Housing markets

A slower rate of appreciation looks more likely than depreciation in most markets, according to the company’s latest report.

Household formations, looser credit and an improved economy will overcome higher rates — and even the inventory shortage.

There are more than 60 banks and other firms financing flippers today, according to AlphaFlow, an investment firm that buys real estate loans from lenders. That’s an increase of almost 50% in a little more than two months.

But building permits near an almost 15-year high point to further gains in home construction in the months ahead. The data coincide with still-elevated homebuilder sentiment as the industry works to replenish lean inventory and meet housing demand.

Apart from saving more money, millennials prefer to spend their savings on a home down payment, Zonda economist Ali Wolf said.

As one of the few mortgage firms that finances singlewides, AFR’s decision to offer the product will lend momentum to major government-sponsored loan buyers’ efforts to expand their manufactured housing programs.

The gap between those that considered it a good or bad time to buy narrowed 10 percentage points in February, the tightest spread since last April, Fannie Mae found.

After the coronavirus spurred a great migration in search of literal greener pastures, homebuyers are returning to cities with the end of the pandemic in sight, according to Redfin.

With the pandemic’s radical disruption of the housing market, values grew at the highest rate in eight years, according to CoreLogic.

The number of home listings collapsed to the lowest level on record, leaving “nearly all of the shelves empty,” Glenn Kelman said in the company’s latest home sales report.

A gauge of U.S. pending home sales fell to a six-month low in January as buyers competed for a limited number of properties.

Purchases of new single-family homes increased 4.3% to a 923,000 annualized pace in January from an upwardly revised 885,000 rate in the prior month, government data showed Wednesday.

Berkeley is the latest city looking at opening up exclusive neighborhoods to more housing as the region struggles with exorbitant rents and home prices and increasing homelessness.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index of property values climbed 10.1% from a year earlier, beating the median estimate of 9.9% in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

“Sales could be even higher,” if more homes were put on the market, NAR’s chief economist Lawrence Yun said

While sales shot up from the same time last year, inventory reached its lowest level since Remax started its National Housing Report in 2007.

With pandemic conditions in place for a second spring, lenders and brokers discuss the indicators that will reveal whether the market is shifting away from the traditional selling season to one that runs hot throughout the year.

The growing popularity of the company’s websites and apps has earned the company record profits during the fourth quarter, with adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $170 million, according to a statement on Wednesday.

The reduction currently under consideration by the Biden Administration would lead to even faster home price appreciation, especially in areas with moderate FHA presence, American Enterprise Institute’s Housing Director of Research Tobias Peter says.

But the average amount for a purchase loan increased to an all-time high, showing the upper end of the housing market remains strong.