iMove Chicago- Real Estate Rentals and Sales

Redfin's slump worsens

January 27,2023 | By ERICKSON J OCASIO

Housing market risks weigh on stock. ?Redfin Corp. shares sank Wednesday as the outlook for the housing market weakens. Shares of the digital real estate company fell 8.5% Wednesday after Needham & Co Inc. analyst Bernie McTernan cut his housing market forecast for 2023 and lowered revenue estimates for Redfin and its peers Zillow Group Inc. and Compass Inc. McTernan said in a note Wednesday that he is “taking a more conservative approach” to Redfin’s future market share gains, especially in 2024. “We think management has the right sense of urgency to get the cost structure in the right spot (layoffs, price increase) but it is unclear how much further there is to go on these measures, making market growth and market share gains increasingly important,” McTernan wrote in a note. Total volume for US home sales is expected to be down

How much housing wealth did Americans accumulate in a decade?

March 14,2022 | By ERICKSON J OCASIO

NAR releases new figures American households gained a total of $8.2 trillion in housing wealth in 10 years, a new study from the National Association of Realtors has revealed. Between 2010 and 2020, high-income homeowners saw the largest share of gains among all income groups, claiming about 71% of all wealth accumulation. Middle-income households, which amassed $2.1 trillion in total housing wealth, followed at 26%. Among low-income households, home equity increased by $296 billion (4% of the housing wealth gain). “Owning a home continues to be a proven method for building long-term wealth,” said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun. “Home values generally grow over time, so homeowners begin the wealth-building process as soon as they make a down payment and move to pay down their mortgage.” “These escalating home values were no doubt beneficia

US housing affordability hits decade-low

August 11,2021 | By Erickson Ocasio

Homebuyers continue to suffer as surging construction prices topple records Given the ever-increasing challenges caused by soaring material costs and low supply, housing affordability is now at its lowest level in nearly a decade. During the second quarter, 56.6% of new and existing homes sold were affordable to families earning the median income of $79,900. This is down from the 63.1% of homes sold in the previous quarter and the lowest affordability level since 2012, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) released Thursday. “Runaway construction cost growth, such as ongoing elevated prices for oriented strand board that has skyrocketed by nearly 500% since January 2020, continues to put upward pressure on home prices,” said NAHB chairman Chuck Fowke. The HOI revealed that th

February new home sales hit hard by uptrend in rates and lumber prices

March 24,2021 | By Erickson Ocasio

The trends of rising interest rates and lumber prices, paired with supply shortages, pushed new home sales to a 10-month low in February. Sales of newly built, single-family homes plunged 18.2% to a 775,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate – marking the lowest level since May 2020, data from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Census Bureau showed. The February reading of 775,000 units is the number of homes that would sell if this pace continued for the next 12 months. “Though buyer traffic remains strong, some home building activity is being delayed due to material shortages,” said Chuck Fowke, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). “This is forcing builders and buyers to grapple with rising affordability issues, as soaring lumber prices have add

Existing-home sales plunge after two consecutive monthly gains

March 23,2021 | By Erickson Ocasio

After two months of steady increases, existing-home sales dwindled in February due to still-tight inventory, according to the National Association of Realtors. Month over month, total existing-home sales (completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops) fell 6.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.22 million in February. Sales in total were up 9.1% to a 5.70 million pace year over year. Single-family home sales were also down 6.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.52 million while existing condominium and co-op sales were recorded at a 700,000 unit rate. ? “Despite the drop in home sales for February – which I would attribute to historically-low inventory – the market is still outperforming pre-pandemic levels,” said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun. “Home affordability is weakening. Various stimulus packages are expected, and they will indeed help, but an increase i

How many millennials believe they’ll never own a home

February 15,2021 | By Erickson Ocasio

Apartment List’s 2021 Millennial Homeownership Report has some shocking findings. While the belated entry of millennials into the housing market was one of the stories of 2020, and one of the tailwinds mortgage pros are counting on for 2021, 18% of millennial renters surveyed said they never expect to own a home, up from 12% the year before. Clearly, while many millennials are entering the housing market, many others are coming to believe it’s out of their reach. Rob Warnock, a research associate at Apartment List, explained why so many of these millennials feel like they’ll never achieve homeownership. Their pessimism, he explained, is due in large part to skyrocketing housing prices and a sense that a 20% down payment is something they could never afford. He noted, as well, that coming of age during the Great Financial Crisis created a combination of anxiety and pessimism when it comes to the housing market. The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t

World's CFOs have a dire message for real estate investors

December 21,2020 | By Erickson Ocasio

Property investors are about to discover just how much the global fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has spread from deserted and cast-off buildings to their bottom lines. Hundreds of corporate executives tracked in earnings calls around the world in the past five months addressed the urgency to cut real-estate costs, according to an AI model trained by Bloomberg to scour transcripts. Tactics include cutting office space, accelerating branch closures, renegotiating rents on warehouses and even shutting data centers. In 4,767 global earnings calls between July 21 and Dec. 8, about one in eight machine-generated transcripts revealed that firms were rethinking their real estate needs, with many on track to save millions of dollars in the process. While the pandemic has squeezed landlords and clobbered securities linked to commercial real estate, the damage to cash flows stands as the long-tail risk for investors. In an estimated $10 trillion