At the onset of 2021, positive housing market dynamics powered growth in the market potential for existing-home sales, offsetting negative market supply dynamics. Millions more millennials will age into their prime home-buying age in 2021, and they will do so at a time of historically low mortgage rates. Working against them is the extremely ...
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When determining where to set the federal funds rate, the Federal Reserve studies a multitude of models and analyses, including the neutral rate of interest. The neutral “what” you ask? The neutral rate of interest is the short-term interest rate that would prevail when the economy is at full employment and stable inflation. The Fed may choose to ...
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Even though nominal house prices continued to surge, affordability improved in November as two of the three key drivers of the Real House Price Index (RHPI), household income and mortgage rates, swung in favor of increased affordability. Real house prices declined by 6.2 percent relative to one year ago, thanks to the benefit of increased buying ...
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As nominal house prices have soared over the last year, many potential first-time home buyers may be reconsidering whether to buy or to continue renting. Weighing the monthly cost of renting versus owning a home is a key factor in determining if it makes financial sense to buy a home. This update to a 2019 analysis, which found that owning was ...
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In the final month of 2020, the market potential for existing-home sales reached its highest point since 2007, rising to a 6.18 million seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) of sales. While the winter months are traditionally real estate’s slow season, the housing market had one more surprise for us in 2020 as our measure of the market ...
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The housing market prior to the pandemic could have been characterized as a sellers’ market, with a shortage of supply relative to demand. With the current supply of homes for sale even tighter relative to demand, it can only be characterized as a super-sellers’ market today. The pandemic has intensified a sense of home as refuge and falling ...
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