Inman News Falling home prices and mortgage rates are on tap for buyers and sellers — not to mention a presidential election that could hinge on housing issues, according to Redfin’s outlook for 2024 Redfin believes 2024 will be the year homebuyers finally catch a break. The Seattle-based brokerage and real estate portal on Tuesday released its annual housing market predictions for the new year, projecting a shift toward a buyers’ market that already began in late 2023, thanks in part to a continued decline in inflation, falling mortgage rates and additional inventory hitting th ..read more

HousingWire The bulk of home building also happened in high-income areas, NAHB reported In the third quarter of 2023, single-family and multifamily home construction grew in outlying areas instead of urban centers. That’s according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Home Building Geography Index (HBGI). Released quarterly, the HBGI gauges housing construction growth in various regions using county-level information about single- and multifamily building permits. Outlying counties of large metro areas, as well as non-metro/micro counties, posted a ninth and an elevent ..read more

HousingWire In September 2022, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate averaged 6.1%, according to Freddie Mac data. Fast-forward one year, and the rate averaged 7.2%, an expensive difference for many homebuyers (rates have since started to drop). But compare mortgage delinquencies over the same period: 2.8% in September 2022, 2.8% in September 2023, according to CoreLogic data. View Interactive Chart CoreLogic’s Loan Performance Insights data, shared with HousingWire, represents foreclosure and delinquency activity reported for first liens against a property. It encompasses a ..read more

CNN The US economy notched another solid month of job growth, with an added lift from actors and autoworkers coming off the picket lines. Employers added 199,000 jobs in November, and the unemployment rate dipped to 3.7% from 3.9% the month before, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday. “The economy’s still humming along,” Jane Oates, a former Department of Labor official who now is CEO of employment education nonprofit WorkingNation, told CNN. “For the past two weeks, all we’ve heard is doom and gloom about how this is going to be a terrible day. And it was a ..read more

Inman News Windermere Real Estate Chief Economist Matthew Gardner offers his 2024 forecast for interest rates, home values and the potential for a housing market recovery OPINION BY MATTHEW GARDNER This is the time of the year when I should be thinking about what I am going to buy my family for Christmas, but I’ve been spending all my time wondering what the real estate market will look like in 2024. 1. Still no housing bubble Some of you may remember that this was number one on my list last year and, so far, my forecast was spot on. The reason why I’m bringing it to y ..read more

KCM Even with so much data showing home prices are actually rising in most of the country, there are still a lot of people who worry there will be another price crash in the immediate future. In fact, a recent survey from Fannie Mae shows that 23% of consumers think prices will fall over the next 12 months. That’s nearly one in four people who are dealing with that fear – maybe you’re one of them. To help ease that concern, here’s what the experts say will happen with home prices not just next year, but over the next five years. Exper ..read more

CALCULATEDRISK Florida has experienced some of the largest inventory gains in recent months By Bill McBride ICE Mortgage Monitor: Equity Withdrawals Rose Slightly in Q3 2023, but High Interest Rates Are Compressing Usage by 55% Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading global provider of data, technology, and market infrastructure, released its December 2023 ICE Mortgage Monitor Report, based on the company’s industry-leading mortgage, real estate and public records data sets. Rising home prices, though cooling in recent months, have returned total tappable equity to near its ..read more

HousingWire We have already seen 4 positive weeks on purchase apps with rates above 7% By Logan Mohtashami What a week! Mortgage rates almost fell below 7%, the 10-year yield is below 4.25% again, and people are seriously talking about Fed rate cuts in 2024. Times can change quickly, which is why we created the weekly tracker so you have the information you need in real-time. Purchase application data Hello, early Christmas present! Mortgage rates have fallen by almost 1% in a short time, and it has created four straight weeks of positive purchase application data. I r ..read more

HousingWire Only 62% of prospective homebuyers are willing to wait for home prices and/or rates to fall, down from 85% in June 2023 Prospective homebuyers are slowly growing less sensitive to home prices and high-interest rates, and fewer of them are willing to wait for a better market to buy a home.  According to Bank of America’s 2023 Homebuyer Insights report, only 62% of prospective homebuyers are willing to wait for home prices and/or rates to fall, down from 85% in June 2023. Purchase activity picked up in September, as sales of new single-family homes increased to a ..read more

CALCULATEDRISK Price-to-rent index is 6.9% below recent peak By Bill McBride It has been over 17 years since the bubble peak. In the September Case-Shiller house price index released this week, the seasonally adjusted National Index (SA), was reported as being 69% above the bubble peak in 2006. However, in real terms, the National index (SA) is about 10% above the bubble peak (and historically there has been an upward slope to real house prices).  The composite 20, in real terms, is at the bubble peak. People usually graph nominal house prices, but it is also important ..read more