Co-primary living, Building Materials & House Prices

Co-primary living

The rise of flexible working has allowed owners of second homes to stay longer, with many now viewing them as “co-primary” homes. The trend has had a big impact on popular second home locations like Aspen, where transactions surged by more than 50% during 2020.

The influx of co-primary residents from New York, Miami, Los Angeles and San Francisco has continued this year, with more high-net-worth individuals opting to call Aspen home and enrolling their children at Aspen Country Day or Aspen Public School District.

Supply is now dwindling. Aspen saw 19 new listings in August 2021 (condos and single-family homes), down from 61 a year earlier, according to Miller Samuel. This fall in inventory has seen sales dip, and 25 contracts were signed in August 2021, down from 54 in August 2020.

Building materials

The construction industry's supply chain woes are beginning to ease, according to the latest IHS Markit purchasing managers index.

The portion of survey respondents citing longer delivery times fell to 47% in November, down from 77% in June. Input cost inflation fell to a seven-month low. Last week, official figures revealed the cost of materials had climbed 24.5% during the year to October, so signs of easing are likely to have a swift impact.

November's output was the strongest since July, led by commercial work. The survey recorded a steep rise in staffing numbers as construction companies sought to boost capacity.

House Prices

House prices in almost half of the 56 markets Knight Frank tracks are rising at an annual rate of more than 10%. That's up from 13% of markets at the start of the pandemic.

The data reveals the remarkable degree to which global homebuyer attitudes have been transformed by the crisis. A peak is now in sight, however. Eighteen countries saw their rate of annual price growth moderate between June and September this year, amongst them some of the strongest performers since the start of the pandemic, including New Zealand and the United States.

After showing signs of slowing at the end of the stamp duty holiday, UK house price growth picked up again in November to hit a 15-year high, according to the Halifax house price index.

Elsewhere - Biden administration to target money laundering in US real estate market (FT), Americans’ pandemic-era ‘excess savings’ are dwindling (NYT).