Wage increases make home buying more affordable. The median sold price for a home in Barnegat is around 241,000, but there are plenty of homes for sale below that price. And with multiple first-time home buyer programs, you can purchase a home in Barnegat today!
Everyone knows that housing affordability has been negatively impacted by rising prices and increasing mortgage rates, but there is another piece to the affordability equation – wages.
How much a family earns obviously impacts how easy or difficult it is for them to afford to own a home. Because of an improving economy, wages are finally beginning to increase – and that dramatically affects home affordability.
Ocean County First Time Home Buyer Programs
According to the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) September 2018 Housing Affordability Index, wages have increased in every region of the country:
After applying current salaries, home prices, and mortgage rates to their Home Affordability Index equation, the index, though still lower than this time last year (160.1 to 146.7), increased over the last month (141.2 to 146.7). For the complete methodology used by NAR, click here.
The percentage of income needed to own a home has also decreased each of the last three months. It currently sits at 17% which is substantially lower than historic numbers.
Bottom Line
If you are a first-time buyer or a move-up buyer who believes that purchasing a home is not within your budget, let’s get together to determine if that is still true.
Karl Hess provides expert real estate services to residential buyers and sellers in Barnegat and the surrounding communities. Contact us today for more information on Barnegat Real Estate and for professional assistance navigating this complex home market.
As always, thank you for your time and feel free to get in touch if you have any questions. Karl Hess, Your Realtor on The Jersey Shore in Ocean County
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