A new quarterly report from HSH.com, a mortgage research firm, says metro Denver's housing market is close to failing. Median-priced homes in Denver are $166,000 higher than the national median-priced home.
According to HSH.com vice president Keith Gumbinger, the one thing keeping Denver's market from failing is that the median household income is currently slightly more than $80,000, per the most recent Census data. Some failed markets include San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles, "where the median home price has detached from the median family income," The Denver Post reports. Yet, the Post adds, that Denver home prices are rising faster than incomes, and mortgage rates increased "sharply" over the past two months.
Lenders have accepted a larger share of outside debt like car and student loans when it comes to qualifying borrowers. And they are willing to take smaller down payments, but that comes with a trade-off. A borrower putting only 10 percent down on the median-priced Denver home would need to show a salary of $92,768.45. And mortgage insurance payments also come into play.
