Housing.buzz - Aug. 10-16, 2024

Housing.buzz - Aug. 10-16, 2024

Weekly 'buzz' on housing trends, homebuilders, mortgage rates & more

Table of Contents

• First-time Homebuyers

• Buying & Selling

• Mortgages, Rates & Trends

• ‘New Construction’ & Home Builders

• Rental Housing

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First-time Homebuyers

Harris to propose up to $25K in down-payment support for 1st-time homebuyers (ABC News) - The campaign is vowing that during its first term, the Harris-Walz administration would provide working families who have paid their rent on time for two years and are buying their first home up to $25,000 in down-payment assistance, with more generous support for first-generation homeowners. Also see: Detroit’s down payment assistance plan serves as model for Harris proposal, Duggan says (Detroit Free Press)

Buying & Selling

As new real estate agent rule goes into effect, will buyers and sellers see impact? (USA Today) - Traditionally, when a home was sold, a commission of roughly 5% to 6% was paid by the seller and divided between the agents for the buyer and the seller. Now, after a lawsuit settlement, a seller will need to decide whether, and how much, to pay a buyer’s broker. Whatever the decision, that information can no longer be included in what’s known as the “multiple listing service” or MLS, the official real estate data service used by local realtor associations.

Can Real Estate Commissions Be Financed via the Mortgage? EXCERPT: At the moment, real estate commissions can’t be rolled into the loan amount, aka financed. This goes for all major loan types, including conforming loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with FHA loans and VA loans.

How hard is it to buy a home right now? The new NBC News Home Buyer Index measures the market (NBC News) - Why is it so hard to buy a home? Prices have far outpaced middle-class incomes. Mortgage rates are above 7% for the first time since 2002. And 3 out of 10 homes are sold above listing price.

But none of those factors fully captures the variety of challenges buyers nationwide face in the current market. The conditions on the ground can vary widely across state and even county lines.

Mortgages, Rates & Trends

Lower Mortgage Rates Bring More Buyers Off Sidelines. Today’s Mortgage Rates, Aug. 16, 2024 (CNet) - With inflation at its lowest level since spring 2021 and the labor market cooling, the Federal Reserve is set to make its first interest rate cut in September. Those factors should help mortgage rates fall in the coming months. However, it will take more than lower mortgage rates to repair today’s unaffordable housing market.

Refinancing demand surges on mortgage rates dropping (Fox) - The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Wednesday that refinancing applications soared 35% last week, when rates for the average 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages hit their lowest point in more than a year, according to Freddie Mac.

‘New Construction’ & Home Builders

Hurricane Beryl, excess inventory pressure US single-family homebuilding (Reuters) - U.S. single-family homebuilding dropped to a 16-month low in July, likely weighed down by Hurricane Beryl and an oversupply of new houses as higher mortgage rates and prices depress sales.The fifth straight monthly decrease in homebuilding reported by the Commerce Department on Friday suggested the housing market remained subdued at the start of the third quarter. A slowing labor market also poses a challenge to the housing market recovery. Overall housing starts plunged 6.8% to a rate of 1.238 million units, the lowest level since May 2020. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast starts would fall to a rate of 1.330 million units.

Rental Housing

Renting Is Now Cheaper Than Buying a First Home by Over $1K per Month—See the Top Cities Where It Pays To Lease - A new report by Realtor.com® comparing the monthly costs of renting versus buying a starter home in July found that renters saved an average of $1,067 per month (or 61.3%) more than homebuyers. (For this analysis, a “starter home” is a unit with zero to two bedrooms.) “With such cost comparisons, we are able to identify whether a market favors renting or buying,” notes Realtor.com economist Jiayi Xu in her analysis.

Startling rise in rent prices in major cities across the US as Americans struggle to keep up - (Daily Mail UK) - An analysis by Lending Tree from data compiled by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) show how prices have risen significantly since 2019 in each of the nation's 50 largest metros. On average, fair market rents for one- and two-bedrooms have grown by $450 and $505, respectively, but the most remarkable percentage increase was in Phoenix.

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