Real Estate :
Home prices increased throughout the summer in practically every city in America, despite the fact that mortgage rates have reduced activity in the residential property market. In 181 of the 185 major cities in the nation, prices increased in the third quarter. A single-family existing home’s median price rose to $398,500, an 8.6% increase over the same time last year. The price, however, varied greatly by market, with Decatur, Illinois, at the low end. There, the typical property price increased by 4.3% to $123,000 throughout the course of the period.
Three years ago, the trend in housing prices started. The median income required to buy a typical home has increased to $88,300, or over $40,000 more than it was in 2019 before the pandemic began, according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. This will cause an overheated market to cool, along with high mortgage rates. According to the third-quarter data from the National Association of Realtors, San Jose was the market with the most expensive homes, costing $1.688 million. California is home to five of the top six markets in terms of median home prices. San Francisco ($1.3 million), Anaheim ($1.2 million), San Diego ($900,000), and Los Angeles ($893,000) are located close together surrounding San Francisco and Los Angeles. The other top-six market is Honolulu at $1.1 million.
The industrial Midwest, which had housed some of the wealthiest cities in the nation, is home to nearly all of the markets with the lowest median housing prices. Many of these metros saw population declines as businesses transferred their manufacturing to other locations. Prime locations include Youngstown, Ohio ($148,000), Peoria ($148,000), and Rockford ($174,000) in Illinois. According to the Census Bureau, Decatur is one of the poorest cities in the United States.
There are just fewer than 70,000 people living there, and the median annual income is just $45,404. Nearly 20% of persons are considered to be poor. Decatur’s median house price increased 4.8% during the third quarter. That number is not likely to increase as a recession takes hold.