High prices are slowly starting to come down, but low inventory and high mortgage costs are already putting homeownership out of reach for many buyers, the analysis found. Also contributing to the difficulty is an 8% increase in the number of people paying cash, according to the analysis
About a third of US homes (31.9%) were bought entirely with cash in October, up from 29.9% in October 2021, and the highest share since 2014, when the housing market rebounded from the foreclosure crisis of the Great Recession, according to Redfin.
In April 2020, only a fifth of homes were purchased with cash, a record high.
While only a few Seattle zip codes saw their share of cash buyers exceed 20%, Bellevue, Port Orchard and Graham broke the 40% mark. According to analysis by The Post, which examines home sales in 2022 by zip code, half of homes purchased around Gig Harbor and South Hill were purchased with cash, along with 57% of homes around North Olympia.
The trend started during the pandemic as mortgage rates started to rise, according to Chen Zhao, senior economics researcher at Redfin, who said the wealthy are motivated to pay cash to avoid high interest rates on mortgages. Mortgages.
A separate report from the National Association of Realtors found that first-time home buyers in the United States are generally white, rich and older. First-time buyers made up only around a quarter (26%) of buyers, down from 34% in 2021. Their average age was 36, down from 33 the year before, and the average age of repeat buyers has risen to 59. years – both – high times.
Overall, 88% of shoppers were white or Caucasian, according to the report.
“Only the wealthy are basically buying houses,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, told the Post. “If this trend were to continue, it means something is fundamentally wrong with society.”