Rising mortgage interest rates and their impact on mortgage affordability beat out inventory shorttagers as the most significant force driving the 2017 housing market, according to the latest Zillow Home Price Expectations Survey. On average, experts said rates on a 30-year, fixed mortgage will need to reach 5.65 percent before significantly impacting home value growth, though a sizable share said … Read More »

Will 2016 be remembered as the peak of the recovery?  It was the best year for sales in more than a decade.  Will sales take a break in 2017, a victim of political uncertainty, rising rates and prices that are outpacing incomes? Even worse, will 2017 herald a multi-year downtrend in sales? Last year, existing-home sales finished 2016 at 5.45 … Read More »

The latest projection from the Joint Center for Housing Studies’ Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) calls for a slight slowing in annual growth in home improvement and repair expenditures will rise 6.7 percent at $317 billion, a strong but slight slowing of the  6.9 percent growth estimated for 2016. Remodelers are anticipating another year of widespread revenue growth in … Read More »

It’s no secret that inadequate inventories have been stunting the housing recovery.  Through November, total housing inventory has fallen year-over-year for 18 straight months and supplies are now 11.4 percent lower than they were two years ago.[1] As inventories decline, rising income, improved employment, and historically low mortgage rates have given demand a shot in the arm.  Sales in November … Read More »

Top real estate executives’ confidence in the U.S. economy and housing market for 2017 has softened compared to two years ago, and 42 percent have grown less confident in the world economy since January, according to the latest Imprev Thought Leader Real Estate Confidence study. Respondents included nearly 240 broker-owners and top executives at leading franchises and independent brokerage firms, … Read More »

Home price increases will slow next year from this year’s above average pace of 4.75 percent, and in November 2017, values will reach the median price peak set a decade ago, in April 2007, according to the latest quarterly Zillow® Home Price Expectations (ZHPE) Survey sponsored by Zillow and conducted by Pulsenomics LLC. Estimates based on the survey of 111 … Read More »

August brought even worse news for first-time and move-up buyer as chronic inventory shortages grow even, inflating home prices even more.  A double whammy of unaffordable prices and shrinking selections of homes for sale continue to handcuff the housing recovery. “Hopes of a meaningful sales breakthrough as a result of this summer’s historically low mortgage rates failed to materialize because … Read More »

Like the blind men with different interpretations of the same elephant, September forecasts by economists at the nation’s largest housing GSEs emphasize differing outcomes from the same forces shaping the nation’s housing economy. After July’s disappointing existing sales report, which NAR’s Lawrence Yun attributed in part to chronically low inventories, Fannie Mae lowered its existing sales forecast for 2016 from … Read More »

Is it just the end of the buying season or are home sales hitting a wall? A growing consensus of economists foresees a flattening in sales growth—or even year-over-year declines in the months to come-for the balance of the year and even into next year.  Sales may have reached a ceiling for the season. A combination of rising prices, slow … Read More »

Job growth and better housing values in America’s heartland will reverse the movement of families to the coasts in recent years and generate population growth in Midwestern markets which have declinded in recent years. Over half of experts surveyed in the latest quarterly Zillow Home Price Expectations (ZHPE) Survey said they don’t expect migration to the coasts to continue indefinitely. … Read More »