Over the last decade, home owning has become a nearly impossible task for many would-be home buyers. This is due mostly to the economic crisis of 2008, low employment, and overall economic issues. Many would-be home buyers, as a result, have turned to renting. Now, however, rental prices are increasing each year, making home-buying much more appealing to many potential home-buyers. There are several factors playing on this, such as:
"This appears to be driven by a steady but strengthening job market, rising rents relative to rising ownership costs and recent slower growth in traditional financial portfolios consisting of stocks and bonds," said Ken Johnson, Ph.D., a real estate economist, one of the index's authors, and a professor at FAU.
Now that the scales are tipping, this could be a great time to start investing in real estate, especially single-family homes for first-time home buyers.
"This movement suggests that most consumers in these markets appear to have learned from the real estate crash and now understand that residential property prices can get too high," Eli Beracha, Ph.D., co-author of the index and a professor at FIU. "This is a good sign for future housing price stability in these markets."
Quarter one is showing that overall, most rental territories across the US are growing at a less rapid rate than in the past, pointing to signs that consumers are beginning to consider buying homes as an alternative to renting.