Commentary

Led by an increase in sales in the Northeast and Midwest, NAR found that pending home sales nationwide rose slightly month-over-month in June, with the market continuing to struggle with a lack of housing supply.

Continuing our coverage on the Fed’s announcement of a 25-basis point rate hike at the end of their two-day July meeting, more commentary has come through focusing specifically on the real estate market, including sales, defaults, and home prices.

At the conclusion of Fed’s two-day July meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee moved to raise the base interest rate by 25 basis points, with all members voting in favor of the action.

“Home renovations and remodeling drove demand for home equity products in 2022, with roughly two-thirds of borrowers citing it as a reason for applying for a home equity loan. Other borrower reasons were for debt consolidation (25%) and emergency cash management or other (10%),” said Marina Walsh, CMB, MBA’s VP of Industry Analysis.

In addition, although the Case-Shiller Index fell by 0.5% year-over-year, CoreLogic’s Chief Economist Dr. Selma Hepp noted that "while the annual decline reflects price drops that occurred in 2022, recent above-average price gains indicate an inflection ahead.”

States including Florida, Texas, and Arizona exploded in popularity despite increasing climate change risk from storms, drought, wildfires, and extreme heat—but some insurance companies are pulling out of these markets.

A new poll by Fannie Mae has found that 73% of respondents believe the U.S. economy is on the “wrong track,” with a vast majority of lenders feeling the economy is "very likely" or "somewhat likely" to enter a recession in the next two years.

“Even though buyers are trepidatious about high mortgage rates, we’re seeing bidding wars in several pockets of the market because there are so few options and even fewer good options,” said Redfin Premier Agent Jordan Hammond.

“While permits, a leading indicator of future starts, ticked up 2.2% month over month, the pace of construction slowed as single-family housing starts were down 7.0% month over month, meaning less groundbreaking on new homes, and single-family completions were down 2.8% month-over-month, meaning less supply was added to the housing stock,” said First American Deputy Chief Economist Odeta Kushi.

“Homebuyer demand has bottomed out,” Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather said. “High rates are still giving a lot of buyers pause, but the sticker shock is no longer as severe as it was when rates skyrocketed last year.