The following is NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun’s reaction to this morning’s U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) January jobs report: “Job growth is critical in a rising interest rate environment. Every 10 basis point rise in mortgage rates can shave off approximately 35,000 in home sales annually. That is why today’s solid job addition of 227,000… Continue Reading Instant Reaction: January Jobs Report
More first-time homebuyers avail of a low downpayment loan compared to all homebuyers, according to the December 2016 REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey Report, a monthly survey of REALTORS® about their sales activity and local market conditions.[1] Among first-time homebuyers who obtained a mortgage and whose transactions closed in October—December 2016, 81 percent made a downpayment… Continue Reading 81 Percent of First-time Homebuyers Made a Downpayment of Less than 20 Percent
This blog post was written by Managing Director of Housing Research, Danielle Hale, and Data Analyst, Hua Zhong. You probably know that home closings slow down during the holidays and the earlier part of the week. Here is the data to back up your intuition: The sales data for December 2016 is still preliminary, but… Continue Reading EHS in 2016 by the Numbers – Part 2 – Least Common Closing Dates
The retirement boom is on for baby boomers so expect a lot of downsizing in the years ahead as older homeowners replace their suburban house with a condo. Now, how do you respond if you have clients who want to use a reverse mortgage to buy their new place? It’s not your job to be… Continue Reading Should Your Older Clients Buy a House Without Having to Make Monthly Payments?
WASHINGTON (February 1, 2017) — Existing-home sales increased 3.8 percent to a 10-year high in 20161, but affordability pressures, student debt and possible confusion about down payment requirements prevented many aspiring homeowners from reaching the market, according to recent consumer insight from the National Association of Realtors®. NAR's Aspiring Home Buyer Profile analyzed 2016 quarterly… Continue Reading NAR Finds Real and Imaginary Barriers Holding Back Prospective Homebuyers
Can a groundhog and his shadow predict the strength of the housing market? Here is what happened the past 20 years in real estate when Punxsutawney Phil climbed out of his hole; does seeing his shadow extend to real estate? You decide. *Averages based on YoY median sales price and median existing home sales increases… Continue Reading Infographic: Groundhog Day and Real Estate
It wasn’t so long ago that I was a teenager spending free time socializing with my friends at our local, bustling mall. Our mall was shaped like a wagon wheel with an anchor department store at the end of each spoke, and kiosks and a carousel in the hub. We would browse store by store,… Continue Reading Death of Malls
NAR released a summary of pending home sales data showing that December’s pending home sales made a comeback and are up 1.6 percent from last month and also up 0.3 percent from a year ago. Pending sales are homes that have a signed contract to purchase on them but have yet to close. They tend… Continue Reading December Pending Home Sales
It’s an oldie but a goodie, tip-wise: If you use ctrl+F (or command + F on Macs) to find specific words on a webpage, there’s a simple technique for doing the same thing on your mobile device. Facebook now supports USB security keys. Lots of information here if you want to make sure your Facebook… Continue Reading One Search Tip and Several Security Warnings, This Week in Five for Wednesday
Field Guides are one-stop resource packages on dozens of subjects of interest to REALTORS®. On each page you’ll find links to articles, books, web sites, statistics, and other material on each subject. The list of the most-used field guides from Information Central for the month of January 2017 was released today: Field Guide to Quick Real… Continue Reading Top Field Guides for January 2017