National News

May pending sales report adds to positive summer housing forecasts

Less than a week after the National Association of Realtors reported stronger than expected existing-home sales for the month of May, there’s more good news for the U.S. housing market. NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index for May came in

Real estate in brief: Executive orders, home values and more

Trump seeks to prioritize affordable housing with an executive order, proposed mortgage reforms are already adding on to borrowing costs, new home sales tick lower again and more in our weekly roundup of national real estate news.

Report: Inequality is distorting the housing market

The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University released its annual State of the Nation’s Housing report for 2019 and we were on hand to get the big picture on affordability, inventory pressures, predictions for the future and more from researchers and policy experts

High-end home sales decline nationwide

In March, the luxury home market saw the largest drop in sales since 2010 with an 8.3 percent year-over-year decrease in closings, according to data gathered by Realtor.com. There were just 8,343 sales in excess of $1 million across

Looking back on 2019 predictions, a half year in

By the end of 2018, it was easy to see storms on the horizon in terms of the domestic and global economic outlook, with price growth beginning to slow and construction activity continuing to underwhelm. At the midpoint of 2019, however, we’ve already seen several surprises in the housing market, many of them on the positive side.

Real estate in brief: Investors, interest rates and more

Real estate news this week includes stories about investors growing their share of home sales, Fannie and Freddie’s support for pre-fab homes yielding mixed results, and low rates failing to be a panacea in the housing market.

May home sales improve as market forces stabilize

The latest numbers demonstrate that consumers may have responded to the combination of continuing low interest rates and newly increased inventory sooner than some watchers of the market had expected.

NAR survey adds to bullish case for home sales

An increasing number of Americans believe the situation is improving for both homebuyers and sellers, according to the latest survey from NAR.

Fed leaves interest rates unchanged, but is no longer ‘patient’

The Federal Reserve announced it would not make changes to targets for its key interest rate, but in line with some projections, the Federal Open Market Committee made significant revisions to forecasts on future interest rate adjustments in response to new concerns that economic growth is slowing.

Housing starts take a downward turn while building permits increase

Single-family housing starts fell in the Northeast, Midwest and West, but rose in the South, where majority of house building takes place. Still, there’s a reason for optimism going forward.

Lender sentiment turns positive as low rates spur demand

This is the first quarter since Q3 2016 that more respondents saw a positive rather than negative outlook for profitability, and is the second-highest margin of optimism recorded in the survey’s six-year history.

What buyers with kids are searching for

In every decision they make, parents tend to make their children their top priority. The same goes for the considerations they make when shopping for a new home. Find out how the way families search for and finance a home might differ from your single and non-parent clients.

Real estate in brief: Dreamers, blockchain and more

Dreamers are now officially being denied loans, foreclosure rates fall to a 20-year low, NAR invests in blockchain and much more in our weekly roundup of real estate news.

Confidence in the US housing market grows

Two recent measures of Americans’ confidence in the national housing market improved in the last month, showing that more homeowners as well as consumers are generally feeling more optimistic about this key segment of the U.S. economy. One of

Home flipping is down, but still very profitable in certain cities

The practice of home flipping in the U.S. is declining in strict numbers, even as it grows as a share of all home sales. The theory behind the decline is that home flippers may be pulling back due to fear of a worsening real estate market on the horizon.

Winners and losers of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

Before the passage of the Trump Administration’s tax reform measures, experts had predicted that they would disproportionately benefit those in Republican-leaning states in the South and Midwest. The latest research largely supports this prediction, with a few notable exceptions.

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