Posted on 08/03/2025 7:18:15 AM PDT by Angelino97
Americans everywhere are struggling to purchase homes, with sales reaching a 30 year low in 2024.
Despite the tribulations of the housing market itself, the number one real estate site in the country - Zillow - is thriving.
CEO Jeremy Wacksman sat down with The New York Times to discuss what may be causing the dip in the housing market and what keeps Zillow afloat amidst it all...
'We have an affordability crisis, which is driven by an availability crisis. It is a supply-side problem,' he said.
While many complain about increasing mortgage rates, he said that it's only a small factor.
'The real problem for a home buyer is home prices are up 30, 50, 70, 100 percent, depending on the market, from pre-pandemic levels. Incomes are not up that much.'
According to the US Social Security Office, the average yearly income in 2023 was $66,621, only increasing 4 percent from the year prior.
Wacksman noted that if the housing industry had continued to build new properties to keep up with buyer demand, it may not have become the 'crisis' it is today.
'We have been chronically under-building since, really, the global financial crisis,' he said. 'Less supply and a lot of demand is going to keep home prices elevated.'
According to Zillow, the average home value is almost $370,000 with just 1.3 million homes in the for-sale inventory.
Despite the dip in purchasing and sky-high prices, Zillow is seeing hundreds of millions of unique visitors every month. The company has seen a jump in revenue and its stock is up more than 60 percent.
The top site for real-estate listings in the country attracts what the internet has dubbed 'Zillow Surfers.' Those with little to no intention of purchasing a home browse on the website everyday.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
30 million illegals?
The fact of not enough new housing being built is not a national government policy issue nor an issue of availability of financing for housing developers. It is 100% a state and local regulation and zoning issue.
Everyone living alone in a studio or one bedroom apartment should take in a roommate using the same bed-same or opposite sex-doesn’t matter. Market forces will then bring prices down. Plus they’ll all be a whole lot happier!
Problem solved.
Blame feminism.
Another factor weighing on the housing crisis is the total cost of home ownership which is becoming burdensome with sharply rising prices for insurance, repairs, property taxes, utilities, routine maintenance, etc. Interest rates aside, home ownership has become an increasingly expensive proposition that fewer people can financially afford.
‘It is a supply-side problem,’ he said.
Yep, not building enough housing for all the illegal aliens!
Just 30 million? I’d bet more than that. But that’s a big part of the problem.
There’s lots of building going on in my area. All 3 bedroom+ houses starting at $350k. No apartment houses, or at least, very few of them. And people are desperate for rentals.
‘The real problem for a home buyer is home prices are up 30, 50, 70, 100 percent, depending on the market, from pre-pandemic levels. Incomes are not up that much.’
Bingo! I am appalled at the increase in housing prices. I blame, at least partly, blue state flight. In our depressed little town, several people have moved here from California, and don’t bat an eyelash at paying 50-60% more than a house was last valued at.
One of my daughters is a realtor in Texas, and the price of housing has shot up astronomically in the last couple of years. And for the past several months, houses are not moving. When the interest rates were lower a couple of years ago, they were selling like hot cakes.
Pretty much tells me all I need to know about Jeremy Wacksman. You can be sure that the New York Times wants to totally blame Donald Trump for the "housing crisis".
It’s a demand-side problem, with 10s of millions of illegals who need to go home.
Add another 20 million illegals in less than 4 years and that will happen.
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Well duh!
Wage have been stagnant for decades while the price of everything went through the roof!
Lot of illegals flooding into the country
Investors buying up single family homes
Possibly foreign (Chinese) governments purchasing homes in America
rentals come with on going problems. tenants.
housing, once built and sold are far fewer problems for the builders.
And property taxes. Where I live, a two-bedroom new apartment classified as commercial property probably owes at least about $12K/year in property taxes.
The tenant is paying $1000/month just in taxes without even knowing it, and local taxing authorities probably make more every month off the property than the owner.
People don’t have enough money? That’s the reason? No, it isn’t. It’s because huge conglomerates own and rent out 100s of thousands if not millions of homes in this country. There’s your “supply” problem.
Shitty little houses in central Florida rent for $2500 and up. Apartment complexes are going up all over the place in Orlando but the roads are already jammed up beyond belief.
no mention of investors buying them up?
CORRECT
AMAZING HOW A CEO OF ZILLOW DARES NOT MENTION THAT
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