Housing markets

Industry watchers make their wildest guesses (more or less) about developments in real estate finance that could rock the industry in the upcoming months.

Despite intensified demand and plummeting inventory, consumer home purchasing power made gains behind falling interest rates in October, according to First American.

Defying a tumbling economy, worsening health crisis and early doomsayers, Bay Area single-family home prices jumped to record levels this fall as most counties saw median prices top $1 million.

Falling interest rates more than canceled out median home listing prices, reaching an all-time time high during the month, Redfin said.

The median sales price of single-family homes in Miami-Dade surged to an all-time high of $450,000 in November, the third consecutive month of setting a new record and continuing a nine-year streak of monthly increases.

High property value growth can be locked in through proximity to one of the top amenities an area can have: grocery stores.

New-home sales tumbled to a five-month low, suggesting red-hot demand is cooling amid resurgent COVID-19 cases and other signs of a slowing economy.

Mortgage applications increased 0.8% from one week earlier, an indicator of the housing market’s strength as this year comes to an end, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

While it's no silver bullet, automation with careful monitoring and testing can help lenders eliminate racial bias toward potential borrowers, the developers say.

Sales of previously owned homes fell in November for the first time in six months, suggesting that surging prices and a record-low supply are constraining red-hot demand.

Portland metro has never had so few homes for sale as seen in November, handing even more power to sellers and forcing buyers to face bidding wars or wait for more owners to list their residential property.

Southern California home prices jumped 11% in November and sales increased by 19% from last year's levels as a robust market streak continued to defy the coronavirus pandemic that saddled the region with high unemployment.

Single-family starts rose for a seventh month to a 1.186 million annualized rate that was the highest since 2007.

While the haggling tapered off slightly alongside the housing market’s seasonal slowdown, home sales remained five times more competitive than the year before, according to Redfin.

Homebuilder confidence eased slightly in December to the second-best level on record following the prior month’s peak, signaling that low mortgage rates are still giving the industry a major boost.

Home sales in the San Antonio area rose for the sixth straight month as prices continued increasing and the inventory of available houses kept tightening.

Applications for loans on newly built homes are still up considerably from a year ago, but they were down a little from October in the Mortgage Bankers Association’s latest survey.

With coronavirus inoculations underway and government stimulus likely to come, the outlook for next year’s housing market and lending environment grew more optimistic in December.

The affordable housing nonprofit's Equitable Path Forward initiative seeks to eliminate "the deep-rooted legacy of racism in housing."

The industry is now likely to top 2019's nearly $16 billion in premiums written.