As new home sales prices inflated to a record high – with the median price in April 2021 at $372,400, up 12.6 percent from the prior month and up 20.2 percent year-over-year, the air was let out of the number of sales which dropped 5.9 percent from the prior month according to the latest data …Read more
Fannie Mae and the MBA continued to tweak their monthly forecasts for 2021 and 2022 in the U.S. residential housing and lending markets. The two still diverge on where interest rates are heading. In their May 2021 forecast, Fannie Mae now believes that the conventional, fixed-rate 30-year residential mortgage rate is going to dip slightly …Read more
Housing sales brokerage is big business. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported 5.64 million existing home transactions in 2020 at an average price of $331,900. This equates to $1.872 trillion in total sales. EffectiveAgents® examines a large sample of transactions each year and found the average seller commission in 2020 was 5.656 percent. At …Read more
In the dark and clouds, airplane pilots need to know where they are heading. Fortunately flight instruments lead the way. The same is true in residential markets with monthly updated forecasts by Fannie Mae and the MBA so market professionals do not have to fly blind across the economic landscape. Each month Fannie Mae and …Read more
Each month Fannie Mae and the MBA release forecasts (both quarterly and annual) for housing and related lending. This summarizes their latest outlook as of March 2021. Interest Rates Not only do Fannie Mae and the MBA disagree on where interest rates are heading, they even see different average rates last year in 2020. Fannie …Read more
Some things were different at the Super Bowl this year while others remained the same. New facets ranged from the miniscule 25,000 fans that were allowed in the stadium, to the never-before-seen 30,000 cardboard cut outs, and the almost 10,000 vacant seats due to the capacity restrictions. For the first-time in history, the Super Bowl …Read more
Existing home sales accelerated through October 2020, with closings hitting 6.85 million dwellings on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR). This was the greatest level posted since March 2006 as reported by the National association of Realtors® (NAR). On a SAAR, sales were up a gigantic 26.6 percent compared to one year ago and up …Read more
Just as Elections Have Consequences, Taxes Have Ramifications. This annual blog on the Best (and Worst) State Tax Business Environments is a summary of the Tax Foundation’s annual report on comparing all 50 states across multiple taxes. Every state differs in where revenues are sourced, tax amounts and what services they provide. The TINSTAANREM axiom …Read more
Existing home sales exploded up a massive 20.9 percent to 6.54 million in September 2020 based on seasonally adjusted annualized sales (SAAR) vs one year ago as reported by the National Association of Realtors® (NAR). This was the greatest rate of sales seen since May 2006 on a SAAR. Raw unadjusted sales rocketed up 24.7 …Read more
The increased amount of time we are spending at home makes the residence more intrinsically valuable than at any time in people’s lives today. Coupled with record-low interest rates, new and existing home sales and refinance lending volumes continue to grow – with total residential lending now forecast by Fannie Mae to hit a record …Read more