WEA Reads: LA, NYC and Miami lead US housing market growth
The value of the nation’s housing stock grew by 6.5 percent to $31.8 trillion this year — with Los Angeles and New York City far outpacing the rest of the country’s top-valued metro markets and Miami landing at No. 4.
The Los Angeles market’s $2.7 trillion valuation topped that any other metro across the country after growing 5.7 percent over the past year. That’s a smidgen higher than New York City’s $2.6 trillion valuation, up 7.9 percent from last year. LA and NYC were the only two markets worth more than $1 billion, with Washington ($996.7 billion), Miami ($865.2 billion) and Chicago ($821.3 billion) rounding out the top five.
San Jose saw the largest percentage growth — 13.5 percent — of the nation’s top 10 markets, while Columbus, Ohio’s 15.1 percent growth was the highest of the top 35 markets.
The nation’s yearly growth is the highest since 2013, according to a Zillow report cited by Bloomberg. The $31.8 billion figure is 1.5 times the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and nearly three times the GDP of China.
Renters alone spent a record $485.6 billion in 2017, nearly $5 billion more than they spent the year prior, according to Zillow.
The median home price in Southern California hit a post-recession record $505,000 this September and again in November, the peak reached just before the housing bubble burst a decade ago.
Some predictions have the growth in home prices nationwide slowing in 2018 as inventory grows. That will be felt particularly in the luxury segment, where oversupply and fewer buyers have reportedly softened growth. [Bloomberg]— Dennis Lynch
