Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

The labor market is showing signs of softness but is not breaking down yet, which has kept mortgage rates higher for longer. Since 2022, my guiding principle has been that the labor market is more important than inflation in determining mortgage rates. This is the reason mortgage rates are around 7% and not around 6% today.

Mortgages 478

Mortgages Marketing Residential Construction 478

Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

Without more clarity on mortgage rates , substantial growth in housing permits is unlikely. We are maintaining a steady level, with the best results appearing when mortgage rates approach 6%. Additionally, there are 268,000 homes currently under construction. Also, the sales for the last three months were revised negatively.

Sales 490

Sales Construction Mortgages Residential 490

Housing Wire

DECEMBER 18, 2024

Interestingly, employment for residential construction workers typically one of the first areas to experience declines before a recession has not yet seen its usual downturn. Perhaps most importantly, some homebuilders have been subsidizing mortgage rates to help maintain employment and finish ongoing projects.

Construction 511

Construction Residential Sales Mortgages 511

Housing Wire

DECEMBER 23, 2024

When mortgage rates decline, sales improve, but it becomes more challenging for builders and buyers when rates rise. This situation poses a risk to construction labor in 2025. As mortgage rates keep increasing along with supply, this doesnt bode well for housing starts growing meaningfully.

Residential 525

Residential Construction Sales Mortgages 525

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 19, 2024

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari recently stated that housing demand is high so the clearance rate (mortgage rates) should be higher. Builders pay down mortgage rates as much as possible to move products, so Kashkari’s comment on clearance rates shows that he doesn’t know what he is talking about.

Construction 539

Construction Mortgages Land Sales 539

Housing Wire

MARCH 18, 2025

Todays new construction report from the Census Bureau showed month-to-month growth in housing starts, but falling housing permits. However, employment for residential construction workers hasnt fallen at all, even with the decline in housing starts and permits. Why haven’t the homebuilders started doing layoffs?

Construction 436

Construction Residential Sales New Construction 436

Housing Wire

JANUARY 17, 2025

Seattle-based WaFd Bank , which has offered home loans for more than 100 years, announced Thursday in an earnings report that it will exit the single-family mortgage lending business. That is bad news for banks like WaFd Bank, because it has made the business of originating mortgages for our portfolio unsustainable.

Lending 397

Lending Banks Mortgages Commercial 397

Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 6, 2025

Describing the modern-day mortgage market as challenging would be an understatement, to say the least. Mortgage interest rates have steadily ramped up throughout 2024. The average rate throughout 2024 for 30-year fixed mortgages was 6.72% higher than it was during the 2008 market crash.

Loans 343

Loans Mortgages Equity Construction 343

Housing Wire

JULY 17, 2024

Higher mortgage rates have increased recession risk by targeting the one sector that always falls before every recession: residential construction workers. Of course, the one solution that can change the tide for this concerning downtrend is lower mortgage rates. percent below the revised May figure of 956,000. This is 10.1

Construction 508

Construction Mortgages Residential As-is 508

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 24, 2024

The big publicly traded builders have money to pay down mortgage rates and manage their pipelines better than smaller homebuilders. We had no growth in residential construction work hiring earlier in the year when rates were higher. We had no growth in residential construction work hiring earlier in the year when rates were higher.

Sales 488

Sales Construction Mortgages Residential 488

Housing Wire

APRIL 3, 2025

Mortgage rates have reached the lowest levels of the year today as the 10-year yield dropped significantly on tariff news. Mortgage rates have reached their low point of the year. With just one day remaining, I will be recording the latest episode of the HousingWire Daily podcast to share my insights on tariffs and mortgage rates.

Mortgages 284

Mortgages Residential Construction As-is 284

Housing Wire

JANUARY 30, 2025

This was some of the perspective shared by Matt Cook, the director of business development at HomeTeam Inspection Service , who shared with HousingWire ‘s Reverse Mortgage Daily (RMD) how the growing number of older homeowners is impacting what he sees on a daily basis. Some feel like homes arent built like they used to be.

