where there was just one home listing priced for buyers earning $75,000 in the entire metropolitan area. (NAR and Realtor.com looked at the 100 largest metros for their analysis. Metros include the main city and surrounding towns, suburbs, and smaller urban areas.)

The lack of affordable homes isn’t surprising as the median price in the metro was $1.53 million in May, according to Realtor.com data, which includes new construction.

In Oxnard, CA, 0.2% of homes were affordable for middle-income buyers. It was 0.6% in San Diego, 1% in San Francisco, and 1.2% in Los Angeles.

However, residents in these more expensive areas generally make more money to keep up with the higher cost of living. The median household income in these areas is typically more than $100,000, says Evangelou.

Even in less expensive, yet still pricey areas, there was a dearth of real estate priced for middle-income buyers: just 1.2% of homes in Seattle; 1.3% of homes in Austin, TX; 2% of homes in Boise, ID, and Salt Lake City; and 2.6% of homes in Sacramento, CA.

“In these very expensive areas, especially middle-income buyers can afford to buy very few listings,” says Evangelou. “It’s very difficult.”

Where middle-income buyers can find the most homes for sale

Youngstown, OH

(Getty Images)

Buyers on a budget will find the greatest selection of affordable homes in the cheaper parts of the country, such as the Rust Belt and Deep South.

In West Virginia and Ohio, more than half of the homes for sale in April were affordable for middle-income buyers. About 59.3% and 55.6% of listings were priced right respectively in those states.

“Some of these areas have an oversupply of housing,” says Evangelou.

In the Youngstown, OH, metro, nearly three-quarters of the homes for sale, about 72%, were within reach of middle-income buyers. In May, the median home price in the metro was $162,450—about a third of the national median price tag of $441,445 in May, according to Realtor.com data.

The metro was followed by Akron, OH, at 61.4%; Toledo, OH, at 60.7%; Cleveland, at 58.6%; and Syracuse, NY, at 54.4%. Rounding out the top 10 were Scranton, PA, at 53.5%; Dayton, OH, at 53%; Pittsburgh, at 52.2%; Rochester, NY, at 51%; and Detroit, at 49.3%.

“Ongoing high housing costs and the scarcity of available homes continues to present budget challenges for many prospective buyers, and it’s likely keeping some buyers in the rental market or on the sidelines,” Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale said in a statement.

“Those who are able to overcome affordability constraints may be increasingly drawn to newly constructed homes or to the suburbs and beyond, both of which may offer buyers more realistic opportunities for homeownership.”

Source: realtor.com

Apache is functioning normally

Well, folks, this spring marks a major milestone in the housing market: Annual home list prices have gone negative for the first time in years. In other words, they are actually dropping nationally.

Looking at the country as a whole, sellers have priced their homes this May below where homes were priced just one year ago. That hasn’t happened in recent memory, especially after the past few years of unprecedented price hikes. But as mortgage interest rates shot up, buyers have been unable to afford the higher monthly housing payments.

Something had to give. And while today’s price dips are slight, there are no indications that overall prices will begin rising anytime soon.

So where are home prices falling the most? The data team at Realtor.com® found out. These are mostly places where prices shot up the most during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Western and Southern swaths of the country. In most of these places, there has been a lot of new construction helping to ease the housing shortage and taking the pressure off of prices to remain quite so high.

“Those markets that got the most juiced during the pandemic—where the prices really took off—are the markets where they’re now suffering the biggest declines because affordability has been the hardest there,” says Mark Zandi, Moody’s Analytics chief economist.

“The market is trying to adjust to the surge in mortgage rates and the collapse in affordability,” says Zandi. With mortgage rates hovering around 7%, he believes the price declines will continue in the near future.

“I’d be surprised if we don’t have this same conversation a year from now and prices aren’t another 3% or 4% lower than where they are today,” he adds.

For example, look at Boise, ID, No. 1 on our list, or Austin, TX, which came in at No. 2. Both were practically synonymous with the housing market’s pandemic price pump.

People who previously had to spend their nine-to-five in a big-city office building were turned into remote workers with more flexibility in where they could live. That led many people to leave more expensive cities like San Francisco and Seattle for smaller cities where they could get more space for their money.

