I try and stay up to date on real estate news both locally and nationally but often the news can be contradictory and things seem to change from week to week. Right now the good news is that home ownership rates are on the rise again in the US. On the other hand, the bad news is homes are less affordable and it's becoming more difficult for first time buyers to enter the market. An added challenge on the Peninsula is that the rental market is extremely tight and prices continue to go up. So....depending on your city and state, a positive trend for one area, is a negative for others. Here is an article based on overall US data. Read on....
The U.S. homeownership rate may have finally bottomed out, as the share of Americans who own homes is steadily climbing. The ownership rate posted an increase in the second quarter, reversing a sharp downward trend that begun in the Great Recession.
The homeownership rate was 63.7 percent in the second quarter, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday. That marks nearly a full percentage point increase from a year ago. Last year, the homeownership rate had plunged to a 50-year low of 62.9 percent.
“The addition of 1.2 million households being homeowners is clearly good news, as more households are participating in housing equity gains,” says Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of REALTORS®. “But let’s keep it in perspective: There are fewer homeowners today compared to a decade ago, while renter households have risen by 8 million. So it is still the case that the massive $7 trillion in housing wealth gains from the cyclical low point has been accumulated by a fewer number of families in America. Further advances in homeownership are required to strengthen and broaden the middle class.”
Source: “Homeownership Rate Jumps From 50-Year Low,” The Wall Street Journal (July 27, 2017) and National Association of REALTORS®