Below is NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun’s immediate reaction to the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) announcement this afternoon that it’s raising its benchmark interest rate for the first time in 2016: “The era of ultra-low interest rates is over. Today’s short-term rate hike will be followed by several additional rounds of increases in 2017 and… Continue Reading Instant Reaction: Lawrence Yun on Today’s FOMC Decision
2016 was a great year for the housing market. Existing-home sales are currently (as of October) at their strongest pace since February 2009, distressed sales reached an all-time low earlier this fall and first-time buyers finally gained some traction despite affordability and supply pressures. All of this adds up to what should be an even stronger… Continue Reading 2017: Expect Higher Mortgage Rates, Slightly More Sales
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Sharon Delia (803) 772-5206 SC REALTORS® wraps up sold-out annual conference COLUMBIA, S.C. (September 21, 2016) -- South Carolina REALTORS® (SCR) 2016 annual conference "Doing the Charleston" at the Francis Marion Hotel in Charleston, SC on September 13-15, 2016 drew a sold -out crowd of 300 Realtors®. The conference was organized… Continue Reading SC REALTORS(R) wraps up sold-out annual conference
WASHINGTON (December 13, 2016) – Real estate brokers understand the importance of learning best practices regarding management and entrepreneurial skills and gaining valuable real estate insights that can make their brokerages more successful. For this reason, the National Association of Realtors® is inviting brokers from across the country to attend the 2017 Realtor® Broker Summit… Continue Reading 2017 Realtor® Broker Summit to Feature Market Forecasts and Insights, Inspiring Keynotes
The inventory of homes for sale continues to shrink. There were 2.02 million homes listed for sale at the end of October, representing only 4.3 months’ supply. A balanced market would be closer to 6-to-7 months’ supply. From a year ago, the raw inventory count was down 4%, which marked nearly two straight years of… Continue Reading Housing Shortage for How Long?
NAR Research began tracking closing delays following the implementation of the TRID or Know Before You Owe rules. These rules changed the settlement process adding new closing documents, tolerances for fees, and timelines. The time-to-close a loan, the period from contract to settlement, fell 0.3 days in November relative to the same time in 2015,… Continue Reading Closing Delays Rise Unexpectedly
For those who haven’t heard, the Mannequin Challenge, an online video challenge where people freeze in place to enact a still scene while someone takes a video of it, went viral in the last couple of months. The challenge, which started with teens capturing moments of adolescent life, has grown in popularity among people of… Continue Reading REALTORS® Get In On the Mannequin Challenge
Student debt has grown significantly in recent years and with it concern over the impacts on first-time homebuyers. However, limited to no attention has been paid to the connection between student debt and constrained supply. A significant share of owners with student debt report that their student debt has or will delay their trade-up purchase.… Continue Reading Student Loan Debt and Inventory
Every month NAR produces existing home sales, median sales prices and inventory figures. The reporting of this data is always based on homes sold the previous month and the data is explained in comparison to the same month a year ago. We also provide a perspective of the market relative to last month, adjusting for… Continue Reading October 2016 EHS Over Ten Years
In the monthly REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey, the National Association of REALTORS® asks members the characteristics of the most recent sale that closed in the reference month, including “Did the buyer purchase the property as an investment property?” Investment sales made up 13 percent of sales in October 2016 (14 percent in September 2016; 13… Continue Reading Sales for Investment Purpose: 13 Percent of Residential Sales in October 2016