How Red State/Blue State Differences in Housing Might Tip the Election

We've listened to the pundits, suffered through the debates, scrutinized the polls, and squinted at that ever-changing electoral map. Everyone, it seems, is desperately trying to get a true read on what's going to happen, in one of the most bitterly contentious presidential elections our nation has ever seen.

There is no shortage of critical issues hanging in the balance: the pandemic, the economy, national health insurance, climate change, race relations, oh my! It seems at times that the United States has never been more sharply divided.

But where do the deeply etched red-state/blue-state splits really come from? And how much can the huge housing differences across the nation tell us about how we got here—and where we're going? We turned to the data to find out.

Realtor.com analyzed eight major housing indicators, to see how greatly they diverged between red, blue, and swing states.

To come up with findings, realtor.com® analyzed internal data to come up with metrics for home and rental price, price appreciation, home size, and inventory. We took the age of homes and the homeownership rate from U.S. Census Bureau data. The second-home information came from Optimal Blue, a real estate data firm specializing in lending information.

We can't pinpoint the exact cause of the rancor that's developed between many Republicans and Democrats. But we can look at the substantial housing differences that may be contributing to the divide. They include everything from blue-state denizens paying a whole lot more for their homes and rentals, to those in red states having larger homes to live in.

"Life can be really different, depending on where you live," says realtor.com's chief economist, Danielle Hale. "That's reflected in different real estate norms, and it has a role in how you view your life and your priorities and values."

She adds, "Owning a home literally gives people a stake in the ground, and that seems to translate into [more of] an incentive to vote."

The analysis identified 20 red states, 17 blue states plus Washington, DC, and 13 swing states. We used Politico's designations to break out swing states. They included Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.

So as President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden enter the homestretch, what are the some of the biggest housing differences between red, blue, and swing states that might help push them to the finish line?

1. Where are home prices the highest—and the lowest?

Red: $249,650*
Blue: $424,500
Swing: $310,698

Home prices are top of mind for just about everyone. A strong housing market has traditionally been a sign of a strong economy. This year, everything is topsy-turvy, though, with home prices shooting up to new heights in most of the country, despite a recession.

2. Where have prices risen the most since the last presidential election?

Red: 30.9%**
Blue: 26.5%
Swing: 35%

Home appreciation, a nightmare for first-time buyers and a godsend for sellers, is strongest in the current swing states, which tend to be going through a demographic shift.

Many of these purple places have become the new 'It' areas to be. They have growing job markets, creating all kinds of new opportunities; lots of culinary, cultural, and recreational amenities; and lower prices than the big cities on the coasts.

3. Where has the number of homes for sale fallen the most since the 2016 election?

Red: -54%**
Blue: -49%
Swing: -59%



The historic lack of homes on the market has become one of the biggest challenges for buyers. Even those with steady jobs, hefty down payments, and the ability to secure a mortgage with record-low rates are struggling to find a home of their own.

The number of properties for sale is down the most in swing states, for the same reasons why home appreciation is the highest there: They're becoming increasingly desirable places to live, so they're attracting new residents. Builders can't keep up with the demand. So it's tougher to find a home, and prices are rising.

For more housing indicators, to see how greatly they diverged between red, blue, and swing states, visit Realtor.com.

Related Links

• Luxury Housing Market Inspires Frenzy in Vacation Boom Towns

• From Shopping Mall to Retirement Village...Outdated Spaces Fulfilling New Needs

• How the Pandemic is Shaping Interior Design So Far

Luxury Housing Market Inspires Frenzy in Vacation Boom Towns

In the third quarter, luxury home sales jumped 41.5%, the biggest year-over-year shift since 2013, according to Redfin.

And while real estate agents repping luxury homes aren’t seeing as many bidding wars as they did this summer, their respective housing markets are still crazy right now.

“What we’re seeing here in Palm Beach is a total frenzy,” Dana Koch, a sales associate with Corcoran Group, the Koch Team in Palm Beach, told HousingWire. “I’ve had many conversations with clients of mine from late April through early July, the market was total pandemonium. And, since early July to now, it’s just getting very busy.”

A recent report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel revealed that the average Palm Beach home price in Q3 was $7 million. Contracts during this time also skyrocketed 62%.

While the Palm Beach housing market has not seen a lot of bidding wars, Koch said that a lot of the inventory has been absorbed and properties are getting multiple offers.

