Housing markets

House hunting activity also slowed in December, with home tours declining 69% from the start of the year, a Redfin report found.

The laws will go on the books later next year as part of an effort to provide builders with new tools to deal with the California's lack of land for new residential construction.

Special purpose credit programs, down payment assistance and potential mortgage insurance premium cuts came into focus over the past year.

Sales of high-end homes fell 38.1% year-over-year, per a Redfin report.

The National Association of Realtors index of contract signings to purchase previously owned homes decreased 4% last month to 73.9, the lowest outside of the pandemic in data back to 2001, according to a release Wednesday.

Prices fell 0.5% from September, the fourth consecutive monthly decline for a seasonally adjusted measure of home prices in 20 large cities, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index.

Prospective borrowers can secure significant square footage for often below $300,000 in these mostly Midwest cities, according to industry veterans.

A mid-month retreat in 30-year mortgage rates back below 7% along with an increase in builder incentives may have helped support demand.

Mortgage-purchase applications were 4.6% higher in December from a month ago, per a Redfin report.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency said it would heed the recommendation from a report by its Office of the Inspector General released this week.

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes fell for a 10th-straight month in November, extending a record decline as high mortgage rates continue to stifle affordability.

Though housing is experiencing severe rate-related stress, mortgage banking remains central to the Denver-based bank's business model. The Texas market has held up better than much of the rest of the country, company executives say.

Lower rates brought some purchasers back to the market in November but activity remains lower than one year ago, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

New U.S. home construction continued to decline in November and permits plunged as high borrowing costs paired with widespread inflation eroded housing affordability and demand.

But the lower rates of the past month did result in a $7-billion boost to its origination forecast for 2022.

U.S. homebuilder sentiment fell every month in 2022, sinking in December to a level not seen in over a decade outside of the pandemic amid elevated mortgage rates and high construction costs.

Baby boomers downsizing, millennials entering their prime homebuying years and Gen Zers going for luxe rentals in trendy cities are among the trends to watch.

The Redfin study covers property transactions between January 2021 and September 2022.

One of the biggest U.S. homebuilders is offering to sell thousands of homes to rental landlords at a time when sales to everyday buyers have slumped. 

Borrowers gained an average of $34,300 in home equity since the third quarter of last year, but that's almost half the amount of growth recorded over the summer.