Real Estate
Home Prices In Middlesex County: See New Data
A recently released report shows homes remain less affordable now than a year ago in Middlesex County.
![Hampshire and Worcester counties saw the largest increases in year-over-year median home prices in Massachusetts in a new batch of data recently released by Attom.](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/shutterstock/26145079/20221008/041630/styles/patch_image/public/shutterstock-295004414___08041545663.jpg)
MIDDLESEX COUNTY — A new housing affordability report shows home ownership is still out of reach for many Middlesex County residents, as well as a vast majority of other potential buyers and renters in the United States.
Attom, a curator of national real estate and land data, recently released its U.S. Home Affordability Report for the third quarter of 2022. The report shows that median-priced single-family homes and condos remain less affordable now than a year ago in 99 percent of the 581 U.S. counties analyzed. That’s up from 69 percent in the third quarter of 2021, according to the report.
In Massachusetts, the average home price jumped sharply across eleven counties analyzed. The biggest changes came in Worcester, Hampshire and Berkshire counties, where year-over-year median home prices increased by 12.2, 13.6 and 14.1% respectively with this new round of data.
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Middlesex County, which is the largest county in the state by population, also saw major increases that outpaced wage growth.
“While home prices have declined a bit quarter-over-quarter, they’re still higher than they were a year ago, and interest rates have essentially doubled,” Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence at Attom, said in a statement. “Many prospective homebuyers simply can’t afford the home they hoped to buy, and in many cases no longer qualify for the mortgage they’d need.”
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A reason behind the historically high prices, according to the report, is ongoing demand as “homebuyers continue chasing an extremely small supply of properties for sale.”
Despite demand, home sales are down as mortgage rates steadily climbed this year from just above 3 percent to near 6 percent for a 30-year loan.
Attom’s quarterly report is an in-depth analysis of historical home affordability trends. It spotlights communities where home prices are outpacing wage growth, as well as the annual income typically needed to buy a home.
The report determines affordability for average wage earners by calculating the amount of income needed to make monthly house payments — including mortgage, property taxes and insurance — on a median-priced home, assuming a 20 percent down payment is made and the potential buyer has a 28 percent maximum debt-to-income ratio. The information is then compared to annualized average weekly wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Here’s a snapshot of housing affordability and wage growth in Middlesex County, according to Attom’s report:
- Population: 1,632,002
- Total housing units: 658,283
- Q3 2022 median home price: $700,000
- Year-over-year median home price growth: 7.7 percent
- Annualized weekly wages: $106,691
- Year-over-year wage growth: 5 percent
- Q3 2022 Affordability Index: 79
If a county’s Affordability Index is below 100, it means average home prices are less affordable than in the past.
Compared to historical levels, median home prices in 574 of 581 (99 percent) of the counties analyzed are less affordable than in the past, according to the report. Overall, the median national home price is up 10 percent over the past year, while average annual wages across the country have grown just 6 percent.
Among the 48 counties in the report with a population of at least 1 million, the biggest year-over-year increases in median home prices during the third quarter of 2022 were reported in the following counties:
- St. Louis County, Missouri (up 37 percent)
- Collin County, Texas (up 25 percent)
- Hillsborough County, Florida (up 24 percent)
- Palm Beach County, Florida (up 21 percent)
- Tarrant County, Texas (up 19 percent)
Home prices were greater than weekly annualized wage growth in 488 of the 581 counties analyzed in the report. The largest discrepancies were found in the following counties:
- Los Angeles County, California
- Harris County, Texas
- Maricopa County, Arizona
- San Diego County, California
- Orange County, California
Wage growth surpassed home prices in the third quarter of 2022 in only 93 counties in the report. The largest of those counties are:
- Cook County, Illinois
- King County, Washington;
- Santa Clara County, California
- Alameda County, California
- Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
See the full Q3 2022 Home Affordability Report.
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