Photo Source: Home Bunch via Pinterest.

The Case-Shiller Home Price Index showed a deceleration in home prices and let’s be clear: this is good for home appreciation and housing affordability. It’s good news that it’s cooling off some for homebuyers while still remaining positive for homeowners. Detroit saw a healthy annual 6 percent gain. Las Vegas and San Fran are still seeing double digit annual increase in home prices. Insane.

The economy is booming thanks to unemployment at its lowest since 1969, encouraging consumers to invest and purchase. After a spectacular second quarter, analysts expected a slow down during the third quarter but the economy remained on track to grow 3 percent or more this year and expectation remains for the Federal Reserve to hike rates in December.

The ADP Employment Report showed 227K jobs created in October, greatly exceeding expectations of only 178K.

The average downpayment on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage dropped nearly 10 percent in the third quarter of 2018, along with the average mortgage loan amount falling almost $28K. It’s all about location. We’re still seeing many borrowers who are able to purchase a home by putting down only 5 percent or less.

Homeownership is on the rise, jumping a half percent in the third quarter of 2018 from a year ago, thanks to a healthy economy, affordable housing, low mortgage rates, and increased wages. The hurdle: inventory—that’s not a bad hurdle to face; folks are staying in their homes longer. How long? The average homeowner is opting to stay in their home longer these days: 8.23 years to be exact according to homes sold in the third quarter of 2018. That’s double that of homes sold in 2000.