The Changing Picture of Housing in America – DailyWealth
It’s hard to buy a house when you make a living playing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”…
Just take my aunt’s word for it. She has taught an army of three-year-olds to play the song on violin.
That’s not all she does, of course… She’s a brilliant instrumentalist and has performed with symphonies across America. One time, she even backed up legendary singer-songwriter Smokey Robinson.
My aunt is also licensed to teach the “Suzuki method.” It’s a music-education program and teaching philosophy that claims kids can develop musical talent in much the same way as they learn a language. (That’s why she has been teaching all those “Twinkles” to toddlers.)
My aunt has done well in her career… But she still earns a musician’s salary. So when she moved to my hometown in Northern Colorado, her homebuying prospects were limited…
It had been decades since she bought her single-family home in Iowa. And the market north of Denver was much more expensive than the one she came from.
She was looking to downsize… And I had recently inherited a condo I was eager to unload. So I decided to rent it out to her.
My aunt has been a perfect tenant. She pays rent on time and makes no complaints. In fact, this arrangement has been going so smoothly that I’m in the process of selling her the property outright.
Soon, my aunt will have the deed to her own place… a unit in a multifamily building.
It may not be ideal for most folks… But it’s the perfect fit for what she needs. And the data tells us that this style of living will only become more common.
Let me explain…
In 2016, Realtor.com started tracking the median number of days that U.S. homes stayed on the market… in other words, how long it takes to bring a newly listed home to closing.
That December, homes reached the finish line after an average of 92 days on the market. The timeline sped up to 64 days in December 2020.
And in December 2021, the average dwindled to just 54 days.
This is a theme I’ve written about a lot here in DailyWealth. And it’s one of the biggest stories in finance right now…
There just aren’t enough houses in America to satiate demand.
As of December, the U.S. home supply index was hovering at six months. This means it would only take half a year to sell every available home in the U.S. (assuming no additional homes crop up and a constant rate of purchases).
That’s a 50% decline from the last home-supply peak in …….
Source: https://dailywealth.com/articles/the-changing-picture-of-housing-in-america/