Pending home sales in February grew 1.6%, according to the National Association of Realtors®. The Midwest and South posted monthly gains in transactions while the Northeast and West recorded losses. All four U.S. regions registered year-over-year decreases. The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI)* – a forward-looking indicator of home sales based on contract signings – increased to 75.6 in February. Year over year, pending transactions were down 7.0%. An index of 100 is equal to the level of contract activity in 2001.
“While modest sales growth might not stir excitement, it shows slow and steady progress from the lows of late last year,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “Ongoing job gains are clearly increasing demand along with more inventory.” Pending Home Sales Regional Breakdown The Northeast PHSI decreased 0.3% from last month to 63.4, a decline of 9.0% from February 2023. The Midwest index soared 10.6% to…
Posted On Thursday, 28 March 2024 08:02 Written by
Buyers must earn nearly twice as much as before the pandemic to afford the typical starter home, due to the one-two punch of high prices and mortgage rates. One sliver of hope: Affordability of starter homes is slowly improving after hitting a low point at the end of 2023. Homebuyers must earn $75,849 annually to afford the typical U.S. starter home as of February, up 8.2% ($5,767) from a year earlier, according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage. The monthly housing payment for the typical U.S. starter home was $1,896 in February, also up 8.2% from a year earlier. The income necessary to buy starter homes is increasing from a year ago due to rising prices and mortgage rates: The typical starter home sold for $240,000 in February, up 3.4% year over year, and the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 6.78%, up from…
Posted On Thursday, 28 March 2024 05:27 Written by
According to the latest LendingTree survey of nearly 2,000 Americans, 6 in 10 live in a region with their preferred climate. Of those who don’t, 20% say they’re eyeing a move to their preferred climate in the next year. Here's a closer look at our findings.
61% of Americans reside in a region with their ideal climate, with Westerners (72%) and Southerners (67%) the most content. For 37% of Americans, this was by design, meaning they factored in climate when deciding where to live. Among those who don’t live in their ideal climate, 36% cite proximity to family and 26% cite cost of living as what’s keeping them away.  1 in 5 of those who don’t live in their preferred climate plan to move there in the next year, including a third of Gen Zers. However, 29% of Americans have previously moved for a better climate to later realize they…
Posted On Sunday, 24 March 2024 14:29 Written by
First let me start out by saying I am not an attorney and all the views here are my own opinions based on the public information and conversations I have had with those in the industry. The recent settlement between NAR and the DOJ contains many items that will need to be addressed and dealt with, all before July 2024 if we are to believe the initial reports. That said, there is more information to cover than we can possibly review in a short blog post, but here are some of the highlights I have spotted and will cover more deeply in future posts. •  This settlement only covers members of NAR and those companies that have completed LESS than two billion dollars in transactions. •  Since not all agents and companies are members of NAR, they are NOT covered by this agreement, but they likely will be affected by it…
Posted On Monday, 25 March 2024 00:00 Written by
Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.87 percent. “After decreasing for a couple of weeks, mortgage rates are once again on the upswing,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist. “As the spring homebuying season gets underway, existing home inventory has increased slightly and new home construction has picked up. Despite elevated rates, homebuilders are displaying renewed confidence in the housing market, focusing on the fact that there is a good amount of pent-up demand, an ongoing supply shortage and expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut rates later in the year.” News Facts The 30-year FRM averaged 6.87 percent as of March 21, 2024, up from last week when it averaged 6.74 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.42 percent. The 15-year FRM averaged 6.21 percent, up from last…
Posted On Friday, 22 March 2024 08:34 Written by
The world population today is a little less than 8 billion people, and this number will only increase in the coming years — A definite Hard Trend future certainty. It is estimated by industry experts that by the year 2050, the population will reach around 9.7 billion people. Along with this increase in population comes an increased demand for basic human necessities, such as food, clean water, clothing, and shelter. And connected to all these basic human necessities is the need for more energy and energy storage solutions. What do we need to produce more food? Energy to run farm equipment. What do we need to supply clean water? Energy to run a water treatment plant. What does producing more clothing require? You guessed it — Additional manufacturing plants that again require energy.
