A report by real estate company Redfin shows home payments for buyers in swing states, including Arizona, have nearly doubled since the 2020 presidential election. The company said the median monthly payment is more $2,161.
Redfin economist Chen Zhao said even with lower mortgage rates on the horizon, prices will likely remain high.
“Once mortgage rates start to come down, that will also bring back a lot of demand for housing again. So it's a little bit of a toss up in terms of that could drive up prices even more,” she said. “There's estimates that show we're short anywhere between one and a half to like, five and a half million housing units in this country. So there needs to be a lot more building in order to address that,
In the Phoenix area, the median home sale price is up 55% from $300,000 in 2020 to $465,000 in May 2024. Statewide, the median price increased 56% from $289,000 in 2020 to $452,000 in May 2024.
Zhao said home prices were already soaring before the 2020 election, “And it's gotten so much worse because home prices really accelerated during the pandemic when a lot of people were trying to move to different parts of the country. Mortgage rates were low, so, you know, they were incentivized to buy homes. And then on top of that, starting in 2022, we had this huge increase in mortgage rates as the Fed has been trying to combat high inflation.”
Redfin said a swing-state household must earn $86,421 in order to spend no more than 30% of income on payments for the median-priced home. That’s nearly double the $45,140 needed to earn in 2020.
Redfin evaluated data from states that are generally considered battlegrounds because they could be won by either major presidential candidate. They included: Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina.
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