Austin, Texas, topped the list as the hottest job market nationwide for the second year in a row, according to new rankings of 381 metro areas from the Wall Street Journal and Moody’s Analytics. Nashville, Tenn., made it to the second spot, up from number seven a year ago.Austin has carved a reputation as a booming tech hub and college town that has low unemployment and high wage growth. Apple Inc. has been among the latest companies to bring m
Today, American households are more likely to include pets than children under the age of 18, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey. The share of households with kids stands at 27%, while the share of households with pets is at 68%. As a result, investors in residential real estate are targeting this large demographic of pet owners by making their rental properties more appealing and pet-friendly.Pet-friendly rentals can
Mortgage rates are falling fast, and they could sink even lower. Mortgage News Daily reported that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.34% on Monday, a rate last reached in 2012 and briefly in 2016.Long-term mortgage rates loosely follow the 10-year Treasury yield. Coronavirus fears are hitting financial markets and prompting bond yields to move lower; mortgage rates are following suit.“When rates fall this quickly, it’s not so much th
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.49% this week, Freddie Mac reports. “The low mortgage rate environment continues to spur homebuying activity, with applications to purchase a home up 15% from a year ago,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “We’ve seen new residential construction surge over the last few months, on pace to reach the highest level in more than a decade. This is a good sign for the inventory-starved
Existing-home sales have been fluctuating in recent months, but one clear trend is emerging: First-time home buyers are making a move into the housing market as low mortgage rates prove to be an enticing incentive.Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of REALTORS®, says he’s encouraged by the upturn in first-time home buyers in NAR’s latest existing-home sales report. First-timers comprised 32% of sales last month, up fr
In nearly half of federally designated “Opportunity Zone” areas, median home prices rose annually more than the national rate. Median home prices in these areas climbed 9.4% from the fourth quarter of 2018 to the fourth quarter of 2019, according to new research from ATTOM Data Solutions. Researchers examined about 3,700 zones that had sufficient sales data to analyze (those that had at least five home sales in each quarter from 2005 to 2019)
A strong economy, low unemployment, low mortgage rates, and alluring mortgage rates are making it a great time to buy a home, according to a newly released report from LendingTree, an online financial services marketplace. The amount of income that buyers spent on their mortgage payments also dropped from 2010 through 2019, despite higher home prices.“If you are in a point in your life where you’re considering buying a home today, it’s a be
Real estate investing may still feel out of reach to many consumers, but a new trend growing from startups is fostering “micro-investing” to help a new wave of investors jump in—sometimes for as little as $5.“The best portfolios are diversified, and real estate performs very uniquely, in a way that is uncorrelated to the stock market and bonds … We want to offer the same asset at a lower price point,” Janine Yorio, founder and CEO of
Economic growth helped to accelerate single-family rental prices in 2019, and that momentum is expected to continue for the rental market well into 2020, according to CoreLogic’s Principal Economist Molly Boesel.Demand remains strong as rental vacancies reached a record low in the fourth quarter of 2019, CoreLogic reports in its latest Single-Family Rent Index. U.S. single-family rent prices rose 2.9% year-over-year in December 2019.“Strong e
The number of properties for sale has hit a record low, and that could mean a tougher house hunt ahead for home buyers this spring. The housing shortage is hitting markets across the country, making places like Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y., Columbus, Ohio, and Salt Lake City feel more like the competitive housing markets and tech hubs of San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Seattle, realtor.com® reports.Realtor.com® researchers analyzed housing ma
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