Reasons for sluggish home sales

Home sales have been notably sluggish during the past couple of months. This puzzles many sellers, considering the historically low interest rates of mortgages in the current market. The National Association of Realtors recently addressed the subject and issued a report on their findings.

Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, pointed to several factors that are contrib- uting to the cooling off of home sales.

“There continues to be a dearth of available listings in the lower end of the market for first-time buyers, and Realtors in many areas are reporting stronger competition than what’s normal this time of year because of stubbornly low inventory conditions,” he said.

“Additionally, the rockiness in the financial markets at the end of the summer and signs of a slowing U.S. economy may be causing some prospective buyers to take a wait-and-see approach.”

The NAR report also noted that while pending home sales were down in September, they still remain 3 percent above last year’s levels. Yun said he’s confident the housing market will prove itself as one of the brighter spots of a more sluggish economy in the coming months.

“With interest rates hovering around 4 percent, rents rising at a near eight-year high, and job growth holding strong — albeit at a more modest pace than earlier this year — the overall demand for buying should stay at a healthy level, despite some weakness in the overall economy,” he said.

Q: Are home values tied to the homeowner’s employer?

A: That’s true in a few dramatic cases. The average Apple worker’s home is worth more than five times as much as the average American home, and the gap has been widening, according to a report from Zillow.

Workers at Google, Facebook and Apple live in pricier homes than other Bay Area workers and have faster home value growth than other workers, according to the report.

The average Apple worker now lives in a home that is more than five times more valuable than the average U.S. home.

The gap also has widened in the last five years.

In 2010, the average Apple worker’s home was worth three times as much as a typical U.S. home.”