Persistently low housing  inventory in many parts of the country is behind the below-average share of first-time buyers in recent years, but two experts say there’s increasing evidence that a surge in homebuilding is around the corner. That’s according to Jessica Lautz of the National Assocation of Realtors (NAR) and Robert Dietz of the National […]

The U.S. housing market is much healthier than it was in the worst days of the Great Recession, but a lack of supply is pushing prices higher and making home buying and renting more difficult for many Americans. DWM’s July newscast delves into the latest comprehensive report on the state of the nation’s housing market […]

In a further sign that the housing market continues to strengthen, builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes rose two points in May to a level of 70 on the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). This is the second highest HMI reading since the downturn, according to […]

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., introduced a bill on Wednesday that could  help individuals and families buy their first home. The First-Time Homebuyer Credit Act of 2016 would give rookie home owners a refundable tax credit that would equal 2.5 percent of the home purchase price, with a maximum credit of $10,000. “Our country’s housing policy needs a remodel,” said Wyden. “We have too many […]

Single-family housing will power a construction recovery through 2017 as the multi-family sector cools off after several years of strong growth, according to economists who participated in Wednesday’s NAHB Spring Construction Forecast Webinar. They say job growth, low mortgate rates and affordable prices will push the housing market higher into 2016. However, a shortage of […]

What is the home buyer of the future looking for? Two experts on trends in the U.S. housing market, Mollie Carmichael of John Burns Real Estate Consulting and Nick Lehnert of KTGY Architecture and Planning, gave an information-rich presentation on that topic during the recent American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA) national conference in Huntington Beach, Calif. First, Carmichael noted […]

More Americans became new homeowners in 2015. Sales of newly built, single-family homes rose 14.5 percent year-over-year to 501,000 units in 2015, the highest level since 2007, according to newly released data from HUD and the U.S. Census Bureau. Meanwhile, sales in December increased 10.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 544,000 from […]

The focus of the U.S. housing market might be shifting in a big way — from owning single-family homes to renting multi-family units, according to the annual State of the Nation’s Housing report from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, released Wednesday. The U.S. home-ownership rate slumped to 63.7 percent in the first quarter of 2015. That’s […]

The Multifamily Production Index (MPI) from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) held steady with a reading of 54 for the first quarter of 2015, marking the 13th consecutive quarter at 50 or above. The MPI measures builder and developer sentiment about current conditions in the apartment and condominium market on a scale of 0 to 100. […]

Lower interest rates and falling home prices boosted housing affordability in the first quarter of 2015, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI), released today. In all, 66.5 percent of new and existing homes sold between the first of January and end of March were affordable to families earning […]