National real estate news and stats

The Fed as expected increased short-term rates by ¼%, so that the Prime Rate now stands at 5%. In their statement the Fed said is growing at a “solid rate” instead of “moderate rate. The Fed predicted that the unemployment rate will fall to 3.6% by year end. Thus, a majority of policymakers are now…

The NAHB Housing Optimism Index rose to 70 from 68 last month I read that the “parts” cost to the average American new home last year was $80,566. This is about 25% of the sales price of the home. All the other costs are labor, land, and governmental fees. Housing starts in April dropped 3.7%…

One of my favorite weekly reads is from Brian Wesbury at First Trust Portfolios and he shared these stats last week. “Recent figures from the Labor Department show US businesses had a total of 6.550 million job openings in March versus 6.585 million people who were unemployed. That’s a gap of only 35,000 workers. By…

I read a story last week in the Business Journals that reported on 3 recent surveys of homeowners. The first survey by YouGov of 1,330 homeowners revealed that only 30% of them plan to leave their current home in the next decade. In a second survey by Bankrate.com, only 19% of homeowners plan to move…

Mortgage bond pricing is down about 100 basis points over the last few trading days and the 10 Year Treasury Bill is up nearly ¼%. Why are rates moving higher? Strong economic growth is expected Inflation is rising Tight labor market Rising wages The U.S. Treasury is issuing tons of new debt this year The…

Zillow announced last Thursday that they will soon begin buying homes from sellers directly and then re-selling homes in Phoenix and Las Vegas. Zillow will make the “necessary repairs and updates” before re-selling their homes. In essence, they will become Fix and Flippers. But, they will not cut RE Agents out of their commissions as…

According to Black Knight today’s homeowners have the highest level of “tapable equity” on record with tapable equity as defined as home equity below 80% of the value of their home. For example, if their home is worth $500k and they owe $300k on their home, they have $100k in tapable equity in their home.…

I read an article in Builder Magazine’s newsletter last week on the impact that Amazon has had on RE in Seattle since 2010. Amazon has added over 40k new direct jobs and over 53k ancillary jobs since 2010 and the average new home price has increased by 83% to $694k and existing home prices have…

Freddie Mac estimates that our country will add between 19 and 21 million MORE households by 2025! That means builders need to build roughly 2.5 million new homes and apartments a year for the next 7+ years. Currently builders are building about 1.25 million new homes and apartments a year. This means they need to…

The NAHB just released a report based on a recent poll that asked people who had lived in their home for 10 years or longer, why they have chosen to stay put for so long. A WHOPPING 70% is because they like their home and are comfortable in it. 21% said they don’t want to…