If you’re looking to buy a house, you may find today’s limited supply of homes available for sale challenging. When housing inventory is as low as it is right now, it can feel like a bit of an uphill battle to find the perfect home for you because there just isn’t that much to choose from. If you need to open up your pool of options, it may be time to consider a newly built home.

 According to the latest data from the U.S. Census, there’s positive news when it comes to new home construction. When you look at the first three months of this year, you’ll find:


  • More new homes were completed and are ready to sell. This gives you more move-in-ready options for your search.
  • Builders broke ground and started construction on more…

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If you’re a homeowner thinking about making a move, you may wonder if it’s still a good time to sell your house. Here’s the good news. Even with higher mortgage rates, buyer traffic is actually picking up speed.

Data from the latest ShowingTime Showing Index, which is a measure of buyers actively touring homes, helps paint the picture of how much buyer demand has increased in recent months (see graph below):

As the graph shows, the first two months of 2023 saw a noticeable increase in buyer traffic. That’s likely because the limited number of homes for sale kept shoppers looking for homes even during colder months.

To help tell the story of why the latest report is significant, let’s compare foot traffic this February with each…

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Wondering if you should continue renting or if you should buy a home this year? If so, consider this. Rental affordability is still a challenge and has been for years. That’s because, historically, rents trend up over time. Data from the Census shows rents have been climbing pretty steadily since 1988. 

And, data from the latest rental report from Realtor.com shows rents continue to grow today, even though it’s at a slower pace than we saw at the height of the pandemic:

“In March 2023, the U.S. rental market experienced single-digit growth for the eighth month in a row . . . The median asking rent was $1,732,up by $15 from last month and down by $32 from the peak but is still$354 (25.7%) higher than the same time in 2019 (pre-pandemic).”

…

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MARKET UPDATE - APRIL 2023

U.S. existing-home sales declined 2.4 percent month-over-month as of last measure, according to the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), reversing February’s sales gain of 14.5%. Fluctuations in mortgage interest rates have caused buyers to pullback, with pending sales dropping 5.2% month-over-month. Meanwhile, the median existing-home sales price declined for the second month in a row, falling 0.9% nationally from the same time last year, the largest year-over-year decline since January 2012, according to NAR.

Housing inventory remains tight nationwide, with only 980,000 units available for sale heading into April, a 5.4% increase from one year earlier, although the number of homes for sale is down compared to the…

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