Down Payment Burden For New Homes Hits $105,000
New home sales in the US fell more than expected in March, data out Tuesday showed.
At 763,000, the annual pace missed estimates, but not by much. Consensus wanted 768,000. The forecast range, from five-dozen economists, was 700,000 to 827,000.
The 8.6% drop was the largest in a year and the third consecutive monthly decline (figure below), but the in-line print offered little evidence to support sundry dire narratives.
Months' supply moved higher, and at 6.4 is now almost twice record low
‘households who don’t have $1,000 for an emergency room visit or a car repair…’
If you do have an ER visit or a car repair it better be minor to stay within that $1000.
You can get close to that just walking in the door of an ER and needing something as simple as stitches.
On the car front, we just took ours to the shop because it was making a strange noise. $7500 repair incoming (we’ll pay it too since buying a new or used car right now is even more absurd).
“In 2021, the National Association of Realtors found the average down payment on a house or condo was just 12%. For home buyers aged 30 and under, that number drops to 6%.” https://themortgagereports.com/60543/average-down-payment-on-a-house-and-low-down-payment-benefits citing NAR report.
This is not reassuring for very recent buyers.
And, on those “favorable demographics” the RE industry is always touting:
https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2022/04/lawler-more-on-demographics.html