A common narrative over the last several years is that Millennials are breaking with the habits of their parents when it comes to home buying. Millennials rent longer, live with their parents, and are burdened with student loan debt. In short, it would seem that for a variety of reasons they aren’t as interested in homeownership as their ... Read More ›

We’ve posted the September First American Loan Application Defect Index, which estimates the frequency of defects, fraudulence and misrepresentation in the information submitted in mortgage loan applications. The Defect Index decreased 1.4 percent in September as compared with August and decreased by 14.8 percent as compared to September 2015. The ... Read More ›

Given the most recent release on housing starts showing a decline, many are asking if the housing market is stagnating. Builders fear that the decades of broad-based demand for single-family suburban homes is now a bygone era. Young millennials are pouring into the big city and eschewing homeownership permanently. Who, if anyone, will want to buy ... Read More ›

First American Chief Economist Mark Fleming is interviewed on Bloomberg Radio to explain why housing is more affordable today than many people believe. Read More ›

First American’s proprietary Real House Price Index (RHPI) looks at August 2016 data and includes analysis from First American Chief Economist Mark Fleming that explains that counter to conventional wisdom, affordability for home buyers in many markets is increasing due to low interest rates and increasing wages. Read More ›

It has been a full year since our proprietary Real Estate Sentiment Index (RESI) first shared title agents’ predictions for price growth and other key metrics across property types for the year ahead. So, with a full year of data, the time is right to ask the question: how accurate is the wisdom of the crowd? In a post late last year, we discussed ... Read More ›