Housing markets

As home prices surged in 2020 due to shrinking inventory and raging demand, sellers received the highest returns on investment since at least 2005, according to Attom Data Solutions.

The Long Island resort towns saw 803 completed deals in the fourth quarter, the most for any three-month period in data going back to early 2005.

While financing costs are still low enough to offset sticker-shock from rising home prices, a slight increase in the average 30-year conforming rate weighed on borrowers, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

With Americans gobbling up homes in the suburbs, a scarce inventory of properties to purchase has met surging demand to drive up prices.

Sales of previously owned homes increased unexpectedly in December, capping the best year for the housing market since 2006 as historically low mortgage rates helped power demand.

In a year beset with a pandemic, tornadoes and civil unrest, one bright spot that emerged in 2020 was a residential real estate market that enjoyed record-high sales and home prices in Chattanooga, Tenn.

For the 10th straight year, annual home sales in Central Texas and the median price of those sales surpassed the year-before totals, with 2020's records coming despite the global coronavirus pandemic.

Home construction starts rose for a fourth-straight month in December to the best pace since late 2006 as builders responded to the robust demand for single-family housing.

Homebuilder confidence slipped to a four-month low in January as firms became slightly less optimistic about sales against a backdrop of higher house prices and construction costs.

Bottomed-out mortgage rates cut listing times and housing inventory while sales volume and average prices jumped annually.

Despite mortgage rates expected to rise modestly in 2021, a bolstered Biden administration stimulus package and COVID-19 vaccination efforts bring promise for economic recovery.

The pandemic-fueled exodus from New York City propelled nearby Westchester County to its strongest year for home sales in more than two decades.

Mortgage rates, whose movements until now had not reflected gains in the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield, rose 14 basis points this week, according to Freddie Mac.

Cash offers are taking priority in the Boise, Idaho, area, shutting out homebuyers who need a conventional mortgage.

For eight years after the Great Recession, home prices in metro Atlanta climbed steadily but slowly. Since mid-summer, they have been soaring.

Housing values are outpacing record-low rates and that’s hurting the entry-level homebuyers, but down payment programs and other traditional measures to assist them may only drive prices to greater heights, according to former Freddie Mac CEO Don Layton.

Metro Denver's housing market ended 2020 with a bang, popping the roof with a record-high number of home sales and busting through the basement with the fewest listings available for sale.

December’s housing market sentiment hit a seven-month low, indicating that inventory could be further constrained by sellers waiting for a better time to list, according to Fannie Mae.

Continuing a trend seen during the pandemic, the number of existing homes — excluding condos and townhomes — in the Las Vegas Valley dropped 11% from November.

As housing and lending companies try to eradicate racism and bias from their industries, automated valuation tools could help reach that goal, according to the American Enterprise Institute.