The big caveat here is that there are still real estate markets around the country where prices are rising steadily. These are typically more affordable Midwestern markets that didn’t see the large upswings that other markets experienced during the pandemic.

To figure out where prices are falling the most, we looked at the median price per square foot in the 100 largest metropolitan areas. Then we compared median prices in May 2023 with May 2022.

We used price per square foot as the most reliable metric to track home price movement. This means in a few instances, overall home prices in a metro might be rising while the price per square foot is falling. Price per square foot is generally considered a better indicator of prices because it accounts for changes in the mix of homes for sale. For example, right now many larger, more expensive homes are sitting on the market without attracting buyers. Since those homes aren’t moving, it’s bringing up the overall price for these metros. But the price per square foot compares apples to apples and shows that in some of these markets, it’s actually cheaper to purchase a home now than a year earlier.

We looked at only one metro per state to ensure geographical diversity. Metros include the main city and surrounding towns, suburbs, and smaller urban areas.

Here’s where home prices are down the most.

Median listing price: $609,875
Median listing price per square foot: $282
Change in year-over-year price per square foot: -7.8%

Boise has been one of the poster children for the run-up in home prices during the pandemic. The area saw a massive influx of residents and soaring demand over the past few years, especially from Californians. And it’s not hard to see why.

The city checks many of the standard quality-of-life boxes that people are seeking: Homes are larger than the national average, and there’s plenty of natural beauty and outdoor recreation.

Homes in the city, surrounded by mountains, used to be a bargain. Then the pandemic hit, and from March 2020 to May 2022, prices rose 63%. Now prices are coming back down to earth.

“It’s the entry-level homes where we’re losing value,” says Boise real estate agent Rob Inman, with Boise’s Best Real Estate Keller Williams, “those homes that people got into for $400,000 to $500,000.”

That reality is rough for buyers who bought at the peak, Inman says, especially first-time buyers. The one consolation, he says, is the low interest rate they probably have on the mortgage.

But for buyers still looking for a home on the more affordable end of the spectrum in Boise, there’s a lot more to choose from now.

“Now, you can actually find stuff between $350,000 and $425,000, right in that entry-level price point,” he says. “There’s even new construction.”

Austin, TX

(Getty Images)

Median listing price: $583,751
Median listing price per square foot: $276
Change in year-over-year price per square foot: -7.7%

When it comes to pandemic hot spots, you can’t mention Boise without bringing up Austin, too. This cultural hub and capital of the Lone Star State has attracted hordes of tech companies and homebuyers leading to a surge in prices.

During the pandemic, the price per square foot for a home in the Austin metro rose around 75% from February 2020 to May 2022. The median home list price, not standardized for size, went from about $364,000 to almost $630,000. Pandemic price growth in Austin outpaced all others on the list.

Higher mortgage rates have cooled off buyers’ ability to purchase at the same price point. Right now, a relatively new, one-bedroom condo in East Austin is being listed for $420,000, with a recent $5,000 price reduction.

Median listing price: $366,075
Median listing price per square foot: $225
Change in year-over-year price per square foot: -7.3%

Myrtle Beach, nestled in the center of South Carolina’s “Grand Strand” shoreline, is a popular and affordable summer destination. The city, named after the abundant wax myrtle tree in the area, was recently named one of the nation’s most affordable golf towns by Realtor.com.

With its beaches, boardwalk and amusement parks, and plenty of golf courses, it’s another spot where prices rose over the past few years and are now coming down.

Some of that is due to the abundance of new construction in the area. With so many homes to choose from, buyers aren’t under as much pressure to bid them up.

Homes in Myrtle Beach are relatively small, so if buyers aren’t looking for a colossal home, the actual median price on homes there is 15% to 20% less than the national median. This remodeled three-bedroom, two-bathroom house is on the market for $284,900 after a $15,000 price cut.

Phoenix, AZ

(Getty Images)

Median listing price: $529,450
Median listing price per square foot: $274
Change in year-over-year price per square foot: -5.6%

During the COVID-19 pandemic, home prices in Phoenix got as hot as a sweltering Sonoran summer, and just as the monsoons mark the end of the season, raised interest rates have come like a cold downpour on the market. After more than 50% pandemic-era appreciation here, the median price per square foot is down more than 5%.