Since it’s a summer destination, Palm Beach’s busy season for home-buying starts on Nov. 1, and runs through May 1. Koch said that since this summer — typically the home-buying off-season — was busy for buyers, he thinks it will only get crazier.

“We normally average roughly like $200 plus million on an annual basis, and during the first three quarters, we’ve sold $350 million worth of real estate,” Koch said. “So it’s been a crazy year. It’s been a very profitable year.”

Over where the weather is colder, Steven Shane, a Compass real estate agent in Aspen, Colorado, said that buyers are coming from all over Texas, Florida, New York and California.

Shane said that schools in Aspen have increased their enrollment, as families are putting their roots down where they can have more space.

“I think that there’s a lot of people who rented, put their kids into school, and now, interest rates are so low, if you think about it, it makes a heck of a lot more sense to buy something than to pay rent,” Shane said. “So a lot of the people who came here initially may have rented just to get a place and now are looking to buy a home.”

From hiking to skiing and fishing, Shane said that people want to be able to get out and be able to stretch their legs if they’re working from home, and they can do that in Aspen.

“People learned that they can work from anywhere,” Shane said. “For the most part, people can work remotely, and their children might be attending school remotely. So why not be in Aspen, Greenwich, Connecticut, or the Hamptons?”

Speaking of the Hamptons, as of Q3, home sales in the area have increased 51% year over year, according to another report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel. Gary DePersia, a broker with the Corcoran Group in East Hampton, said that the market is extremely busy right now at all price levels.

“We’ve had quite a few deals above $10 million, above $20 million and above $40 million,” DePersia said. “So, there’s activity all over the place.”

DePersia said that there are definitely bidding wars in his housing market, especially with more people coming out from the city and trying to live in the Hamptons full time.

On the day HousingWire spoke with DePersia, he had six showings. “For a Thursday in October, that is a lot of showings.

“At this time of year we get a lot of showings on the weekend and very few during the week,” DePersia said. “Now we’re getting a lot of showings. It’s not uncommon for us to have three, four or five showings on a weekday of my various listings, or buyers coming out and looking for things with me. So that’s something that’s changed dramatically.”

DJ Grubb said he’s seeing a lot of activity in the higher end of the housing market where he is in the East Bay area in California, including all-cash buyers and buyers taking advantage of the lower mortgage rates.

“I have a lot of people moving within town, and a lot of Millennials coming out of San Francisco, that having just gone through COVID that are now coming over to the East Bay and finding the East Bay a very good buy, whether it be in the million five range or up to $5 million range,” Grubb said.

Grubb, the president of Grubb Company Realtors, said that even though people are moving into his communities, people are moving out, too. The “wealthy, wealthy” are moving to the likes of Aspen, Colorado; Jackson Hole, Wyoming; and the Tahoe area.

In the Lake Tahoe area, Amie Quirarte said that there are lots of Bay Area residents who fled to the vacation town, creating not only an increase in sales but also an increase in rentals.

“It’s been a really interesting summer, to say the least,” the agent at Tahoe Luxury Properties said.

In the past, it wasn’t unusual for houses in Quirarte’s market to sit on the market for 30 days and sometimes 60 days without much movement, causing a decrease in listing prices.

“In that respect, [it has] shifted tremendously,” Quirarte said. “Now we’re seeing nearly every offer is almost all cash, and if they’re not cash then they have at least waived their financing contingencies including their loans and they have the ability to compete with cash offers. And many people, more this summer than any other time in my career, people have waived contingencies altogether, which is very unheard of for our market. Very, very unique.”

Miami Realtor Ines Flax, with One Sotheby’s International, said her housing market is heating up this winter.

“Some houses are getting multiple offers, which [we] haven’t seen that in a while,” Flax said. “Especially in the high-end luxury market.”

Miami is another destination to benefit from the big city exodus caused by the pandemic. Flax said that she thinks her market will be busier this winter than last winter, and said both public and private schools in the Miami area have had triple the amount of students applying.

“We used to have five of the [mega mansion] sales a year in Miami Dade…and now we’ve seen 20,” Flax said. “Just five sold on Star Island within the last six months. The cheapest sale on Star Island was like $19 million, and that was a plot.”

To read more, visit Housing Wire.

If you are wondering how current national and global situations might be impacting your property’s value, your neighborhood, or the Real Estate market in general, we are happy to provide more specific information.

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

From Shopping Mall to Retirement Village...Outdated Spaces Fulfilling New Needs

Pat and George Ritzinger moved five years ago to a community that few would initially consider a retirement mecca: a former shopping center site in Wayzata, Minnesota.

