Mortgage Rates Drop Again, Falling to Average 2.93%
Inflation hasn’t pushed mortgage rates higher because the market believes it’s only temporary, says Freddie Mac chief economist.
Zoom Entices Workers to Declutter Their Homes
The downside to Zoom calls? Hundreds of people see your home – and how well you clean. While 73% clean more, 18% feel “house shame” and use virtual backgrounds.
Housing Crisis Requires Once-In-A-Generation Response
Calling the current housing shortage “dire, with a chronic shortage of affordable” homes, NAR suggests steps to take but warns it requires a “major national commitment.”
Put Sellers’ Pets in Listing Photos? The Internet Loves It
On the one hand, it shows a home is pet friendly and great for families. It also draws in more homebuyers. On the other hand, it could suggest pet odor problems.
Single-Family Rents See Largest Yearly Increase in 15 Years
CoreLogic: The cost to rent a single-family home rose 5.31% year-to-year in April, up from 2.4% one year earlier. Detached homes rose 7.9%; attached homes rose 2.2%.
U.S. Home Construction Up a Tepid 3.6% in May
Builders added more homes last month, but the increase isn’t enough to keep up with demand. And in the face of rising lumber prices, new building permits were down 3%.
Bidding Wars: More Likely than Not in All but One Fla. Metro
May survey: In Cape Coral, 75% of sellers had a bidding war, as did over 50% of sellers in other big Fla. metros. Only Jacksonville, at 34%, had more non-bidding sales.
NAR: Vacation Home Sales Rose 16.4% in 2020
Lee County tops NAR’s list of U.S. counties for the highest increase in vacation home sales, with Collier County also making the top 10 list. In 2020, vacation home sales were 5.5% of total existing-home sales; in 2019, they were 5%. Vacation home median prices were up 14.2%.
Builder Confidence Hits Lowest Point in 10 Months
NAHB chairman says supply-chain problems, like lumber, created production problems that forced some buyers out of the market when they could no longer afford a new home.
Shades of Sci-Fi: Holograms May be Next Webinar Option
Several companies say meeting participants can be 3-D holograms of remote workers, a close replication of in-person meetings – but no one-on-ones by the water cooler.