U.S. new-home construction jumped to a nine-year high in October as an outsized advance in the number of apartment projects accompanied a strong pickup for single-family housing.
president is likely to presage some dramatic changes in 2017 for the housing industry, which saw healthy increases ion values this year, thanks to factors including low interest rates, lower gas prices, stronger wage growth and millennials getting off the fence and entering the market.
Some of the greatest resistance to affordable housing comes from homeowners who don't want to see a drop in their home's value, however how founded are those beliefs? Trulia's new report may provide some answers.
The U.S. housing market crawled out of the recession and has been climbing ever since. Sale prices continue to grow, and buyers who have been squeezed out of the market wait patiently in the wings for the tight inventory to relax.
In July the U.S. Census Bureau announced that the homeownership rate in this country had hit its lowest level since the government began measuring the stat in 1965. Then candidate Donald Trump jumped on the news with a tweet suggesting the figure proved his most consistent message: the economy is failing you.
Over the coming months, the policy priorities of President-elect Donald J. Trump will become clearer, and as they do, economists may have to revise their expectations for the years ahead.
The presidency of Donald Trump is poised to usher in a new era for the U.S. economy that forecasters say could boost economic growth, bring higher interest rates and inflation, and a new set of potential risks including international trade wars. (Subscription may be required.)
If there is anything that just about every Californian agrees with, it is that it costs too much to live in the state. Over the last few years, the price of buying a home or renting an apartment has become so burdensome that it pervades almost every issue, from the state's elevated poverty rate to the debate about multimillion-dollar tear-downs to the lines of recreational vehicles parked on Silicon Valley side streets.
With home prices and rents rising in Southern California, developers are busy building houses, condos and apartments -- particularly in downtown Los Angeles, where a residential building boom is underway.
The remaking of U.S. politics also is likely to upend the nation's mortgage market. There are two reasons why: interest rates and regulation. (Subscription may be required.)
Mortgage rates have spiked in the wake of Donald Trump's election victory. Average rates on 30-year fixed conforming mortgages hit 3.87% on Thursday, climbing a quarter of a percentage point since Tuesday's market close, according to MortgageNewsDaily.com, which tracks mortgage rates. That is the biggest increase in a two-day period since June 2013 when the Federal Reserve announced its plan to start easing its stimulus program, according to the site. (Subscription may be required.)
Nearly a decade after the housing crisis, the mortgage market has evolved in unexpected ways, with nontraditional financiers increasingly backing ever more leveraged loans.
It is back to the drawing board for any overhaul of housing finance—and the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Shares of the mortgage-finance companies are up sharply since Election Day even though President-elect Donald Trump gave little if any indication during his campaign of what might happen to them in his administration. Over the past three days, shares of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac each have risen more than 60%. (Subscription may be required.)
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling recited a litany of priorities for his panel next year, touching on everything from the very broad, like housing finance reform, to the specific, including targeting a proposal to rein in payday lending. (Subscription may be required.)
The presidential campaign that just ended was notable for a lack of debate about housing — in particular the uneven state of the United States mortgage market nine years since the start of the financial crisis.
A federal housing agency on Tuesday said its reserve levels have returned to pre-financial-crisis levels, prompting calls from some in the housing industry for measures to reduce costs for borrowers.
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Connected garage door openers are the most frequently used smart device in homes today, but ours go beyond the garage and connect with smart security, climate control and lighting products. See how you can entice more people to buy from you.
With approximately 32 million Baby Boomers —half of whom may be shopping within the next few years—this shrinking, but still considerable generation, represents a largely untapped market for home builders. Do you have viable home options that appeal to Boomers?
A persistent shortage of construction workers across the U.S. is prompting some of the nation's largest home builders to experiment with a model they once derided: factory production. (Subscription may be required.)
Mortgage lobbyists are eager to seize on Republican victories in the House, Senate and White House races, hoping to advance the industry's aims in the next Congress. (Subscription may be required.)
Candidates supported by the mortgage industry by and large performed well on Election Day, with the notable exception of Hillary Clinton, leaving the door open for meaningful housing finance reform. (Subscription may be required.)
Housing wasn't a major talking point on the campaign trail during the 2016 election, especially in comparison to 2008, when the mortgage finance crisis captured headlines. And so, the homebuilding industry knows little yet about how President-elect Donald Trump plans to address its pain points, including high housing costs and limited inventory, a high regulatory environment and a shortage of qualified labor — if at all.
As the books close on one of America's most divisive elections, the National Association of Home Builders released a one-page statement and a six-page analysis on what last night's results mean for housing. The statement focused primarily on issues that will be before a GOP-controlled Congress.
Housing was the talk of the campaign two presidential elections ago, but it stayed under the radar in the 2016 race, leaving plenty of room to speculate about President-elect Donald Trump's likely mortgage policy for the next four years. (Subscription may be required.)
Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac surged at the open as investors in the mortgage-finance giants speculated that a Donald Trump presidency might reverse years of policy geared toward wiping out their investments.
President-elect Donald Trump started his career in real estate. His father was a real estate tycoon, and he has made a fortune building or licensing his name to luxury condominiums, hotels and casinos. But will that experience enable him to help the middle class, which faces a lack of affordable housing and rising prices?
