For commercial real estate investors, the good times may be over. The Federal Reserve’s first interest-rate increase in nine years has removed a crutch that’s helped sustain 33 consecutive months of price growth of at least 10 percent and padded returns for buildings from office towers to luxury hotels. While values won’t necessarily fall, they aren’t likely...
Read More
American homeowners are finally digging out of the financial crater formed by the mid-2000's real estate crash. Single-family house prices in nearly 40% of 401 metro areas were at or above their pre-recession peak in the third quarter, according to an analysis of CoreLogic Case-Shiller home-price data by Moody's Analytics. That's up from 30% of metro areas...
Read More
Mortgage rates increased, following a rise in Treasury yields. Prices on the 10-year Treasury note fell this week in response to an uptick in oil prices, pushing yields higher as a result. The 10-year yield rose from around 2.22% Monday to 2.32% Wednesday. Mortgage rates usually follow the direction of yields on long-term government bonds. Home prices creep...
Read MoreContracts to purchase previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly fell in November, confirming earlier figures that showed the industry lost momentum toward the end of the year. The index of pending home sales dropped 0.9 percent after a revised 0.4 percent gain the prior month, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed Wednesday in Washington. The median...
Read More