Home Selling

Census Bureau: April New-Home Sales Up 4.1%

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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 … Read more

How Can You Downsize on a Tight Schedule?

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Most people shed possessions slowly over time, but a change in circumstances sometimes requires that it be done quickly. A three-step triage plan can help. NEW YORK – Ideally, you’d spend months or even years carefully purging excess belongings – but life may have other plans. Maybe you or someone you love has a health … Read more

A Loss of Small Banks Could Hurt Homebuyers

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NEW YORK – Canandaigua and Manhattan’s Chinatown are about as different from each other as two places in the same state can be. One is a small town in New York’s bucolic Finger Lakes region, where almost everyone is a white English-speaker. Chinatown packs nearly 10 times as many residents, many of them foreign-born and … Read more

NAR Board Meets, Approves Changes

The board met May 11 during NAR’s legislative meetings in Washington, D.C. Votes focused on the 2024 budget, dues, fair housing training requirements and more. WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) Board of Directors met in Washington, D.C. on May 11 and took the following actions: Fair housing and diversity training The … Read more

Bonds Backed by Apartments Under Stress

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Collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) offer easier terms for apartment building buyers, but their shorter terms and floating interest rates may be creating problems. NEW YORK – Defaults are rising for collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), which are mortgages packaged into bonds and sold to investors. These types of mortgages helped fuel rising housing costs across Sunbelt … Read more

More S. Fla. Homeowners Gaining Home Equity

The market slowed a bit nationally, but not in S. Fla., which is seeing slower, yet positive home value gains. About 2 out of 3 homeowners (65.3%) are “equity rich.” MIAMI – Homeowners across South Florida are seeing equity gains in their homes, despite the national housing market slowing down. About 65.3% of residential properties … Read more

NAR: March Pending Sales Decreased 5.2%

Realtors can’t sell homes that aren’t listed for sale, and NAR’s chief economist cites a lack of inventory as the prime cause of March’s drop in signed contracts. WASHINGTON  – Pending home sales decreased in March for the first time in five months (November 2022), according to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR). Of the … Read more

March New-Home Sales Jump 9.6%

Sales surpassed economists’ expectations. Builders say decreasing mortgage rates and the existing-home market’s lack of inventory probably pushed sales higher. WASHINGTON, April 25 – Lower mortgage rates and limited existing inventory helped push March sales of newly built, single-family homes up 9.6% to a 683,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate, according to data by the U.S. … Read more

S. Fla. Housing Starts Drop as Land Grows Scarce

The area has a housing affordability problem in part because a limited amount of land for development continues to sell for higher amounts of money. FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – South Florida is seeing a stark drop in the number of new housing projects expected to be developed, as the region deals with an affordability crisis … Read more

Investors Lost Money on 1 Out of 7 Sales in March

SEATTLE – Roughly one of every seven (13.5%) U.S. homes sold by an investor in March sold for less than the investor bought it for, according to a new report from Redfin. That’s comparable with February’s 14.5% rate – the highest since 2016. It’s also nearly triple the share of a year earlier and compares … Read more