At the end of the third quarter, America’s homeownership rate was 63.7 percent — the lowest it’s been since 1993. However, the improving job market has led to stronger salaries and an increased housing demand. Unfortunately for buyers, they are competing for a limited resource. There are not enough homes for sale to meet their demand.
This is good news for sellers, but for younger buyers with lower average salaries and high student loan debts, this competition is less than ideal. This lack of supply, compounded with the fact that home builders are focusing on higher-end residences, has kept the portion of first time buyers at 30 percent — much lower than the historical average of 40 percent.
So, for better or for worse, today’s housing market caters to the older and more affluent. To see how age and income relate to median home price, the experts at real estate website FindTheHome dug into the data.
Using public county records, they evaluated zip codes in each state that have had at least five home sales every month of 2015. Combining this home record data with additional demographic information from the U.S. Census, they found the zip codes in the top 25 states with the highest median home sale price, and the median age and percentage of wealthy households in each.