Monthly Archives: August 2019

Redfin Report: Home Prices Now Rising Faster in Car-Dependent Neighborhoods Than in Walkable Places

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Many homebuyers, priced out of walkable neighborhoods, are chasing affordability to car-dependent areas

Seattle, WA – Aug. 29, 2019 (PRNewswire) (NASDAQ: RDFN) — Home-sale prices in walkable neighborhoods across the country increased 2.3 percent year over year to a median $343,900 in July, according to a new report from Redfin (www.redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage. Home prices in car-dependent areas rose 4.3 percent annually to a median of $312,100.

The report used data from Walk Score®, a Redfin company that rates the walkability of neighborhoods, cities and addresses. A place is deemed “walkable” if some or most errands can be accomplished on foot, while “car dependent” means most errands require a car.

Prices have been rising faster in car-dependent neighborhoods than in walkable neighborhoods since September 2018, around the time the overall market began to cool. For at least the four years prior, home prices generally increased faster in walkable neighborhoods than in car-dependent ones. The trend reversal likely reflects that many homebuyers, chasing affordability, have been priced out of the most walkable neighborhoods. As a result, demand has grown stronger in car-dependent neighborhoods.

“In the second half of 2018, homes in the hottest coastal markets became so expensive that most homebuyers became priced out of walkable neighborhoods, where homes tend to sell at a premium,” said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather. “It’s not that people value walkability any less than they used to. Many homebuyers are simply relegated by their budgets to live in car-dependent areas, which have since seen demand and home prices grow at a faster rate. The trend also has implications for society, with families becoming further segregated by class and race, as well as for the environment, as more demand in car-dependent areas means more carbon emissions. Growing cities can combat these issues by adopting policies that encourage building more dense, affordable housing in walkable areas.”

Home sales were down in both walkable and car-dependent areas in July, but the decline was bigger in walkable areas, which posted a 7.1 percent annual drop nationwide compared to a more modest 3.3 percent decline in home sales in car-dependent neighborhoods. While the supply of homes in walkable areas was down 7.4 percent year over year, it declined 10.6 percent in car-dependent neighborhoods.

Market summary for walkable versus car-dependent neighborhoods
Walkable areas, July
2019		Walkable areas, 
YoY Change		Car-dependent
areas, July 2019		Car-dependent
areas, YoY Change
Median sale price$343,9002.3%$312,1004.3%
Homes sold68,449-7.1%234,645-3.3%
Homes for sale208,119-7.4%607,163-10.6%
Median days on market39+338+1
Sold above list27.3%-15.3 pts.23%-11.2 pts.
Average sale-to-list 
price ratio		98.6%-1.8 pts.98.6%-1.1 pts.

Two expensive West Coast metros—San Jose and Seattle—had the biggest price drops for walkable neighborhoods

San Jose (-7.2%) and Seattle (-6.5%) led the way for price drops in walkable areas in July. Though that mirrors the continued softening trends in the San Jose housing market, prices for homes in car-dependent neighborhoods rose 1.9 percent. In Seattle, homes in car-dependent areas posted a 1.5 percent year-over-year price increase.

In total, six U.S. metros saw year-over-year drops in home-sale prices in walkable neighborhoods in July. San Jose and Seattle are followed by Pittsburgh (-5.6%), Oakland (-2.1%), San Diego (-1.9%) and Houston (-0.2%).

Other metrics suggest that demand for homes in car-dependent neighborhoods is rising faster than walkable ones in San Jose and Seattle. In San Jose, supply of homes in car-dependent areas rose 5.5 percent annually in July, but supply in walkable areas increased 22.5 percent. Supply was up 13 percent in walkable parts of Seattle, but down 17.2 percent in car-dependent places.

Philadelphia and Cleveland saw the biggest increases in home prices for car-dependent neighborhoods

In all but four metros in the U.S., home prices in car-dependent neighborhoods increased year over year in July. Philadelphia, with a 17.9 percent annual increase, led the pack, followed by Cleveland (10.6%), Fort Lauderdale (9.1%), Pittsburgh (8.5%) and Miami (8%). In all those places except Pittsburgh, home prices also rose in walkable neighborhoods.