But the housing boom in Phoenix—as well as the subsequent correction—is nothing new for the Valley of the Sun. Phoenix was one of the markets with the biggest swing up and down during the late 2000s housing bubble and crash.

Part of the reason why is that Phoenix has the capacity for so much growth. Without a real winter to speak of, home construction can go on year-round. And the only thing surrounding Phoenix is more land, so developers can continue to build outward.

“Developers can keep sprawling,” says local real estate agent Angela MacDonald. “Without the new homes, we wouldn’t be able to keep up with the demand for people moving here.”

Even with the price decline, sellers still have a bit of an edge in the market. There are still many buyers and not as many homes to go around.

Median listing price: $549,900
Median listing price per square foot: $305
Change in year-over-year price per square foot: -4.7%

Florida was another red-hot real estate market during the pandemic. As more folks could work remotely, many migrated to the Sunshine State with its low taxes, reasonable cost of living, and year-round warm temperatures.

Part of the reason Sarasota, about an hour south of Tampa on the southwestern coast of Florida, made our list is because it’s also one of the places in the U.S. where the number of homes for sale has risen the most.

Sarasota homes are also spending longer on the market, with the median listing on the market for nearly eight weeks. Homes were selling in about half of that time a year ago.

This midcentury three-bedroom home near downtown Sarasota has undergone a price reduction bringing it down to $499,000.

Salt Lake City, UT

(Getty Images)

Median listing price: $635,000
Median listing price per square foot: $247
Change in year-over-year price per square foot: -4.0%

Salt Lake City is another area that’s grown in popularity over the past few years and attracted more tech companies and workers. That led prices to rise—until recently.

“Buyers are holding back a little when it comes to waiving contingencies or inspections,” says Lory Hendry, a real estate agent at Windermere Real Estate in Salt Lake City, ”

That’s in contrast to the frenzy of the pandemic, when fast sales were often sealed without those protections.

Salt Lake City has the biggest homes of any metro on our list. So buyers looking for more home for their money might want to give the city a hard look. Surprisingly, it’s the higher end of the market, the larger, more luxurious homes, where high demand is still leading to quick sales and competition among buyers.

“Anything in that $1 million to $2 million price point is going pretty quickly,” says Hendry.

For people looking for a bit more of a bargain, the Ogden metro, just north of Salt Lake City, is a little less expensive and was recently featured on our list of places where the number of homes for sale is growing the most right now. The number of listings in the Ogden area has roughly tripled over the past year.

Median listing price: $238,250
Median listing price per square foot: $152
Change in year-over-year price per square foot: -3.9%

Venturing outside of the West and South, the “Steel City” is the only Northeastern spot on our list.

Pittsburgh stands out on our list as a place with some of the smaller homes, with a median home size around 1,600 square feet. Combined with a price per square foot that’s about one-third less expensive than the national median, this means the price of a Pittsburgh home is quite a bit lower than in most other places.

This anchor of the Steel Belt didn’t see the same kind of pandemic-era price appreciation as others on the list. However, the overall housing slowdown seems to have pulled down prices anyway.

Buyers looking in the area can find a three-bedroom home in the South Side Flats neighborhood for $285,000. It recently underwent a $10,000 price reduction.

Winstone-Salem, NC

(Kruck20/iStock)

Median listing price: $345,899
Median listing price per square foot: $148
Change in year-over-year price per square foot: -3.6%

For the previous few metros on our list, there’s a quirk to how home price data is affected by the mix of homes for sale. The anomaly is the most pronounced in the Winston-Salem metro. While the median list price per square foot has dropped, overall prices in the metro are rising.

This is due to shifting buyer preference. As mortgage rates rose and buyer budgets shrunk, many buyers shied away from larger, more expensive homes. That left these properties on the market as the cheaper, smaller homes were more quickly scooped up. The bigger homes have been pulling up overall prices for the metro even though local real estate costs less than it did a year ago.

