Housing markets

Likely homeowners have two focuses when deciding on the gadgets they factor into property purchase decisions, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

The Fed's short-term rate cut hasn't lowered 30-year mortgage rates, which have been flat, but some buyers had reasons to act sooner rather than later.

Just because millions of empty properties are located in U.S. cities, it doesn't counter the fact that an inventory shortage exists, or fix it, LendingTree said.

While rate-and-term refinance locks boomed, the rise in purchases also was telling as it was the first since the Fed started raising rates, Optimal Blue said.

Despite rising consumer confidence in the housing market, declining mortgage rates, alone, don't seem to be able to lure home buyers in, two new reports find.

Stephen Scherr starts this week as co-president at Pretium, a major landlord of U.S. single-family homes founded by his former Goldman colleague Don Mullen.

The top five cities have an average rate of housing units that were owner-occupied in 2022 of 70.32%.

Most of the investment community overall showed more favorable sentiment toward one presidential candidate than the other, but a subset of it begs to differ.

National issues such as the economy are prominent. But so are local concerns like a $10,000 limit on deductions for state and local taxes and high housing costs.

Buyers aren't necessarily responding to greater inventory and lower mortgage rates.

Mortgage applications were up and rates were down in the wake of the Federal Reserve's interest rate cut, but experts wonder will that be enough to counteract higher housing prices.

Homes are 4.4% more affordable, the first annual improvement in years, while first-time buyers with lower incomes can qualify for a median priced house.

The top five states have more than 403,000 housing units approved to begin construction in 2024, according to LendingTree.

Some recipients of the new multimillion-dollar funding announced this week include several organizations partnering with historically Black colleges and universities.

New single-family home sales decreased 4.7% last month to an annualized rate of 716,000 after rising at the fastest pace since early 2022, government data showed Wednesday.

"A slight upward turn reflects a modest improvement in housing affordability, primarily because mortgage rates descended to 6.5% in August," NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a prepared statement.

Affordability improved for a fourth straight month, but questions remain about whether recent trends will bring a significant number of buyers into the housing market.

The state, with the support of its Realtors, will be mandating that real estate salespeople have a contract with the home seekers they are representing.

While real estate agents have softened their opinions on the National Association of Realtors commission settlement, almost two-thirds remained opposed, a Clever RE survey found.

A letter from several U.S. senators asked Director Sandra Thompson to follow the lead of her counterparts at other government-housing departments with similar rules already in place.