On-time rent payments improved in August 2025, offering a rare positive note in a year marked by declining performance, according to new data from Chandan Economics. Preliminary estimates for August show that 83.2% of tenants at independently operated units paid their rent on time — up 34 basis points (bps) from July. July’s figure was […]
Rent collections improve slightly, but late payments signal strain Read More »
New home sales followed the existing home sales market by beating sales estimates and having positive revisions in today’s report, which suggests that we are already seeing some benefits of lower mortgage rates. While it’s not a spectacular number by any means, if mortgage rates can get toward 6% and just stay there for some
Have lower mortgage rates already boosted the homebuilders? Read More »
The number of new-home sales in July may have only fallen slightly from a month prior, but it is meaningfully lower than a year ago, according to data released Monday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. New-home sales dropped to 652,000 units in July, down 0.6% from
New-home sales continue to slide in July, bringing down prices Read More »
Older adults support changing zoning laws to make homebuilding easier, according to new surveys by AARP and the Pew Charitable Trusts. Older adults overwhelmingly want to age in place, but their homes are often unsuited to aging, while rising home prices and a shortage of housing inventory makes it difficult to move. The desire of
Older adults support many types of housing regulation reform Read More »
No one in the homebuilding business I know is sitting around waiting for things to get easier. That’s not how this works. Not in 2025. Not when mortgage rates, insurance shocks, permitting delays, capital costs and housing politics are all pulling in different directions. Not when builders are expected to do more with less, and
What to expect next from The Builder’s Daily Read More »
Pittsburgh and Cleveland rank as the world’s most affordable major housing markets, but a new report finds that not a single metro area among 95 studied actually qualifies as affordable. The annual Demographia International Housing Affordability report — released by Chapman University — measured affordability by dividing median home prices by median household incomes. Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Cleveland top global metro affordability list Read More »
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced this week that it has awarded technology services firm Phoenixteam a $49 million contract to modernize its mortgage underwriting platform, the Guaranteed Underwriting System (GUS). The Arlington, V.A.-based company will overhaul GUS, which supports USDA’s guaranteed loan program for rural and farming communities. Phoenixteam said the updates will
USDA is automating its loan application uploading Read More »
We’ve reached fresh new year-to-date lows in mortgage rates after Jerome Powell, speaking at the Jackson Hole Economic Summit on Friday, suggested that the labor market may be more important than inflation for the time being. If only someone had been saying that for a few years! All jokes aside, mortgage rates have been trending
Mortgage rates hit year-to-date lows after Powell comments Read More »
Housing affordability is taking center stage this fall for the Trump administration. From President Donald Trump’s early executive order ordering the heads of all executive departments and agencies “to deliver emergency price relief,” to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent highlighting housing affordability as one of his “big projects,” the affordability crisis is clearly top of mind.
Rising insurance costs cut into buyer affordability Read More »
Survey finds affordability and financing are driving more buyers into the second-home market In today’s economy, traditional ownership is increasingly inaccessible and misaligned with the real estate landscape. Ongoing issues with low inventory, high home prices, elevated mortgage rates, and down payment obstacles make whole-home ownership more challenging, especially for younger buyers. Against that backdrop,
Fractional home ownership is breaking barriers: How Pacaso is taking the lead Read More »