US home price gains accelerate as pandemic shakes up housing

[Zorro]

Source: San Diego Union-Tribune

U.S. home prices jumped in September as strong demand, low interest rates and the smallest number of available homes on record combined to push up housing costs.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, released Tuesday, showed that home prices rose 6.6% in September from a year earlier, much higher than its 5.3% increase in August. That is the biggest increase since April 2018.

The viral pandemic disrupted the spring home buying season, pushing many sales into the late summer and fall. Home sales jumped to the highest level in 14 years in September, a sign that the increased ability of some Americans to work from home and the desire for more space is spurring greater demand.

Prices skyrocketed 11.4% in Phoenix compared with a year earlier, the biggest gain nationwide. Seattle reported the second highest increase, with 10.1%, followed by San Diego at 9.5%.

Read more: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/nation-world/story/2020-11-24/us-home-price-gains-accelerate-as-pandemic-shakes-up-housing

[patphil]

1. There was an article about this in my local newspaper a few months ago.

I live in Orange County, NY. It's about 60 miles north and a little west of NYC.
It seems that a lot of people were leaving the city and buying houses up where I live to escape the pandemic.
Orange County is still within commuting distance to the city, and the daily covid numbers had gone down a lot in the summer. Also, houses up here were relatively cheaper and had real back yards for things like play sets, pools and patios.
Inventory dropped, and the price of houses went up.
It was simply a matter of family safety.

[TexasBushwhacker]

5. Trumpers are leaving the cities and suburbs for rural

areas. Now that people have figured out they can work from home, and their employers are okay with it, they are moving to the exurbs and beyond. The want to get away from those crazy liberals and people of color.

[Javaman]

2. here in Austin, housing prices are crazy.

I live in probably the last blue collar neighborhood in north austin. we bought our house for about 90k 15 years ago. it was a major fixer upper. it's only 1310 sqft.

the neighborhood has changed a bit. more younger families, which is good. but damn, looking at prices now, I can't believe what we could get for ours if we sold.

my SIL says, it's because of all the high tech companies coming here. they are calling Austin the new silicon valley, which scares me.

I just don't know how young families do it.

[maddogesq]

4. You got in at the right time.

Texas was part of my territory for many years when I booked educational entertainment into schools. You are near Round Rock, an area I started to aggressively pursue along with certain areas in Harris County and up in Plano in the late 90's.

No Child Left Behind and the Great Recession really put a dent in things and I left that job in 2009, but the company survived and those areas are growing like crazy.

I fear, however, that if the economy doesn't come back as strong as it did during the Obama years, these young families will become over-extended with big mortgages and lots of debt.

[TexasBushwhacker]

6. So many tech folks have moved to Austin from the West Coast

They sell their houses there and think they're in heaven when they can get a 4 bedroom house for less than $500K. Plenty of them take their profits from their west coast sale and PAY CASH. Commuting ONLY an hour is a dream too, so they buy acreage in the counties surrounding Austin.

[Initech]

3. My neighborhood has had at least 4 home sales since this thing started.

We've had two move out and a lot of people in our circle are new from just March. This is crazy.

[melm00se]

7. 2 houses in my neighborhood

sold for above asking price in less than a week.

(Raleigh)