Eyes on Housing
MAY 22, 2023
An expected impact of the virus crisis is a need for more residential space, as people use homes for more purposes including work. Home size correspondingly increased in 2021 as interest rates reached historic lows. However, as interest rates increased in 2022, and housing affordability worsened, the demand for home size has trended lower. According to first quarter 2023 data.
Inman
MAY 10, 2023
Agents should be prepared to answer their buyer's mortgage questions, including types of mortgages, lender guidelines, preapproval vs. prequalification and the closing process in the area.
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National Association of Realtors
MAY 8, 2023
Proper documentation can help appraisers evaluate high-performance home features. From the 2023 REALTORS® Legislative Meetings in Washington, D.C.
Housing Wire
MAY 28, 2023
Debt-ceiling drama pushed bond yields up last week, taking mortgage rates to a new 2023 high in the middle of the spring home-selling season. Active housing inventory , thankfully, saw some decent growth last week. Purchase application data had a second straight week of declines. Here’s a quick rundown of the last week: Active inventory grew 8,914 week to week, even though new listing data is still trending at all-time lows in 2023.
BiggerPockets
MAY 15, 2023
The latest data from the Emerging Housing Markets Index is out. Here are the markets that made the top 20 list.
Lamacchia Realty
MAY 5, 2023
Lamacchia Realty, Inc. has released its “Top Producing REALTORS®,” for April 2023! This program recognizes the Top 10 REALTORS® by company and the Top 3 or 5 REALTORS® by office with the highest transaction numbers or sales for the month! April 2023 Winners of the Top 10 for the Company are: Kyle Denlinger joined Lamacchia Realty part-time in 2021, and officially switched to real estate full-time in the beginning of 2022.
Property Appraisal Zone brings together the best content for appraisal professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Inman
MAY 8, 2023
It can be hard to know which type of photographer will show up at your property. Here are some best practices to ensure your listing (and your client) are set up for success.
National Association of Realtors
MAY 24, 2023
Real estate professionals need to consider both the complexities of the market and the different valuation methods when measuring the effect of a harmful property condition or stigma.
Housing Wire
MAY 17, 2023
The best way to fight inflation and get lower mortgage rates is to get more apartment units finished, and so far, this has been slower than my tortoise Grundy. One of the most frustrating data lines since COVID-19 has been housing completion data. Of course, we all understood the delays during the pandemic, but those days are over. We need to ramp things up and so far, it hasn’t been spectacular.
BiggerPockets
MAY 17, 2023
The looming debt ceiling is worrisome, as the economic implications that follow a possible default are unprecedented and could be catastrophic for all sectors, including real estate. Here's what you need to know.
Housing Wire
MAY 18, 2023
Just when I thought days on market were returning to normal, that number for existing homes fell back down to 22 days. Why is this so important to me? If the days on the market are at a teenager level or even lower, it’s never a good sign for the housing market. I would say it’s savagely unhealthy to have that level and even though we’re not there yet, we are dangerously close.
Housing Wire
MAY 10, 2023
Did you hear that sound? That’s the entire mortgage industry shouting, “hip, hip hooray!” The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) on Wednesday announced that it would rescind a controversial loan-level pricing adjustment (LLPA) for conventional borrowers with debt-to-income (DTI) levels at or above 40%. The FHFA, which regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , had previously delayed implementation of the DTI LLPA from May 1, 2023 to August 1, 2023 following a chorus of upset fro
Housing Wire
MAY 10, 2023
The massive inflation and double-digit mortgage rates of the 1970s and early 1980s seem to haunt the Federal Reserve , which wants to cool the economy and even provoke a job-loss recession to avoid that scenario. But the latest Consumer Price Index inflation report shows how the fear of 1970s-style inflation is wildly overblown. Today’s numbers don’t look like the 1970s at all, when rent, wages, and oil shocks sent inflation running hotter than anything we have seen in recent modern-day hi
Housing Wire
MAY 23, 2023
In a country with more than 330 million people, there are only 70,000 new homes available for sale today in the U.S. housing market. And with total active house listings in America near all-time lows, that is all we have for completed units for sale. The number of new homes doesn’t ever get into the millions, but we are still working our way back to the pre-COVID levels of 80,000 to 100,000.
Housing Wire
MAY 21, 2023
It was a wild ride for the housing market last week! The 10-year yield rose noticeably, sending mortgage rates near 7% right in the heart of the spring selling season. New listings data fell, however, active inventory grew. And purchase apps had a weekly negative print, continuing the 2023 theme of higher rates impacting the data. Here’s a quick rundown of the last week: Total active listings grew by 3,809 weekly, but new listings are still trending at all-time lows.
Housing Wire
MAY 7, 2023
Just when I thought it was safe to say we were getting more traditional spring housing inventory , we hit a snag last week, as active inventory and new listings declined. Hopefully, this is just a blip, which can occur from time to time with weekly data. We had a lot of drama over the week between Federal Reserve meetings and banking stress, and mortgage rates and purchase applications both fell.
Housing Wire
MAY 5, 2023
Is the labor market finally normalizing? Jobs Friday data came in as a beat of estimates, but the labor market is clearly starting to come back to earth, killing the fear of 1970s wage spiral inflation. We’ve had a good week’s worth of data to show that the Federal Reserve is starting to get what it wants if you know where to look. The headline jobs data beat estimates, but we did have 149,000 negative revisions to the previous month’s data.
Housing Wire
MAY 23, 2023
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives recognize that the wave of loan-repurchase requests represents an added challenge for lenders who already have a stretched balance sheet. However, Fannie Mae’s position is that the loan-repurchase increases are an economic problem, not an underwriting process issue. Meanwhile, Freddie Mac said it’s in talks with lenders to address the problem through a more customer-focused approach.
