February Home Sales Likely Held Back by Wintry Weather, Rising Rates, Limited Listings
Persistently and relentlessly tight inventory, rising mortgage interest rates and a series of nasty winter storms likely combined to keep February home sales activity muted, especially sales of existing homes.
In Wake of California Drought, Listings Touting Water-Efficiency Evaporate
A relative flood of home listings advertising water-conservation features in the Golden State during the worst of the California drought appears to have dried up somewhat with the rains’ return.
Most Affordable Markets for Homebuyers
Markets that seem affordable, because their median home price is lower than other areas, may actually be unaffordable for people who live there. Oklahoma City, Pittsburgh and Indianapolis top the list of metros that pass a more realistic test.
New Data Finds Homeowners Struggle When Selling, Despite Hot Market
Selling in today’s hot market still leads to a lot of stress – and regret – among home sellers. The newest data on the seller experience -- and some first-person accounts -- show it’s not all rainbows and “Sold” signs.
Mortgage Rates Focus Shifts from Fed News to Geopolitical Risk
Political and geopolitical developments have seized markets' attention, driving mortgage rates up. Fed news implying a faster pace of interest rate hikes lingered in the background.
Best Markets for First-Time Homebuyers
It's getting harder to find areas with a healthy balance of affordable home prices, low competition and strong growth prospects -- but our analysis found that these five stand out.
Income Doesn’t Determine Whether People Buy Homes, for Now
People will continue to break into the market when and how they can by buying cheaper homes, homes farther out, smaller homes—whatever is feasible. The rub is that as U.S. housing markets continue to burn hot, the feasible options become harder to find for more of us.
How Mortgage Payments Vary With Interest Rates, Loan Products
As discussions evolve around reforming mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (so-called GSE reform) -- the two institutions largely responsible for enabling the affordable 30-year mortgage in the first place -- it's worth taking a look at how monthly mortgage payments on the typical U.S. home would change if rates rose and/or other mortgage products became more popular.
Mortgage Comparison Tool: A Glimpse at Life Without the 30-Year Fixed-Rate Mortgage
Hoping to reduce taxpayers’ risk, policymakers are considering changing the mortgage guarantee, which may lead to a shift toward adjustable-rate products, higher fixed interest rates and/or shorter-duration loans. Here's a comparison tool that shows how sensitive house payments are to changes in interest rates and loan duration.
Home Values Grow at Slowest Annual Pace in 15 Months (January 2018 Market Report)
January saw the slowest growth since November 2016 and follows a year in which homes regularly gained more than 7 percent from the prior year – including a 7.6 percent jump in May 2017, the fastest pace since June 2006 in the midst of the housing bubble.
