HOOAH! It's our first Beigie Award for 2024! The Beigie Award is back to recognize the regional Federal Reserve Bank with the best Beige Book entry. This edition's winner took us to the City of Brotherly Love, detailing how high home interest rates and low existing home sales in the area are financially affecting our buff brethren in arms: movers.
The median home price has risen to $413,800 – the second-highest price ever — thanks to a shortage of homes on the market and high mortgage rates. Experts say renting may be a better option.
The super-heated housing market is cooling off. Home prices have fallen about 6% since their peak in June. The pace of sales also fell for the 7th straight month.
Lots of speculators are jockeying to get in on the hot market. Sometime they call homeowners multiple times a day. It can be an invasive nuisance, or worse.
Sales of existing homes fell 6.6% in February from the month before. Meanwhile, prices are up 16% over the past year, giving homeowners about $2 trillion more in equity and widening the wealth gap.
It's not only low interest rates pushing up prices to record highs. A historic lack of homes for sale is a big part of it too. And it's making homeownership unaffordable for too many people.
The housing market is on a tear, setting all kinds of records, including prices. But it's also a reflection of the uneven economic recovery and more first-time homebuyers are getting priced out.
