A Snapshot of the U.S. Housing Market, 2016.

We often keep you abreast on home prices and real estate trends in our local market, but we thought it would be good to present a snapshot of housing data from the entire United States. So we crunched the numbers from multiple credible sources on ten different housing factors, like home ownership, home buying & selling, jobs in housing, home building, equity & distressed homes, and more.

1. Home Ownership

In 2016, the percentage of U.S. adults that owned their home was 62.9%.

That’s a 50-year low, as we haven’t seen a home ownership rate below 62.9% since 1965.

Our diminished home ownership rates aren’t a function of the recession, as only three years ago in 2013, 65.2 % of families owned their primary residence.

2. Home Selling

The average person selling their home is 54 years old, has a median household income of $104,100, and has lived in their current house for 9 years.

89% of home sellers use a real estate agent to assist them in the sale.

To put that in context, in 2001 only 69% of home buyers used a real estate agent.

Currently, sellers are closing on their home transactions at 98% of their original list price.

Although 43% of home sellers report reducing their listing price at least once.

The average home is on market for 30 days or less before entering escrow.

72% of home sellers would “definitely” use their real estate agent again.

3. Home Buying

First-time buyers make up about one-third (32%) of all current home purchases.

The median first-time buyer is now 31 years old, compared to a median age of 54 for repeat buyers.

The median first-time buyer has a household income of $69,400, compared to a median household income of $98,700 for repeat buyers.

The average home purchased these days is 1,900 square feet in size, contains three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and was built in 1991.

           

Buyers who used a mortgage loan typically financed 90% of their home price.

78% of home byers say that neighborhood is more important than the size of a home when buying, and 57% would sacrifice yard size if it meant they’d have a shorter commute to work.

Home buyers were willing to pay a higher dollar value for waterfront property than anything else.

The home characteristic that is rated as the highest value

Within their first three months of owning their home, 53% of home buyers do some sort of home improvement project, with a typically cost of $4,550.

4. Housing Units

There are approximately 134.7 million housing units in the United States.

About 115 million of those are occupied.

Almost 100 million U.S. homes have air conditioning (central or window unit), compared to only 68% that had AC in 1993.

5. Jobs in Housing

As of May 2016, 2.6 million trade contractors made a living in residential building.

But employment among residential home builders and construction contractors is still 25% below the peak in 2006.

Every time a single-family home is built in the U.S., it creates an average of 2.97 jobs, measured by enough work to keep one worker employed for a year.

Housing is one of the largest sectors of employment for Americans, with an estimated 1.7 million people receiving a paycheck for real estate, leasing, or rental housing work.

6. Home Sales

5,250,000 existing homes sold in 2015.

Last year, 510,000 newly constructed homes were sold.

As of June of 2016, we’re on track for 5,570,000 existing home sales this year.

The U.S. median sale price for existing homes is now $239,700.

That number is higher than the 2005/2006 peak of housing prices, but well below the sale price during that period if we adjust for inflation.

7. Home Building

In the 30 years from 1970 to 2000, housing starts on single-family homes averaged almost 1.1 million per year.

As of May of this year, the average is only 764,000 housing starts.

U.S. private sector construction spending has totaled $18.8 billion in the last twelve months.

Ranked by revenue, the Pulte Group is the largest homebuilder in the U.S., with $416,819 million in homes built to date.

The average price of a new home for sale is now $292,200.

8. Equity and Distressed Sales

As of the end of Q1 of 2016, 6,703,857 million homeowners were still underwater in their homes.

However, that’s much lower than the astounding 17 million homeowners that were underwater during the worst of the housing crisis and recession in 2009.

As of June 2016, there were 912,872 homes in some stage of foreclosure (default, auction or bank owned).

That’s down 6% from May 2016 and 19% less than June of 2015.

The average foreclosed home now sells for $121,824.

With rising home values padding equity, it’s expected that by the end of 2016 the number of underwater homeowners in the U.S. will be down to 5 million.

9. Home Dimensions

Builders are now constructing larger homes than in past decades. From 1999 to 2015, the number of new, the number of new homes 4,000 square feet or more increased by 22%.

During that same period, single-family homes under 1,400 square feet fell by 75%.

In 1999, only 17% of homes were larger than 3,000 square feet or more, while 31% of homes sold in 2015 were 3,000 square feet or larger.

In 2015, homes smaller than 2,400 square feet made up 21% of the new construction market, while 37% of new homes had less than 2,400 square feet in 1999.

10. Renting

About 35% of the U.S. population lives in a rental property as opposed to owning their home, which adds up to more than 110 million people, or 43 million households.

35% of renters live in single-family homes, compared to 18% that live in 2-4 unit properties, 42% that live in properties with 5 or more units, and 5% of all renters living in mobile housing.

Gauging by their 52% rent-to-income ratio, rents in New York City are the most expensive in the U.S.

The median asking price for renting an apartment in the U.S. is $1,381 per month.