If you were to compare the median home list price in Winston-Salem with Pittsburgh, you’d see that the Winston-Salem price is about $100,000 more. But the median home listing in Winston-Salem is more than 500 square feet larger. So buyers get more space for their money.

A nearly 100-year-old, three-bedroom home about 10 minutes south of downtown Winston-Salem is listed now for $220,000, after a $9,000 price reduction.

Median listing price: $662,875
Median listing price per square foot: $340
Change in year-over-year price per square foot: -3.4%

Sacramento, California’s capital city, may be the most expensive of any on our list, with homes priced around 50% higher than the national average. But for California, Sacramento is cheap! The state’s median list price per square foot is more than 30% higher.

The city became a popular alternative to the pricier San Francisco Bay Area during the pandemic as buyers sought out more space for less money. But as companies have been calling workers back to their offices, the area isn’t as hot as it was during the pandemic. There has also been plenty of new construction in the area.

A two-bedroom townhome near downtown Sacramento can be picked up for a little under $500,000 right now.

Chicago, IL

(Getty Images)

Median listing price: $376,000
Median listing price per square foot: $205
Change in year-over-year price per square foot: -1.1%

The real estate market in the “Windy City” is really a tale of two cities, says Compass real estate agent Amy Duong Kim.

Chicago’s dense downtown should be thought of as one market, she says. The suburbs on the periphery, where about two-thirds of the metro residents live, should be thought of as another.

“In River North and Gold Coast and the other downtown neighborhoods, they were hit the hardest during COVID,” Duong Kim says. “Unfortunately, they haven’t bounced back yet.”

The listing data backs up her point about the two different markets of Chicago. Where the larger metro area is showing a 1.1% decline in price per square foot, the city of Chicago at the center of the metro is showing the list price per square foot is down just a little more than 4%.

This two-bedroom, one-bathroom condo in downtown Chicago is on the market for $299,000.

Source: realtor.com

Apache is functioning normally

frustrated this spring with the limited inventory of existing homes, at least one segment of the housing market is seeing a silver lining: new home builders.

Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes in May rose five points to 50, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) released today. This marks the fifth straight month that builder confidence has increased and is the first time that sentiment levels have reached the midpoint mark of 50 since July 2022. Scores over 50 indicate that builders view market conditions as “good” rather than “fair” or “poor.”

One reason for the limited supply of homes has been the sub-5% mortgage interest rates that 85% of current mortgage holders are locked in to, which discourages current homeowners from selling their home and buying another at today’s elevated interest rates.

Current mortgage rates 2023

Total housing inventory registered at the end of March was 980,000 units, up 1% from February and 5.4% from one year ago (930,000), but the country has just a 2.6-month supply of homes, far lesser than the five to six months needed for a balanced market, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Learn more: Best personal loans

Home prices:7 in 10 metros saw home price gains in the first quarter of 2023. See where.

Rent:Single family homes for rent are getting more expensive. Here’s where prices are going up

Mortgage rate:How will the housing market be affected with the Federal Reserve interest rate hike?

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Source: usatoday.com

Apache is functioning normally

As with the rest of the nation, the state of Massachusetts is looking for solutions to temper inventory shortages and high housing costs. While state lawmakers are currently debating rent control legislation as one potential answer to the issue, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR) is advocating to increase housing construction instead, according to reporting by the Massachusetts’ State House News Service.

“Rent control tries to attack a symptom of our lack of building. And that’s not the way to fix the issue,” said Justin Davidson, general counsel and director of government affairs for MAR. “We need to build more housing.”

The legislation currently being debated would impose more rent control on multifamily units in Massachusetts, Davidson told association members, and that additional rent control would ultimately prove “harmful.”

“If we build enough housing, if people have the options of where to live and what type of home to live in, we don’t need rent control,” he said.

The association also noted that the state recently increased funding for its rental voucher program, which requires that recipients pay 30% of their net monthly income toward rent. The voucher pays for the remainder of the rent.

The association also supports state legislation that would establish a tax-deductible, first-time homebuyer savings program to help residents save up to $5,000 per year to put toward their first home purchase.

