Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
With home prices and mortgage rates rising, the overall costs of home ownership have spiked dramatically since 2012. A new analysis by RealtyTrac finds that the estimated monthly house payment for a median-priced three-bedroom home purchased at the end of 2013 was 21 percent higher than it was at the end of 2012 in more than 300 U.S. counties, reports CNBC News.
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RealtyTrac included the cost of a mortgage, insurance, taxes, maintenance, and the subtracted income tax benefit to determine the estimated monthly house payment. RealtyTrac incorporated a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with an interest rate of 4.46 percent and a 20 percent down payment into its figures (compared to a 3.35 percent interest rate in 2012).
Some metro regions in California and Michigan had monthly house payments rise up to 50 percent from year-ago levels, according to RealtyTrac.
"Home prices were boosted by cash buyers in 2013, and as the cash buyers move out of the market in 2014, the buyers left are not going to be able to afford the home prices as readily in some of these markets," says Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac.
Still, RealtyTrac notes that it is still cheaper to own than rent in the majority of U.S. housing markets.
