Weekly Housing Market Update - 9/27/24

For the week ending Friday September 27, Chief Economist Danielle Hale recaps how several Fed speakers this week reinforced the message that the economy is on solid footing and expected to achieve its 2% inflation target soon, which is why the Fed throttled back its policy rate. Underscoring this message, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the PCE index, showed that inflation ran at a 2.2% pace over the last year–very close to target.

Mortgage rates dipped to a new 2-year low this week registering roughly 6.1%. Forward-looking indicators for home sales show that consumers are responding to lower rates. New home sales slipped from July but were nearly 10% higher than one year ago and importantly Joel Berner noted, the share of homes sold in under $400,000 price tiers rose, pulling the median new home price down. Pending Home Sales were similarly mixed, up for the month but still down for the year.

And as we near the best time to buy, which is next week, Ralph McLaughlin took a look at how home shoppers hoping to score a discount can parse listing descriptions for clues. The phrase “priced to sell” or similar wording was associated with a discount of 8.5% or $38,000 off the median priced home.
As we’re in a buyer sweet spot some may be thinking about investment property. Hannah Jones found that the top markets for investors are clustered in the Northeast and Midwest, but she identified at least one market in every region worth considering.

While rents are trending down annually, economist Jiayi Xu found that rents in NYC continue to increase, driven by upticks for smaller-sized units.

Links in this week’s video:
Pending Home Sales - Pending home sales tick up 0.6% on falling rates

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Learn More about the home buying process: "Home Buying 101: How Do I Get Started?"
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