Affordable Housing – The News Desk

Most home listings were unaffordable for the typical household in 2023, real estate brokerage says

22Dec

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Money

Most home listings were unaffordable for the typical household in 2023, real estate brokerage says

Most Americans cannot afford to buy the homes listed for sale in the U.S., real-estate brokerage Redfin said in report on Thursday. An analysis of listings in 97 of the most populous metropolitan areas in the country found that just 15.5% of homes for sale in 2023 were affordable for the typical U.S. household. That's a decrease from last year, when Redfin found that 21% of homes listed for sale were affordable for the typical buyer. Redfin defines affordability based on the estimated mortgage payment equaling 30% or less of the average monthly income of residents in the local county. Redfin isn't the only real estate company pointing toward housing affordability troubles. Earlier this year, the National Association of Realtors said that middle-income h...

11Dec

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World

NDP Keeps Justin Trudeau Afloat

TorontoPrime Minister Justin Trudeau sometimes seems to defy political gravity. He’s held office for more than eight years, through scandal and error. He survived revelations that he wore blackface three times as a young man, along with two ethics violations handed down from Canada’s ethics commissioner for conflict of interest. He has had public spats with female parliamentarians and ministers—as well as icy relations with China and India and with Presidents Trump and Biden. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

The Fed will make an interest rate decision next week. Here’s what it may mean for mortgage rates.

28Oct

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Money

The Fed will make an interest rate decision next week. Here’s what it may mean for mortgage rates.

The Federal Reserve's flurry of interest rate hikes since March 2022 have taken a toll on home buyers, pushing the typical mortgage rate above 8%, a level not seen since 2000. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve is set to make another interest rate decision that could impact the home loan market.The central bank is expected to hold rates steady at its November 1 meeting, according to economists surveyed by FactSet. That comes as credit cards are now charging the highest interest rates on record, and many home buyers have been priced out of the real estate market due to loan costs. A pause on rate hikes could provide a backstop against higher borrowing costs, yet it might not immediately translate into lower mortgage rates, according to financial experts. That's partly because mortgage rate ...

Mortgage rates touch 8% for the first time since 2000

20Oct

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Money

Mortgage rates touch 8% for the first time since 2000

Mortgage rates hit 8% on this week, the highest level since August 2000 and deepening an affordability crisis for homebuyers. The average rate for a 30-year loan touched 8% on Wednesday, according to Mortgage News Daily, which surveys a range of lenders to determine current home loan rates. Higher borrowing costs and elevated residential real estate prices have made home buying unaffordable for a larger swath of buyers, economists and researchers say. In about a dozen U.S. states, families with a median income for their area cannot afford a mortgage, according to recent research from Moody's. That's up from only two states in 2019. The national median home price was $430,000 last month, up from $400,000 in January, according to Realtor.com."The 23-year ...

Mortgage rates haven’t been this high since 2000

6Oct

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Money

Mortgage rates haven’t been this high since 2000

Mortgage rates continue to climb, hitting their highest level in nearly 23 years. The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate loan rose to 7.49%, from 7.31% last week, Freddie Mac said Thursday. The average rate on a 15-year mortgage rate rose to 6.78% from 6.72% last week."Several factors, including shifts in inflation, the job market and uncertainty around the Federal Reserve's next move, are contributing to the highest mortgage rates in a generation," said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac's chief economist. "Unsurprisingly, this is pulling back homebuyer demand."Depending on the length of the loan, rising mortgage rates add hundreds of dollars to a mortgage payment. While mortgage rates don't necessarily mirror the Fed's rate increases, they tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. ...

Homes “unaffordable” in 99% of nation for average American

28Sep

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Money

Homes “unaffordable” in 99% of nation for average American

The typical American cannot afford to buy a home in a growing number of communities across the nation, according to common lending standards, and there's no clear sign of conditions getting better soon.That's the takeaway from a new report released Thursday by real estate data provider ATTOM. Researchers at ATTOM examined the median home prices last year for roughly 575 U.S. counties and found that 99% of those counties now have homes priced too far out of reach for the average American who makes approximately $71,214 a year, according to the report.Housing experts said a couple of trends explain why prices continue to climb. Interest rates on home loans grew past 7% this year, adding hundreds of dollars per month to a potential mortgage payment. Meanwhile, homeowners who locked in at low...

Rents are falling more slowly in U.S. suburbs than in cities. Here’s why.

10Sep

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Money

Rents are falling more slowly in U.S. suburbs than in cities. Here’s why.

For decades, one of the draws to moving to the suburbs included renting a place for less than what you'd find in the city. But that may not be the case for much longer as the price gap between the two is steadily shrinking.According to new rental property research from Apartment List, rent increases in suburban areas in the early years of the pandemic outpaced price growths in 28 of the nation's largest metropolitan areas. In the years since, year-over-year rent declines in core cities have fallen faster than suburban ones, minimizing the price gap in average rent prices between the two areas.Here's what led suburban rents to surge during the pandemic and why they're falling more slowly than rents in the city. Pandemic-spurred population changesMillion...