News and Views

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; Getty Images As the head of the federal agency charged with tackling the nation’s housing needs, Adrianne Todman has a big job. The acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is at the helm at a time when housing costs have become one of […]

Realtor.com; Getty Images (1) Mortgage rates ticked down slightly from 6.09% to 6.08% for a 30-year fixed home loan in the week ending Sept. 26, according to Freddie Mac. “Although this week’s decline was slight, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage trended down to its lowest level in two years,” Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said

Getty/ Dan Reynolds Photography Prices for newly constructed homes dropped last month, as builders offered bigger incentives to lure buyers struggling with affordability challenges. The median sales price of new houses sold in August was $420,600, the U.S. Census Bureau reported on Wednesday. That represented a 4.6% decline from one year ago, and a 2.1%

Getty Home prices hit another all-time high in July, although the rate of growth continued to slow. The latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index of home prices, released on Tuesday, showed nationwide price rose 5% in July from a year ago, down from a 5.5% annual gain the prior month. On a seasonally adjusted basis, prices

Realtor.com; Getty Images (1) Mortgage rates plunged from 6.20% to 6.09% for a 30-year fixed home loan for the week ending Sept. 19, according to Freddie Mac. “Mortgage rates continued declining towards the six percent mark, reviving purchase and refinance demand for many consumers,” Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said in a statement. “While

Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images Sales of previously owned homes slumped last month, as buyers remained on the sidelines despite lower mortgage rates. Total existing-home sales dropped 2.5% from July, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.86 million in August, the National Association of Realtors® reported on Thursday. The August sales figure, which excludes

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; Realtor.com; Getty Images (1) The Federal Reserve has issued its first interest rate cut in four years, kicking off an easing cycle that will make new mortgages more affordable. Fed policymakers announced the half-point rate cut on Wednesday, bringing the central bank’s effective benchmark rate to about 4.8%, down from a two-decade

Getty Construction of new single-family homes rebounded in August, in a welcome sign for prospective homebuyers seeking more options in a tight housing market. Single-family housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 992,000 last month, up 15.7% from July’s revised figure, according to U.S. Census data released on Wednesday. Permits for single-family

Realtor.com; Getty Images (1) Mortgage rates tumbled from 6.35% to 6.20% for a 30-year fixed home loan for the week ending Sept. 12, according to Freddie Mac. “Mortgage rates have fallen more than half a percent over the last six weeks and are at their lowest level since February 2023,” Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief

Getty Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump met on Tuesday night for their first, and possibly only, debate of the 2024 presidential election. While sparks flew on the stage in Philadelphia, the encounter failed to offer voters a substantive debate on an issue that is key for many families: the rising cost of housing