Rents are up 0.5% nationally from a month ago but significantly down from a growth rate of 1 to 2%, according to a new report released Tuesday by the online rental marketplace Zumper. National rent prices are showing early signs of cooling as they hit new historic highs, according to a new report released Tuesday by the online rental marketplace Zumper.
Rents are up 0.5 percent nationally from one month ago, marking a historic high and a rapid rate of growth, but significantly cooler than the growth rate of 1 to 2 percent seen in previous months, according to Zumper.
Meanwhile, the price to rent a two-bedroom apartment dropped significantly, falling 2.9 percent between May and June — a possible sign some buyers who had put off buying a home are making the jump now that demand is cooling off, the report indicates.While the 2.9 percent drop is significant, experts don’t expect a rental market crash due to an extreme shortage of housing units.
The report al ...

Although the market is shifting, that doesn't mean that the sky is falling. Listing agents should focus on training their sellers to understand the new realities instead of blindly reacting and giving away the farm in the process.

My college history professor was renowned for a statement he would make to every new class: “The only thing we learn from history,” he would intone, “is that we don’t learn from history.”
Put another way, we tend to have very short memories and seldom seem to remember lessons we garnered from experiences as few as 15 years ago.
It might be time to announce price “refinements,” “improvements” or “enhancements.”
Consequently, because sellers have grown accustomed to being able to sell just about any home in a few short days with multiple offers, the fact that, in this new shifting market, no offers are coming in after a week is sending sellers into a state of alarm.
Truth is, eve ...

A Newly Built Home Sounds Great. But Ballooning Borrowing Costs Could Crush New Home Buyers


June 05 2022






Over time, more than half of homebuyers would prefer to buy a newly-built home over an existing home. More than 10% of U.S. home purchases are from buyers of new homes. In many ways, that's no surprise, as new homes can be specified for buyer preferences, are extra clean, energy efficient, require less maintenance, and are move-in ready at the time of purchase.

But right now, the market for newly built homes has never been trickier. It's not just difficult to build or buy a new home – agreeing to an offer on a new home could be a financial risk your clients can't afford.

Learn why borrowing costs are skyrocketing and what your buyers should consider when deciding whether to agree to a contract on a new home.

Why Are Borrowing Costs Rising?

The costs of borrowing for a home loan are surging because interest and mortgage rat ...

March 3, 2022



Spring may have sprung early in the housing market. The U.S. median list price set a record high of $392,000 in February, according to realtor.com®’s Monthly Housing Trends Report. Many markets continued to post double-digit annual price gains, led by Las Vegas, Miami, and Tampa, Fla., with annual increases of at least 31% each.

“Over the last five years, we have seen home prices break records early in the season as buyers try to get ahead of the competition,” says Danielle Hale, realtor.com®’s chief economist. “But this is the first time the record has been broken in February, signaling that competition is already heating up weeks before the start of the spring buying season in a typical year.”
The number of homes for sale remains at record lows. But home buyer demand remains high and home prices are surging as a result of competition for low housing inventories. Hale says a slight improvement has been made on ; ...