In addition, the association touted a bill introduced to the State House in February as a top priority. If passed, the bill would widen the state’s multifamily zoning rules to better accommodate more multifamily units and the construction of accessory dwelling units (ADUs), but the bill has remained in committee since its introduction.

Transfer tax and rent control bills that are currently being debated in the chambers are opposed by the association, according to Davidson, who added the bills to the list of “harmful” policies.

In addition to Massachusetts, other states have been working to address affordable housing and supply issues this year.

In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul has been pushing the state’s government to override local zoning laws and mandate more housing construction in the state’s suburban counties.

Last month, Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee signed a series of bills designed to encourage more affordable housing construction, with a focus on the elimination of single-family zoning. Similar measures have been introduced in states like Florida and Minnesota but were ultimately reversed.

Source: housingwire.com

Apache is functioning normally

Of all the housing market bugaboos that haunt and frustrate wannabe buyers in this stressed, prime-time selling season of 2023 (Sky-high prices! Rising mortgage rates! Inflation and economic uncertainty!), one challenge still sits at the center of everything: finding a good home to purchase.

America’s been in a severe housing shortage since at least the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it affects just about all else. A shortage of inventory leads to frenzied bidding wars, out-of-reach price tags, and market paralysis.

But the situation is changing, at least in some markets. And Realtor.com® decided to find out where. When it comes to home inventory levels in America, it’s both the best of times and the worst of times—it all depends on where you live.

To gain some insight into where things stand going into the crucial summer season, the data team at Realtor.com crunched the numbers to determine the metropolitan areas with the largest increases—and most substantial decreases—in available home inventory.

You can see for yourself in the table below the change in housing inventory in the 100 largest metros.

So what did we find? Well, across the country, inventory is up year over year, by a little more than 20%. But this is largely a function of the incredibly low inventory levels of the past couple of years. There aren’t more sellers coming onto the market. Instead, homes are sitting longer. And even the current bump in year-over-year inventory still puts this year below pre-pandemic levels. Nationally, the number of new listings was down 22.7% in May compared with the previous year

And the data underscores a truth that has become increasingly evident: There’s no single, monolithic housing market. Instead, real estate has become a tapestry of regional markets, each with unique patterns.

In certain regions, particularly in the more affordable pockets of the Midwest and Northeast, inventory remains tight. Despite higher mortgage rates casting a shadow over buyers and sellers alike, homes are selling at a brisk pace, prices continue to rise, and inventory remains relatively low compared with previous years.

Compare that to the West and South, where hot markets like Austin, TX, Nashville, TN, and Sarasota, FL, have seen inventory more than double compared with this time last year. These pandemic-era boomtowns have been on a roller coaster when it comes to pricing, inventory, and demand.

Nick Libert, a real estate agent with EXIT Strategy Realty in Chicago, calls this a “balanced-stagnant market.”

Elevated rates have put the brakes on the overall housing market activity, from the perspective of buyers and sellers, but a bridled demand is still very much present.

“Not a lot of people are moving,” Libert says. “Part of the reason is there’s very little to look at.”

So let’s take a look at the biggest markets to see what’s what in different parts of the country.

We found where inventory is up and down the most in the 100 largest U.S. metros by going through the Realtor.com monthly housing market data to compare inventory in May 2023 with May 2022. We selected just one per state to ensure geographic diversity. (Metros include the main city and surrounding towns, suburbs, and smaller urban areas.)

Where inventory has risen the most

1. Sarasota, FL

May 2023 year-over-year active listings change: +128.1%
May 2023 median list price: $549,900

What a difference a year makes.

Located on the southwestern coast of Florida, known for picturesque white-sand beaches and barrier islands along its Gulf of Mexico shoreline, the Sarasota metro experienced the biggest year-over-year jump in inventory. There were nearly 2.3 times the number of active listings, at just shy of 4,600, this May compared with last.

Unsurprisingly, homes are sitting on the market almost twice as long, now taking about 7.5 weeks to sell.

This midsized metro, which serves as the spring training destination for the Baltimore Orioles, is relatively expensive compared with much of Florida. Median list prices are about 9% above the median state price—only Miami is priced higher.