Walkable parts of Columbus, Kansas City and Detroit had the biggest price increases in walkable neighborhoods

Twenty metros buck the national trend, with median home-sale prices increasing more for homes in walkable areas than car-dependent areas. That’s particularly true in the Midwest, where homes tend to be less expensive than they are on the coasts and buyers may be able to afford homes in more central areas.

In Columbus, Ohio, home prices for walkable areas rose 16.3 percent year over year in July versus 5.9 percent for places more dependent on cars. That’s more than any other metro in the U.S. It’s followed by Kansas City, Missouri (11.7% rise for walkable; 6.1% for car-dependent) and Detroit (11.1% rise for walkable; 0.1% for car-dependent).

To read the full report, including graphs and methodology, please visit: https://www.redfin.com/blog/walkable-neighborhoods-home-prices-rising-slower.

About Redfin 
Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a technology-powered real estate brokerage, combining its own full-service agents with modern technology to redefine real estate in the consumer’s favor. Founded by software engineers, Redfin has the country’s #1 brokerage website and offers a host of online tools to consumers, including theRedfin Estimate, the automated home-value estimate with the industry’s lowest published error rate for listed homes. Homebuyers and sellers enjoy a full-service, technology-powered experience from Redfin real estate agents, while saving thousands in commissions. Redfin serves more than 90 major metro areas across the U.S. and Canada. The company has helped customers buy or sell homes worth more than $85 billion.

Most Areas Targeted For New Opportunity Zone Redevelopment Incentives Have Home Prices Well Below National Levels

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New tax breaks are aimed at spurring improvement in low-income Opportunity Zone areas of the United States; almost half have median home prices below $150,000

Irvine, CA – Aug. 29, 2019 (PRNewswire) ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation’s premier property database and first property data provider of Data-as-a-Service (DaaS), today released a special report analyzing qualified Opportunity Zones established by Congress in the Tax Cuts and Jobs act of 2017 (see full methodology below). In this report, ATTOM looked at nearly 3,100 zones with sufficient sales data to analyze, which included areas with at least five home sales in the second quarter of 2019 as well as an average of at least five sales per quarter since Q3 2018.

The analysis found that roughly 80 percent of those zones had median home prices in the second quarter of 2019 that were below the national figure of $266,000 and that half had median prices of less than $150,000.

The report further compared Opportunity Zones to surrounding regions and found that median Q2 2019 prices in about one in four zones were less than 50 percent of the typical value in the Metropolitan Statistical Areas where they exist.

“Opportunity Zones are among the poorest areas of the country, with some of the lowest home prices. This should come as no surprise because the zones are designed to be in or alongside economically distressed neighborhoods,” said Todd Teta, chief product officer with ATTOM Data Solutions. “But the differences between these and other areas in most parts of the nation are stark. The numbers provide key benchmarks for how much room there is for these areas to grow and how much new investment they need.”

High-level findings from the report include:

