Economic Center Blog
Welcome to the First American Economic Center Blog, a top source for the latest housing market research and analysis driven by Chief Economist Mark Fleming.

The REconomy Podcast™: Underutilized Office Buildings Pose Challenge to Commercial Real Estate Sector

By FirstAm Editor on April 20, 2023
In this episode of the REconomy Podcast™ from First American, Chief Economist Mark Fleming and Deputy Chief Economist Odeta Kushi discuss how underutilized office space may impact the commercial real estate industry with special guest Senior Commercial Real Estate Economist Xander Snyder Read More›

Housing Interest Rates Affordability REconomy

Will there be a Residential Real Estate Credit Crunch?

By Mark Fleming on April 18, 2023
The housing market has faced its fair share of headwinds leading up to this year’s spring home-buying season. While mortgage rates have retreated from recent highs, they remain elevated compared with one year ago, and house prices, while down from the peak, also remain elevated. All while housing supply remains historically and unseasonably low. ... Read More›

Interest Rates Potential Home Sales tenure

Why it’s So Hard to Convert Offices into Housing

By Xander Snyder on April 13, 2023
At first glance, converting old office buildings into apartments seems like an obvious solution to two pressing real estate challenges. There’s a national housing shortage of several millions of housing units, and office space is substantially underutilized due to the adoption of remote work. Declining office use is a significant risk to office ... Read More›

Commercial Real Estate Office Multifamily

CRE X-Factor: Retail’s Tailwinds Turn to Headwinds

By Xander Snyder on April 10, 2023
Retail real estate remains a challenged asset class, although locations catering to experiential services so far appear to be more resilient than others. Even before the onset of the pandemic, the rise of eCommerce and the shift away from mall culture created an uncertain outlook for many types of retail locations. In this month’s X-Factor, let’s ... Read More›

Commercial Real Estate retail

The REconomy Podcast™: What Do the Recent Bank Failures and Federal Reserve Actions Mean for the Housing Market?

By FirstAm Editor on April 7, 2023
In this episode of the REconomy Podcast™ from First American, Chief Economist Mark Fleming and Deputy Chief Economist Odeta Kushi break down the housing market implications from an eventful month of March, which included ongoing inflationary pressure, bank failures and a Federal Reserve rate increase. Read More›

Housing Interest Rates Affordability REconomy

What Does Consumer Spending Signal about the Health of Retail Real Estate?

By Xander Snyder on April 4, 2023
The performance of retail real estate is closely tied to consumer spending trends. Over the last year, consumers have benefitted from meaningful wage growth, but inflation has erased most of those gains. Similarly, despite nominal retail sales growing by approximately 5.4 percent in February, retail spending in real terms has fallen over the last ... Read More›

Commercial Real Estate retail

What Makes a Boom-Bust Market?

By Mark Fleming on March 30, 2023
Affordability has now improved for three straight months, yet remains down 39 percent since January 2022, according to the Real House Price Index (RHPI). Nominal house price appreciation has slowed dramatically in response to dampened demand. Nationally, annual nominal house price growth peaked in March 2022 at 21 percent, but has since ... Read More›

Interest Rates Real House Price Index Affordability

The REconomy Podcast™: Why House Prices in Some Markets are More Resilient than Others

By FirstAm Editor on March 23, 2023
In this episode of the REconomy Podcast™ from First American, Chief Economist Mark Fleming and Deputy Chief Economist Odeta Kushi discuss home price trends nationally and at the market level, examining why house prices in some markets are more resilient than others as house prices adjust to higher mortgage rates. Read More›

Housing Interest Rates Affordability REconomy