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That’s a whole lotta house: The $33t housing market has appreciated by 49% since 2012
- March 1, 2019: Vol. 6, Number 3

That’s a whole lotta house: The $33t housing market has appreciated by 49% since 2012

by Mike Consol

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After gaining another 6.2 percent in 2018, the booming U.S. housing market has reached a total value of $33.3 trillion, a 49 percent, $10.9 billion increase in just seven years. During 2018 alone, the housing market accumulated another $1.9 billion in value.

The statistics, compiled by Zillow, show that one-third of the market’s $10.9 trillion gain since its housing-bust low in 2012 has come from California, while the New York City metro area’s $3 trillion housing value makes it the most valuable in the country, representing 9.1 percent of the country’s total value.

California’s housing value has climbed $3.7 trillion since its nadir in February 2012. What’s more, four of the country’s 10 most valuable markets are in California — Los Angeles, up 5.2 percent to $2.9 trillion; San Francisco, up 9.3 percent to $1.6 trillion; San Jose, which gained 10.4 percent to $799.6 billion; and San Diego, up 3.4 percent to $673.5 billion. No other state has gained more than $1 trillion during the period researched.

“The housing stock in some pricey metro areas is so valuable, in fact, that the total value in one market often eclipses that of all housing in an entire state,” reports Zillow. “For example, all homes in the Washington, D.C., metro are worth a combined $892 billion, which is more than the values of all homes in 40 individual states, including Colorado ($833.8 billion), Arizona ($708.1 billion), Ohio ($695 billion) and Oregon ($451.8 billion).”

To underscore the enormity of wealth tied up in the U.S. housing market, Zillow compared it to the gross domestic product of entire nations. In total, the United States’ $33.3 trillion housing market is equivalent to the combined GDPs of the United States ($19.4 trillion), China ($12.2 trillion) and Canada ($1.7 trillion).

Zillow also noted that even housing values in individual U.S. metros dwarf entire countries’ economies.

 

Mike Consol (m.consol@irei.com) is editor of Real Assets Adviser. Follow him on Twitter @mikeconsol to read his latest postings.

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