WASHINGTON–While home prices have continued to rise in ways that have led some to worry over another real estate bubble, Freddie Mac has issued a statement saying there is no reason to be concerned.
While recent Case-Schiller data show the housing market is now just 4% below its all-time high in 2006, Freddie Mac said that the price-to-income (PTI) ratio is a clear indicator of long-term sustainability of house prices.
Nevertheless, some U.S. markets are now showing PTI ratios that are much higher than the nation as a whole, and those markets appear in clusters. The 10 metropolitan areas with unusually-high PTI ratios include Raleigh and Charlotte in North Carolina; Jacksonville, Orlando, and Miami in Florida; Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio in Texas; Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco/San Jose.