“The housing market is off to a good start this year,” says NAR’s chief economist.Real estate pros likely will see more sales this year, as the end of 2023 may have set the stage for kicking off brighter days ahead for the housing market for 2024. Pending home sales posted an 8.3% increase in December. Pending sales are picking up a stronger pace than a year earlier, too, up 1.3% annually, shows the National Association of REALTORS®’ Pen
Stabilization in borrowing costs is easing home shoppers’ affordability concerns.Mortgage rates, which have settled in the 6% range, barely budged this week, giving potential home buyers more confidence to shop for real estate. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.69%, marking the sixth consecutive week of holding steady, Freddie Mac reports.“Given this stabilization in rates, potential home buyers with affordability concerns have jumpe
The number of ‘cost-burdened’ renters hit a record 22.4 million in 2022 — up 2 million households from just three years before, according to a new studyRent has never been less affordable — for tenants with high and low incomes alike — even while costs for new leases are finallycooling off.Half of American renters spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs — a key benchmark for affordability — with the financial str
Amid a tight supply of homes for sale and fluctuating interest rates, a welcome bright spot is emerging in the Twin Cities housing market. Single women are showing up at Open Houses and then at the closing table as a larger percentage of home buyers. And they are doing it at a faster pace and larger percentage than their male counterparts. According to Census data, in Minnesota 12.2 percent of homes are now owned by single women, contrasted
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday said a funding lifeline created for banks last year after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank threatened to spark a wider financial crisis would close as scheduled in March.The Fed also raised the interest rate on new loans from the Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP) for the remainder of its life, effectively ending what had become a popular and profitable arbitrage opportunity for U.S. lenders, which analysts said
The US economy remained shockingly robust in the fourth quarter to close out a remarkably strong 2023 as consumers and businesses continued to spend, crushing expectations of a recession.Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic output, rose at a seasonally and inflation-adjusted annualized rate of 3.3% from October through December, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.That was slower than the blistering 4.9% rate from July t
Lakshman Mody looks at how artificial intelligence is helping shape the way that properties can be marketed like never before.Residential estate agency marketing, traditionally reliant on physical staging, is undergoing a digital revolution and at the forefront of this change is the introduction of virtual furniture staging powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI).The evolution of estate agency marketing has been significantly influenced by t
The number of apartment spaces being created in office buildings across major cities this year has risen to over 55,000, four times higher than the 12,100 under conversion in 2021, according to a new report.The 55,339 office-to-apartment makeovers scheduled for this year mark a record high, according to the RentCafe report released Monday. The report cites surging demand for residential space and nearly $150B in office
Existing-home sales likely bottomed out in December, says NAR’s chief economist, who predicts brighter days ahead.Existing-home sales fell to their lowest level in nearly 30 years in December—but that didn’t cool red-hot home prices, with the median price reaching an all-time high of $389,800, the National Association of REALTORS® reported Friday.Existing-home sales—which include completed transactions for single-family homes, townhomes,
Although U.S. women still trail men when it comes to pay, they are pulling ahead financially in one important way of building wealth: homeownership. A recent study from LendingTree shows that single women own 2.7 million more homes than their male counterparts, with roughly 13% of those women holding the titles to their homes, compared to 10% of men. "A home for most people is going to represent the biggest portion of the
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