  • States with the highest percentage of census tracts meeting Opportunity Zone requirements include Wyoming (17 percent), Mississippi (15 percent), Alabama (13 percent), North Dakota (12 percent) and New Mexico (12 percent). Washington, DC, also is among the leaders (14 percent). Nationwide, 10 percent of all tracts qualify.
  • Among the 3,073 Opportunity Zones with sufficient data to analyze, California has the most, with 374, followed by Florida (317), Texas (164), Pennsylvania (154), North Carolina (145) and Tennessee (138).
  • Of the tracts analyzed, 47 percent had a median price in Q2 2019 of less than $150,000. The median ranged from $150,000 to $199,999 in 17 percent, from $200,000 up to the national median of $266,000 in 16 percent and more than $266,000 in 19 percent.
  • Within Opportunity Zones, 86 percent had median Q2 2019 sales prices that were less than the median sales price for the surrounding Metropolitan Statistical Area. Roughly 26 percent had median sales prices less than half the figure for the MSA. Only 14 percent had median sales prices that were equal to or above the median sales price in the MSA.
  • States that had highest percentage of Opportunity Zone tracts with a median price less the half the MSA figure included Alabama (55 percent), Pennsylvania (53 percent), Illinois (51 percent), Ohio (47 percent) and Georgia (45 percent). States with the smallest percentages included Washington (1 percent), Nevada (3 percent), Oregon (4 percent) Colorado (4 percent) and Indiana (4 percent).
  • Regionally, the Midwest had the highest rate of Opportunity Zone tracts with a median home price of less than $150,000 (73 percent), followed by the South (57 percent), the Northeast (53 percent) and the West (13 percent).
  • The Midwest also had the highest percentage of Opportunity Zone tracts where the median price was less than that of surrounding MSAs (89 percent), followed by the Northeast (87 percent), the South (85 percent) and the West (85 percent).

In addition, the report found that among Opportunity Zones with at least 10 sales in each of the five latest quarters, 41 had Q2 2019 medians of $400,000 or more. They included areas of King County, WA; Denver County, CO; Coconino County, AZ; Deschutes County, OR and Alameda and Contra Costa counties in California. 

At the opposite end, 50 zones had Q2 2019 medians of less than $50,000. They included areas of Philadelphia, PA; Baltimore, MD; Montgomery, AL; Duval County, FL and Jefferson County, AL.

Report methodology
The ATTOM Data Solutions Opportunity Zones analysis is based on home sales price data derived from recorded sales deeds. Statistics for previous quarters are revised when each new report is issued as more deed data becomes available. ATTOM Data Solutions compared median home prices in tracts designated as Opportunity Zones by the Internal Revenue Service. Except where noted, tracts were used for the analysis if they had at least five sales in Q2 2019, plus an average of five sales per quarter for the latest four quarters. Median household income data for tracts and counties comes from surveys taken the U.S. Census Bureau (www.census.gov) from 2013 through 2017. The list of designated Qualified Opportunity Zones is located at U.S. Department of the Treasury. Regions are based on designations by the Census Bureau. Hawaii and Alaska, which the bureau designates as part of the Pacific region, were included the West region for this report.

About ATTOM Data Solutions
ATTOM Data Solutions provides premium property data to power products that improve transparency, innovation, efficiency and disruption in a data-driven economy. ATTOM multi-sources property tax, deed, mortgage, foreclosure, environmental risk, natural hazard, and neighborhood data for more than 155 million U.S. residential and commercial properties covering 99 percent of the nation’s population. A rigorous data management process involving more than 20 steps validates, standardizes and enhances the data collected by ATTOM, assigning each property record with a persistent, unique ID — the ATTOM ID. The 9TB ATTOM Data Warehouse fuels innovation in many industries including mortgage, real estate, insurance, marketing, government and more through flexible data delivery solutions that include bulk file licenses, APIs, market trends, marketing lists, match & append and introducing the first property data deliver solution, a cloud-based data platform that streamlines data management – Data-as-a-Service (DaaS).

Media Contact:
Christine Stricker
949.748.8428 
christine.stricker@attomdata.com

Data and Report Licensing:
949.502.8313 
datareports@attomdata.com

Fannie Mae Releases July 2019 Monthly Summary

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Washington, D.C. – Aug. 30, 2019 (PRNewswire) Fannie Mae’s (OTCQB: FNMA) July 2019 Monthly Summary is now available. The monthly summary report contains information about Fannie Mae’s monthly and year-to-date activities for our gross mortgage portfolio, mortgage-backed securities and other guarantees, interest rate risk measures, serious delinquency rates, and loan modifications.

Fannie Mae helps make the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and affordable rental housing possible for millions of Americans. We partner with lenders to create housing opportunities for families across the country. We are driving positive changes in housing finance to make the home buying process easier, while reducing costs and risk. To learn more, visit fanniemae.com and follow us on twitter.com/fanniemae.