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The MReport Webcast: Friday 8/12/2016

Home price appreciation in the second quarter largely negated a modest reduction in interest rates, driving housing affordability down, according to the latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index. In Q2, 62 percent of new and existing homes sold were deemed affordable to families earning the U.S. median income of 65 thousand 700 dollars. In Q1, that number was 65 percent.

Also in Q2, the national median home price increased from 223 thousand to 240 thousand, even as average mortgage rates dropped from 4 point 05 percent to 3 point 88 percent. Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, said the lack of affordable houses in many markets has triggered battles for those houses that are affordable.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been mostly silent about housing during his campaign. But on Thursday, he shared with a crowd of home building professionals that the home building business and housing industry taught him everything he knows. In his speech at the National Association of Home Builders' 2016 Midyear Board of Directors Meeting in Miami, Trump focused on the idea that because his father was in the home building business, he learned firsthand with it looks like to work hard saying, quote, there is no greater thing you can do. Close quote

About Author: Seth Welborn

Seth Welborn is a Harding University graduate with a degree in English and a minor in writing. He is a contributing writer for MReport. An East Texas Native, he has studied abroad in Athens, Greece and works part-time as a photographer.
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