Here’s more evidence of the Columbia SC housing shortage, as Alex Charfen goes over two reports recently released, including Freddie Mac numbers, which shows the effect the housing shortage is having on home prices.
If you have questions about the Columbia SC housing shortgage that we’ve been reporting about for the past several months, please don’t hesitate to contact us or post your questions using our comment form.
A Columbia SC housing shortage, as well as a nationwide housing shortage, is a real threat. The housing market has gone through a series of events that include foreclosures, bad equity, bad loans and many more. One topic the real estate market is ignoring is home shortages.
Columbia SC Housing Shortage And Why It Is Coming
Alex Charfen discusses with Steve Harney about the growth in housing shortages and the drastic drop of houses being built over the past five years. Before 2008, 1 million homes were being built on average, but by 2009 the number of homes built have dropped consistently about 10-20% per year.
A Columbia SC housing shortage will only get worse before it gets better, which makes now the best time to be looking for a home. Wait until the shortage really kicks in, and not only will prices have jumped, but the available inventory of homes to choose from will have diminished greatly.
Contact us today for a free, no-obligation consultation on the Columbia SC housing shortage, and how it could affect home prices and inventory if you decide to wait a year or two to buy a home.
Columbia SC home prices have edged up for the third month in a row, albeit ever so slightly.
According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA’s) monthly House Price Index (HPI), home prices rose 0.8 percent between March and April, on a seasonally adjusted basis. Previously, the FHFA had reported a 1.8 percent price increase in March, which has been revised to a 1.6 percent increase. Over the last year the Agency reports that home prices have risen 3.0 percent.
The FHFA monthly index is calculated using purchase prices of houses backing mortgages that have been sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
Columbia SC Home Prices, Sales and Inventory
The U.S. index is down 17.6 percent from its April 2007 peak and is now roughly the same as the April 2004 index level. The National Association of Realtors reported recently that in May, home prices rose, and sales slowed slightly.
Inventory shortages in certain areas have been developing since the beginning of the year. The slight pullback in monthly home sales is more likely due to supply constraints rather than softening demand. Even with May’s decline, existing home sales have recorded 11 consecutive months of gains over the same month a year earlier. The normal seasonal upturn in inventory did not occur this spring as it has typically in years past.
Meanwhile, banks are looking to alternatives to foreclosures that continue to punish home values, as seen in the reduced number of seizures. According to RealtyTrac, foreclosures fell 18 percent between May 2011 and May 2012.
The recovery continues despite excessively tight credit conditions and higher down-payment requirements, which are negating the impact of record high affordability conditions.
If you’d like to discuss Columbia SC home prices, we’d like to invite you to contact us for a no obligation consultation into the current market conditions and how they may benefit you if you’re looking to buy a home in today’s Columbia SC housing market.
The Columbia SC rental market saw rents increase over the past year while home values were decreasing. In some locations, rents are up just as much as home values are down. As contradictory as this may sound, this is actually good news for the Columbia SC housing market.
The slow rebound in the Columbia SC housing market makes renting a good option for many. Former homeowners looking to recover their financial stability are joining new renters on the hunt for their first apartment and long-time tenants facing rising rental costs.
Columbia SC Rental Market Will Stimulate Housing
While it may seem that rent is rising at the expense of home values, actually the opposite is true. A strong Columbia SC rental market will stimulate home sales. The market is spurring investors to purchase distressed inventory to convert to rental properties, which may help bring rents back down as investors buy up the low-priced real estate inventory.
If you happen to find yourself being forced into the Columbia SC rental market because you are unable to qualify for a conventional mortgage, there is one piece of advice we’d give. That is, be sure to buy rental insurance.
Rental insurance offers an affordable form of protection from a range of hazards, from theft to fire damage. While you’ll need to sift through insurance policies with a fine-toothed comb to see what protection will and will not be included, rental insurance is a good bet, especially when it can cost as little as $10 per month.
If you’re thinking the Columbia SC rental market has now gotten to the point where owning is cheaper than renting, give us a call and we’ll sit down with you and run the numbers for you to see which makes more sense for you. Or, feel free to leave us a comment here and we’ll get back to you with answers to any questions you may have.
Columbia SC housing prices have already bottomed out and are on the rise. Other than a brief stumble in December, asking prices have been steady or rising for the last 8 months. 
Rents are also on the increase, rising 5.6 percent nationally, year-over-year. Rents have steadily increased as people who lost their homes in the crash became renters. At the same time, high unemployment and tight credit sidelined would-be homeowners.
Relief for strapped renters may be in sight, however. Construction of multi-family buildings increased last year. These new rental units should start coming to market later this year, giving renters more choices and less competition.
Columbia SC Housing Prices Already Bottomed
Nationwide, asking prices of homes for sale is up 0.5 percent for April, marking the 3rd consecutive month of rising asking prices.
According to the Trulia Price Monitor, 44 out of the 100 largest metro areas nationwide had year-over-year price increases, with 92 percent showing quarter-over-quarter increases.
New Columbia SC Housing Also Recovering
New Columbia SC housing starts are more than 30 percent higher than their low in early 2009, and asking prices on those new for-sale homes have risen for three months in a row.
Localized risk of a brief downturn in prices does exist due to the pending foreclosures that could set prices back in the downward direction, but it’s believed that would be a short term setback for prices.
Since we’re in an election year, we’re not likely to see any new bold housing stimulus plans out of Washington. The political atmosphere is too charged for agreement on major housing policy issues now. And, because the market is now recovering, there’s less of a sense of urgency than there was several years ago.
We’d love to know what you think. Are Columbia SC housing prices finally on the upswing, or do you still see prices dropping? As you well know, real estate is very local, and there could be pockets of still diminishing prices, although the overall Columbia SC housing outlook seems brighter. We’d love to hear your comments.