On July 9 (Washington time), according to Xinhua, house prices in the US set a record high in June, reflecting the affordability difficulties that homebuyers are still facing, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
According to NAR, the popular price of used houses in the US in June reached $440,600, the highest ever.
Compared to the same period last year, house prices increased by 1.8%, marking the third consecutive year that house prices in June recorded an increase.
According to NAR, although people's affordability has shown signs of improvement recently, housing costs are still the biggest barrier that makes many people unwilling to participate in the market.
Data also shows that sales of used houses, including private houses, townhouses, apartments and cooperative houses, decreased by 2.4% in June compared to the previous month, after reaching a 5-month high in May.
Mr. Lawrence Yun - chief economist of NAR - said that the continuous fluctuations in home sales reflect the sensitivity of buyers to affordability.
House buying and selling activities continuously increase and decrease each month due to slight fluctuations in mortgage interest rates. This shows that buyers are currently very sensitive to the cost of owning a house," Mr. Yun said.
However, he believes that the market still has positive supporting factors.
According to him, since the beginning of the year, the US economy has created more than 500,000 jobs, contributing to maintaining demand in the housing market in the coming time.
Besides the cost of borrowing to buy a house, housing supply continues to be one of the biggest problems of the US real estate market.
NAR said that the number of houses offered for sale is still at a historical low. The number of houses on the market in June decreased by 0.6% compared to May and only increased by 1.3% compared to the same period last year.
Limited supply gives buyers fewer choices, and at the same time continues to create pressure to push house prices up.
According to experts, if supply is not improved in the near future, house prices in the US are likely to continue to remain high, despite fluctuations in interest rates and purchasing power in the market.
