The Realtors Property Resource®, a real estate data and analytics platform, hit a record number of users in March, the National Association of REALTORS® announced. RPR is a subsidiary of NAR.The number of RPR users surged to a record 178,000, a 16 percent increase from a year ago. RPR webinars posted a 135 percent increase in registrations, and average attendance per webinar rose by 158 percent. The number of new accounts created in the first
The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice will hold a public workshop June 5 in Washington, D.C., to explore issues related to competition among residential real estate brokerages. The agencies also will invite the public to submit comments on several topics online through July 31, including brokerage models and MLS practices. “Buying or selling a home is one of the biggest financial transactions most consumers make in their
Median prices for luxury homes in the Santa Monica, Calif., ZIP code of 90401 have surged 60.7 percent over the last year, making it the hottest high-end ZIP code in the country, according to a new analysis by realtor.com®. The site’s researchers culled housing data from April 2016 through March 2017 for more than 600 ZIP codes where median list prices are above $1 million. They compared that 12-month period to the previous year to identify th
Monthly mortgage payments have risen an average of nearly 13 percent nationwide over the last year—or an extra $168—as buyers grapple with both higher home prices and increasing mortgage rates, according to a realtor.com® analysis. Luxury buyers are feeling the worst sticker shock, paying double the rate. In the top 10 percent of the market, owners are now paying an average $241 more per month.Mortgage interest rates are about a half of a pe
Many older Americans may be concerned about having enough money to cover their expenses when they enter retirement, as 41 percent of homeowners ages 65 and older are still carrying mortgage debt, according to 2016 data from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. The percentage of older adults who are still paying off their mortgage while in retirement has steadily increased over the years.Some may turn to reverse mortgages, which allow
Borrowers found some relief for the second consecutive week with lower mortgage rates.“After dropping earlier this week on trade-related anxiety in financial markets, the benchmark 10-year Treasury stabilized on Wednesday, but at a level slightly lower than from the start of last week,” explains Len Kiefer, Freddie Mac’s deputy chief economist. “Mortgage rates followed and fell for the second consecutive week. … Though rates on the 30-
Ten cities are banding together in a new effort to create a place for city leaders to find solutions for improving affordability and reducing evictions. The effort, launched in late March, is called the PolicyLink All-in Cities Anti-Displacement Policy Network. Mayors, city council members, and senior city staff members from 10 U.S. cities are meeting next week to draft policy ideas and solutions.The cities hope that by teaming up they’ll be a
San Francisco homeowners and buyers are seeing some of the biggest price jumps in recent months. The median price for a single-family home in the city increased $100,000. Prices have reached an all-time high of $1.6 million, according to the Paragon Real Estate Group in San Francisco. For comparison, the median home price nationwide was $279,900 on March 1, according to realtor.com®.Home prices in San Francisco increased nearly 24 percent in the
Some home shoppers are feeling hopeless this spring and making competitive moves in order to get a home. They’re reportedly rushing to making offers without seeing homes first, bidding well above the asking price, or waiving inspections entirely to get sellers to find their offer the most alluring.“For home buyers, this is shaping up to be one of the most difficult years in recent memory,” says Ralph McLaughlin, chief economist of Veritas U
A mortgage isn’t free — there are fees associated with getting the loan. Those closing costs usually total thousands of dollars.Besides writing a check to pay those fees at the closing table, there’s another way to pay them when you get a mortgage or refinance your existing one: by adding them to the loan amount. The result is called a no-closing-cost mortgage or no-closing-cost refinance.However, you’ll probably have to accept a higher
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