U.S. Housing Market Reaches $55.1 Trillion, Zillow Reports

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America’s homes are now worth a record $55.1 trillion, a massive $20 trillion jump since the eve of the pandemic, according to a new analysis from Zillow, Seattle.

But the Zillow report noted growth has slowed in the past year as high costs cooled buyer demand, with U.S. housing gaining a modest $862 billion during that time.

“Even as buyers struggled with rising costs, U.S. housing wealth kept climbing,” said Orphe Divounguy, senior economist at Zillow. “New construction opened the door for many first-time homeowners, creating trillions in wealth that didn’t exist five years ago. Home value gains are a windfall for longtime homeowners, but they also highlight how housing deficits that sent prices soaring left behind many aspiring first-time buyers.”

Divounguy noted “we need more homes to solve our chronic affordability crisis.”

Housing Gains Move North as Sun Belt Loses Steam

Zillow said the housing market is shifting. “Pandemic boomtowns in the South and Mountain West are cooling, passing the baton to states in the Northeast and Midwest,” the report said. “One likely factor is that the Sun Belt’s affordability edge has eroded through massive home value gains and rising insurance costs.”

Since early 2020, the largest total value gains have been in California ($3.4 trillion), Florida ($1.6 trillion), New York ($1.5 trillion) and Texas ($1.2 trillion). But three of those four lost ground in the past year: Florida’s housing market fell by $109 billion and California’s by $106 billion.

“New York, on the other hand, was part of the Northeast revival, gaining $216 billion over the past year,” Zillow said. “That is the biggest increase of any state, and it accounts for one-quarter of the national growth. Neighbor New Jersey was not far behind, gaining $101 billion, followed by Illinois ($89 billion) and Pennsylvania ($73 billion).”