There's no question about it: the price of homeownership has become downright staggering. Median home prices surged 7% in the first quarter, a 38% increase over the same period in 2020.
"That's basically off the charts, and it's driving a variety of questions," says John Chang, senior vice president and director of research services at Marcus & Millichap. Chief among them? Whether we're in a housing bubble.
"I don't think so – bubbles are generally driven by speculation and in the case of the last housing bubble, very lax underwriting," Chang says. He adds that pace of construction was a key factor leading up to the last bubble, just prior to the Great Financial Crisis: between 2003 and 2010, 2.8 million more housing units were built than the number of households that were formed.
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