Housing markets

The National Association of Realtors' index of contract signings to purchase previously owned homes edged up 0.9% to 77.6, the highest in three months, the group reported Wednesday.

But in the Mountain and Pacific regions, values ended the most recent period lower than where they were one year prior.

The rate of increase cooled for the 14th straight month in June, dropping over 10% year over year, according to CoreLogic.

Purchases of new single-family homes increased 4.4% to an annualized 714,000 pace after downward revisions to prior months, government data showed Wednesday.

Contract closings are at a 4.07 million annualized pace, close to the slowest rate since 2010.

The share is the largest on record for a second quarter, according to data from Redfin.

While the share is slightly lower than at the start of 2023, the market is not expected to slip back to lower pre-pandemic levels, CoreLogic said.

Sen. Robert Peters, D-South Shore and Rep. Debbie Meyers-Martin, D-Matteson will spearhead the endeavor.

Residential starts increased 3.9% last month to a 1.45 million annualized rate, according to government data released Wednesday.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo gauge decreased six points to a three-month low of 50. The figure was below all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

Loans to buy newly constructed properties increased by 0.2% from June and was up 35.5% compared to the year prior, the Mortgage Bankers Association found.

But that was offset by a decrease in most other residential construction materials, the National Association of Home Builders said.

Houses in the northeast and midwest got more expensive. In the South and the west, prices dwindled, according to the organization's Metropolitan Median Area Prices and Affordability report.

Favorable economic trends have helped keep homeowners current, but some signs of credit stress are also beginning to emerge, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

A report by Black Knight shows still-increasing home prices, which is bad news for prospective buyers, but good news for existing homeowners, who are gaining equity.

A shortage of listings has pushed up prices, boosting the total value of US homes to a record $47 trillion, Redfin reported. 

The news helped drive 30-year mortgage averages above 7% last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The Agency, a brokerage with a leading role in a Netflix show, names New American Funding their preferred mortgage provider, stripping that title away from CrossCountry Mortgage.

The cohort is outperforming the broader market — up more than 50% year-to-date versus the S&P 500's 18% gain. 

Active listings fell in July on an annual basis, while median home prices also showed signs of a downward trend, according to new data from Realtor.com.