From Quartz: ‘Fractional home ownership’ wants to fix real estate’s woes. What is it and could it work? There’s more than one way to own a house these days. Sites including real estate startup Pacaso are opening up a new market for people looking to own just a fraction of a house — for a fraction of its total price. Instead of laying claim to an entire single-family home, Pacaso sells luxury single-family homes to groups of buyers, a practice known as fractional home ownership. Someone could, for example, own one-eighth of a multi-million dollar mansion in Florida’s coveted Marco Island for ju ..read more

From Business Insider: Home sellers are facing a summer from hell The past few years were very good to people who decided to sell their homes. The massive relocation shuffle meant most homes hitting the market were the subject of bidding wars. Rich baby boomers jumped in with all-cash offers, and sellers scored huge windfalls as weary buyers pushed prices to new heights. There was no question who had the upper hand. Now, sellers’ fortunes are changing. Home prices are still rising, at a modest pace, around most of the country, but gone are the days of throwing up a for-sale sign and ..read more

From Fast Company: As the Northeast housing market heats up, Florida’s is cooling down Researchers at John Burns Research and Consulting (JBREC) publicly released the results from their March survey of real estate agents, and it paints an interesting picture. It aligns with what inventory data has been telling us for months: There’s some softening of the housing market occurring in pockets of Florida and Texas, where active listings are close to pre-pandemic levels, while there’s still a great deal of competitiveness in tight inventory markets in the Northeast, Midwes ..read more

From Yahoo Finance: Return to the ’70s? Today’s housing market has echoes of dark era. High inflation and a disappointing report on economic growth — followed by a sudden drop in stocks late last month — made for a familiar economic combination. These conditions were hallmarks of the 1970s, when inflation ran high, leading the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates. The central bank’s measures to tame inflation drove up borrowing costs for real estate developers and ultimately shrunk homebuyers’ purchasing power. As a result, the housing market stagnated, and the decade itself became ..read more

From NJ1015: 21 of this spring’s hottest real estate markets are in NJ Out of 10,770 towns nationwide realtor.com looked at the hottest real estate markets in the country. They calculated the rankings by looking at the number of days properties remained listed on its site before selling and how often people were viewing the homes in any given town. The results bode well for the Garden State. At least, if you’re a homeowner. Buyers might see this differently. Of the top 100 hottest markets in the country 21 New Jersey towns made the list. In other words over 20% of the nation’s hottest home sel ..read more

From NJ Spotlight News: Warehouse industry reports point to possible slowdown Recent data from state and industry sources shows a sharp slowing in the number of building permits issued for warehouse construction last year in New Jersey. Those sources also show a new rise in vacancies, and a lower rate of increase in rents for the giant buildings, which have been springing up throughout the state for several years. Analysts and companies that collect data on the industry say the breakneck pace of growth over the last several years can’t be sustained because supply from developers has already ex ..read more

From the Star Ledger: Real estate update: These NJ counties saw home inventory increase in April Across New Jersey, 13 counties saw an increase in new home listings compared with April 2023. And, the number of new listings also increased in 18 New Jersey counties compared with March. In North Jersey, the counties of Passaic, Essex and Hudson all saw inventory increases from last year. Passaic County saw 302 new listings in April — a 14.39% increase from 2023 and a 19.84% increase from last month — while Hudson County saw a 11.21% increase from 2023 and a 37.23% increase from last month with 51 ..read more

From CNBC: Demand for riskier adjustable-rate mortgages hits highest level of the year, due to rising rates When mortgage rates rise, consumers look for any way to lower their monthly payments, and that often leads them to adjustable-rate mortgages. These loans offer lower interest rates than their fixed-rate counterparts but are considered riskier. While they can be fixed for up to 10 years, they eventually adjust to an unknown future market rate. The share of ARM applications rose to 7.8% of mortgage demand last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. That is the highest level o ..read more

From NJ.com: Regulators close Republic First Bank, regional lender with 15 N.J. locations Regulators have closed Republic First Bank, a regional lender operating in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Friday it had seized the Philadelphia-based bank, which did business as Republic Bank and had roughly $6 billion in assets and $4 billion in deposits as of Jan. 31. Fulton Bank, which is based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, agreed to assume substantially all of the failed bank’s deposits and buy essentially all of its assets, the agency said. Republic Bank ..read more

From NJ.com: Regulators close Republic First Bank, regional lender with 15 N.J. locations Regulators have closed Republic First Bank, a regional lender operating in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Friday it had seized the Philadelphia-based bank, which did business as Republic Bank and had roughly $6 billion in assets and $4 billion in deposits as of Jan. 31. Fulton Bank, which is based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, agreed to assume substantially all of the failed bank’s deposits and buy essentially all of its assets, the agency said. Republic Bank ..read more