Hope Leitner, Realtor®, CRS

  You may have heard that there are more  brand-new homes  available right now than the norm. Today, about  one in three  homes on the market are newly built. And if you’re wondering what that means for the housing market and for your  own move , here’s what you need to know. Why This Isn’t Like 2008 People remember what happened to the housing market back in  2008 . And one of the factors that contributed to that crash was that there were too many  homes for sale . While only part of the oversupply back then came from builders, the lasting impact is that some people still feel uneasy when they hear new home construction has ramped up. Even though the supply of new homes has grown this year, the data shows there’s no need to worry. Builders aren’t overbuilding, they’re just catching up.  The graph below uses data from the  Census  to  show  the number of new houses built over the last 52 years. Following the crash in 2008, there was a long period of underbuilding ( shown in red ). And

  Homeowner Net Worth Has Skyrocketed If you’re weighing your options to decide whether it makes more sense to  rent or buy  a home today, here’s one key data point that could help you feel more confident in making your decision. Every three years, the  Federal Reserve Board  releases the  Survey of Consumer Finances  (SCF). That report covers the difference in net worth for both homeowners and renters. Spoiler alert: the gap between the two is significant. The average homeowner’s net worth is almost 40X greater than a renter’s.  And here’s the data to prove it ( see graph below ): The Big Reason Homeowner Net Worth Is So High In the  previous version  of that report, the net worth of the average homeowner was roughly $255,000 and that of the average renter was $6,300. But in  the release  that just came out this year, the gap widened as homeowner net worth climbed dramatically. As the  Survey of Consumer Finances  (SCF) report  says : “. . . the 2019-2022 growth in median net worth wa