When the Federal Reserve began aggressively raising interest rates in 2022, many analysts expected home prices to fall. But they didn’t. Instead, they soared. A new analysis from the Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) at Harvard University helps explain why—and the answer is summed up in mortgage rate locks. From the start of 2021…
Along with low interest rates and the infusion of money from federal stimulus, one of the factors that drove the pandemic boom market was a surge in so-called “housing mobility,” meaning the overall propensity of people to pick up and move. That metric rose to its highest level in almost 20 years back in 2021,…
How many remodeling referrals should agents expect to hand out to past clients this year? According to the Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) latest update to its Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA), spending on remodeling is expected to grow, but slow down gradually, as the year goes on. The current year-over-year…
Households headed by immigrants have accounted for roughly three-quarters of housing demand growth since 2010, but a new Harvard analysis suggests that trend may be ending—with significant implications for housing markets across the country. The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University (JCHS) released revised projections forecasting 1.7 million fewer households in the U.S.…
Immigrant labor has become essential to both homebuilding and residential remodeling in top metro areas with the highest levels of building permits, according to new research from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS). The findings underscore the critical role that foreign-born workers play across the entire residential construction space—from new home construction to major…
As housing remains unaffordable for many across the United States—and new construction hit a recent low on the back of consumer reticence—one solution that’s been floated are manufactured and modular homes. A new academic paper from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) has tracked how nonprofit housing developers, or community-based organizations (CBOs), have…
In 2024, the median price for a single-family home in the United States grew to five times more than the median household income, as reported by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. In 2019, this ratio had median prices at 4.1 times higher than median household income; in the 1990s, the ratio…
The post Home Prices Reach Five Times Higher Than Median U.S. Income appeared first on RISMedia.