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" Rising demand has
generated rapid house
price appreciation for
starter homes. When
a wave of potential
first-time home buyer
demand is met with
low supply, the result is
declining affordability."
prices nationally continue to grow, albeit at
a slower pace in 2019. e next highest-rated
obstacles to becoming a homeowner were the
limited inventory of homes they like (30%)
and down payment (22%). e main burden,
affordability, confirms the strong sellers'
market conditions from 2018 have continued
in many markets in early 2019, as demand
outpaces supply and prices continue to rise.
However, thanks to rising house-buying
power driven by lower mortgage rates and
increasing wages, affordability improved in
43 of the 44 markets we track in our Real
House Price Index in April compared with the
previous month, and affordability improved
in 18 markets on a year-over-year basis. e
markets which saw the most affordability
growth on an annual basis were: San Jose,
California; Seattle; Portland, Oregon; San
Francisco; and Los Angeles. ese markets
benefited from low mortgage rates and
increasing income, but also saw a slowdown
in house price appreciation and an increase in
inventory.
WHAT DOES YOUR DAY-TO-DAY ROLE LOOK LIKE AS
DEPUTY CHIEF ECONOMIST AT FIRST AMERICAN? I
certainly wear many hats. I start my day very
early on the commute to the office by keeping
a pulse on housing and economic news and
engage in social media discourse with my
fellow housing economists and other economic
experts. e rest of my day usually consists
of working with data to identify interesting
insights about the housing market, writing up
those conclusions and translating them into
data visualization graphics, and responding to
questions from national, regional, and industry
trade media. It's my personal mission and
passion to help people understand housing,
mortgage markets, and the economy at large.
DS News is the leading publication dedicated to
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and content focused on their industry.
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