ECONOMY

The Wall Street Journal (podcast)
Home builders are becoming more confident

Home builders are more optimistic about the housing market. The National Association of Home Builders sentiment index rose 2 points this month. Robert Dietz of the NAHB says homebuilding prospects for the rest of the year are good, as job growth helps spur more demand for housing.

U.S. News & World Report
US home construction climbed to a 6-month high in July

Apartment construction in the Northeast fueled a jump in home building in July as the pace of housing starts nationwide reached the strongest pace in six months.

Bloomberg
Developers feed millennial hunger for ownership with townhouses

While competing developers focus on pricier single-family homes, Jim Clarke is building townhouses for cash-strapped millennials. And the units are going fast.

 

HousingWire
Fannie Mae: Economic rebound on the way for second half of 2016

Despite the disappointing economic growth in the second quarter, the remainder of the year will bring a rebound, Fannie Mae predicted in its August 2016 Economic and Housing Outlook.

 

The Washington Post
Areas hit hardest by the real estate bust are now seeing the highest gains

By the time it broke ground in March, Residences by Armani/Casa, a new condominium underway in Miami's Sunny Isles Beach, already had more than 65 percent of its 308 units under contract.

The Wall Street Journal
Why cities lag behind suburbs in the housing recovery

Despite a boom in urban living and rapid run-ups in home prices in many cities, urban homeowners are struggling more in the recovery than their suburban counterparts, according to new research.

 

MarketWatch
Rent growth matches eight-year high as building boom doesn't keep up

July rental growth matched an eight-year high, as an apartment-making boom still hasn't put a lid on costs.

 

USA Today
Many downtown luxury apartments sit empty

Apartment building owners are struggling to rent many of the luxury units that have flooded downtowns across the country in recent years even as a relative shortage of multifamily homes in the suburbs has driven up rents.

 

The Washington Post

Mortgage rates down slightly, remain stalled near yearly lows

Like the rest of us suffering through August's oppressive heat, mortgage rates have been disinclined to move much.

CNBC
Mortgage applications fell 4% even as rates sit near record lows

Even with mortgage interest rates sitting near record lows, mortgage applications failed to make any gains last week.

MarketWatch
This one chart shows the uneven housing recovery

The number of underwater homeowners — those who owe more for their home than it is worth — continues to fall.

 

PRODUCT NEWS

Professional Warranty Service Corp.
Warranty Benefits – For Builder and Buyer

If you think a structural warranty is an unnecessary or "nice-to-have" expense... You are dangerously wrong as nothing could be further from the truth!

 

MP Global
Controlling Sound Between Floors

When addressing sound abatement for multi-family housing, products that enable buffering noise will make the building owners, building management, and tenants all a lot happier.

 

Sherwin-Williams: Livable Luxe
Create clean, livable "white kitchen" looks that are on-trend, yet enduring. 

Award-winning Williamsburg designer, Kathryn Salyer, shares her strategies for creating "white kitchen" looks with lasting beauty. Salyer depends on Sherwin-Williams coatings for durability, smooth application and zero VOC options. She achieves the look with palettes balancing clean and bright with depth and dimension.

HOUSING FINANCE

 

The New York Times

Sale of federal mortgages to investors puts greater burden on blacks, suit says

For years, the federal government avoided insuring mortgages in black neighborhoods, a practice known as redlining that exacerbated racial divides throughout America's cities.

 

HousingWire
Hispanic Millennials struggle to save for down payment

Hispennials, or Hispanic Millennials, view their finances differently than the majority of Millennials, according to a recent study by Wells Fargo.

 

HOUSING AND THE ELECTION

The Hill
Housing industry hoping for change after Obama

Housing industry advocates have a message for the next president: It's time to move on from the crash.

GSEs

Bloomberg
Everybody has a plan for Fannie and Freddie but nothing gets done

The hole at the corner of 15th and L streets, in downtown Washington, is deep -- and getting deeper. Earth-movers there are laying the foundations of a shiny new headquarters for Fannie Mae, the bailed-out giant of American mortgages.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

The New York Times
Cuomo moves to revive a dormant housing aid program

The administration of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has offered developers and union officials a wage subsidy for construction workers in the hopes of reviving a dormant program that has generated thousands of apartments for poor and moderate-income New Yorkers, and saved property owners tens of millions of dollars in property taxes.