While much of the country's attention is focused on the seemingly unexpected election of Donald Trump, it shouldn't be lost that the Republican Party also maintained its control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in this election.
Note: This story was originally published last week, but has been updated following the election results.
Republicans had a big night on Tuesday, capturing not just the White House, but staving off a challenge to their control of the Senate, which will likely deliver the gavel of the banking panel to Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, next year. (Subscription may be required.)
The housing market was at the forefront of the presidential election eight years ago but barely received any attention in this campaign. Now as Donald Trump prepares to take office, what lies ahead for home buyers and sellers?
Even as some analysts believe the scars from the housing crisis helped lift Donald Trump to the presidency, the housing finance system was barely mentioned during the campaign. And contradictory messages from Trump himself about his priorities mean housing finance's future remains murky.
Earlier this week, the Federal Open Market Committee announced that it plans to leave the federal funds rate unchanged, but the way the FOMC framed the announcement led many to believe that a rake hike is coming in December.
The Federal Reserve sent out a survey to senior loan officers, asking about the status of mortgage credit, if it was loosening and how many consumers are applying for the products.
Can computers, big data and advanced analytics replace real live humans when it comes to accurately valuing the home you want to buy? One of the two largest financial players in U.S. real estate thinks so and is preparing to introduce changes that could prove momentous — and highly controversial.
The housing collapse of 2008 nearly broke the city of Miami. Now, its leaders have embarked on a novel and aggressive legal strategy to recoup losses from the big banks they say created the crisis with discriminatory and predatory lending practices.
With the presidential election less than a week away, American voters are preparing to make their final decision at the ballot box between Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Donald Trump. Regardless of the winner, one major question remains: How will the next president impact the construction industry?
During this hotly contested election season, it's a daily occurrence for organizations to endorse candidates, but it's particularly newsworthy when a major association releases the first-ever list of capitol1officially approved candidates in its 74-year history.
You're finally ready to buy a house. Got a decent down payment in the bank, a solid credit history and even a preapproval from a lender. You're golden.
With vacations over and the holidays coming fast, home buying is beginning to slow down. So, given all of the predictions for 2016 (including mine), let's review the better part of the 2016 home-buying season and see what we've learned, with an eye toward 2017.
Americans are leaving the costliest metro areas for more affordable parts of the country at a faster rate than they are being replaced, according to an analysis of census data, reflecting the impact of housing costs on domestic migration patterns. (Subscription may be required.)
The median U.S. home value was up 5.5% year over year in September to $189,400, according to real estate listing website Zillow's September Real Estate Market Report.
Surveying the dozens of towering cranes growing into Seattle's skyline, one might wonder if there's a housing boom that will eventually crash as it did in the last Seattle real estate downturn. It's a reasonable reaction for an untrained observer, but it's also a dangerous one for the region's ability to plan for accommodating smart growth.
The government, delivering the last major snapshot of the economy before Election Day, reported on Friday that employers added 161,000 workers in October, a performance that suggested a healthy outlook for the months ahead.
The White House called on Congress to rethink its approach to rebuilding the hobbled mortgage market and offered, for the first time, as set of principles for housing reform.
If Republicans manage to keep a Senate majority following the elections next week, control of the banking panel will likely go to Sen. Mike Crapo, a right-of-center Idaho lawmaker who has proven willing to reach across the political aisle in the past. (Subscription may be required.)
If Democrats succeed in winning control of the Senate after next week's election, the gavel of the Senate Banking Committee is likely to fall to Sen. Sherrod Brown, a progressive from Ohio who has called on the biggest banks to hold significantly more capital. (Subscription may be required.)
The mortgage industry is welcoming the Obama administration's possibly final word on housing finance reform, hoping it will serve as guidepost for the future. (Subscription may be required.)
Shadow banks are on the cusp of taking the lead from their commercial counterparts in the mortgage market, new data suggests, a phenomenon that hasn't been seen since the 2008 financial crisis.
Nearly a decade after the housing crisis, the mortgage market has evolved in unexpected ways, with nontraditional financiers increasingly backing ever-more leveraged loans.
Banks no longer reign over the U.S. mortgage market. They accounted for less than half of the mortgage dollars extended to borrowers during the third quarter -- the first quarter that banks, credit unions and other depository institutions have fallen below that threshold in more than 30 years, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. Taking their place are nonbank lenders more willing to make riskier loans banks now shun. (Subscription may be required.)
Four years ago, the Treasury changed its agreement with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and began taking for itself all the profits made by the two companies, which had been placed in government conservatorship in 2008. As part of the 2012 changes, both companies' capital is being gradually reduced and will reach zero at the end of 2017.
Mortgage-finance company Freddie Mac on Tuesday said it would send a $2.3 billion dividend payment to the U.S. Treasury, after posting a sharp profit increase in its latest quarter. (Subscription may be required.)
The Department of Housing and Urban Development's proposed guidance for the construction of new homes located in flood plains is sparking a fight between homebuilders and environmentalists. (Subscription may be required.)
