{"id":647497,"date":"2026-06-19T17:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T17:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/647497\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T17:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T17:14:12","slug":"report-finds-us-housing-demand-depressed-as-costs-hit-record-highs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/647497\/","title":{"rendered":"Report finds US housing demand depressed as costs hit record highs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner joins \u2018Mornings with Maria\u2019 to discuss rising mortgage rates, cutting housing regulations and the Trump administration\u2019s push to boost affordable homebuilding.<\/p>\n

A new report on the U.S. housing<\/a> sector finds that activity remains subdued through the first part of the year as high costs suppress demand.<\/p>\n

The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University released its annual “State of the Nation’s Housing” report<\/a> on Wednesday, which found that existing home sales remain near the lowest level in three decades that was first reached in 2023.<\/p>\n

Sales of new homes remained relatively unchanged, while rental retention rates rose and new occupancies declined. New construction starts dipped 1% over the last year, driven by a 7% decline in single-family starts.<\/p>\n

“Although supply shortages are still a major concern, depressed demand became a headline in housing over the past year,” the report said, noting slower growth in the number of homeowner households as well as the number of renters compared with a year ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MEDIAN US HOME PRICE PROJECTED TO HIT $1 MILLION BY 2050 \u2013 RIGHT AS MILLENNIALS RETIRE<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

The household income needed to afford a home has nearly doubled since 2020, the report noted. (Paul Bersebach\/MediaNews Group\/Orange County Register via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The rate of growth of homeowner households declined by half and caused homeownership rates<\/a> to decline for the second straight year. Additionally, the year-over-year increase in the number of renters in the first quarter of 2026 was less than half of what it was a year earlier.<\/p>\n

Economic uncertainty<\/a> has weighed on housing demand, with employment growth slowing from a gain of 1.5 million in 2024 to just 116,000 in 2025.<\/p>\n

Consumer confidence<\/a> dropped by more than 20 percentage points in 2025 and fell further in the first part of 2026 due to the Iran war, reaching an all-time low in April.<\/p>\n

MORTGAGE RATES TICK HIGHER, BUT BUYERS SHOW SIGNS OF CONFIDENCE<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Demand for homes is depressed by high prices. (Eric Thayer\/Bloomberg\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

“Without a job, graduates are less likely to form a new household or move to a new region,” the report said. “Without confidence in employment, families are less likely to move or make a big purchase like a house.”<\/p>\n

High costs and the lack of affordable housing<\/a> options are also contributing to the weaker demand, as households are struggling with high home prices and interest rates.<\/p>\n

MIDWEST AND SOUTHERN STATES DOMINATE HOUSING REPORT CARDS: SEE HOW YOURS SCORED<\/a><\/p>\n

\"People <\/p>\n

High mortgage rates and a scarcity of new supply has pushed the cost of buying a home and making monthly payments harder. (David Paul Morris\/Bloomberg via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The report said that the median prices for new and existing homes are both over $400,000 and that existing home prices have risen 54% since 2020 and are about 5-times the median income \u2013 a level well above the ratio of 3-times that prevailed in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Mortgage rates<\/a> are over 6%, which makes the payment on a median-priced home $3,100 in the fourth quarter of 2025, up from $1,700 in early 2020. That has pushed the income needed to afford that payment to more than $120,000 \u2013 a significant increase from $66,000 in 2020.<\/p>\n

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner joins \u2018Mornings with Maria\u2019 to discuss rising mortgage rates, cutting housing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-647497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}