For many people, their home is their primary asset. Therefore, appreciation affects its’value. The bust years of 2007 – 2011 hit some established areas – especially North, South & Central Omaha — very hard. Those areas dived worse than others.
Conversely, because of their proximity to a significantly re-energized downtown, both North & South Omaha saw greater appreciation-as much as 30% from 2016 – 2018-which is almost double the Omaha average.
Bargain-hunting began to take place. Because the devaluation was greater in older areas, buyers began scrambling to grab bargain-priced homes.
This bargain-hunting may have been influenced by the shortage of affordable homes for many first time home buyers. (Suburban Omaha has a limited supply of affordable homes and construction costs have accelerated.).
Cash purchases have increased dramatically. Schultz attributes that to low inventory and a buyer profile dominated by investors and flippers.
Since 2000, Professor Shultz estimated a leap of 47% overall with a range of 29% to 53%across the seven market segments studied.
Using the median sales prices model. Omaha’s average increase was higher than both the national average and the Midwest region. Omaha’s increase over the last year was 8% compared with 5.1 % in the nation & 2.9% for the Midwest group.
