After the U.S. housing collapse there was an increase in both rental demands and prices. The higher Columbia SC rental prices are making it increasingly difficult for low income families to afford a home. A new study shows a renter in many areas has to earn at least $19 an hour to afford a decent apartment. CCTV's Yakenda McGhahee reports…
Columbia SC rental prices have, in many cases, made owning a home more affordable than renting a home, but one also has to consider other factors when trying to decide if owning is cheaper than renting. A renter won't pay taxes or homeowner's insurance, but at the same time, a renter doesn't get the tax breaks a homeowner does.
Call us for a no-obligation consultation on Columbia SC rental prices as compared to Columbia SC home prices, and what it would cost for you to get into the home of your dreams now, before prices and mortgage rates rise much further.
The latest Case-Shiller report that includes Columbia SC home prices is out, and June saw the first year-over-year increase since 2010. Here’s what this latest report means for the overall economy.
Columbia SC home prices continue to rise, and mortgage rates have risen above 4 percent — depending on your credit and the type of mortgage you’re considering. With all the economic data that’s coming out of late pointing to a full blown recovery in the housing market, now is the time to move if you’ve even been remotely considering buying your own home, or moving up to a bigger home.
Call us for a no-obligation consultation on Columbia SC home prices, and what it would cost for you to get into the home of your dreams now, before prices and mortgage rates rise much further.
Soaring Columbia SC home prices are leaving fewer homeowners owing more money than their properties are worth, bringing them off the sidelines of the surging Columbia SC housing market and offering relief to buyers who are frustrated by bidding wars. As more homes are put up for sale, price increases are expected to moderate.
Increasing Columbia SC Home Prices Unlocking More Supply
The fact that Columbia SC home prices have increased so dramatically has unlocked a lot of the pent-up supply that demand has been screaming for.
At the end of March, 19.8 percent of the nation's mortgaged homes were underwater, down from 23.7 percent a year earlier and 25 percent during the same period of 2011, according to CoreLogic. Gains spread across the country, though regions that rose high and crashed hard remained saddled with homeowners who bought near the peak.
Housing inventories are still unusually low around the Columbia SC area. There was a 5.2-month supply of existing, single-family homes for sale in May, compared to 6.4 months a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. This is still well below the six months that is considered a balanced market.
Economists expect many Columbia SC homeowners will continue to resist selling because they think they can profit more by waiting.
Meanwhile, buyers who need to use conventional financing to be able to afford to buy now are finding it tough to compete with the all cash buyers. Some buyers are even writing personal letters to sellers when making an offer hoping to make a personal connection with the seller.
Columbia SC home prices are expected to continue to increase for the foreseeable future, and interest rates have already moved up from the record lows reached earlier this year. So waiting to buy a home could cost you a lot more. Call us today to discuss your options while Columbia SC home prices are still affordable.
A combination of rising Columbia SC home prices and higher interest rates are making home affordability increasingly out of reach for many.
Even at 4 percent, the long-term mortgage rate has been in historical territory not seen in 60 years since the low for the 30-year fixed was set at 3.31 percent last November. Interest rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages have risen about 0.5 percentage points over the past several weeks and are expected to hover between 4.0 and 5.0 percent during the second half of 2013.
Columbia SC Home Prices Still Within Reach
Combined with rising Columbia SC home prices, affordability is out of reach already for a typical household according to Freddie Mac's monthly housing market outlook for June.
Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist Frank Nothaft thinks while rising interest rates will reduce housing demand, rates would have to increase considerably more before the reduction in demand for home purchases would be substantial.
Freddie Mac believes that at today's Columbia SC home prices and income levels, mortgage rates would have to be nearly 7 percent before the median priced home would be unaffordable to a family making the median income in the Columbia SC area.
With high affordability, markets can absorb a further rise in mortgage rates before we would expect housing activity to slow substantially. After all, real interest rates are still half of what they were prior to the recession and are still very low by historic standards.
Look for a sharp decline in refinance volume in the second half of this year. Freddie Mac projects that refinance originations will total about $1.1 trillion in 2013, down from $1.5 trillion in 2012.
Passage of immigration reform could be a boon to the Columbia SC real estate and mortgage markets over the next decade.
How Columbia SC Real Estate Could Benefit
If Congress approves legislation providing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) expects the country's pool of home buyers to swell by three million, generating some $500 billion in new mortgages. The $500 billion in real estate transactions would also generate $25 billion in mortgage origination and refinance income.
The estimates are based on the assumption that some six million unauthorized immigrants would probably pursue legalization if given the opportunity. That's a little more than half of the total number of unauthorized immigrants in the United States, which the Pew Research Hispanic Center estimates to be 11.1 million. Almost 60 percent of those are Mexicans. The association calculated that about three million of those who would pursue legalization would also buy homes.
Gary Acosta, the chief executive of the real estate association said recently, "It's not what we expect to happen in a year or two, but over 5 to 10 years. These are people who can't get mortgages right now, and they're primarily living in the shadows."
Hispanic households are already a strong force in the nation's housing market. A previous report from the association found that from 2000 to 2012, the net growth in new-owner Hispanic households was 58 percent, versus 5 percent for the rest of the American population.
Stay tuned to our Columbia SC real estate blog as we monitor this ongoing reform effort.