By Kerry Smith Year-to-year, however, pending sales skyrocketed 51.7% since April 2020 was the start of nationwide lockdowns to fight a spreading pandemic. NAR Economist Yun says contract signings now are near pre-pandemic levels after the big surge during COVID-19 lockdowns. WASHINGTON – Pending home sales took a step backward in April, according to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR). All four U.S. regions saw year-over-year increases, but only the Midwest had month-over-month gains in pending home sales contract transactions. The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) – a forward-looking indicator of home sales based on contract signings – fell 4.4%
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By Kerry Smith The National Association of Realtors says the new partnership will “identify training opportunities … cultivate LGBTQ+ leaders and mobilize members.” WASHINGTON – The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) announced a new partnership with the LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance. The Alliance was founded June 2020 and has chapters throughout the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. According to NAR, the collaboration will allow the groups to identify training opportunities that cultivate LGBTQ+ leaders and mobilize members in support of mutually beneficial federal policies, including pro-LGBTQ+ and real estate industry initiatives. “NAR has long championed LGBTQ+ rights in the housing
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By Marla Martin The 1-time donation will help RRF develop a sustainable reserve fund. Pres. Lambert: “I’m always so proud of how Realtors respond when someone needs a helping hand.” ORLANDO, Fla. – Reaching out to help seems to be part of a Realtor’s DNA, whether it’s organizing a food drive or helping to rebuild communities after a hurricane. In that spirit, Florida Realtors® has donated $500K to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) Realtor Relief Foundation (RRF) to help it prepare for the future. “We do a tremendous amount of charitable work behind the scenes,” says Florida Realtors CEO Margy Grant.
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By Kerry Smith Despite a cutthroat market with multiple bids and successive failures to secure a home, 71% of successful pandemic-era buyers say their new home meets their needs, 75% say it was a good decision, and 45% wish they moved sooner. Only 19% say they should have waited. SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The frenzied housing market where buyers must act quickly and compete against multiple bidders prompts conversations about buyer’s remorse, but of those who successfully closed on a home during the pandemic, more than two-thirds say they found happiness, according to a survey by HarrisX sponsored by realtor.com.
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By Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy Children may move home, but many multi-gen homes are to help middle-aged adults take care of aging parents – and enjoy the benefits of trustworthy in-house babysitters. NEW YORK – When Alena Shifrin’s parents in 2014 moved in with her family of four in Mount Kisco, New York, she knew she’d have to expand her 1,200-square-foot home. Soon the Cape Cod-style home about 37 miles northeast of Manhattan underwent a major renovation and grew to 2,300 square feet. Having her parents living with her allowed her to keep a close eye on her mother, who had
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By Christopher Rugaber S&P Case-Shiller: An army of buyers competing for fewer homes pushed prices up 13.3% in March, for the biggest year-to-year home price gain since December 2013. WASHINGTON (AP) – March U.S. home prices jumped by the most in more than seven years as an increasing number of would-be buyers compete for a dwindling supply of houses. The March S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, released Tuesday, rose 13.3% from a year earlier, the biggest gain since December 2013. That increase followed a surge of 12% in February. The large gains suggest that the pandemic has spurred
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By Erica Plemmons Florida Realtors economist: Whatever the price point, buyers have fewer options this year than they did last year. But the affordable home supply suffered the most. The amount of single-family homes with a value of $300K or less declined over 60%. ORLANDO, Fla. – We’ve traveled once around the sun since the COVID-19 virus rocked the real estate world. In the early days, fears about overall market health were common, but now the problem child targeted by economists is housing inventory. Supply has been constrained for both new construction and the existing home market – that isn’t
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Rising home prices, material costs and a labor shortage have taken their toll, builders say, and more potential new-home buyers have been priced out of the market. WASHINGTON – Rising building material costs and low inventory caused new-home sales prices to jump 20% year-to-year, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). And that has hurt housing affordability and driven down the pace of new home sales. According to the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), sales of newly built, single-family homes fell 5.9% in April (863,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate), following a significant
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By Jim Turner Consumers won’t pay sales tax for many disaster supplies starting Friday, a back-to-school holiday is in Aug., and a new July holiday nixes sales taxes on leisure events. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Floridians preparing for the looming hurricane season can avoid paying sales taxes on many types of disaster gear starting on Friday, May 28, after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a $196.3 million tax package last Friday. Along with a 10-day tax “holiday” for disaster-preparedness supplies, it also includes a tax holiday for back-to-school shoppers and a “Freedom Week” tax holiday designed to encourage people to participate in
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By Dan Healing A rising cost for lumber has added thousands to the price of a new home, and an ongoing U.S.-Canada dispute could make things worse. Pres. Trump raised tariffs to 20% in 2018 and later lowered them to 9%. The Biden Admin. now proposes an 18.32% tariff. CALGARY, Canada – A move by the U.S. Commerce Department to increase preliminary tariffs on softwood lumber imports from Canada, if finalized, will raise producer costs and cut into their profits but is unlikely to affect prices to consumers of wood products, analysts say. The department’s recommendation to more than double the
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