Housing Affordability Plummets, Trade Group Calls Out Biden For Ignoring The Problem | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire. The author of this post is Ben Zeisloft.

    Sentiment among homebuilders plummeted for the tenth consecutive month as traffic for prospective buyers neared the lowest level in a decade, according to a report from the National Association of Home Builders released on Tuesday.

    The organization's Housing Market Index dropped to 38 in October, meaning that the score has halved over the past six months. Current sales conditions fell to 45, sales expectations fell to 35, and prospective buyer traffic fell to 25, with market conditions in the western portion of the United States appearing most depressed.

    "High mortgage rates approaching 7% have significantly weakened demand, particularly for first-time and first-generation prospective home buyers," National Association of Home Builders Chairman Jerry Konter, a home builder and developer from Savannah, Georgia, said in a press release. "This situation is unhealthy and unsustainable. Policymakers must address this worsening housing affordability crisis."

    The 30-year fixed mortgage rate remained below 3% for much of the past two years, according to data from government-backed mortgage company Freddie Mac. Since the beginning of the year, however, the rate has surged from just over 3% and reached 6.9% as of last week, marking a jump of nearly 1% in less than one month.

    Interest rates across the economy have increased as the Federal Reserve introduces a contractionary monetary policy regime. The central bank raised the target federal funds rate by 0.75%, a move which followed two identical hikes in June and July, in an attempt to relieve elevated inflationary pressures.

    Analysts are worried that the high mortgage rates will further erode housing affordability. "While some analysts have suggested that the housing market is now more 'balanced,' the truth is that the homeownership rate will decline in the quarters ahead as higher interest rates and ongoing elevated construction costs continue to price out a large number of prospective buyers," National Association of Home Builders Chief Economist Robert Dietz remarked.

    Shelter costs increased 6.9% between September 2021 and September 2022, according to recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While responding to the dismal inflation news last week, President Joe Biden insisted that the report "shows some progress in the fight against higher prices."

    Konter called the claim "truly disingenuous" and noted that housing expenses account for nearly one-third of the total rise in price levels. "If President Biden is truly serious about fighting inflation, he needs to address the nation's growing housing affordability crisis," he said last week. "Acknowledging and getting serious about tackling the nation's housing affordability crisis will go a long way to reining in stubbornly high inflation and reduce the economic pain of millions of American families," even though "prices are still too high."

    Among other actions, Konter suggested that the White House could end regulations that "artificially increase the cost of building apartments and new homes," encourage vocational job training programs, and suspend tariffs on Canadian lumber imports that "act as a tax."

    In the second quarter of 2022, the median sale price of a home in the United States was $440,300, according to data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, marking a 36% rise from $322,600 in the second quarter of 2020.


poll#162

In what may be the most divisive period in modern American History, even more divisive than the turbulent sixties due to today's lack of patriotism, consider what are the major catalysts causing so much of this calamity of conflict, and vote: What most instigates the division of America, on this day September 20, 2022?

  Racism within our society

  Sex realignment to the detriment of our society.

  Biden /Harris Wide Open Southern Border Policy for the Demographic Upheaval of OUR Constitutional Republic

  Rampant Crime in Democratic controlled cities, and the possible contagion elsewhere

  Covid Pandemic, and its mishandling at the political, and bureaucratic levels.

  The unresolved questions /allegation regarding the flawed 2020 General Election

  January 6th Riot or "Armed Insurrection", depending upon patriotic perspective

  Joe Biden as Divisive Leader; Ineffective and Corrupt Executive

  Failed Education Industry, from an overall perspective, regarding all levels of education.

  Propagandistic Media in complete conflict with the First Amendment's guarantee of Freedom of Speech, and the awesome responsibility of a Free Press..

  "Orangeman Bad!"

  Bureaucracy rushing to a behemoth size, its unjustified expense, and far too often overreach.

  The Weaponized Deep State for political purposes

  A secular ambivalence to all that is real.

  Record number of overdose deaths from opioids and now Fentanyl

  Biden Administration's disastrous Foreign Policy

  Bidenflation /supply chain failure inevitably evolving into stagflation and recession.

  "Ultra MAGA Extremists" freely speaking louder AND LOUDER!

927 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?

poll#164

It has been far too many years since the Woke theology interlaced its canons within the fabric of the Indoctrination Realm, so it is nigh time to ask: Does this Representative Republic continue, as a functioning society of a self-governed people, by contending with the unusual, self absorbed dictates of the Woke, and their vast array of Victimhood scenarios?

  Yes, the Religion of Woke must continue; there are so many groups of underprivileged, underserved, a direct result of unrelenting Inequity; they deserve everything.

  No; the Woke fools must be toppled from their self-anointed pedestal; a functioning society of a good Constitutional people cannot withstand this level of "existential" favoritism as it exists now.

  I just observe; with this thoughtful observation: What will happen "when the Vikings are breeching our walls;" how do the Woke react?

845 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?