Population and the need for energy go hand in hand, and like all trends, this presents an interesting…
Posted On Tuesday, 26 March 2024 00:00 Written by
Housing supply is finally rebounding as sellers get used to elevated mortgage rates, but it’s not rebounding enough to curb home price growth. High housing costs mean many house hunters remain hesitant to commit. New listings jumped 3.8% month over month on a seasonally adjusted basis in February to the highest level since September 2022, according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage. They were up 14.8% year over year, the largest annual gain since May 2021. Active listings, or the total supply of homes for sale, hit the highest level in a year. They climbed 0.8% from a month earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis, and were little changed (-0.1%) from a year earlier–the smallest annual decline in months. New listings rose fastest from a year earlier in Texas and active listings rose fastest in Florida–the two states that have been building the most…
Posted On Sunday, 17 March 2024 06:55 Written by
-- Freddie Mac  today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.74 percent. “The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage decreased again this week, with declines totaling almost a quarter of a percent in two weeks’ time,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist. “Despite the recent dip, mortgage rates remain high as the market contends with the pressure of sticky inflation. In this environment, there is a good possibility that rates will stay higher for a longer period of time.” News Facts The 30-year FRM averaged 6.74 percent as of March 14, 2024, down from last week when it averaged 6.88 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.60 percent. The 15-year FRM averaged 6.16 percent, down from last week when it averaged 6.22 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 5.90 percent. {loadmoduleid…
Posted On Friday, 15 March 2024 10:24 Written by
It cannot be disputed that your cash cow may have brought your organization success in the realm of profit for years. But does that mean it will be the best business strategy to stick with throughout 2024? Truthfully, the answer here has always been “yes and no” because the reality is not rooted in Either/Or — It is Both/And world! As new companies emerge and your well-established competition pursue new innovations, they are bound to bring new solutions to the table. You cannot afford to try to push the same old product or service alone when both your competition and the world is transforming around you!
If you have become one of those business owners who say to yourself, “I can either rely on what has worked in the past and count on it to continue to perform or I can abandon that success to pursue something completely new”, this is where your thought…
Posted On Tuesday, 19 March 2024 00:00 Written by
Are we there yet? No, not just yet! For months now we have seen social media and the “experts” share their thoughts on why rates would be going down significantly. This has caused many in our industry to predict lower rates and talk about 5%, even 4% or lower rates to come. The issue with that is that while lower rates may be in the future, many have hung their hats on this and are now suffering the fact that mortgage rates have yet to make that move as they had expected. While rates are certainly lower than they were last fall, far too may people are thinking about rates that are still far below where we can actually deliver today, and this is causing some people to miss out on opportunities to have bought a home and locked in a PRICE, while maintaining the ability to refinance later if…
Posted On Monday, 18 March 2024 00:00 Written by
New listings rose 13% from a year earlier, their biggest increase in nearly three years, but home prices and mortgage rates remain elevated The median U.S. monthly housing payment was $2,686 during the four weeks ending March 10, just $30 shy of last October’s all-time high, according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage. That’s due to a combination of still-high mortgage rates and rising prices. While mortgage rates came down slightly this past week after increasing for four straight weeks, they’re still near 7%, and sale prices are up 5% year over year nationwide. On a local level, prices increased in all 50 of the most populous U.S. metros, the first time that has happened since July 2022. High housing costs are still pricing out some would-be homebuyers, with pending sales down 6% from a year earlier. But more house hunters are wading into…
Posted On Thursday, 14 March 2024 06:43 Written by
The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP®) released the 2023 State of Hispanic Homeownership Report (SHHR) today, which examines the progress made in the last year toward the organization's mission of increasing sustainable Hispanic homeownership. the Hispanic homeownership rate grew to 49.5 percent, representing a significant milestone. Despite confronting what has been recognized as the most challenging housing market in terms of affordability on record, Latinos achieved a notable net gain of 377,000 owner-households, marking the largest single-year increase since 2005, spanning nearly two decades. Despite formidable obstacles such as soaring interest rates and dwindling housing inventory, resilience prevailed. Hispanic homebuyers demonstrated adaptability by relocating to more financially viable regions, leveraging co-borrowers in their financing arrangements, and capitalizing on specialized local programs, all contributing to realizing their homeownership aspirations. "The resilience and determination demonstrated by Latino homebuyers in 2023 are truly remarkable. Despite facing unprecedented market conditions, Latinos…
Posted On Tuesday, 12 March 2024 06:10 Written by
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