Carissa Pelczynski, a real estate agent at Preferred Shore in Sarasota, says the attitude of many of the out-of-town buyers who were driving prices up during the pandemic has shifted in the past several months.

“People are just more hesitant now,” Pelczynski says.

Also adding to the inventory glut, according to Pelcynski: Too many sellers are pricing their homes as if the market were still as hot as it was a year or two ago. (It’s not.)

2. Nashville, TN

Nashville, TN

(Getty Images)

May 2023 year-over-year active listings change: +124.7%
May 2023 median list price: $580,000

Music City is the next stop on our list, with a jump in inventory almost as large as Sarasota’s. This icon of the South is home to the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame, and it’s an increasingly popular destination for buyers.

What’s especially notable about Nashville right now is that even as inventory is more than double what it was this time last year, in May the price per square foot hit an all-time high. It surpassed the previous high mark in June 2022.

Homes in Nashville are generally larger than average, with a median size of almost 2,200 square feet. It’s also about 15% more expensive than the national median price per square foot.

A recently listed, 500-square-foot condo just southeast of downtown Nashville and within walking distance of the Cumberland River is around $515,000.This newly constructed, four-bedroom townhome is on the market for about $600,000.

Watch: The Best Cities in the U.S. for Home Sellers Right Now

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3. Austin, TX

May 2023 year-over-year active listings change: +112.5%
May 2023 median list price: $583,751

It seems no list of real estate superlatives is complete without Austin. The Lone Star State’s capital city had become one of the hottest markets in the country during the pandemic, with demand—and as a result, prices—exploding. Builders raced to put up homes in the area.

But when mortgage rates rose in 2022, the Austin market was one that cooled the most, with list prices falling 15% from May 2022 to January of this year. Since then, prices have been creeping back up, now at 9% below last year’s peak.

Even as prices are back on the rise, the typical Austin home is on the market for eight long weeks before selling, compared with just two weeks during the spring 2022 pandemic pump peak.

No place on our list has a larger portion of listings that have had a price reduction, with more than 1 in 3 listings having been discounted by the seller.

The number of homes available in the Austin metro is back to pre-pandemic levels, thanks in part to the boom in new construction.

4. New Orleans, LA

New Orleans, LA

(Getty Images)

May 2023 year-over-year active listings change: +81.0%
May 2023 median list price: $345,000

The number of homes available in the Big Easy has earned it a place on our list, with an 81% increase.

Worth noting: By this same time last year, New Orleans inventory was already back on the rise. Measuring from the inventory low point, New Orleans has also seen the number of available homes more than double.

The inventory increase hasn’t quite put it back to pre-pandemic levels, but if the upward trajectory continues, New Orleans should reach that milestone in the coming months.

And although list prices in New Orleans haven’t been as swingy as they’ve been in a place like Austin, they have crept back up—and are now less than 1 percentage point shy of the all-time high set in March 2022.

A newly listed, midcentury boathouse on New Orlean’s iconic Lake Pontchartrain can be found for about $375,000.

5. Tulsa, OK

May 2023 year-over-year active listings change: +74.1%
May 2023 median list price: $369,450

There are plenty of homes for sale in Tulsa—they just aren’t the more affordably priced properties that buyers are seeking.

“We have so much more inventory right now, and we just have less buyers,” says local real estate agent Tiffany Johnson, of Tiffany Johnson Homes.

It’s a price point game, she says. “You can’t find anything under $150,000, and anything under $300,000 is selling quickly.”

The market has shifted a lot since last year, especially for sellers who now face more competition.

“The buyers who are in the market are very serious. They will make a move quick, but they have so many houses to choose from, so [sellers and agents ] have to be almost perfect,” Johnson says. “They have to find ways to actually market these homes now.”

Rounding out the top 10 metros where the number of homes for sale has increased the most is Raleigh, NC, at 72.7%; Wichita, KS, at 59.8%; Las Vegas, at 57.5%; Greenville, SC, at 57.1%; and Omaha, NE, at 54.4%.

