Housing starts continued to underperform in March, despite calls from the housing industry to build more to help inventory-starved markets. Total housing starts fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.14 million in March, the lowest since May 2017, the Commerce Department reports. Starts are 14.2 percent lower than a year ago. “Despite signs of stabilization of confidence in the marketplace, housing affordability continues to be a concer
Homes near charging stations for electric vehicles command higher sales prices, according to a new analysis from realtor.com®. Researchers found that the combined median listing price for areas that are most accommodating to electric vehicles is $782,000—1.5 times more than their surrounding areas and 2.6 times higher than the rest of the country.“Our data shows there’s definitely a link between the prevalence of electric vehicle charging
Monday is Earth Day, and your clients can do their part to protect the environment and save on utility bills. Going green can also make a difference at resale: 69 percent of real estate professionals say promoting energy efficiency in listings is “very” or “somewhat valuable” in a home sale, according to the latest REALTORS® & Sustainability Report.Ply Gem, an exterior building product firm, outlines the following six-step
Existing-home sales fell 4.9 percent in March, with all four major regions of the U.S. seeing a decline, the National Association of REALTORS® reported Monday. The drop follows a surge in sales the previous month. “It is not surprising to see a retreat after a powerful surge in sales in the prior month,” says NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “Still, current sales activity is underperforming in relation to the strength in the job markets.
For the third week in a row, mortgage rates inched upward, but economists were quick to reassure home buyers and potential refinancers that rates remain still remain well below year-ago averages.“After dropping dramatically in late March, mortgage rates have modestly increased since then,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “While this week marks the third consecutive week of rises, purchase activity reached a nine-year high
Lenders have been much less likely to approve same-sex couples for a mortgage than heterosexual couples, according to a new study released by Iowa State University’s Ivy College of Business. Researchers analyzed national mortgage data from 1990 to 2015 and found the approval rate for same-sex couples was 3 to 8 percent lower.Researchers also factored in details about applicants’ work history and creditworthiness to see if the denial rates sti
Online shopping has surged in popularity, but don’t count brick-and-mortar stores out. Consumers still want to shop, in-person.Nearly 80 percent of consumers say they visited a store as much as or more than they did two years ago, according to a new consumer survey results conducted by ICSC, a global resource for the retail real estate industry.“We are social beings and consumers have always valued the community experience that brick-and-mort
Institutional investors with large rental portfolios have been receding from the market, making way for more small investors to find buying opportunities. You may see more everyday home buyers showing interest in investment purchases, and they’ll need your guidance to learn how to look at their real estate choices from a different perspective. Oliver Somoza, CEO of real estate development firm Turnkey Property Pro, offers three tips to help
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Nearly one in four millennial buyers say they want to buy a home before deciding to tie the knot, according to a new study from LendingTree.Young adults are getting married later in life. In 1980, the median age of a first marriage for men was 24.7 and 22 for women; by 2018, those numbers rose to 29.8 for men and 27.8 for women.But young adults—those between the ages of 22 to 37—say they aren’t waiting on homeownership for marriage, accordi
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