Bidding wars hit their highest level since at least April 2020, with 70% of home offers from Redfin agents facing competition in January, a new Redfin report found. This is up from 67.7% in December and 61% in January 2021. The report chalks up the increased bidding to a combination of rising interest rates, high demand, and low inventory. January marked the first time rates hit 3.5% since the beginning of the pandemic, and have jumped to nearly 4% in the first weeks of February. New listings continue dropping, hitting record lows. “Rising mortgage rates are intensifying an already-severe shortage of homes for sale because buyers are feeling more urgency to buy while homeowners are feeling less urgency to sell—an…
Real estate investors bought 80,293 properties in Q4 2021, a record 18.4% of homes sold. Redfin reported that investor purchases were up from 43.9% YOY, though they fell 9.1% from Q3’s peak, likely due to stock shortages that impacted regular homebuyers and investors alike. Seasonality also contributed to the quarter-to-quarter drop, as the housing market typically slows in the winter. More than three-quarters of homes bought by investors (75.3%) were all-cash purchases. Atlanta saw the most investor activity in Q4 at 32.7% of market share, followed by Charlotte (32.1%), Jacksonville (29.8%), Las Vegas (29.2%), and Phoenix (28.4%). These are all popular destinations for moving Americans and have seen high demand during the Great Migration. “While record-high home prices are problematic…
Mortgage credit availability fell in January after inching up in December, falling to its lowest level since August 2021, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI). The MCAI dropped by 0.9% to 124.8 in January, wiping out December’s 0.8% increase. This indicates that lending standards are tightening, while increases show loosening credit. The index was benchmarked to 100 in March 2012. The Conventional MCAI fell 2.5%, though the Government MCAI rose by 0.7%. Within the Conventional MCAI, the Jumo MCAI fell by 1.6% and the conforming MCAI fell by 4.2%. “The decline in credit supply came at a time of rising mortgage rates and limited inventory, which add to the challenges that some prospective buyers…
Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) fell 2.4 points to 71.8 in January, its lowest level since May 2020, the GSE reported. The full index is down 5.9 points year-over-year. Affordability concerns drove sentiment down, with four of the index’s six components falling month-over-month. Only 25% of respondents said they believed it’s a good time to buy a home, an all-time low for the survey, while 69% said it’s a good time to sell. “Consumer sentiment toward housing softened further in January – the HPSI fell 2.4 points to 71.8 – as affordability and supply constraints continue to limit home purchase opportunities, particularly among younger households,” said Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. Younger consumers…
Homeowners gained $2.6 trillion in tappable equity in 2021, up by 35% year-over-year for an aggregate total of almost $10 trillion, Black Knight’s December 2021 Mortgage Monitor reported. In just Q4 2021 alone, tappable equity rose by nearly half a billion dollars, resulting in the lowest total market leverage on record. The $2.6 trillion gain was the largest annual increase ever, more than double 2020’s record high of $1.1 trillion. The average homeowner has gained $48,000, for a total of $185,000 in available equity. “Home price appreciation over the course of 2021 was unlike anything that’s come before, and the incredible growth we’ve seen in homeowner equity is testament to that fact,” said Black Knight Data & Analytics President Ben…
New data from the Census Bureau confirms that Hispanic households continue to make significant gains despite the challenges they face in the hot housing market. The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) released a statement celebrating the finding of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey/Housing Vacancy Survey. The survey found that Hispanic homeownership rates rose to 48.4% in 2021, up by 657,000 households since 2019. Of the total, a net 1,025,000 were new households, which account for 27% of household formation growth in the last two years. Additionally, Hispanics added 1,025,000 net new households, accounting for 27% of household formation growth over the last two years. However, potential Hispanic homeowners face many challenges. Latino homeowners trailed the…
Good Morning! Today is February 3, 2022. The U.S. is deploying 3,000 more troops to Eastern Europe. The Army said it would immediately discharge unvaccinated soldiers. Jeff Zucker resigned as the president of CNN over a romantic relationship with an executive. The Mortgage Note Reports Millennial Domination: Despite challenging conditions for first-time homebuyers, Millennials make up a majority of homebuyers in most of the US’s largest metros, especially Denver, Seattle, and Boston. Home Value Record: December 2021 saw a record annual surge in U.S. home value led by Austin, TX, which saw total home values equivalent to the 2020 GDP of Ecuador. And in other mortgage and housing news… Love In The Air: A survey from Zillow found 34% of…
Good Morning! Today is February 2, 2022. It’s official: Tom Brady is retiring. The U.S. national debt topped $30 trillion, a record. ABC suspended Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks after she said that the Holocaust was not about race. She later apologized. The Mortgage Note Reports Guaranteed Rate No. 8 To Debut In NASCAR Race:Race car driver Tyler Reddick will debut the new Guaranteed Rate No. 8 Chevrolet at the first-ever Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum this Sunday. Application Volume Back Up: Mortgage loan application volume rose 12% after falling 7.1% last week, MBA reports. CoreLogic HPI: Home prices rose by 18.5% across the nation in December 2021, but are expected to moderate in the next twelve months. Panorama CEO: Panorama Mortgage Group named…
Home prices rose year-over-year (YOY) by 18.5% across the nation in December 2021, and by 1.3% from November, CoreLogic’s latest Home Price Index reported. Home price growth averaged 15% for 2021, which saw one of the hottest housing markets in decades. Q1 2021 started off with 10% appreciation but continued to grow, reaching 18% in Q4. By comparison, price appreciation for the full year of 2020 averaged only 6%. The states with the highest increases YOY were Arizona (28.4%), Florida (27.1%), and Utah (25.2%). The cities with the biggest gains were Phoenix (30.2%), Las Vegas (24.4%), and San Diego (22.4%). CoreLogic predicts that home prices will remain flat this month and rise by only 3.5% by next December. Comparing annual…
The Great Migration is driving up inflation in the most popular destinations, a new Redfin report reveals. Looking at the correlation between inflation and migration in the metros, Redfin users are looking to move. Their analysis showed that high migration rates are linked to rising inflation. The tenth most popular destination in Q4 2021, Atlanta, saw inflation rise by 8.9% year-over-year in the same period, the highest inflation rate of all metros in their analysis. “Migration is one reason among many why the cost of everything from food to fuel is rising,” said Redfin Deputy Chief Economist Taylor Marr. “An influx of people moving to a popular, relatively affordable place like Atlanta increases demand for housing and transportation, pushing up…
