Single Female First Time Home Buyers Increase to 2011 Levels

Single Female First Time Home Buyers Increase to 2011 Levels

The National Association of Realtors® has released its 2017 Profile of Home Buyers and sellers. Single women were the second-largest segment of the buyer market at 18%, behind married couples, who make up 65% of the market. The percentage of single women, the highest since 2011, is partially attributable to a more favorable job and income prospects.

The survey also found that 92% of all purchases and sales involved real estate agents, leaving just 8% of the transactions were for-sale-by-owner, an all-time low.

The average age of first-time buyers stayed the same, at 32 years, while that of repeat buyers increased slightly from the previous year to 54 from 52 years of age.

First-timers’ income was slightly higher than last year, $75,000 compared to $72,000, while the older repeat buyers reported household income roughly the same: $97,500 compared with $98,000 from the previous year.

Repeat buyers chose houses of the same size from last year, 2,000 square feet, but they paid more for them: $266,500 compared with last year’s average of $250,000.

Most buyers continue to prefer the suburbs; 85% bought in the outlying areas, compared with just 13% remaining in cities. Single-family detached homes retain their preferential position in the inventory, accounting for 87% of the sales for the third straight year. Inventory shortage continues to play a significant part in rising prices; 42% of the buyers paid asking price or higher for their homes compared to 40% last year, but in the western states, 51% paid the list price or higher.

Public perception of the market likely plays a part in these numbers. Although lending standards have remained essentially the same for several years, prospective buyers seem to be more confident in their ability to qualify for a mortgage. The minimum credit standards for conventional loans remains at 620, and 580 for FHA loans. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the investors who buy most mortgages in the U.S., have loosened their qualifying standards slightly, allowing higher debt-to-income ratios than before, allowing more buyers to qualify.

City of Santa Clara "Road Diets" on Pruneridge westward toward the New Proposed Apple Campus

City of Santa Clara "Road Diets" on Pruneridge westward toward the New Proposed Apple Campus

Posted under: General Area in Santa Clara, Traffic & Public Transportation in Santa Clara, In My Neighborhood in Santa Clara | December 10, 2011 12:00 AM

The City of Santa Clara has completed implementationi of its "Road Diets" on Pruneridge and Monroe. These so-called "Road Diets" are the cities roadway lane reductions from 4 through lanes down to 2 through lanes with a two-way center left turn lane on Pruneridge Avenue from Pomeroy Ave to Lawrence Expressway and westbound Monroe from Scott Blvd to Los Padres Blvd. The City of Santa Clara has also "road dieted" Pruneridge Ave from Lawrence Expressway westward to Tantau Ave to connect new bicycle lanes to existing bicycle lanes in the City of Cupertino.

Road diets become feasible when streets operate at less than 50% of the capacity they were originally designed to carry. For instance, Pruneridge Ave was two lanes in both directions but the traffic was fairly quiet west of Pomeroy and west of Lawrence, so the city decided to reduce those sections of Pruneridge to just one lane in each direction.

West of Pomeroy, motorists can pull into the new center two-way left turn lane and wait for a gap in the traffic before completing their maneuver. Unfortunately, no such center lane exists east of Pomeroy. Therefore, parents who drop off their Eisenhower Elementary kids at the tennis court have a harder time now to turn left out of the tennis court parking lot. With the old arrangement of two lanes in each direction, parents only needed to wait for a red light at Pomeroy to turn left onto Pruneridge Ave. Now that the city has reduced the westbound lane to a single lane, the line of cars at a red light at Pomeroy now often stretches far past the tennis court exit. Parents now have no choice but to wait until they finally have a courteous drivers heading west on Pruneridge who is courteous enough to let them onto Pruneridge.

The city trumpets these changes as positive, stating that having only one lane of conflicting traffic as opposed to the original two lanes, makes it easier to see whether backing out of a driveway is safe.

In conclusion, we'll have to wait until the new Apple campus takes shape and is functional before judging whether these recent changes to Pruneridge Ave were good or bad.

June 2011 Real Estate Report for Santa Clara County

Are house and condo inventory/sales/prices going up or down?

Read the June 2011 Real Estate Report (Santa Clara County) to find out.