“Contract transactions slowed a bit in September and are showing signs of a calmer home price trend, as the market is running comfortably ahead of pre-pandemic activity.” — NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun

Home-price gains were once again broadly distributed, as all 20 cities in the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index rose, although in most cases at a slower rate than a month ago.

It’s been a more than a year and a half of technological innovation in real estate in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency has decided to make one tool — desktop appraisals — permanent.

Pet ownership increased dramatically during the pandemic. 73% of homeowners report at least one pet in the home.

“There simply aren’t enough homes for sale relative to the demand fueled by millennials armed with low mortgage rate-driven house-buying power.” — First American Deputy Chief Economist Odeta Kushi

Who sold the most homes across Chicagoland? Which brokerages rose to the top over the last three months? Find out in our Q3 Real Data report, a collaboration with Midwest Real Estate Data LLC.

The median existing-home price for all housing types in September was $352,800, up 13.3% on an annual basis, as every region in the country registered price increases.

The decrease was driven by a 5.1% month-over-month slide in the rate of multifamily starts, while single-family construction was flat.

The number of closed sales fell 12.5% month over month, while active inventory slid 2.5% to 37,646. Median sales prices dropped 3%, but that’s still up 5.8% from September 2020. 

Zillow announced it will not sign any new contracts to buy homes until the end of the year due to a “backlog in renovations and operational capacity constraints.”

It’s been barely three months since the federal moratorium on foreclosures expired, but it’s starting to prove costly, as nationally, foreclosures are on the rise, having increased 67% from last year.

At 37 years old, the new president will be the second-youngest leader of the national nonprofit trade organization, which works to improve the homeownership rate in the Asian-American Pacific Islander community.

The median household wealth for U.S. Latinos is set to triple by 2024 — largely due to recent real estate gains. This information comes from data released by NAHREP®.

Coldwell Banker’s new group originally aimed to raise $250,000, which it did within the first six months of the year, and by October, it had more than doubled its initial goal.

The new program, DepositLink Pay, allows a broker, agent or title company to direct buyers and renters to a customized URL or a “Pay” button online to make digital earnest-money deposits and rental payments with no cost to brokers, agents or companies. 

The user of the app can monitor information about their home and local market conditions, store important documents, generate estimates for home repairs and find a local contractor for more than 1,000 different home-service categories.