Your inside source for real estate, development and construction information serving the counties of Mecklenburg, Union & Iredell VOLUME 107 NUMBER 2 ■ MECKTIMES.COM
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As inflation stresses affect workplace productivity, survey finds working adults want financial wellness benefits Page 2
New report shows lake home & lot listings drop 10% from Fall but up 7.7% from last Winter Page 3
Crescent Communities and Sumitomo Forestry America, Inc. announce new manufacturing and distribution project Page 4
ENNICO: Your New Year’s Resolutions for 2023 Page 5
NOVAK: Afraid of asking for a raise? Page 6
Another hot reading on job market sends Wall Street lower Page 7
Home affordability worsens across U.S. during fourth quarter of 2022 despite declining home prices ATTOM has released its fourth-quarter 2022 U.S. Home Affordability Report showing that median-priced single-family homes and condos are less affordable in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to historical averages in 99 percent of counties across the nation with enough data to analyze - far above the 68 percent of counties that were less affordable in the fourth quarter of 2021. The report further shows that the portion of average wages nationwide required for typical major homeownership expenses has risen to 32.3 percent this quarter. That figure – considered unaffordable by traditional lending standards - is up from 29.6 percent in the third quarter of this year and from 23.8 percent a year ago. It now stands at its highest point since 2007. Affordability has worsened due to rising home-mortgage rates in the U.S., which offset the benefits of rising wages and a recent decline in home values. Higher loan rates in 2022 have pushed up major ownership expenses on medianpriced homes by 10 percent this quarter even as the median price of single-family
homes and condos nationwide dipped 3 percent this quarter, following a 4 percent drop over the Summer. But lower prices and a 1 percent gain in average wages have been too little to make up for the impact of these increased mortgage payments. “Prospective homebuyers – especially first-time buyers – can’t seem to catch a break,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence at ATTOM. “For the past two years home prices have appreciated in double digits – 15 to 20 percent a year in some markets. Now that home prices have plateaued and even declined in some markets, buyers are faced with mortgage rates that have doubled, making home purchases even less affordable.” The report determined affordability for average wage earners by calculating the amount of income needed to meet major monthly home ownership expenses — including mortgage, property taxes and insurance — on a median-priced singlefamily home, assuming a 20 percent down payment and a 28 percent maximum “front-end” debt-to-income ratio. That
required income was then compared to annualized average weekly wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (see full methodology below). Compared to historical levels, median home prices in 577 of the 581 counties analyzed in the fourth quarter of 2022 are less affordable than in the past. The latest number is up slightly from 572 of the same group of counties in the third quarter of 2022. But it is well up from 393 in the fourth quarter of 2021 and just 181, or less than a third, two years ago. Meanwhile, major home-ownership expenses on typical homes are unaffordable to average local wage earners during the fourth quarter of 2022 in 427, or about three-quarters, of the 581 counties in the report, based on the 28-percent lending guideline. Counties with the largest populations that are unaffordable in the fourth quarter are Los Angeles County, CA; Maricopa County (Phoenix), AZ; San Diego County, CA; Orange County, CA (outside Los Angeles) and Kings County (Brooklyn), NY.
PLEASE SEE HOMES ON PAGE 5
“We are honored to partner with the city of Archdale and Randolph County to develop this important build-to-suit manufacturing and distribution project for Sumitomo Forestry.” Brendan Pierce Crescent Communities
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