Housing Trends

Housing trends are the patterns in how we use and create housing, land, and buildings. They help explain what is happening for people to live and work. These trends can be broken down into physical, social, and economic aspects of housing changes.

There's been a lot of discussion around new housing trends lately: construction's picking up, prices on houses in the cities are skyrocketing, and developers want to build more condominiums everywhere. As it turns out, all these things have a lot to do with the way people are living across the country.

People's Approach to These Trends

Many people have moved to big cities, where they can find jobs. Those people have a lot of spending money, and they're buying houses in all sorts of neighborhoods. A lot of those houses have been modernized, so that the new owners can move in and start living in them right away.

Some people have also moved to more rural areas, but that's not the big story. The biggest change has been the steady growth in the number of condominiums in all areas—including metropolitan, suburban and rural regions. They're being built for people who want a different kind of home than previous generations did—people who care about their environment, for example. Those folks are also living in cities, though.

Prices of houses have generally been on the rise overall, but they've gone up at a much faster pace in most cities than in the suburbs or rural areas. The housing price information isn't as clear-cut as it's been in the past, and that might help us see what people are thinking about.

Another way to approach this is to look at what's happening with median income. That measures how much money you need to be able to buy a house where you live. The trend in median income is also a good indicator of what's going on in the housing market. One thing to keep in mind is that median income isn't the same as average income, since some people have more of their income tied up in investments, for instance. Median income is just a bit lower than average.

Physical Aspects

Some of the physical aspects of house trends are easy to see. Satellites show how much land and buildings are changing, and satellites can do that over time. The trend is clear: people are still building all around us and cities are growing, but usually not very quickly.

Affordability is a concern for some people, and it's important to try to put these trends into perspective. Whether it's an old, single-family house in a city or a brand-new condominium in a quiet neighborhood, the cost of housing is based on many factors. It depends not only on what kind of house you want to live in, but also how much money you make and how much debt you want to take out. But that doesn't mean that home prices are too high for everyone. Changes tend to be more dramatic than the numbers show—these housing trends are easier to calculate than real wages and real estate prices for most people.

Social Aspects

A lot of people have been moving to cities, and that has had a great effect on the way we live. Not only do the numbers show that more people are living in cities than ever before, but certain types of people are living in cities. The folks who live in cities bring their culture with them, and they share it with everyone else.

Economic Aspects

The economic aspects of housing trends also tell a story: People have more money to spend, which makes homes more affordable for some families. The key factors that make a difference are the growth in wages and the availability of mortgages. An important feature of the mortgage industry has been increasing competition, which means that people can borrow money to buy homes for lower prices.

One last thing to consider is that all this data might be influenced by what we think about the economy and where it's headed. Several economists expect the unemployment rate to climb over time, which could increase demand for houses and other types of real estate. The housing market should also be affected by things like interest rates. If they go up, the cost of mortgages and maintenance could go up as well.