Tag: Housing Affordability
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Young Voters Want Congress to Act on Housing Costs Now
According to the National Association of REALTORS®, about half the people who rent or live with family believe both of these statements are true: (a) I’d like to buy a home, but don’t have affordable options in my area. (b) U.S. housing is so expensive that I’ll likely never be able to hold the deed to…
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Growing Concerns About AI in the Home Buying Process
Artificial intelligence has found its way into everything. Buying a home is no exception—especially if a real estate brokerage or financing company is involved. Today’s buyers are used to AI being part of shopping for most anything. Most people expect it to be part of a real estate deal—bringing efficiency and precision into the process.…
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Zoning for Affordability in Minnesota: Is a Law Allowing More Units Doomed?
A new law to boost starter-home construction in Minnesota is “on life support” now, media reports say. Its backers are scrambling to save it as the lawmaking session concludes this month. Starter homes seem to be an endangered species. In the early 1980s, four in every ten new homes created were within the reach of…
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An App for That? Tech Promises to Help Young People Afford a Deed
Housing affordability continues to present barriers to first-time buyers. People who already have deeds find this market so much easier to navigate. Only one in five buyers is a newbie. Far too many younger people feel like permanent renters. Not surprisingly, property tech companies and app developers are showing up with solutions. And the National…
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Waiting for Home Prices to Drop? Don’t Count on It.
Some hopeful deed holders have waited a long time for property values to fall. Home prices remain high. Interest rates, too. It’s a time of war and simmering inflation. Generally, mortgage rates go up when inflation goes up—and when our federal treasury prints money. Which it’s doing now. As inflation rises, so do borrowing rates.…
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Facing a Troubled Economy—How Race and the Generations Intersect
The housing gap is getting more extreme as time goes on. Which means young people are having a harder time of it. Racial identity continues to be an overlapping factor.
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Deeds Reserved for Affordability: Incentives for Home Buyers to Live in Hawaii
Hawaii continues to grapple with its housing crisis. Hawaii’s Hale Kamaaina Mortgage Program is a state-based initiative to connect first-time home buyers with cut-rate mortgages. And this year, it made an extra $3,000 available to its first 35 buyers. Hale Kamaaina offers first-time Hawaii home purchasers: The funding comes from tax-exempt mortgage bonds. Hawaii administers…
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What’s All the Fuss About Home Buyers Tapping Their Retirement Accounts?
“I’m not a huge fan. Other people like it,” Trump told reporters. The topic? Home buyers raiding their 401(k) savings to come up with down payments. The remark created a stir. A Trump adviser had just appeared on the Fox Business channel, saying that a new federal plan would give people better access to their…
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First-Time Home Buying? How and Where to Buy a Home You’ll Enjoy for Under $250K
Aspiring deed holders are backing off from the market in droves. Prices are high. Mortgage approvals aren’t easily had. The economic outlook is still uncertain. And most would-be buyers (one new survey says three-fourths of renters!) think they’ll never be able to get their own deeds. All of that is very much real. But yes,…
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Leave Some Deeds for the Rest of Us! Will the White House Lower the Boom on Corporate Buyers?
You may have heard about the Trump executive order on real estate investment companies. The idea is about keeping large companies from buying homes that ordinary deed seekers would want to buy. It comes in the midst of poll results showing voters upset with high prices, and profit-seekers buying up homes. Does this depend on…
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U.S. Housing Affordability Politics: What Is Still Possible?
Is it possible to offer real relief to people struggling with our housing affordability challenge? If so, then how? What do you think? Many of us have very good ideas. Can our law and policy makers hear us? The need for affordable U.S. housing has been left hanging way too long. So let’s look at…
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More Deed Holders Slip Under Water. Lost Equity Risk Varies by Region.
The average deed holder is doing OK—sitting on $299K. But as high as home values are, across-the-board homeowner equity is down from its 2024 highs. Home equity belonging to the average U.S. deed holder went down by about $13K last year. In 32 states, people have been losing equity. Most strikingly, the number of mortgage…
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Sign of the Times: Companies Emerge to Help Friends Acquire Deeds Together
A form of co-ownership called the tenancy in common is picking up steam across the country. Four years ago, a Los Angeles company started turning single-home properties into townhome associations where co-buyers could share living spaces. Then we saw “upzoning” laws take shape. California’s Senate Bill 9 allowed single-unit property owners to split their parcels into multiple housing units.…
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A New Century’s American Dream: Holding a Deed, or Retiring Early?
The world has changed. Work is increasingly automated, and jobs aren’t guaranteed. Property values are high. Could early retirement be taking homeownership’s place at the core of the American Dream? In previous generations, secure careers underpinned the dream of holding a deed. Financial independence was not as urgent when a career and retirement were predictable.…
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Throwing in the Towel? Redfin Looks at Who’s Leaving “Flood-Prone” Counties
Redfin recently took a look at the twists and turns in deed transfer trends since 2019, before the pandemic began. The company found some striking geography stats. Water is moving people. Flood-Prone America Is Seeing More People Move Out Than In, Redfin has announced.
