plummeted to the lowest level in 40 years( only 4.7 % of occupied homes sold in 2025, which was the lowest number since 1982), as per Reventure.
Please note that this is gross income( before taxes). In many states like California, the combination of state and federal taxes brings this monthly income much lower, so many buyers are paying upwards of 50 % to 65 % of their net monthly income to buy or lease a home.
3. We have an inverted housing market in so many different ways, especially as it relates to age. There are more home buyers over age 70 than under 35 in today’ s upsidedown housing market. The average US home seller age in 2025 64, while the average Realtor age is 60 as per NAR. The average firsttime home buyer in California last year was 49.
4. The published national home listing inventory supply is rising, while still being almost half of peak highs in 2007 when it reached near 4,000,000. Yet, this seemingly“ good news” is offset by the possible“ bad news” that’ s included next as # 4. 5. The distressed“ shadow inventory” is much larger than the published national home listing supply. The national home listing inventory and published foreclosure date is nowhere close to being accurate and is artificially suppressed, partly due to the millions of distressed forbearance deal( FHA and VA loans, especially) situations where many homeowners haven’ t made a single mortgage payment dating back as far as October 2020 when many of the Covid19 forbearance plans started. As these distressed properties later become listings or go to foreclosure, the home listing supply should increase.
6. Average new US home prices are now priced below older existing homes, which is something that rarely happens because most buyers are willing to pay a price premium for a new home with all of the fancy new appliances and other gadgets. Builders are so inspired to unload their unsold inventory that they’ re offering massive credits to buyers to buy down their mortgage rates and pay for their closing costs.
Let’ s take a closer look at data that was originally compiled by ResiClub as it relates to how unsold new home inventory increased between July 2016 and July 2025:
The unsold new home number for July 2025 was the highest number since July 2009( 126,000), which was when the housing market was near the previous bottom during the depths of the Great Recession.
7. The most important word in the“ singlefamily home” description is family. As the family unit continues to rapidly decline, it will directly impact future home value trends.
Here’ s some other family trends that I’ ve shared in past articles such as The Interplay of Medical, Insurance, and Housing Financial Burdens:
* The overall divorce rate in Orange County, CA is 72 %; it’ s 60 % in California; and 50 %+ nationwide. * 41 % of first marriages end in divorce, 60 % of second marriages end in divorce, and 73 % of third marriages end in divorce.
* The average length of a marriage in the U. S. that ends in divorce is 8 years from start to finish. * Since 1990, divorce rates for people over 50 have doubled; they’ ve tripled for people over 65. * The U. S. now has the highest percentage of singleperson households in the world and lowest marriage rates ever. * U. S. fertility rates are the lowest ever, as fewer babies are born. * USA is # 1 for highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world. * Approximately 50 % of children are born to unmarried women under 30 here in the USA.
8. The purchasing power of $ 1 fell to about 7 cents over the past 50 years, so most of the dollar’ s decline in value has taken place during this 50year time period that followed the removal of the dollar from the gold standard during the 19711973 years as I shared in the Asset Prices Surge Amidst Dollar Devaluation Trends article.
Because real estate is an exceptional hedge against inflation as home values tend to rise at least more than double the annual published inflation rates, this has actually been a positive for homeownership and a huge negative for other products and services.
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