Housing Wire
MAY 14, 2023
The rise of active listings in this spring housing market reminds me of a zombie slowly rising from its grave. Yes, we found the seasonal bottom for housing inventory on April 14, but this year’s rise in active listings has been tepid at best. Here’s a quick rundown of the last week: Total active listings grew 662 weekly, and new listing data is still trending at all-time lows.
Housing Wire
MAY 30, 2023
A duo of bipartisan U.S. House of Representatives lawmakers introduced a bill earlier this year that is designed to increase the supply of available homes on the market. And in order to bring more attention to the issue, the lawmakers recently made a public push about what the bill would do if passed. The “More Homes on the Market Act,” unveiled in March by Reps.
Housing Wire
MAY 22, 2023
Residential mortgage industry analysts and executives continue to see challenges ahead. For starters, the banking crisis is still unfolding, impacting the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) space, reducing jumbo loan offerings, and putting pressure on commercial real estate companies. Even if the U.S. debt limit impasse is solved, the U.S. can face a downgrade to its long-term debt, which would bring significant consequences to the overall economy.
Housing Wire
MAY 23, 2023
In my last market outlook for HousingWire, published in January , I offered two predictions for the early 2023 retail housing market based on forward-looking Auction.com bidding behavior from the fourth quarter of 2022: A home price correction nationwide and in the majority of major markets Home sales volume bottoming out While both predictions have played out in large part (more on that below), bidder behavior on Auction.com in the first quarter turned a sharp corner, indicating a robust reboun
Housing Wire
MAY 16, 2023
Homebuilder confidence is continuing to trend upward this spring, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) report, released Tuesday. In May, home builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes rose to an index value of 50, an increase of five points from the April reading.
Housing Wire
MAY 22, 2023
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced on Monday the appointment of Richard J. Monocchio to serve as its new principal deputy assistant secretary (PDAS) for Public and Indian Housing (PIH). Monocchio most recently served as executive director of the Housing Authority of Cook County, a role he served in for 12 years. He began high-profile work in the housing sector as deputy housing commissioner for the city of Chicago under the administration of Mayor Richard M.
Housing Wire
MAY 4, 2023
A paradoxical picture is emerging as the spring market is underway. On the one hand, elevated mortgage rates continue to erode buyers’ purchasing power, and in some markets, home prices are falling. On the other hand, inventory is still low, and homes are still selling fast, often with multiple offers. All major housing market metrics point to a restrained housing market.
Housing Wire
MAY 3, 2023
The institutional single-family rental (SFR) market has expanded rapidly over the past decade as an alternative to homeownership, but it is now facing major headwinds in the form of a rapid jump in interest rates and still-high inflation compounded by decelerating home prices and rental rates. That’s the takeaway from a recent analysis of the sector by Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA), an analysis that also is echoed, in part, by a recent report from ATTOM , a leading curator of real estate data.
Housing Wire
MAY 3, 2023
The Federal Reserve affirmed on Wednesday that its next key federal funds rate hikes will depend on incoming data. In turn, economists and housing industry experts have now turned their attention toward the June meeting, as that decision will dictate the future movement of mortgage rates. The Fed’s move on Wednesday was well anticipated and should not cause a major shift in mortgage and other interest rates, experts noted.
Housing Wire
MAY 30, 2023
Low housing inventory and still-strong demand kept prices high in March, according to the latest according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index , released Tuesday. The annual growth rate in March 2023 was up 0.7%. On a month-over-month basis, the index was up 1.3% before seasonal adjustment. This was the second month-over-month increase following seven consecutive month-over-month decreases.
Housing Wire
MAY 22, 2023
Rocket Mortgage introduced a new 1% down home loan program aiming to target more than 90 million borrowers. Rocket’s new product comes on the heels of rival United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) rolling out a similar program. Dubbed ONE+, a buyer using this program who’s purchasing a single-family home, and whose income is equal to or less than 80% of their area median income (AMI), is only required to make a down payment of 1% of the purchase price.
Housing Wire
MAY 22, 2023
Setpoint , a real estate funding platform, acquired Resolute Diligence Solutions to support proptech and single-family rental re-engagement in the market, the firm said. Resolute Diligence Solutions is a due diligence provider that partners with banks, lenders and originators to ensure each deed, title or lease is verified and reported accurately against financial statements.
Housing Wire
MAY 18, 2023
Despite a marked improvement from the fourth quarter of 2022, independent mortgage banks (IMBs) and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks still lost a mountain of money in the first quarter. On average, IMBs reported a net loss of $1,972 on each loan originated from January to March, a 35% improvement from the reported loss of $2,812 per loan in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
Housing Wire
MAY 12, 2023
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed a brief this week with the U.S. Supreme Court contending that its funding source does not violate the appropriations clause of the U.S. Constitution, despite a recent Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling stating otherwise. With its brief, the CFPB is seeking to overturn the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Community Financial Services Association of America Ltd. v.
Housing Wire
MAY 10, 2023
Payroll connectivity platform Argyle announced this week that it has grown the number of its consumer verifications 100% year over year and has welcomed over 35 new customers so far in 2023. The company offers direct-source data portability tools for mortgage, lending, banking, background and tenant screening, and other use cases. “We’ve packaged five years of learning and innovation into our next-gen platform to continue automating critical workflows, reducing business risk, and pro
Housing Wire
MAY 8, 2023
Mortgage lender and servicer NewRez on Monday launched a special purpose credit program through Freddie Mac that will provide $3,000 or more in closing cost assistance to qualifying first-time homebuyers. Freddie Mac’s BorrowSmart Access program will be available to NewRez borrowers through Caliber Home Loans ‘ national network of branches.
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