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Aging in Place’ helps to fuel housing shortage


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As the baby boomer generation has aged, it has also stayed put. And for all the innovations builders and product manufacturers have come up with to help seniors “age in place.” they may have also made it difficult for would-be homebuyers, causing a lack of housing inventory.

According to a new report from Freddie Mac, 2019 will see a significant shortage of available homes here in the U.S., failing to meet needs by 2.5 million units. It doesn’t help that at the same time millennials are buying fewer homes at this point in their lives compared with previous generations at similar periods.

As seniors continue to prefer to stay where they are as the optimal way to live out their remaining years, housing inventory has tightened nationally. According to the report, for people between the ages of 67 and 87, homeownership rates dropped by 11.6 percent for previous generations but only 3.6 percent for the current (leading edge) generation of seniors, identified as having been born between 1931 and 1941.

New advances in information technology may be the culprit, as well as accessibility to better healthcare and education, with the report crediting those advancements as “boosting and extending” housing demand among seniors. The result? The current senior generation has become much slower in transitioning out of homeownership than prior generations.

The U.S. Census Bureau says lost units will need to be replenished at a rate of 350,000 homes per year in order to bring the market to a “well-functioning” status. “Vacant homes increase liquidity in the market, enable prospective buyers to find a match, and give prospective sellers confidence to list their home for sale,” the Freddie Mac report states. “Vacancy rates are an important indicator of housing market vitality. Too high a vacancy rate reflects a moribund market, while too low of a rate reduces the efficiency of the marketplace.”

While this does not bode well for home shoppers, it will boost spending on renovations, according to Chief Economist Sam Kater. “We believe the additional demand for homeownership from seniors aging in place will increase the relative price of owning versus renting, making renting more attractive to younger generations.” If that is true, however, those in a position to purchase the limited number of homes available may well see their property values increase more quickly than anticipated.

Source: thetbwsgroup

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    Real Estate

    Housing Inventories Rising Faster Than Usual

     

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    The number of homes for sale rose 4.3 percent in June to 1.9 million—the highest level in the past year. These gains are also higher than usual for this time of year, according to newly-released housing data from realtor.com®.

    Following two years of declines, housing inventory is finally reversing course. More home owners are seeing rising prices and may be more apt to try to sell their homes.

    The number of homes for sale has risen the most in the past year in areas that had seen the largest declines, such as Sacramento, Calif. (up 11 percent), Atlanta (up 10.9 percent), Phoenix (up 6.2 percent), and Miami (up 2.2 percent). From May to June, inventories soared by the highest month-over-month amounts in Southern California, with inventories up 51.5 percent in Orange County, 45.7 percent in Los Angeles, and 18.1 percent in San Diego, according to realtor.com®.

    However, inventories of homes for sale remain far below last year’s level in markets such as Boston (down 35.1 percent), Denver (down 30.1 percent), Detroit (down 25.7 percent), Seattle (down 23.2 percent), and San Francisco (down 21.7 percent).

    Realtor.com® also reports that median asking prices climbed 0.5 percent in June from May, reaching $199,900. Median asking prices are up by 5 percent over last year.

    Source: “Housing Listings Multiply in June,” The Wall Street Journal (July 15, 2013)

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    Real Estate

    Existing-Home Sales Down, but Prices Rise

    Existing-home sales fell as expected in December after first-time buyers rushed to complete deals during the months leading up to the original November deadline for the tax credit. However, prices rose from December 2008 and annual sales improved in 2009, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.

    Existing-home sales—including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops—fell 16.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.45 million units in December from 6.54 million in November, but remain 15 percent above the 4.74 million-unit level in December 2008.

    There were approximately 5,156,000 existing-home sales in 2009, which was 4.9 percent higher than the 4,913,000 transactions recorded in 2008. It was the first annual sales gain since 2005.

    Tax Credit Creates Swing in Market

    Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says there were no surprises in the data.

    “It’s significant that home sales remain above year-ago levels, but the market is going through a period of swings driven by the tax credit,” he said. “We’ll likely have another surge in the spring as home buyers take advantage of the extended and expanded tax credit. By early summer the overall market should benefit from more balanced inventory, and sales are on track to rise again in 2010.”
    Continue reading Existing-Home Sales Down, but Prices Rise →