Inspection 322

Inspection Mortgages New Construction Equity 322

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 21, 2024

The construction activity is likely to place the housing industry and its financing partners on a “collision course” with insurers, the outlet said. The construction figure in Florida far exceeds the next most prominent states. million built in total in that period, the First Street analysis found.”

Construction 497

Construction Development Finance Mortgages 497

Housing Wire

JANUARY 17, 2024

New home construction exploded early in the pandemic as soaring home demand squeezed existing inventory nationwide, giving homebuilders a much bigger share of a shrinking pie. High mortgage rates and home prices quelled the surge in buyer demand, and time seems to have moderated the supply chain shocks.

Construction 488

Construction Land Residential Mortgages 488

Housing Wire

JULY 19, 2024

Ascent Developer Solutions , a private mortgage lending platform, announced its launch Friday in conjunction with an equity infusion from Elliott Investment Management. Founder and CEO Robert Wasmund has a deep background in the residential construction and bridge lending industry. “We

Construction 459

Construction Development Loans Lending 459

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 18, 2024

The number of housing units that came online in September showed a big year-over-year jump, but data on earlier stages of construction suggest not much is coming through the pipeline. That’s according to monthly data on new residential construction from the U.S. But housing completions rose 14.6% compared to September 2023.

Construction 459

Construction Staging New Construction MLS 459

Housing Wire

JANUARY 27, 2025

In many markets, there was simply more new home inventory and some buyers who might have wanted to purchase an existing home were instead looking at new construction, said Bright MLS Chief Economist Lisa Sturtevant in a statement. Inventory continues to be an issue in the existing-homes market.

Sales 476

Sales New Construction MLS Mortgages 476

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 4, 2024

Known as Ridgeland Mortgage , the joint venture will expand loanDepot’s footprint in a region where new-home sales account for roughly one-third to one-half of all transactions, depending on the market.

Purchase and sale agreement 305

Purchase and sale agreement Mortgages New Construction Lending 305

Housing Wire

JANUARY 10, 2025

The construction sector showed little month-over-month change, adding just 8,000 jobs. Residential building construction added 3,500 jobs from November, while residential specialty trade contractors added just 500 positions. This will push mortgage rates higher in the near term, Fratantoni said.

Residential 397

Residential Construction MLS Mortgages 397

Housing Wire

JULY 19, 2024

“A national secondary market for construction financing could allow lenders, like state housing finance agencies and banks, to provide the investment capital needed to get multifamily housing projects built and keys in families’ hands.” This could make the overall cost to entry — which is already low — more digestible.

Construction 488

Construction Finance Development Marketing 488

Housing Wire

MARCH 7, 2025

Rich Bradford, broker associate with The Bradford Team at RE/MAX One Realty in Haddonfield, New Jersey, said the results for his local market could be even better if so many potential sellers werent locked in by low mortgage rates. That would definitely help with the sale pricing of new construction.

Marketing 388

Marketing New Construction Construction Development 388

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 4, 2024

As high mortgage rates reshape the housing market, existing homes are making up a larger percentage of for-sale inventory, and homebuyers are taking notice. Recently, the “lock-in effect” has kept homeowners with historically low-rate mortgages from selling, but this effect is easing. year over year in September.

As-is 370

As-is Marketing Construction New Construction 370

Housing Wire

MARCH 26, 2025

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) supported the UDAP policy reversal, arguing that avoided unnecessary oversight and cost increases for consumers and lenders. McGuinness-Lubbert said these what-ifs are creating worry and distracting from other available mortgage credit programs. ” .

Mortgages 284

Mortgages Lending Loans Finance 284

Housing Wire

JANUARY 30, 2025

In this week’s episode of the Power House podcast, host and HousingWire President Diego Sanchez chats with Tom Davis , chief sales officer at Deephaven Mortgage. Diego: We’ve kicked off 2025 with mortgage rates that haven’t done much except go a little bit higher. A lot of folks were expecting a decline in 2025.

New Construction 338

New Construction Construction Marketing Equity 338

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 26, 2024

Mortgage rates have been rising and the housing market is also experiencing the impacts of hurricanes. However, the Southern states have seen the highest growth in existing inventory, meaning that higher mortgage rates are influencing the figures in this region as well.

