Following the housing crash and financial crisis, there was talk that Americans may stop aspiring to homeownership and would no longer see the housing market as a sound investment and reliable creator of wealth. After all, homeowners who saw the values of their homes plummet might become leery and those who hadn't yet bought a home may've considered themselves lucky. And yet, a decade down the road, the market has largely recovered and demand from buyers is running high. Lawrence Yun, the National Association of Realtors' chief economist, says that is thanks to reforms enacted after the crash. “Over the past 10 years, prudent policy reforms and consumer protections have strengthened lending standards and eliminated loose credit, as evidenced by the higher…

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If you're shopping for a house to buy, you're probably concerned about affordability. After all, even in a buyer's market, house hunters have an interest in getting the best deal. Which means, most prospective home buyers have an eye on home prices and where they're headed. In today's market, the best way to get a feel for what's happening with home values is to look at inventory. That's because, prices have been increasing lately due to the fact that there are more buyers than there are homes for sale. And the quickest way to slow down rising prices is to build more homes. That's why the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development's new residential construction statistics for July offer some encouraging news. According to the…

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You can tell a lot about the way an area grew by the age of its homes. The pace of suburban sprawl, for example, can be mapped just by observing the way homes get newer as you get further from the city's center. Houses built in the 1920s give way to homes from the '50s and '60s and so on. But that's not all you can learn from paying attention to the collective age of the country's housing stock. You can also tell a lot about the housing market's ups-and-downs. One example can be found in a recent analysis from the National Association of Home Builders. According to the NAHB, the median age of owner-occupied homes is now 37 years, which is up from 31 years in 2005. In fact, more than half of our homes were built before 1980 and 38 percent were built before…

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Home buyers this year have faced higher prices, more competition, and rising mortgage rates. In short, it's been a challenging year. But that's not to say it isn't a good time to buy a house. There are many reasons to be optimistic about homeownership, in fact – and a few that put current conditions in perspective. Take mortgage rates, for example. According to Freddie Mac, the long term average is 8.16 percent, which means today's rates are still low historically. Also, home equity is increasing. In fact, it's up 13% year-over-year. And rising home equity means today's homeowners are seeing their investment grow. There is also evidence that market conditions may begin to improve. For one, new home construction has been making gains and that means more…

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