Housing markets

In spite of an improving economy, acute competition and supply scarcity soured homeshoppers on the purchase market in April, according to Fannie Mae.

Scrolling Zillow has become a go-to activity for Americans stuck at home pondering real estate upgrades as low interest rates and a shortage of homes to buy fuel the pandemic housing market.

Residential value growth in March reached heights not seen since the lead up to the housing bubble, according to CoreLogic.

As consumers search for homebuying advantages, local lenders discuss the 12 metro areas where it’s more affordable to purchase a property rather than rent a comparable house, according to Realtor.com data.

Mom-and-pop residential real estate investors are seeing more competition from citizens looking to buy homes than from their traditional competitors, large public institutional investors, according to a new survey from real estate data firm RealtyTrac.

“Low inventory has been a consistent problem,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the NAR, said in a statement. “With mortgage rates still very close to record lows and a solid job recovery underway, demand will likely remain high.”

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is dismissing claims that loose monetary policy has led to rising home values and shrinking inventory and insists that the market is buoyed by creditworthy borrowers and investors.

Despite home purchasing power growing for the 14th consecutive month in February, rising property values and mortgage rates are likely to influence would-be sellers to stay put, according to First American.

Property values climbed 12% in February, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index.

The end of the refinancing boom and impending rise in rates are not the only challenges lenders face. As one observer put it, they "can't make loans on homes that don't exist."

Even in the best-case scenario, it would take 45 years to achieve an equal amount of housing-related capital between Blacks and whites.

While government protections currently shield most borrowers and delay process timelines, a growing backlog is likely to hit some areas of the country worse than others.

Purchases of new single-family homes increased 20.7% last month to a 1.02 million annualized pace after an upwardly revised 846,000 rate in the prior month, government data showed Friday.

The ritzy east end of Long Island is somehow still throwing up more high-end listings to meet demand.

“We know that home prices have been rising, mortgage rates inching higher, housing affordability becoming much more challenging, however I would say the softening sales activity is not due to demand going away,” Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.

The busiest season for home buying took off with a bang last month, as fierce competition among buyers drove prices up and sales soared to one of the highest levels in years.

At the metro level, Buffalo, N.Y., had the worst undervaluation for Black-owned homes at 86% followed by 72% in both Memphis, Tenn., and Indianapolis, Redfin found.

As listings were snagged at near-record speed, inventory hit yet another new low point, according to Remax.

The city is working with a nonprofit that aims to sell some of the city's most affordable houses to lower-income buyers rather than developers.

The market appears to be undergoing a shift away from refinances and remote operations, but the top producers interviewed for this article don’t plan to abandon either any time soon.