A slight increase in mortgage interest rates was enough to tank refinances and bring down overall demand. Total mortgage application volume fell 4.2% last week from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($548,250 or less) increased
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Ariel Skelley | DigitalVision | Getty Images Many older Americans worry about outliving their savings, and those fears have been magnified by recent spikes in inflation, eating away at retirees’ nest eggs. The consumer price index increased by 0.8% in April from March and surged 4.2% from the previous year, the biggest jump since September
In this article GOOGL San Jose city officials on Tuesday night officially approved a plan for Google to build a massive campus in the heart of California’s third-largest city. For its “Downtown West” project, Google will develop 80 acres of land in downtown San Jose, including 7.3 million square feet of office space for 20,000
With Covid encouraging city dwellers to move to the suburbs and families looking for home offices and bigger yards, prices for the American dream home have skyrocketed. Home prices surged in March, up 13.2% from the year prior, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index. “Everybody expected housing to really sort of
A “For Rent” sign is posted outside a residential home in Carlsbad, California, on January 18, 2017. Mike Blake | Reuters If you think buying a house has become too expensive, try renting a home or apartment. Fast-rising home prices have investors seeing dollar signs, and renters digging deeper into their wallets. Rents for apartments
A computer generated aerial view of Greater Springfield near Brisbane, Australia. Springfield City Group Travel up the sunny shores of Australia’s Gold Coast, 25 kilometers outside of Brisbane, and you’ll find Greater Springfield, a city that’s different by design. You may never have heard of it. Unsurprising; the city is not yet 30 years old.
Nobel prize-winning economist Robert Shiller is worried a bubble is forming in some of the market’s hottest trades. He’s notably concerned about housing, stocks and cryptocurrencies, where he sees a “wild west” mentality among investors. “I haven’t done that in print. I’ve been saying that,” the Yale University professor told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Friday.
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images Sales of existing homes dropped 2.7% in April from March to a seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of 5.85 million units, according to the National Association of Realtors. It was the third straight month of declines, the group said. Sales were 33.9% higher than April of 2020, but that
Residential buildings in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. James Andrews | iStock | Getty Images The Treasury Department announced on Friday that it’s disbursed more than $6 billion to states to help renters and landlords struggling because of the coronavirus pandemic. Between the last two major stimulus packages, Congress has
The Atlantic hurricane season hasn’t even begun (it officially starts June 1), but excessive spring flooding has already displaced thousands of residents in Louisiana. A freak ice storm in Texas in February took out much of the state’s power grid, plunging nearly 10 million people into a cold, dark catastrophe. More than 150 people
US President-elect Donald Trump along with his son Donald, Jr., arrive for a press conference at Trump Tower in New York, as Allen Weisselberg (C), chief financial officer of The Trump, looks on. Timothy A. Clary | AFP | Getty Images The longtime chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg, is under criminal
In this article GOOGL California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks at the opening of the country’s first federal and state operated community vaccination site during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Los Angeles, California, February 16, 2021. Mike Blake | Reuters California Governor Gavin Newsom pointed to a recent flood of tech IPOs and
In this article PHM @LB.1 A customer wearing a protective mask loads lumber onto a cart at a Home Depot store in Pleasanton, California, on Monday, Feb. 22, 2021. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images Lumber futures fell for an eighth-straight day on Wednesday and threatened to derail a monthslong frenzy that pushed
A real estate agent stands in the doorway as Giovani and Nicole Quiroz of Brooklyn, New York visit an open house in West Hempstead, New York on April 18, 2021. Raychel Brightman | Newsday LLC | Newsday | Getty Images Sky-high home prices mean demand for ever bigger mortgages, but those prices may also be
Despite a historic shortage of homes for sale, homebuilders are actually slowing production, handcuffed by skyrocketing commodity prices and shortages of land and skilled labor. Single-family housing starts dropped more than 13% in April compared with March, the U.S. Census reported Tuesday. That’s the sharpest decrease since last April, when the pandemic shut down the
Whether it’s a kitchen remodel or dedicated work space, after a year of staying in, most homeowners have at least entertained the idea of a home renovation project. Yet anyone who has tried to tap their house for cash might be in for a surprise. Skyrocketing home prices have resulted in a record amount of
Real estate agents leave a home for sale during a broker open house in San Francisco, California. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images A brief drop in mortgage interest rates sent some borrowers rushing to their lenders to see if they could get any savings. That sent total mortgage application volume up 2.1% last week from
Pedestrians walk past signage for SoftBank Group outside a store in Tokyo, Japan, Nov. 29, 2018. Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty Images Digital mortgage lender Better.com announced Tuesday that it will make its market debut by merging with Aurora Acquisition Corp., valuing Better at $7.7 billion. The company, ranked No. 15 on last year’s CNBC Disruptor 50
A general view of the Oakland Athletics playing against the Houston Astros with a limited capacity crowd at RingCentral Coliseum on April 03, 2021 in Oakland, California. Ezra Shaw | Getty Images Perhaps Major League Baseball is bluffing as it plays a game of baseball liar’s dice to help the Oakland Athletics secure a new
From gas and groceries to computers, cars and clothing, Americans are already paying more for everyday expenses. As the economy reopens in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, consumers are putting their stimulus checks, enhanced unemployment benefits and stashed cash to work. Yet all that spending — coupled with supply chain setbacks — is