Housing inventory

Pending sales of previously owned US homes rose in March by the most in more than a year as a brief dip in mortgage rates and a rising supply of houses brought out spring shoppers.

The real estate industry is at the forefront of a lobbying blitz to sway Congress to preserve the carried interest tax break that President Donald Trump wants to abolish in a giant tax bill pending in Congress.

Sales of previously owned US homes fell in March by the most since 2022 as buyers remained constrained by high mortgage rates and prices.

Homebuilding industry CEOs said tariff impacts would likely be felt in the back half of the year, but affordability concerns are applying pressure now.

Purchases of new single-family homes increased 7.4% in March to an annualized rate of 724,000, mostly driven by a surge in the South, according to government data released Wednesday.

Housing starts in the US fell in March by the most in a year, as weak demand from high prices and mortgage rates gives builders little confidence to break ground.

US homebuilder confidence barely rose this month on a pickup in current sales, though demand expectations stumbled to a more than one-year low and prices of construction materials are climbing on the heels of higher tariffs. 

One of the biggest culprits is the CFPB's qualified mortgage rule and the ever-expanding debt-to-income ratios allowed under it, writes a co-director of the AEI Housing Center.

The so-called spec home, a spin on the American dream home with standardized color schemes and toilet fixtures, is falling out of favor with some US builders.

New residential construction increased 11.2% to an annualized rate of 1.5 million in February, according to government data released Tuesday.

Measures of current sales of single-family homes and prospective-buyer traffic, dropped to their lowest levels since the end of 2023.

Tariffs, the employment pool and requirements to tap financing are potential roadblocks that need to be addressed in order to increase new builds.

President Donald Trump said he would plow ahead with new tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting Tuesday, a broadside against the two biggest US trading partners that underscores his push to remake global trade.

A Commerce Department investigation will examine whether exporters like Canada, Germany, and Brazil are dumping lumber into US markets at the expense of American economic prosperity and national security, officials said.

Purchases of new single-family homes decreased 10.5% last month to a 657,000 annualized rate, according to government data issued Wednesday.

A national gauge of prices rose 3.9% from a year earlier, according to data from S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller.

Shares of all 18 members in the S&P Composite 1500 Homebuilding Index fell, sending the gauge to the lowest intraday level since December 2023, after results from luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc. and key construction data Wednesday indicated the residential real estate market may be in store for more turbulence. 

New residential construction decreased 9.8% to an annualized pace of 1.37 million last month, slipping after a nearly 16% surge in December, according to government data released Wednesday.

Builder confidence had surged following Trump's election win but home financing costs stuck around 7% in recent months have sapped demand and sent builder stocks tumbling.

A $1 billion assessment announced Tuesday for California's FAIR Plan, the state-mandated insurer of last resort, is expected to drive up premiums as companies will likely pass some of the costs onto homeowners.