Where inventory is down the most

1. San Jose, CA

May 2023 year-over-year active listings change: -35.3%
May 2023 median list price: $1,530,000

Topping the list of places where inventory is tightest is Silicon Valley’s San Jose. The tech hub is one of the most expensive metros in the nation, with a median price tag of $1.5 million.

Posing another hurdle for buyers: The number of homes for sale is still near record lows. The metro area, with more than 2 million people, had fewer than 1,000 homes for sale in May.

Tuan Tran, a Realtor® at Home Page Real Estate in San Jose, sees changes in this unique and wealthy home market amid turbulence in the tech business.

“Now I see a lot of investors holding back,” Tran says, adding that they are waiting to see whether a tech recession runs deeper. “Inflation is still high. Paychecks haven’t gotten much bigger.”

2. Hartford, CT

Hartford, CT

(Getty Images)

May 2023 year-over-year active listings change: -26.0%
May 2023 median list price: $424,925

Hartford topped our list of markets that will dominate in 2023, and the low home inventory seems to be proving us right.

Buyers from around the Northeast have poured into the “Insurance Capital of the World,” about 90 minutes southwest of Boston and 2.5 hours northeast of New York City, due to the reasonably priced homes for sale and good jobs available.

The city has the fewest price reductions of any city, with only 1 in 14 listings with a markdown.

In another sign of the market’s strength, Hartford boasts the fastest-selling homes of any place on our list, with the typical home spending just 19 days on the market. That’s less than half the national median time of 43 days in May.

3. Milwaukee, WI

May 2023 year-over-year active listings change: -23.4%
May 2023 median list price: $374,950

The housing markets in many traditionally affordable, Midwestern cities, like Milwaukee, have continued to chug along, while other pricier markets have sputtered or stalled.

In May, there were 23% fewer homes for sale than the year before. And the median home in Milwaukee is selling in 29 days, just four days more than the all-time low of 25 days in May 2022.

Another indicator of the overall strength of the Milwaukee market: The relatively small portion of homes that have had a price reduction. Only 1 in 10 is marked down.

For those considering selling in Milwaukee, the metrics suggest a quick sale, likely without a price drop, is still the norm right now. Buyers might want to consider this updated, three-bedroom, two-bathroom Cape Cod for about $225,000.

4. Dayton, OH

Dayton, OH

(Getty Images)

May 2023 year-over-year active listings change: -20.3%
May 2023 median list price: $234,950

Dayton, a Rust Belt city bout an hour northeast of Cincinnati, is the most affordable of all the cities on our list, with prices 45% below the national median. The “Gem City” is home to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

In contrast to what we’ve seen in the markets that got hot during the pandemic pump, prices in Dayton have been steady: no big swings up or down, but a rather steady and slight incline.

Dayton’s median listing price per square foot in May was up 6.7% year over year.

Buyers can find big deals in Dayton. This four-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom house on a third of an acre is for sale for $219,000.

5. Chicago, IL

May 2023 year-over-year active listings change: -18.5%
May 2023 median list price: $376,000

The Windy City features near-record low inventory right now.

The number of available homes crept up by about 2% from April to May. But aside from the February 2022 nadir in inventory, there haven’t been this few homes on the market in Chicago in recent history. (Realtor.com listing data goes back to mid-2016.)

“Currently, what my buyers are seeing—and my sellers are experiencing—is that the north side of Chicago, along the lakefront, has, by far, the most pronounced drop,” says Libert of EXIT Strategy Realty in Chicago.

The rest of the top 10 metros with the largest decrease in inventory were Washington, DC, at -15.6%; Bakersfield, CA, at -13.2%; Albany, NY, at -13.1%; Allentown, PA, at -12.5%; and Seattle, at -10.8%.

Source: realtor.com

Apache is functioning normally

We’re starting to get a better picture of how COVID-19 affected the housing market, with the National Association of Realtors’ existing-home sales report showing a big drop in May.

It’s based on completed transactions, including both single-family homes and condos/townhomes, meaning these were likely under contract during the full lockdown seen a month or so ago.

