Housing inventory

The total number of short-term rentals of entire homes in the city’s five boroughs — those listed on Airbnb Inc. and Expedia Group Inc.’s Vrbo — is more than 13,000, according to third-party data tracker AirDNA. Meanwhile, rental inventory in Manhattan, Brooklyn and a portion of Queens hovers just over 7,500, according to an April report from broker Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

Contract closings decreased 2.4% in April from the prior month to an annualized 5.61 million, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed Thursday.

Residential starts decreased 0.2% last month to a 1.72 million annualized rate after a downwardly revised 1.73 million pace in the prior month, according to government data released Wednesday.

A property management and acquisition platform for single-family landlords is going public through a blank-check merger in a bet that investor appetite for rental houses will outlast waning enthusiasm for real estate technology stocks.

Partners Group Holding AG has agreed to buy more than 2,000 rental houses owned by Fortress Investment Group, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

 In a survey released by Bank of America Thursday, respondents cited expensive home prices (56%), higher interest rates (40%) and uncertainty about affording closing costs (30%) as reasons they might hesitate to buy. 

The National Association of Home Builders asked the White House to take action to address the supply-chain disruptions that are pushing up the costs of materials and labor, in a letter sent Wednesday.

The National Association of Realtors’ index of pending home sales decreased 1.2% from a month earlier to 103.7, the lowest since May 2020, according to data released Wednesday.

The steep ascent in borrowing costs, combined with high home prices across markets, is sidelining more prospective buyers.

Despite lean inventory, efforts by builders to boost production have been hindered by supply-chain challenges, soaring materials costs and difficult hiring conditions.