Phil Rosen | Contributor
Tight inventory in the US housing market helped push its total valuation a new all-time record of $46.8 trillion in June, according to Redfin.
That beats out the prior record set last year, of $46.6 trillion. The report said a shortage of homes has been propping up housing values, based on a Redfin estimate on more than 90 million US residential properties.
The value of US homes climbed 0.4% from a year earlier in June, and now hovers 19.1% higher than two years ago.
Notably, the housing market has now offset the $2.9 trillion decrease in value that happened between June 2022 and February 2023 as a result of rising mortgage rates.
“The dominance of the 30-year fixed rate mortgage in America is propping up home values,” Redfin economist Chen Zhao said. “Tons of homeowners scored an incredible deal during the pandemic: a 3% mortgage rate for the remainder of their 30-year loan. Now they’re staying put because moving would mean taking on a rate that’s twice as high. This means buyers who are in the market now are duking it out for a very small pool of homes, preventing home values from plunging.”
According to the report, roughly nine out of 10 homeowners with mortgages currently have rates under 6%, well below the near-7% levels seen since the end of 2022. That’s led to just 1% of the country’s homes changing hands this year, Redfin said, the lowest amount in at least a decade.
Meanwhile, the number of homes for sale in the US hit an all-time low in June, falling 15% on an annual basis.
Other findings in Redfin’s latest survey included:
• Los Angeles saw the biggest decline in aggregate home value, with a $152.6 billion annual decline in June
• Home values worth between $500,000 to $750,000 saw a 4.1% annul increase in value, while those between $2 million and $5 million saw a 7.4% drop in value
• Home values held up better in suburban and rural areas compared to urban areas
• Millennials now own more of the market by valuation than the silent generation, or those born between about 1925 and 1945
Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle
