Commentary

"The U.S. housing market continued to strengthen in April 2023," says Craig J. Lazzara, Managing Director at S&P DJI. "Home prices peaked in June 2022, declined until January 2023, and then began to recover.

More-and-more people are choosing to go without home insurance for natural disasters for one reason or another. Click through for more on this emerging trend.

“We forecast single-family purchase mortgage originations to be $1.32 trillion in 2023 and $1.41 trillion in 2024, representing downward revisions of $41 billion and $60 billion, respectively, relative to last month’s forecast,” the ESR said.

"High inflation and the Fed's actions to curb it have had a significant impact on the housing market this year. And while inflation has begun to ease, the sustained spike in mortgage rates was enough to stifle the housing market after several years of low rates and strong activity," said Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale.

A lack of affordable homes has created millions of “missing households” which are keeping families in shared homes or the rental market.

Based on the current rate of sales, May’s inventory of unsold existing homes grew 3.8% from April to just over 1 million units, equivalent to three months of supply.

Bidding wars, a trend that rose to record levels during the pandemic, are back due to lack of inventory, meaning that homes sold in May typically went for more than their list price.

“U.S. housing starts in May came in above consensus expectations at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.63 million, which is 21.7% above the revised April estimate of 1.34 million and 5.7% above the May 2022 rate of 1.54 million,” said First American Economist Ksenia Potapov.

Amid larger macroeconomic uncertainties, the total homeownership rate can be attributed to the strong growth in the below-median income homeownership rate, which has sharply increased since 2016.

If you are looking for a home for summers or a permanent residence, now may be the time to get into the market, as the number of listings on lakes has jumped dramatically this year.