Daily Dose

“As the housing market rebalances, price declines will continue across many markets, but those declines would have to be substantial to erase all of the equity gains accumulated by homeowners during the pandemic boom,” said First American Chief Economist Mark Fleming.

The median price of homes for sale increased by 6.3% annually in March, according to Realtor.com's 2023 Monthly Housing Market Trends Report. The report notes that homes spent an average of 18 days longer on the market than the same time last year.

CoreLogic reports that the share of home loans in delinquency continues to dip nationwide, down from a high of 7.3% in the spring of 2020, and down by 0.5 percentage points from January 2022.

A judge in the U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois has granted plaintiffs class certification in an antitrust suit against NAR that challenges home sellers paying the commissions of real estate agents representing homebuyers.

Florida has topped the list of popular relocation destinations again, according to a new report from Redfin, as relocators made up a bigger portion of homebuyers than ever due to elevated mortgage rates and persistently high home prices.

“Home sales activity looks to be bottoming out in the first quarter of this year, before incremental improvements will occur,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun.

For those facing financial hardship, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will enhance their payment deferral policies to allow borrowers to defer up to six months of mortgage payments.

The Department’s Proposed Rule would revise regulations governing floodplain management and the protection of wetlands to implement the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard.

The share of baby boomers across the U.S. now makes up 39% of homebuyers, the most of any generation and an increase from nearly 30% in 2022, according to a new report from the National Association of Realtors.

“2023 began as 2022 had ended, with U.S. home prices falling for the seventh consecutive month,” says Craig J. Lazzara, Managing Director at S&P DJI.