Home Sales Hit Hard by COVID-19

  • Existing home sales fell 9.7% in May from a month earlier per NAR
  • Off a sizable 26.6% from April 2019 as traditional home buying period disrupted by virus
  • Housing supply increased but likely only due to artificially slower sales pace
  • Home prices were down slightly month-to-month but still registered 99th straight YoY increase

As expected, existing home sales were off 9.7% from April, falling to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 3.91 million in May.

That’s a whopping 26.6% below the 5.33 million sales pace seen in May 2019, though there are some pretty serious extenuating circumstances at play here.

NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun noted that the sales completed last month “reflect contract signings in March and April.”

The true test on the existing home sale front will be a month or two from now, assuming the country remains open post the worst of COVID-19.

The lack of home sales also seemed to boost unsold inventory, which rose to a 4.8-month supply based on the current sales pace, up from 4.0 months in April and 4.3-months in May 2019.

Again, the caveat here is current sales pace, which was affected by the coronavirus pandemic, so it too needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

If home buyers get out there again, the sales pace could accelerate dramatically and push inventory much lower once again. As it stood, it was already quite low pre-COVID-19.

Despite lower sales volume, properties only remained on the market for 26 days in May, seasonally down from 27 days in April and the same as May 2019.

Additionally, 58% of the homes that sold last month were on the market for less than a month.

In other words, lower volume aside, homes were moving quickly from list to pending to sold, which bodes well for buyer appetite.

With regard to home prices, the median existing-home price was $284,600 in May, down slightly from $286,800 in April, but up 2.3% from May 2019 ($278,200).

That marked the 99th straight month of year-over-year gains, so let’s hope they get to 100 next month. Would be a shame not to…

Pending Home Sales Up 33%, New Listings Rise 36%

  • Redfin said pending home sales (those currently under contract) rose 33% in May
  • New for-sale listings up 36% from April to May, but still 20% below February levels
  • Home sales fell 30.8% in May from a year ago, with dramatic declines in most expensive metro areas
  • Median home prices relatively flat from a year ago despite a big drop in expensive property sales

It appears we may have hit bottom in terms of COVID-19 impact, at least for now, and it wasn’t so bad, assuming those missed home sales were merely delayed.

We’re already seeing signs that may be the case, with Redfin reporting that pending sales were up a sizable 33% in May after two monthly declines.

Unlike existing home sales, pending sales are a key indicator for home sales that are expected to take place in the near future, namely during June and July.

At the same time, new listings increased 36% from April to May, so assuming those also get scooped up relatively fast, sales should see a pretty quick recovery.

And they probably will, given median days on market barely budged in May despite a global pandemic.

Again, this hinges on the economy and the country staying open, and not closing up again, as has been discussed in some circles given the recent case increases in states like Arizona, Florida, and Texas.

Redfin said home prices increased a mere 0.5% on a year-over-year basis in May to a median $299,400, the smallest annual increase since home prices bottomed in February 2012.

However, they only believe it was much lower than the 4.7% gain in April because fewer homes sold in the most expensive metro areas tracked by the company.

For example, home sales declined between 38% and 58% from a year earlier in the 12 metro areas with median prices above $450,000 (seven of them are in California).

In San Francisco and San Jose, where the median price exceeds $1 million, home sales dropped more than 55%.

This tells us home prices held up pretty well in the face of COVID, another good sign for the housing market that continues to roll on, fueled by record low mortgage rates.

Interestingly, the median off-market Redfin Estimate was up both on a month-to-month basis and annual basis.

The only real worry is home prices might increase too much and become out of reach for first-time home buyers, something Yun lamented about while urging more new construction.

He might be right, given the fact that home purchase applications are also reportedly surging.

Quicken Loans CEO Jay Farner told Fox that the company is experiencing a record number of home purchase applications to go along with their record mortgage refinance applications which might explain their rumored IPO.

He said purchase apps are up significantly over last year’s numbers, so it appears many prospective buyers are getting their ducks in a row so they don’t miss out.

Now we just need to be concerned about that second wave, which could stop the housing market in its tracks if consumers lose confidence and no longer believe the worst is behind us.

If it doesn’t come, surging home prices might usher in another era of unaffordability and creative financing, followed by another housing crisis. But that might still be a few years out.

Source: thetruthaboutmortgage.com