Active weekly housing inventory growth slowed slightly last week, but it’s still running at a healthier clip than in 2023. I have a simple model with mortgage rates being above 7.25%: weekly inventory data should grow between 11,000-17,000 per week. Last year, we never hit that target. We have now seen it for two weeks as inventory grew by 13,247. Weekly housing inventory data We’ve now had back-to-back weeks of healthy housing inventory growth and spring 2024 is much healthier than spring 2023. Last year, we didn’t have any weeks of weekly active inventory growth above 11,000. Not counti ..read more

Who doesn’t have a podcast these days? Anyone with a microphone and a cup of coffee can wax poetic about the ebbs and flows of the industry. While there is plenty of noise out there, we dug for podcast gold to come up with a list of the best real estate podcasts that are worth your time. We curated a shortlist of the top real estate podcasts that provide useful information for agents at every stage of their careers.  From the newbies to the seasoned vets, there’s something for everyone in our (always evolving) list of podcast favorites. Whether you’re looking to stay informed or motivated ..read more

U.S. home sellers reaped slimmer profit margins on median-priced single-family homes and condominiums during the first quarter of 2024. In fact, profit margins — the difference between the median purchase and resale prices — slumped to 55.3%, down from 57.1% in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to Attom’s 2024 U.S. Home Sales Report.  It was the smallest level of profit registered in more than two years. Investment returns for sellers fell for the second straight quarter. At the same time, the median nationwide home price dropped by 4.3% on a quarterly basis to $330,000. “The latest p ..read more

A report published late Thursday by The Wall Street Journal said that allies of former president and presumptive 2024 Republican nominee Donald Trump are working behind the scenes on policies that could make the Federal Reserve less independent, if Trump were reelected this fall. Former Trump administration officials have been discussing several proposals, ranging from “incremental policy changes to a long-shot assertion that the president himself should play a role in setting interest rates,” the outlet reported. The group believes that Trump should be consulted on any decisions involving ben ..read more

HousingWire sat down with Acra Lending CEO Keith Lind to discuss effective ways to not only survive, but profit in the non-QM space while so many others are closing their doors. Lind also shares insights into the future of non-QM lending and the importance of emergent technologies in improving the origination process. Zebulon Lowe: Keith, thank you for speaking with us. The non-QM space was hit hard by liquidity issues in the pandemic period. How does Acra manage liquidity so that you don’t just survive but thrive? Keith Lind: I believe we tackled that problem effectively on two fronts. I thin ..read more

Following a significant drop in retirement savings confidence in 2023, overall levels of confidence have yet to recover. But optimism about future retirement prospects are high, according to the results of the 34th annual Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS) conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). “Overall, two-thirds of the workers and three-fourths of the retirees are very or somewhat confident about having enough money to live comfortably in retirement, which is unchanged from 2023,” said Craig Copeland, director of wealth benefits research at EBRI. “The survey also shows ..read more

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Friday announced that a proposed change to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) for Purchase (H4P) program has been modified to bar the practice of premium pricing, and it will only allow interested party contributions (IPCs) on H4P closing costs from property sellers, builders, real estate agents and developers. After concerns were raised in the public comment period following the proposed H4P changes announced late last year — including from AARP — some planned updates will not be implemented, according to a statement from t ..read more

Even as the median U.S. home sale price remains near record highs and supply stays constrained in many locales, two of the most populous states that have seen a surge in demand since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic are showing signs of a pullback. That’s according to a pair of reports released Thursday by Redfin. The national real estate brokerage found that the nationwide median sale price reached $420,357 in March 2024. That figure was up 5% year over year and was only 3% below the peak price of $432,496 in May 2022. In Texas and Florida, however, key market signals show diverging trends ..read more

Homebuyer affordability declined in March as mortgage rates and home prices remained elevated.  The national median monthly payment for purchase mortgage applicants rose to $2,201 in March, up from $2,184 in February. That’s according to the Mortgage Bankers Association‘s (MBA) purchase applications payment index, which measures how new monthly mortgage payments vary across time relative to income. An increase in the MBA index — indicative of declining borrower affordability conditions —means that the mortgage-payment-to-income ratio is higher due to increasing loan amounts, rising mortga ..read more

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have settled on new energy-efficiency standards for the construction of new single-family and multifamily homes. This fulfills a requirement laid out in a 2007 law that directs the departments to adopt the most recently published energy-efficiency standards following reviews by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and HUD itself. The “Adoption of Energy Efficiency Standards for New Construction of HUD- and USDA-Financed Housing” was published on Friday in the Federal Register, and will go in ..read more