... says Coldwell Banker real estate agent Michael Jones, with two decades of experience working in central Ohio. “It’s unprecedented,” he says. Take, for instance, the brisk market in Columbus, where houses are selling in about 10 days versus an average 100 days 10 years prior.
Nationwide? Home prices were up 16.6% in May from the year before, according to the most recent data from the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index, which represents the most significant price bump in over 30 years.
“The pace of price growth and sales has been particularly fast in smaller cities, suburban enclaves and towns,” The Financial Times says.
Accordingly, Columbus home listings have been selling at rapid-fire pace — faster than in any other U.S. metro area, Zillow figures — floating the average home price there by almost 16%.
Which is trivial compared with year-over-year median home price growth in other smallish metro areas…
Phoenix, AZ: up 30%
Austin, TX: up 40%
Detroit, MI: up 56%.
Leading U.S. HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge to note: “Today, it is harder to find an affordable home in America than at any point since the 2008 financial crisis.”
But don’t panic: “Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell recently said that today’s [housing] trend looked distinctly different to the one a decade ago that preempted what was at the time the worst recession since the Great Depression,” FT says.
Meaning the rocketing price of real estate is “not being driven by the kind of reckless, irresponsible lending that led to the housing bubble that led to the last financial crisis,” Powell claims.
From the, 5 Min. Forecast Reader