By KIMBERLEY HAAS More than a quarter of the states in the country have experienced a rental price increase of 20% or more in 2021 and a senior research analyst says people moving out of cities and into more rural communities are partially to blame. Nick VinZant works for QuoteWizard by LendingTree. He co-authored an article that was published this month which shows that Florida had the highest percentage increase in the nation at 29%. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Florida is about $1,425. Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, and Washington all saw rents increase by more than 20% for one-bedroom apartments in 2021, according…
Mortgage rates rose again after several weeks of small declines, reaching 3.10%, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. Freddie’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) found that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.10%, up from last week’s 2.98%. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 2.72% “The combination of rising inflation and consumer spending is driving mortgage rates higher,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist. “Shoppers looking to buy a home are fueling strong demand while ongoing inventory shortages are not improving in the presence of higher home prices. This reality illustrates the challenging situation facing the housing market.” Though the holidays are usually a slow period in the industry, homebuyer demand has remained high. Redfin’s latest Homebuyer Demand…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS When the holiday season starts, people are typically reluctant to put their homes on the market due to a lack of potential buyers. But this could be the year when that changes. In a recent article at Realtor.com, the company’s Chief Economist Danielle Hale said sellers can expect to see plenty of buyers this winter. Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist at the National Association of Realtors, agreed. He expects there will be more home sales this winter than there were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. That is good news for sellers, especially since CNN Business reported last week that the median price of single-family existing homes rose in 99% of the 183 markets tracked by employees at the…
Home prices rose 5.3% last quarter and nearly 20% year-over-year (YOY), according to Clear Capital’s October 2021 Home Data Index. Western states led price growth once again, with prices rising 24.3% YOY. Phoenix continued to dominate with a 57% price increase, though the report noted that “COVID-related noise” may have inflated that figure. However, significant increases were confirmed by a 31% rise in price-per-square-foot. Las Vegas price hikes were close behind, up 26%, followed by Portland, up 21%. The South followed up the West in appreciation, showing price growth of 20.5% YOY. Tampa topped its list at 31%, followed by Raleigh and Orlando, both experiencing 25% increases. The Northeast saw prices up by 16.7%. Providence and Hartford saw the largest…
Lawrence H. Summers, who served as Bill Clinton’s Treasury Secretary and was one of Barack Obama’s chief economic advisors, says “housing inflation is almost certain to soar in coming months,” and he’s taking the current Treasury chief to task over her rosy view of inflation. Former Treasury Secretary Summers has been sounding the alarm over inflation for months, even as current Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has claimed the problem is “transitory” and not a significant threat to the economy. In response, Summers has criticized the Biden administration’s economic response to the pandemic, warning that rising inflation isn’t a temporary concern but a long-term problem the Fed will have trouble reining in. “We are printing money, we are creating government bonds,…
A new poll from Fox News shows 9 in 10 Americans are worried about inflation, and they aren’t alone. A growing consensus among housing and banking analysts is that, while the Federal Reserve gets most of the attention, the real force impacting mortgage rates in the coming months is inflation. And that’s a factor much harder for policymakers to impact than the Fed. “If you haven’t yet refinanced, do so now,” says Greg McBride, chief financial analyst for Bankrate. “The likelihood is that we see higher rates, not lower rates in the months ahead.” While an entire industry has grown up around ‘Fed watching’ — tracking every hint dropped by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and his counterparts — inflation…
In a speech at the annual Jackson Hole symposium, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank is likely to begin withdrawing some of its pandemic policies before the end of the year. Still, interest-rate increases won’t be coming overnight.
That means the Fed will likely begin cutting the amount of bonds it buys each month before the end of the year. But Powell stressed that these cuts should not be seen as indicators that rate increases are around the corner.
“The timing and pace of the coming reduction in asset purchases will not be intended to carry a direct signal regarding the timing of interest rate liftoff, for which we have articulated a different and substantially more stringent…
The hot talk in Washington is about inflation, not interest rates. “We’re experiencing a big uptick in inflation, bigger than many expected, bigger certainly than I expected, and we’re trying to understand whether it’s something that will pass through fairly quickly or whether, in fact, we need to act,” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told the Senate Banking Committee last week. Meanwhile, U.S. mortgage interest rates have risen since President Joe Biden took office in January according to Federal Reserve data. On the day he was inaugurated, the 30-year fixed rate was around 2.75 percent. By April 1, it had risen to 3.18 — its highest level since June of last year. Rates have been gradually declining since then but have…
