Home prices

Home prices in 20 U.S. cities rose in November at the slowest pace since early 2015, decelerating for an eighth straight month as buyers balk at the ever-receding affordability of properties.

Jan. 22--Home sales in metro Baton Rouge were 5.3 percent lower in 2018 than the year before, but home prices continued to rise as did the inventory and days on the market.

Property values have continued rising across the country, but six cities bucking the national trend are leading a shift in the housing market, which could lessen affordability hurdles for homebuyers, according to First American Financial Corp.

The median home price in the city of Santa Fe in 2018, based on sales over the year, came to a record $370,000, surpassing the prerecession peak of $360,000 in 2007.

The percentage of first-time homebuyers financed through builder D.R. Horton's in-house mortgage unit has risen notably as market trends have driven it to intensify its focus on lower-priced housing.

Plans to begin rating securitizations backed by fix-and-flip mortgages may help lenders create new capacity and satisfy growing demand for short-term financing of house flipping projects.

The number of home sales in New Hampshire in 2018 hit a three-year low, echoing a nationwide slump, but local Realtors are confident the housing market remains healthy.

The Austin area's housing market continued its record-breaking pace in 2018 with both the number of homes sold and the median sales price of those homes reaching all-time annual highs.

As homebuyers try to get more for their money and flee the expensive coastal housing markets, the largest jumps in annual home appreciation took place all around the country's interior, according to Zillow.

Home sale prices in Connecticut got a welcome bump up in 2018, but overall prices are still far below the peak prior to the last recession a decade ago.

For many first-time homebuyers, former renters and downsizing baby boomers in the Twin Cities metro, 2018 was one of the most challenging on record.

The real estate industry is expecting homebuilders, with the aid of local governments, to add more financially attainable starter homes to the market and ease burdens for buyers, according to Redfin.

Rising mortgage rates will only be "a mild deterrent" to home purchase activity during 2019 as other indicators like price and demand will cancel that out, according to Standard & Poor's.

The Colorado Springs housing market will remain strong in 2019, but should strike a fairer balance between buyers and sellers, one local real estate expert says.

The stock market's volatility during December helped to improve the potential for existing-home sales, although housing's performance remains well below its capacity, First American Financial said.

Sales of previously owned homes fell to the slowest pace in more than three years, falling short of estimates and indicating that the housing market remained in a slowdown as the year ended.

It may have been a rocky year for the stock market and parts of the economy, but in the Toledo housing market 2018 was surely the best of times.

California's housing market ended 2018 on a down note, with sales for 2018 as a whole down for the first time in four years and home price gains showing signs of leveling off.

Fewer houses getting sold helped gains in inventory and brought down the rate of sales price growth to wrap up 2018, according to Redfin.

Metro Denver's housing market saw sales slide and prices continue to rise last year, and that pattern dominated across much of the state, according to the Colorado Association of Realtors.