They had spent the previous 15 years living in a town house development in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area yet found the atmosphere chilly.

“The neighbors were unfriendly,” George Ritzinger, 85, said. “It was a struggle to organize social gatherings. Watching garage doors open was the main excitement.”

In their current community, Folkestone, they can walk to shopping and other amenities and engage in numerous activities. A bonus: They are close to family.There is little denying that a vast amount of retail space is emptying during the coronavirus pandemic — 25,000 stores may close by the end of this year — all while the over-65 population is increasing by about 10,000 a day.

So even though arena-like malls and strip shopping centers might never see another Sears, J.C. Penney or Lord & Taylor store, some are being transformed into something more interesting: comprehensive upscale retirement complexes.

Born and raised in the Philadelphia suburbs, the Ritzingers moved to the Twin Cities in 1974 for his job as a sales executive for DuPont. After living unhappily in a 16-unit town house complex in nearby Eden Prairie, they decided to move; George Ritzinger created a spreadsheet to keep track of places that had the features they desired.

Besides being close to shopping, dining and recreation, the couple can hop on a Folkestone bus that takes them around town. And George Ritzinger can keep up with his woodworking hobby in the community’s wood shop.To accommodate residents during the unforgiving Minnesota winters, skyways connect the three senior buildings in the expanding development.

“Wayzata is a delightful place,” Pat Ritzinger, 84, said. “We can look out on a lake, and our sons and grandsons are nearby.”

Keep reading.

---

If you are wondering how current national and global situations might be impacting your property’s value, your neighborhood, or the Real Estate market in general, we are happy to provide more specific information.

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

Search for Homes in Colorado

Search for Homes in Oklahoma

How the Pandemic is Shaping Interior Design So Far

The pandemic has caused a sea change in how we live, work, and recreate—seven months later, here’s how that’s impacted our homes.

In January, Dwell identified the 10 interior design trends that would rule 2020. While the team predicted statement tile, organic shapes, and cane detailing, what they couldn’t foresee was how the COVID-19 pandemic would fundamentally transform our relationship to home.

As we clock seven months of lockdown, Dwell reached out their designers to see how the pandemic has reshaped our interiors so far. What are clients prioritizing, and what new trends are emerging as a result? What’s becoming clear is that 2020 has brought a renewed focus on function and flexibility on top of aesthetics as we navigate a new normal.

1. Heavy-Duty Home Offices

For many, working from home has gone from a rare perk to a company mandate as traditional offices remain closed. As interior designer Jessica Helgerson reports, "Our office has been designing home offices for decades, but who ever thought our clients would actually work there—I mean really, really work there, five days a week, week after week, month after month?"

Previously, Helgerson explains, most clients looking for a home office envisioned it as a much more casual space to pay bills, check emails, or look up a recipe. Now, home offices are souped up with large work surfaces, comfortable task chairs, and expanded storage space to support much heavier usage.

2. Remote-Learning Spaces

With school transitioning to Zoom as well, having multiple designated workspaces at home is becoming essential to reduce distraction. Whether it be a room converted to a home office or a remote-learning nook within a larger area, clients need clear workspaces for everyone in the household.

"Now, many understand the need for having a dedicated space with boundaries (and probably sound-rated acoustic doors) to achieve deep work," says architect Matthew Hufft in a post on what he describes as the future boundary. "The home office may not be a big oak–clad traditional space, though. New furniture may allow these spaces to become more like objects or pods, floating in a backyard or attached to a garage."

3. A New Focus on the Foyer

Entryways, foyers, and mudrooms are getting extra attention these days as people become more cognizant of maintaining sanitary areas and clear divisions between outdoors and in. 

"A renewed focus will be placed on thresholds, such as the foyer and mudroom—those spaces that allow one to enter from the outside world, take off their shoes, and wash their hands," says Hufft. "Of course, these spaces are not new per se, but we will see a renewed emphasis on their design. They will grow and become much more functional. And the awkward request for a guest to remove their shoes will no longer be awkward…it will just be the accepted norm." 

4. Biophilic Design 

From large windows and sliding doors that bring the outside in to greenery and nature-inspired colors, design that enhances our connection to the environment will be key to boosting mental and physical wellness as we hunker down in our homes.

"A stronger connection to nature during this time has become essential, especially for city dwellers," says designer Nina Blair. "For homes to be places of refuge and safety, we should choose colors that promote peace, wellbeing, and this connection to nature [as well as] textures that are less about display and more about comfort and cocooning."

