The Three Factors Affecting Home Affordability Today   There has been a great deal of attention on the impact of rising mortgage rates on the affordability of homes for today's purchasers. It is true that rates have substantially increased since the pandemic-era record lows. But home affordability is determined by a combination of mortgage rates, property prices, and wages. Considering how each of these factors is evolving provides a complete picture of the current state of home... [read more]

The Two Big Issues the Housing Market’s Facing Right Now   The biggest challenge the housing market’s facing is how few homes there are for sale. Mark Fleming, Chief Economist at First American, explains the root causes of today’s low supply: “Two dynamics are keeping existing-home inventory historically low – rate-locked existing homeowners and the fear of not finding something to buy.” Let’s break... [read more]

Why Today’s Housing Market Is Not About To Crash Some people are worried that the home market is going to crash soon. And it's easy to see why this worry has come up, given how hard it can be to buy a house and how much the media talks about the possibility of a recession. But the numbers show that the market is very different now than it was before the 2008 housing crash. Don't worry, this is not the same thing that happened back then. This is why. Loans Are Harder... [read more]

What You Need To Know About Home Price News May 17, 2023   The latest Existing Home Sales Report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) will come out tomorrow. The information it has about home prices could be confusing and even make for some scary news. All of this is because the NAR will report the median sales price while other home price indices will report the price at which a home was sold again and again. Most of the indices of these repeat sales show that... [read more]

People Around the Country Want Homes That Cost Less, and Builders Are Responding There are two main things that make it hard for buyers to afford homes in today's market: mortgage rates that are higher than they have been in the past couple of years and rising home prices caused by a lack of homes for sale. To deal with these problems, a lot of people are working with their local real estate agents to find homes that cost less. And because there are more newly built houses entering... [read more]