Realtors are doing good business in Sioux Falls. The latest report from the Realtor Associate of the Sioux Empire shows that, in over twelve months up to May 2016, the median sales price for previously owned homes rose 6.9%, to just under $170K. New homes saw a 7.2% gain in median sales price, to nearly $227K.
The median home sales price has made up for the lost time of the 2008–2012 plateau:
But higher median prices mean less affordability. RASE reports affordability as median income divided by income required to afford a median-price house. During the recession, when the median price flatlines, median incomes apparently increased, meaning buyers could afford more house. Now home prices are catching up and bringing affordability back down, though not as low as the Bush II-era affordability index:
Lately Sioux Falls home sellers have been getting closer to their original list price in every price category under $300K:
Of course, good sales mean fewer houses available on the market—somebody better start building!
Smooth out the seasonal variations and you find that houses are spending less time on the market than they have in most of the last thirteen years:
In other news, the South Dakota Housing for the Homeless Consortium counted 436 homeless individuals in Minnehaha County in January 2016. About one out of three of those homeless folks are children. About 37% are American Indian. About 6% are veterans.
Just think what Mayor Mike could do for the entire state if given a chance in 2018. First expand medicaid and raise SD gdp by a couple of points. Make education a priority, not an afterthought. Root out corruption. Make SD Great Again!
Lord knows we’re going to need the increase in valuation of the houses to help pay for all the debt incurred during My Man Mike’s Tenure. Dude spends (and swears) like a drunken sailor. Can’t wait until he’s gone but like a bad penny I’m sure he’ll turn up again.
“Root out corruption.”
How is a crony capitalist from the credit card business going to do that?
One of the problems in Sioux Falls is that we keep tearing down low price housing as we expand commercial property. Sanford and Avera have purchased hundreds of homes over the past 15 years and most of them are torn down to make way for new buildings or parking lots. Billion Auto has also purchased dozens of properties which again were torn down to make room for bigger parking lots and more cars.
The problem is these homes were affordable. Some of those homes were sold for well under $100,000 yet nobody is able to build a new home for the same price, so those who might have been able to afford one of those homes in central Sioux Falls are now forced to rent, or at best, purchase a mobile home on a small rented lot somewhere else in town.
If the city wishes to get serious about housing, they are going to have to enact a mandate that says for every house razed, a comparable home in size, quality, and cost is built elsewhere. Without such action we will continue to see fewer low cost homes in the city, but many, many large apartment complexes. That might be good for the developers building the apartments, but it isn’t so great for the dream of home ownership.
The city of Sioux Falls has started demolition of homes they’ve bought south of 26th and west of Augustana because of chronic flooding due to additional storm water from all the Sanford development that removed land that would’ve absorbed that water. Even the massive new storm sewers put in some 10+ plus years couldn’t alleviate the additional runoff.
I share Steve Sibson’s doubts about Mike Huether’s credibility in rooting out corruption. I share Craig’s concern about maintaining affordable housing for Sioux Falls’s working class. I share Coyote’s crankiness about engineering that favors the Sanford empire and washes out regular folks.
So, we will just continue to elect the next governor that is beholden to the old governor and who has no interest in exposing his or her parties’ dirty laundry. As Dr. Phil would say, “how’s that working for ya?”