5. Hotel-Inspired Amenities 

Since travel and vacation plans are still largely on hold, homeowners are looking for ways to make home feel like a retreat, prioritizing spa-like bathrooms and places for relaxation that take cues from hospitality design.

6. Creative Partitions

With most of our daily lives confined to the home, the importance of having separate spaces for different activities has tempered the rise of totally open floor plans. Screen walls and other dividers will help define spaces for flexible use.

7. Multiuse Bonus Rooms

Homeowners are taking advantage of underutilized basements, bedrooms, and garages, recasting them as bonus spaces for working out, watching movies, and other activities that keep the family entertained during a pandemic.

8. Outdoor Entertainment Areas

With restaurants, bars, and other venues becoming tricky to navigate—if not shut down entirely—our homes and backyards have become community hubs for loved ones to hang out at a responsible social distance.

"Home outdoor living spaces fill a void of missed outdoor experiences and enables safer get-togethers with friends and neighbors," says principal Thomas Schaer of SHED Architecture & Design.

Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention, and the pandemic’s impact on interior design can be best summed up as a deepened focus on well delineated, adaptable spaces. 

"It’s forced us all to rethink the importance of home," says Blair. "It was always somewhere we lived, but in recent times we’d lost connection to what it always used to do: sheltered us, protected us. Homes had become possessions to show off, or bases to spend our times elsewhere. That all changed this year. All of this underscores the profound importance of design [that’s] not just about the surface, but the function and the meaning."

Related Links

• 5 Things to do this Weekend to Get Your Home Ready for Winter

• Top 15 Cities for Millennial Renters

• Urban-Suburban Offices Present Opportunity In A Remote Work World

5 Things to do this Weekend to Get Your Home Ready for Winter

Preparing Your Home to Stand Against the Cold, Snow and Ice of Winter

With cold weather heading toward much of the country, you'll likely want to ensure that your home is ready to deal with the hazards of winter weather like ice, snow and cold temperatures. Don't assume that just because everything seems to be in good shape now that you won't experience any problems over the course of the winter.

Here are some minor repairs and different inspections you can do to ensure that your family stays warm and dry through winter:

Foundation Inspection

Walk around the external foundation of your home to look for cracking, crumbling or other signs of decay. Loose, weak or broken foundation cement or bricks can let in moisture that could cause serious damage in the months ahead. Inspect the inside foundation for similar problems and call a specialist to repair any damage before cold weather arrives.

Furnace Updates

Schedule an annual maintenance visit with an HVAC expert to keep your furnace working efficiently. If it's getting old or worn out, it may be time to consider a new furnace installation to keep your home comfortably warm through the winter months. You don't want your heating system to give out during the winter over a weekend when an HVAC technician's emergency visit costs more than a regular weekday appointment.

It's easier to have a new furnace installed while the weather is still mild instead of waiting for a snowy, icy day when the driveway might be slippery and snow could get tracked through the house. You'll appreciate the peace of mind of having an up-to-date, reliable furnace that can supply the heat your family needs.

Roof Repair

Strong winds or heavy rain can damage a roof over the summer without you even knowing it. Have a professional roof inspection done to check for missing or broken shingles, deteriorating gutters and downspouts, or a missing chimney cap. Don't wait until several inches of icy snow has piled on your roof and caused a leak in your home. Have any needed repairs done now before the weather turns frigid.

Plumbing Checkup

Drippy faucets or clogged drains can cause water buildup or mold growth. For problems like these that you may have been ignoring or if it's been a while since your plumbing was checked, contact a plumber for an evaluation of your water lines and pipes. Make sure the plumbing is insulated adequately so your pipes won't freeze and burst in the freezing temperatures.

Caulk Around Windows and Doors

If the gaps between siding and window or door frames are bigger than the width of a nickel, you need to reapply exterior caulk. (Check the joints in window and door frames, too.) Silicone caulk is best for exterior use because it won’t shrink and it’s impervious to the elements.

Check window-glazing putty, too (which seals glass into the window frame). Add weatherstripping as needed around doors, making sure you cannot see any daylight from inside your home.

Have these important home features checked out now so you can rest easy when fall turns into winter. Inspections, assessments, repairs and replacements will keep your home operating comfortably and safely!

---

If you are wondering how current national and global situations might be impacting your property’s value, your neighborhood, or the Real Estate market in general, we are happy to provide more specific information.

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

Search for Homes in Colorado

Search for Homes in Oklahoma