Fortune (June 28)
“Recent housing market indicators show persistent weakness in home prices, including consecutive month-over-month declines. That’s as housing supply has increased while demand has stayed tepid amid still-high mortgage rates hovering around 7%. The slump in prices raises the risk of a prolonged downturn.” There may be an upside to the slump. Lower prices may “make homes more attractive, potentially spurring more demand and representing some relief for younger Americans who are looking to buy but have been priced out of the market.”
Tags: Buy, Declines, Demand, Downturn, Home prices, Housing market, Indicators, Mortgage rates, Persistent weakness, Priced out, Relief, Supply, Tepid, Younger
The Guardian (June 26)
“A broken housing market is driving inequality right across Europe – and fuelling the far right.” One might think “rising costs are a problem particular to your community, city or country. But unaffordable house prices and rents are a continent-wide issue.” And it’s not confined to Europe. Across “much of the rest of the world – property has become a driving force of inequality. In turn, inequality is a driving force of resentment. Far-right politicians have tapped into this anger for their own political gain.” Although housing policies are set nationally, “the European Union can set frameworks and support access to finance…. There are solutions, and there is political will.”
Tags: Anger, Community, Costs, EU, Europe, Far right, Finance, Frameworks, Housing market, Inequality, Political gain, Prices, Property, Rents, Resentment, Solutions, Unaffordable
MarketWatch (February 26)
“The brightest spot in the housing market is fading fast.” Sales of new homes in the U.S. “fell to the lowest level in 3 months, as buyers have grown frustrated with high mortgage rates and high home prices.” The 10.5% drop in new-home sales has caused inventory to spike. “Builders are now sitting on high levels of inventory. The number of finished homes on the market in January was at the highest level since August 2009, in the aftermath of the Great Recession.”
Tags: August 2009, Builders, Buyers, Fading, Finished homes, Frustrated, Great Recession, Housing market, Inventory, Mortgage rates, New homes, Prices, Sales, U.S.
MarketWatch (February 18)
In the U.S., “home-builder confidence plunged to the lowest level in five months as concerns over tariffs and how they could raise the cost of housing weighed on the industry.” According to the National Association of Home Builders, its “monthly confidence index fell five points to 42 in February…. a significant change in sentiment among home builders” who are increasingly being spooked by Trump’s tariffs and rising material costs. “For buyers, the sentiment shift only adds to the likelihood that home prices could go up in an already expensive housing market.”
Tags: Buyers, Confidence, Confidence index, Home builders, Housing market, Material costs, Plunged, Sentiment, Spooked, Tariffs, Trump, U.S.
Washington Post (November 30)
“After years of tumult in the housing market, builders across the country are betting that looser regulations and what they hope will be an economic boom will make it easier to build and sell. They’re also hoping those tailwinds more than offset possible hazards of Trump’s agenda, including ramped-up tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China that could push up costs for materials, and aggressive immigration policies that could mean the deportations of construction workers.”
Tags: Build and sell, Builders, Canada, China, Construction, Deportations, Economic boom, Hazards, Housing market, Immigration, Materials, Mexico, Regulations, Tailwinds, Tariffs, Trump, Tumult, Workers
New York Times (April 12)
“More economists are paring their bets that the Fed will cut rates after the latest Consumer Price Index report.” The new consensus of “higher-for-longer inflation… has hit the U.S. housing market like a thunderbolt. Home prices and mortgage rates are climbing again, dashing hopes that financing costs would fall this year and adding another economic question that could hang over the presidential election campaign.”
Tags: CPI, Economists, Fed, Financing costs, Home prices, Housing market, Inflation, Mortgage rates, Rates, U.S.
Reuters (February 28)
China’s housing market seems to be approaching a paradigm shift. “The broad idea is to create a two-tier system. Local governments will rent out or sell flats below market prices to most residents, including some 300 million Chinese migrant workers who live far away from their hometowns in the mainland. Upgraders and investors could settle for a smaller private residential market, where regulators meddle less.”
Tags: China, Flats, Housing market, Investors, Local governments, Market prices, Migrant workers, Paradigm shift, Regulators, Rent, Residential, Residents, Sell, Two-tier system
Washington Post (December 2)
“The debate now is when the Fed will start cutting interest rates. Stocks ,, come by May. That would certainly help the housing market, which has frozen with mortgage rates at the highest levels in about two decades.”
Tags: Betting, Cutting, Debate, Fed, Frozen, Highest, Housing market, Interest, Investors, Mortgage rates, Rallying, Rates, Stocks
Washington Post (September 21)
“The number of previously occupied homes sold in the United States dropped by 21 percent over the past year…. That’s on top of an 18 percent annual decline the year before, indicating the housing market has continued to slow down amid rising interest rates. Meanwhile, prices continued to rise, with the median sales price climbing 3.9 percent from a year ago to reach $407,100.”
Tags: $407, 100, Decline, Homes, Housing market, Rising interest rates, Sales price, Slow, Sold, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (July 20)
“With American homeowners “reluctant to sell because they can’t afford to give up the low mortgage rates they have now,” homebuyers are increasingly turning to new construction. Just over a million existing homes were on the market at May 31, a record low. In contrast, “newly built homes accounted for nearly one-third of single-family homes for sale nationwide in May, compared with a historical norm of 10% to 20%.” This marks “another example of how this housing market is behaving like no other.”
Tags: Construction, Existing, Homebuyers, Homeowners, Housing market, Mortgage rates, Newly built, Record, Reluctant, Sell, Single family, U.S.
