New rent control laws in New York are being blamed for eating away at landlords’ profits and putting many in a financial bind. Some real estate professionals and investors told The Wall Street Journal that the laws could cause rent-stabilized apartment buildings to drop 20% to 45% in value. That could put the building owners at risk of default. “It’s all over,” Lazer Sternhell, a real estate investor and broker of rent-regulated
Pending home sales bounced back in May from a dip the previous month, a sign that home buyers are returning to the market as lower borrowing costs improve affordability. Three of the four major U.S. regions saw an increase in pending home sales last month, the National Association of REALTORS® reported Thursday.NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, rose 1.1% to a reading of 105.4
For the seventh time in the last nine weeks, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped, reaching the lowest average since November 2016, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey.“While the industrial- and trade-related economic data continues to dominate the news, the drop in mortgage rates over the last two months is already being felt in the housing market,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Through late Jun
Home buyers are finding fewer homes for sale that are meeting their price expectations. Half of all home buyers say they’re looking for a home priced under $288,000. But that is 9.1% below—or $27,000 less--than the median list price of currently available homes, a new realtor.com® study finds.“The price difference between what buyers are searching for, closing on, and what’s available on the market demonstrates just how big the gap is fo
Falling prey to a wire fraud scheme, he lost the down payment that took his family years to save. Now he’s helping real estate pros protect their clients against cyber scams. After a yearlong search, Aaron Cole and his family finally found their dream home in Canby, Ore., in December 2018. The seller accepted Cole’s $440,000 offer, and with a down payment of $123,000, he and his wife were ready to move in just in time to celebrate Christmas a
In the nation’s priciest areas, you’ll need to be in the top 20% to 30% of household earners to afford a median-priced home, according to a new study by Zoocasa, a real estate website.Researchers evaluated how much income households need to qualify for a mortgage on a median-priced home in 35 of the largest cities in the U.S. They factored in a 20% down payment, a mortgage rate of 4.5%, and a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage.The top three most acc
The equity of homeowners ages 62 and older has reached an all-time high, according to the latest index reading from the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association report. Seniors saw their housing wealth grow by 2.7% or $104 billion in the first quarter of this year, reaching a $7.14 trillion record.The increase in elderly homeowners’ wealth was mostly attributed to an estimated 2.4%, or $110 billion, increase in senior home values.As older
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to ease or, in some cases, eliminate rules that have been blamed for blocking greater construction of affordable housing. Homebuilding is near its lowest level in 60 years, contributing to a nationwide housing shortage that has pushed home prices up and battered affordability.Trump announced that a newly created initiative called the White House Council on Eliminating Barriers to Affordabl
Many homeowners who purchase a fixer-upper say it was because they believed they’d save money. But they actually end up spending about the same or more than if they had opted for a move-in-ready home, according to a new study from Porch, a home remodeling website.Porch surveyed more than 1,000 homeowners about recent repairs to their homes. More than one-third of respondents said they lived in fixer-uppers.On average, respondents who bought a m
Many home sellers are reaping profits, especially if they're in one of 20 hot housing markets, finds a new study from ATTOM Data Solutions, a real estate data firm.To evaluate, researchers evaluated the difference between the median sales price of homes in a given market and the median sales price of the previous sale of those same homes.San Francisco homeowners are seeing the highest returns, with sellers in April netting an average 74% return.
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