U.S. Construction
In 2017, Texas was leading America’s homebuilding race with Austin, Dallas and Houston collectively on track to build 130,000 new homes by the end of the year, according to a report by Trulia. That represents 10 percent of all U.S. building permits and nearly as many as 50 large American metro areas combined in 2017. While residential construction is growing in the south, several markets in the northeast of the country are expected to struggle to surpass 500 new homes this year.
As the graph indicates, the residential construction sector was a hot property in Texas last year. The primary factors impacting residential construction across different regions include strong job growth, increasing wages and rising home values.
Santa Rosa–A Real Estate Hot-Spot
While 72 percent of renters hope to become homeowners, only 34.7 percent of Americans under 35 owned their homes as of 2016, according to a Census Bureau survey.
The hurdle for Millennials is finding affordable housing, so where are they buying homes? In a recent study, big cities aren’t taking the top spots for Millennial buyers—New York and L.A. ranking 148th and 153rd on the list. Santa Rosa, however, had an 11 percent increase in Millennial homeownership from 2007 to 2016, making it the number seven city in America where Millennials are buying, and tying with Chula Vista, Calif., and Mesquite, Texas. (Young buyers, be ready. The medium home in Santa Rosa is worth $484,000.) Here’s a list of the top seven cities where this generation is buying:
1. Olathe, Kansas
2. Chesapeake, Virginia
3. Bakersfield, California
4. Sioux Falls, South Dakota
5. Anchorage, Alaska
6. West Valley City, Utah
7. Chula Vista, California
Santa Rosa, California
Mesquite, Texas
www.smartasset.com
Male Buyers vs. Female Buyers
The Census Bureau estimates the average full-time working female earns 80 percent of what full-time males earn, leading to long-term effects such as the inability to afford homes, save for retirement and balance budgets. Data shows that men are 50 percent more likely to buy a home without a cosigner than women.
As of 2016, 739 mortgages went to women and 727 went to men in Santa Rosa, making the city the second and last metro area where women bought more homes than—out buying them by 1.6 percent. In Santa Rosa, the average single male buyer without a cosigner earned $126,000 while women earned $109,000. The average mortgage-to-income ratio in Santa Rosa was 3.5 for women and 3.45 for men. This means that the total home value is 4.4 times a women’s income and 4.3 times a man’s, assuming a 20 percent down payment.
