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| Daren Blomquist |
IRVINE, CA — RealtyTrac®
(www.realtytrac.com), the nation’s leading source for comprehensive housing
data, released a housing affordability
analysis showing that the estimated monthly house payment for a median-priced
three-bedroom home purchased in the fourth quarter of 2013 — including
mortgage, insurance, taxes, maintenance, and subtracting the estimated income
tax benefit — increased an average of 21 percent from a year ago in the 325
U.S. counties included in the analysis.
The rise in monthly housing
payments came as the result of an average 10 percent rise in median prices
across the 325 counties combined with a 33 percent increase in the average
interest rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage as reported by Freddie Mac in
its Primary Mortgage Market Survey.
“A potent combination of
rapidly rising home prices and the often-overlooked but significant uptick in
interest rates in the second half of 2013 caused the monthly cost of owning a
home using traditional financing to jump substantially in many markets over the
last year,” said Daren Blomquist, vice
president at RealtyTrac.
“The monthly cost of owning
a home is still less than renting in the majority of markets, but the cost of
financed homeownership is becoming dangerously disconnected with still-stagnant
median incomes, driven not by shoddy underwriting practices this time around
but by investors and other cash buyers who are not tethered to the typical
affordability constraints.
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| Sheldon Detrick |
“One simply needs to look at
the minimum income needed to qualify for a median-priced home in some markets
to realize the extent of the disconnect between prices and incomes,” Blomquist
continued.
“For example, in Los
Angeles County, the minimum qualifying income needed to purchase a
median-priced home is at more than $95,000, up from about $68,000 just a year
ago.”
"Home price
appreciation continues to climb in the Oklahoma housing market, and in some
instances deters people from buying a house, forcing them to rent, especially
given the new mortgage rules that took place in the beginning of 2014,"
said Sheldon Detrick, CEO of Prudential
Detrick/Alliance Realty covering the Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Okla., markets.
"The American dream of
owning a home still stands though, so potential homeowners will try to buy as
soon as they can."
For a complete copy of the company’s news release, please
contact:
Jennifer Von Pohlmann
949.502.8300, ext. 139
Brittney Marin
949.502.8300, ext. 107
Data and Report Licensing:
800.462.5193
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