If you spent the month of December wrapping up Christmas presents instead of moving boxes, you are not alone. Existing-home sales dropped 1.0% compared to the previous month to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 3.78 million, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) . Even though the holidays are not known to be the height of real estate activity, primarily owing to busy schedules and cold...
Supply chain woes, dwindling qualified workforce, pricey materials, local red tape, angry neighbors…the list of reasons why homebuilders may not look at the future with rose-tinted glasses goes on and on. However, things may look up as mortgage rates start cooling down. As mortgage rates descended below 7% in January, builder confidence surged seven points to 44, according to the National Association...
Will they? Won’t they? Reduce interest rates, that is. 2024 is the year experts (and many Americans) eagerly wait for the Federal Reserve Bank to end its aggressive monetary policy and begin to cut interest rates. However, Fed officials have consistently been adopting a more conservative approach, and with good reason. Cutting back interest rates too early could easily cancel the progress made over the...
Happy New Year! We are back on our regular schedule after a two-week break with a recap of the indicators you may have missed during the holidays. Fall and winter may be known as a relatively slow season in real estate compared to the rush of spring and summer. However, property prices continued their upward trajectory in October, breaking new record highs in several regions despite mortgage rates...
It may be time to put champagne in the fridge to celebrate the holidays, but also the possible end of the aggressive interest rate hiking policy initiated by the Federal Reserve Bank in March 2022. As was widely expected, the Fed opted to keep interest rates unchanged for the third time in a row after its last meeting of the year, maintaining its policy rate to a range of 5.25% to 5.50%, as it has...
Inflation may be showing signs of cooling down, but the white-hot US job market has been a thorn in the side of the Federal Reserve Bank in its effort to curb rising prices. With employers competing to fill positions and retain workers, wages have increased, driving up prices for goods and services. However, the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey published by the Labor Department shows that...
If you thought you had already seen how high property prices could go, think again. According to both the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) seasonally-adjusted monthly House Price Index (HPI) and the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index, price tags continued their vertiginous ascent in August, defying seasonal trends. The FHFA HPI, which measures changes in single-family home values based on data...
October brought in some good news on the inflation front. According to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, prices for goods and services rose by 3.2% over the past year, down from the 3.7% figure reported in August and September. For the first time since July 2022, prices were flat compared to the month prior. In addition, the so-called core CPI—a...
If you thought you had already seen how high property prices could go, think again. According to both the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) seasonally-adjusted monthly House Price Index (HPI) and the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index, price tags continued their vertiginous ascent in August, defying seasonal trends. The FHFA HPI, which measures changes in single-family home values based on data...
Mortgage rates continued their dizzying climb toward a decade-high in September, discouraging some potential house-hunters. However, for those who have no choice but to bite the bullet, newly built homes may be an option. According to Freddie Mac, mortgage rates reached 7.79% on average for a 30-year fixed-rate loan, up from 7.63% the previous week. Elevated mortgage rates obviously took a toll on...