Sales 501

Sales Construction Mortgages Development 501

Housing Wire

MARCH 7, 2024

In the address, the president will call for a $10,000 tax credit for both first-time homebuyers and people who sell their starter homes; the construction and renovation of more than 2 million additional homes; and cost reductions for renters. This would act as an equivalent to reducing the mortgage rate by more than 1.5%

Construction 535

Construction Closing costs Renovation Title 535

Housing Wire

APRIL 26, 2024

Department of Agriculture (USDA) have settled on new energy-efficiency standards for the construction of new single-family and multifamily homes. The “Adoption of Energy Efficiency Standards for New Construction of HUD- and USDA-Financed Housing” was published on Friday in the Federal Register, and will go into effect on May 28.

New Construction 501

New Construction Construction Development Finance 501

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 15, 2024

With high prices and still stiff competition, those looking to buy a home in today’s real estate market need to consider every opportunity, including the choice between new construction or a resale home. Census Bureau, the median sale price of a new construction home in March 2024 was $430,700.

New Construction 488

New Construction Construction Agents Marketing 488

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 18, 2024

Since mortgage rates have headed higher again, I was anticipating that today’s housing starts report would be the last decent print before the effects of higher mortgage rates hit the builders, but even this report was disappointing. However, mortgage rates shot up again after the Federal Reserve cut rates on Sept.

Construction 379

Construction New Construction Residential Mortgages 379

Housing Wire

JANUARY 22, 2025

While stubbornly high mortgage rates are keeping a lid on buyer demand and home value growth, and a response from builders has kept multifamily rent growth stable for many months, rents for detached single-family homes continue to accelerate. That figure was up 4.4% over the past year and 40.6% higher since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Construction 448

Construction Mortgages Sales Marketing 448

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 1, 2024

Mike Fratantoni, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association , noted that while mass layoffs have not occurred, the pace of hiring has slowed in recent months. Construction was another sector that posted gains in October, adding 8,000 jobs. But mortgage rates are influenced by much more than what the Fed does.

Construction 370

Construction Residential MLS Mortgages 370

Housing Wire

JANUARY 17, 2025

Builders are feeling cautiously optimistic as they start 2025, buoyed by an ongoing shortage of inventory of existing homesmany of which are locked up by homeowners reluctant to sell due to elevated mortgage rates. While economists are happy with the level of construction in 2024, they say there is still work to be done.

Construction 397

Construction New Construction MLS As-is 397

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 25, 2024

Davis also highlights Deephaven’s edge in products like their Ground-Up Construction and Fix-and-Flip products, offering originators essential tools and training. HW : We’re seeing an uptick in ground-up construction. Ground-up construction growth will be high to meet the population growth and meet the demand due to limited inventory.

Investor 448

Investor New Construction Construction Loans 448

Housing Wire

DECEMBER 22, 2023

Mortgage rates rising to 8% in October impacted the data line, which I spoke about on CNBC recently. We did have three negative revisions, which ran with the period when mortgage rates rose to 8%. We have seen three months of negative revisions on the data due to those higher mortgage rates. This is 12.2 percent (±15.6

Sales 529

Sales Mortgages Marketing Construction 529

Housing Wire

JANUARY 16, 2025

Mortgage and property tax payments are not the only expenses that prospective homeowners need to consider. of new construction homes required buyers to pay HOA dues, compared to only 38.2% The company also said that new-construction communities often require less maintenance compared to their older counterparts.

New Construction 397

New Construction Construction Mortgages Sales 397

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 25, 2024

These positive signs were followed by a long-awaited dip in mortgage rates, which fell for four consecutive weeks through the end of June. Stable mortgage rates – even if they remain relatively elevated – could be the key to unlocking confidence in the housing market. from the 3.4% annual increases seen in March and April.

Construction 397

Construction Sales Marketing Mortgages 397

Housing Wire

AUGUST 2, 2024

Job gains in July were most notable in industries like health care (55,000 jobs), transportation and warehousing (14,000 jobs), and construction (25,000 jobs), a positive for the housing industry. Overall, for the past year, the construction sector has added an average of 19,000 jobs per month.

Mortgages 493

Mortgages Marketing Construction Residential 493