The State of Residential Property Markets in the United States

1. The State of Residential Property Markets in the United States

2. Prepared by Edward J. Dodson January 2018

4. $23 trillion Estimated Value of U.S. Land in 2009

13. Median Sales Prices May- August 2017 • Hawaii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $442,500 • District of Columbia . . . . . . $625,000 • California . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $462,000 • Massachusetts . . . . . . . . . $379,000 • New York . . . . . . . . . . . . . $430,000 • Colorado . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $331,000 • Oregon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $315,000 • Washington . . . . . . . . . . . . $332,719 • Vermont . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $325,000

14. Five Most Expensive MSAs As of the Second Quarter 2016 • San Jose …………….. $1,085,000 • San Francisco ………. 885,600 • Anaheim-Santa Ana ... 742,200 • Honolulu ……………... 725,200 • San Diego …………… 589,900

17. “A decade of unprecedented growth in the rental housing market may be coming to an end, according to our 2017 America’s Rental Housing report. Fewer new renter households are being formed, rental vacancy rates have risen, and rent increases have slowed. At the same time, renter demographics are changing and nearly 21 million households continue to pay more than 30 percent of their income for rent.”

19. “While the preservation of low-income housing tax credits and private activity bonds avoids an immediate devastating impact on affordable housing, this bill will exacerbate our country’s already yawning income inequality and will harm efforts to end homelessness and housing poverty. ...”

20. “At a time when we should be increasing investments in solutions to the housing crisis impacting low income people across the country, the increased deficits created by these tax cuts puts the national Housing Trust Fund and other vital housing and community development programs at risk of deep spending cuts down the line.”

23. “The spread of urban growth into suburbs and exurbia, consuming open space and farmland, is only one aspect of sprawl. The other side of the story … is the large inventory of vacant in-city land. Private owners are not putting these sites to use because they find it more profitable not to do so. The profits from passively waiting for land value to rise appear higher and more certain than the yields from active production on the sites.” [pages 60-61]

25. “The land tax … tends to stimulate more appropriate investment on land as the tax increases. Since the tax does not change the productivity of the site or the quantity of available land, the owner usually cannot shift the land tax to tenants or customers. If the land tax is too low … owners have little pressure to make the best possible use of their sites.” [pages 63-64]

27. The End