Southern Comfort: First-Time Home Buyers Will Find More Favorable Conditions in the South
First-time home buyers looking for friendly market conditions would do well to avoid the busy, headline-making markets in the West and the Northeast, and focus their search instead on homes in slower-moving, more sedate Southern and Midwestern metros.
Rapid Reaction: April 2017 Jobs Report
After a late bout of wintry weather put a damper on hiring in March, employers bounced back strongly in April, adding enough jobs to bring the unemployment rate down to its lowest level in a decade.
What’s the Best Time of Year for Home Buyers?
The start of the busy home shopping season in early spring is a time of optimism for would-be home buyers – more new listings come on the market in spring than any other time of year. Come late spring, however, that optimism may turn into desperation as fear of missing out on the season’s newly listed homes leads many to pay more for a home than they otherwise may have.
A Picture’s Worth: Are Home Buyers From China Competing With Americans?
Almost a third of Chinese home shoppers focus on six expensive coastal markets -- and they're overwhelmingly interested in higher-priced homes than U.S. home shoppers.
Retail Jobs, Under Fire, Play an Important Role in Paying the Rent
American retail workers have had a rough start to 2017, with department stores and general retail shops shedding tens of thousands of jobs in Q1. And continued losses could imperil hundreds of thousands of households that depend on the income from a retail worker to pay the rent or mortgage each month.
Are Home Buyers From China Competing With Americans?
Almost a third of Chinese home shoppers focus on six expensive coastal markets -- and they're overwhelmingly interested in higher-priced homes than U.S. home shoppers.
How Rising Rates Affect Mortgage Affordability
If rates rise to 5 percent and homes continue to grow in value as expected, the share of income spent on a typical U.S. mortgage will jump to 17.9 percent. At 6 percent interest, the share becomes 20 percent. And at 7 percent interest, it becomes 22.2 percent.
Without Spending More, Some Renters Could Likely Afford to Buy Above-Average Homes
With rents continuing to climb and mortgage rates staying low, many renters find themselves gazing over the homeownership fence and wondering if the grass really is greener.
Recent Uptick in U.S. Homeownership Stalls in Q1 2017
After two consecutive quarterly gains, the recent upward swing of the U.S. homeownership rate stalled at the start of 2017.
Rapid Reaction: Q1 2017 Homeownership Rate
The Q1 2017 homeownership rate ticked down to 63.6 percent from 63.7 percent at the end of 2016, a statistically insignificant dip largely driven by a small drop in the number of owner households and small increases in the number of renter households.
