By Kerry Smith While the number of homes didn’t change, it varied by region. Of the four included in NAR’s report, pending sales fell only in the Northeast but rose everywhere else. WASHINGTON – Pending home sales were unchanged month-to-month in April, according to the National Association of Realtors®’ (NAR) monthly report. Pending sales rose in three of the four regions broken out in the report, with the decline in only one region – the Northeast – dragging down the overall number. However, all four regions saw a year-to-year drop in pending sales. The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) –
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By Kerry Smith In 1Q 2023, 42.9% of sellers made a buyer concession; in 1Q 2022, it was 25.5%. Some do it to keep a transaction moving forward, others to match homebuilders’ freebies. SEATTLE – Home sellers gave concessions to buyers in 42.9% of U.S. home sales during the three months ending April 30, up from 25.5% a year earlier, according to a new report from Redfin. That’s just shy of a 45.6% record high hit in February. The share of home sellers providing concessions – things like money toward repairs, closing costs and mortgage-rate buydowns – likely inched down
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From March to April, asking rents for three-bedroom, single-family rentals rose 2.2% after months of slow price declines. But it may be just a normal seasonal increase. WASHINGTON – First, the bad news: After enjoying an all-too-brief lull in rising rents, single-family home rental (SFR) prices are once again trending upward. But according to Dwellsy CEO and cofounder Jonas Bordo, there’s a little bit of good news (okay, mitigating news) to go along with it: Rent levels generally follow seasonal cycles, and data nerds like Bordo expect them to rise along with the temperatures. “From March to April 2023, asking
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By Kerry Smith A pilot program found high levels of distress among construction workers – but many don’t want to talk about mental health, a challenge that’s hard to overcome. WASHINGTON – A pilot program focused on mental health issues in the residential construction industry confirmed the need for a more deliberate and permanent effort to reduce the stigma of discussing mental health. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) received a grant from the Job-Site Safety Institute (JSI) in 2021 to develop to raise awareness and provide resources for mental health issues in construction. NAHB used the grant to
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By Kerry Smith Inflation and higher interest rates are taking a toll. Many are cutting back on nonessential items, such as dining out, and using credit cards for must-have purchases. DALLAS – A consumer sentiment survey on spending and summer plans by ScoreSense, a credit score monitoring product, found that about half of American consumers are feeling financial stress. As a result, they’re canceling or postponing summer vacations. Most consumers said they’re cutting expenses across all areas, including dining out and entertainment – and many had used personal loans to help pay for groceries (48%), utility bills (47%), rent and
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By Brendan Farrington The lawsuit alleges that the law casts an “undue burden of suspicion” on anyone with a name sounding “remotely Asian, Russian, Iranian, Cuban, Venezuelan or Syrian.” TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – A group of Chinese citizens living and working in Florida sued the state Monday over a new law that bans Chinese nationals from purchasing property in large swaths of the state. The law applies to properties within 10 miles (16 kilometers) of military installations and other “critical infrastructure” and also affects citizens of Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Russia, and North Korea. But Chinese citizens and those selling
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By Kerry Smith Metro-to-metro variations that peaked in spring 2022 continue this spring. In Miami, for example, home prices are up 10.9%; in San Francisco, they’re down 10.1%. SEATTLE – A national home-price trend may provide a macro view of U.S. home price direction in general, but it means very little at the local level. Metro-to-metro variations in home-price growth reached a 13-year high in spring 2022, the tail end of the pandemic homebuying boom, and the variation has only dropped a small amount since then. A historic price-growth gap between San Francisco and Miami illustrates the diversity of home
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By Kerry Smith More buyers frustrated with the limited number of existing homes turned to builders for relief in April. Sales growth is notably rising in the $200K-$400K range. WASHINGTON – Sales of newly built, single-family homes increased 4.1% to a 683,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate in April. That’s up from a downwardly revised reading in March, according to new data by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. It’s the highest level of new-home sales since March 2022. “A lack of existing (home) inventory supported sales of newly-built, single-family homes in April,” says
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By Christopher Rugaber 45 economists surveyed predict a still-too-high expected inflation rate of 4.2% for all of 2023 – and they don’t think the Fed will lower interest rates soon. WASHINGTON (AP) – The Federal Reserve will make only modest progress in its fight against inflation for the rest of this year, even while keeping its benchmark interest rate at a 16-year high, a group of business economists predict in a survey released Monday. The National Association for Business Economics’ survey of 45 economists found that the median forecast is for inflation to average 4.2% this year, up from a
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By Anna Helhoski Pres. Biden and Congress say the U.S. won’t default, but it’s not like a government shutdown. Social Security could stop and mortgage rates rise. NEW YORK – A few short weeks are left for Congress – or, perhaps, President Joe Biden – to take action and lift the debt ceiling before tick, tick, tick … boom goes the economy. The so-called “X-date” – when the federal government can no longer meet its legal obligations – could be as early as June 1, according to a May 1 letter from U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to Congress. Yellen reiterated
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