Tag: real estate trends
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What Just Happened? Today’s Typical Buyer Aged More Than Six Years Since Last Year!
Congrats to all of you who, in middle life, are acquiring a deed to a home. It’s a major achievement. Chances are, you worked intensely to pull it off. And you’re not alone. A new publication from the National Association of REALTORS® says the average buyer out there is now 56 years old. That’s up…
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What’s the Low-Down on This Housing Market? Harvard Weighs In.
The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard has just published its 2024 State of the Nation’s Housing report. HOUSING COSTS STRAIN OWNERS AND RENTERS ALIKE, the report proclaims. MILLIONS PRICED OUT OF HOMEOWNERSHIP. The headlines say it all, right? While construction is starting to bolster inventories, the new report notes certain persistent issues: record…
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Builders Meet Buyers Where They Are—With Smaller Homes
At Elm Trails, a subdivision of San Antonio, the giant developer Lennar sells compact homes for just $150K or so. The houses themselves take up less than 700 square feet. They’re placed on 20-foot lots with little backyards and no garages. The least expensive offering is a new, 350-square-foot house for $130K. So far, 55…
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Next Five Years: Predictions for the Housing Market
The U.S. News & World Report has just come out with its housing market predictions. And it has a few zingers. Take a look.
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Buyer’s Market in Dallas? It’s All Relative.
Lately, the homes for sale in Dallas stay on the market a little longer. Little by little, sellers are lowering their price expectations, and Dallas home buyers are getting deals. Homes in Dallas stayed on the market, on average, for 37 days in April 2024. That’s up 8% compared to last year. Some (about 12%)…
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Condo Bubble? What’s Going On in Florida Now?
Florida is a snowbird’s paradise. It’s no surprise that condos make up a major portion of the market. Recently, though, Florida condos are presenting specific challenges. They’re getting hard to finance. Home buyers in Florida can expect to put at least 25% down. For coastal homes, which lenders consider risky, the expected down payment can…
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Feeling Merry: Why Sellers Love the Month of May
The best time to sell a home is in the first half of the year, declares a high-profile real estate data firm. The ATTOM firm just came out with its annual take on the best days of the year to sell a home. To ensure accuracy, ATTOM reviewed sellers’ profits from tens of millions of…
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Time for a Move? Sellers Are Perking Up.
Home sellers are back. It’s an important sign of confidence in the U.S. housing market. Fannie Mae keeps tabs on people’s feelings (“sentiment”) about the market. And people are feeling better about it — if they happen to be potential sellers. Two-thirds of the people surveyed told Fannie Mae this is a good time to…
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Could a Home Swap Turn Out to Be a Win-Win? Here’s How It Works.
Well, it’s one way to transfer property deeds between people! Yet trading homes with someone else isn’t your typical deed transaction. In a prolonged tight market, deed exchanges are drawing growing numbers of curious and creative homeowners. Here’s a bit more about the concept.
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Real Estate or Bitcoin? In 2024, Investors Consider the Tradeoffs
Bitcoin watchers have noticed surprising amounts of real estate profits being converted into bitcoin. The reason comes down to unpredictable returns in real estate for wealthy investor-buyers. At the same time, “Bitcoin, as an emerging asset class, potentially offers much higher growth potential for many investors,” writes Nik Hoffman for Bitcoin Magazine. Wow, much potentially…
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Hispanics Will Be the Majority of New Homeowners by 2040. Can the Market Meet Their Needs?
This year’s trend study from CoreLogic® shows a steady rise in mortgage lending in mainly Hispanic neighborhoods. Hispanic buyers tend to be younger and less affluent than other buyers across the board. Many are coming into real estate as first-time buyers. They’re motivated. Many will opt for FHA loans if conventional loans are out of…
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Affordability Rx: U.S. Government Is Now Funding Office-to-Home Conversions
As our readers know, the pandemic changed the way we work and live. Remote and hybrid working are now common ways of earning a living. We’ve also noted how repurposing empty offices could ease the housing crisis. Commercial areas contain more and more vacant space, more of the time. This fact holds true across the…
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“Mortgage Companies Are Desperate”: What’s Next for Homes and Mortgages in 2024?
In February, Zillow said home prices had bottomed out. Was the market about to rally again? Zillow predicted that U.S. home prices would climb at the healthy pace of 6.5%, from August 2023 to August 2024. Of course, home prices usually do go up over time. Now, Zillow economists have slashed their predictions. Their new…
