Dive Brief:
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The value of the country’s lowest-cost private homes grew 6.8% last year, putting their owners in a position to sell after years of waiting for prices to rise.
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A report by Zillow said the value of homes in the bottom third of their markets hit rock-bottom in January 2012, when their median resale price was $84,000. By December 2014, median values had risen to $101,400.
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For the very lowest-value homes, prices are still 17% below what they were before the recession. However, the recent upward trend in values has pulled enough owners out of negative equity to pump up the for-sale inventory of low-price homes by 12.2% between December 2013 and December 2014.
Dive Insight:
Lower-value homes are coming on the market just as millennials are expected to start house hunting. Economists have predicted that homebuying by millennials could top that of Generation X as rising rents and marriages lead under-35 consumers to trade their apartments in for family homes.
Zillow predicts the 2015 home-buying season will bring a higher volume of homes on the market and a lower prevalence of all-cash bidders.