There is no supply shortage. The banks are holding millions of foreclosed homes off inventory to be able to pass stress tests. Low inventory is a BS canard.
Doesn’t the Census Bureau track all sorts of figures on the number of households, population, age, gender, marital status, housing units, etc. by geographical unit (i.e. State, County, Metro Area, City/Town, Tract) that can be used to figure out within good reason the vacancy rates for housing? Sure there may be some shadow inventory out there but I’m sure seeing a lot of markets with some serious shortages in inventory.
>> Meanwhile, mortgage lenders, despite record-low rates, are still reluctant to extend credit to less-than-superb borrowers. <<
Blame Clinton, Bush, and Executive Order 13166.
That order that killed the economy in 2007 mandates that if you lend to x-number “anglos”, you have to lend to y-number non-English-speakers. In other words, illegal aliens, since products of our own school system are allegedly English speakers, and most categories of legal immigration require you to speak English.
After 2007, when the Left demanded that people who tried to comply with their set-asides by enticing “minorities” to buy housing be sent to prison, banks simply can’t find such “minorities” to qualify for home loans... so they can’t lend to native-born white people, either.
Just wait a little while. All of the boomers are getting to the point in their lives where they are dumping their 2500 sq ft homes for something a little more manageable.
I know. I am one of them.
My neighborhood has turned over in the past two years. When we moved in, it was all kids. Now we are the old ones on the street (I am 55). I would guess 50% of the homes on my street have changed hands. There are a ton of kids around now.
Keeping them off my lawn is a full time job!
But the prices will come down as the supply goes up.