“According to First American Financial Corp home affordability is increasing despite rising prices. Their data, which they’ve named “real house prices,” is a metric that measures home prices adjusted for other economic factors. Their home-price index shows that, all things considered, home prices have actually fallen by 4.6% in June year-over-year.

Their metric shows that household income, combined with lower mortgage rates, have made homes more affordable despite the price tags going up. As of Thursday morning, the 30-year fixed-rate average was at 3.55% according to Freddie Mac. Looking at the stats for Freddie Mac going back to 1971, the all-time lowest mortgage-rate average on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 3.31% in 2012.

First American chief economist Mark Fleming says that right now, home buying power is at its highest rate since 1991, when the group first started measuring affordability. Not only do they have the power, the Conference Board’s index shows American consumers also have the confidence.”

(provided by Movement Mortgage news)

Closer to home – According to the Naples Area Board of Realtors, since January the median closed prices have decreased 2.9 percent to $335,000 from $345,000. But compared to last July, prices have held steady. July’s median closed price was $326,200 compared to $326,500 for July 2018.

Closed sales activity was the highest in the Naples Beach area (34102, 34103, 34108), which saw a 25 percent increase in overall closed sales and a 40 percent increase in single-family home closed sales compared to July 2018.