Consumer E-Newsletter - 12/12/2006 (Plain Text Version)

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In this issue:
What’s Stopping You from Buying a New Home?
Quick Tips to Go From Selling to Sold
Top Five New Year's Resolutions for the Home
Enjoying a Hassle-free Holiday
The Feng Shui Approach to the Holidays
The Ranch House: American Pop Culture Icon
What's Aging in Place Anyway?
Zone Heating Can Save You Heating Dollars
Getting the Most from Your Design Center
The Final Frontier: Home Automation
Propane Tanks: A Hidden Asset
The Vernacular Architecture of the Gulf Coast
Photo Gallery: The Unique and Unusual
Maintenance Chart for Homeowners
Did You Know?
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Did You Know?

Americans remain highly confident about the value of homeownership and the nation’s housing market.

ü The homeownership rate in the United States is 69 percent.

ü More than four out of five home owners expect the value of their home to appreciate over the next five years, according to an NAHB survey conducted in October, 2006.

ü Nearly seven out of 10 call their home their most valuable investment.

ü Price is the most significant factor in home buying decisions, with 80 percent ranking it as number-one.

ü Seventy percent of Americans said interest rates were likely to affect their decision whether or not to buy a home.

ü Homeownership is a cornerstone of household wealth in America . Homeowners under 40 with incomes between $20,000 and 50,000 have ten times the median net wealth of renters.

ü Almost 85 percent of households with family income at the national median or above are homeowners.

ü Americans have $11.2 billion in equity in their homes.

ü Affordability continues to present the most serious challenge to achieving the American dream. NAHB’s Housing Opportunity Index indicates that 40.4 percent of all new and existing homes that were sold during the third quarter of 2006 were affordable to families earning the median U.S. income of $59,600.

ü Indianapolis is the most affordable housing market in the United States . There, just under 86 percent of homes sold in the third quarter—median sales price: $122,000—were affordable to families earning the median household income of $65,100.

ü At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Los Angeles metropolitan area was the nation’s least affordable major housing market. Only 1.8 percent of new and existing homes sold there during the third quarter of 2006 were affordable to those earning the area’s median family income of $56,200. The median sales price: $523,000.

ü The Midwest has the highest homeownership rate, at just under 73 percent. The South ranked second at 70 percent, and the Northeast and West were lowest, each with a homeownership rate of about 65 percent.

ü Homeownership rates are highest for Americans 65 years and older at 81.5 percent. Just 43 percent of Americans under 35 are homeowners.

Sources: NAHB survey, U.S. Census Bureau, Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University