We are in a historically significant chapter for housing, one that has witnessed affordability deteriorate to levels unseen in decades
That's why I just quit Fortune to launch ResiClub, a news and research outlet that'll track the U.S. housing market 🏡📊
IF U.S. incomes spiked 69%, we'd return to pre-pandemic housing affordability levels.
IF U.S. home prices fell 41%, we'd return to pre-pandemic affordability.
IF mortgage rates fell 4.3 percentage points (from 7.26% to 2.96%), we'd return to pre-pandemic affordability.
IF U.S. incomes spiked 69%, we'd return to pre-pandemic housing affordability levels
IF U.S. home prices fell 41%, we'd return to pre-pandemic affordability
IF mortgage rates fell 4.3 percentage points, we'd return to pre-pandemic affordability
To be clear, the "IFs" don't…
The most interesting housing market in America: Austin.
During the '00s housing crash, it took Austin 43 months to fall 8.5% peak-to-trough.
This time around, Austin has fallen 10.02% in just 9 months.
Zillow has gone full-blown housing bull.
Zillow expects U.S. home prices to rise 6.3% between June 2023 and June 2024.
Among the 200 largest housing markets, Zillow thinks 48 markets will see a jump of 7.0% or greater
The mortgage market is experiencing a severe recession.
It's one of the worst downturns in mortgage market history.
Traditional refi is RIP right now.
And this week, mortgage purchase apps hit the lowest level of the post 1995 era.
Thread 🧵
Among U.S. mortgage borrowers...
26% have a rate under 3.00%
70.7% have a rate under 4.00%
91% have a rate under 5.00%
96.3% have a rate under 6.00%
via
@MorningstarInc
We’d return to pre-pandemic housing affordability IF one of these 3 things happened…
U.S. incomes spike 55%
U.S. home prices fall 35%
Mortgage rates fell 4 percentage points
says Andy Walden at
@Black_KnightInc
Zillow: 7.5% mortgage rates won't halt home price growth.
Zillow is a full-blown housing bull, forecasting that U.S. home prices will rise 6.5% between July 2023 and July 2024.
Zillow expects Miami to jump 8.4%.
Jury just awarded plaintiffs in the Sitzer/Burnett buyer broker commission class action lawsuit damages of $1.78 billion.
Now real estate stocks are taking a dive 🏡📉
We’d return to pre-pandemic housing affordability IF one of these 3 things happened…
U.S. incomes spike 62%
U.S. home prices fall 38%
Mortgage rates fell 4.4 percentage points
calculates
@Black_KnightInc
IF mortgage rates were 3%, 50 million households could qualify for a $400k mortgage.
At 7% mortgage rates, 27 million qualify.
At 8% mortgage rates, 22 million qualify.
This isn’t just a rate shock—it’s a credit eligibility shock.
Mortgage rates moving from 7 to 8% since July means around 5 million fewer households would qualify for a $400K mortgage.
The potential borrower pool has now shrunk by -56% since in 2021 when rates were 3%.
We just witnessed the fastest ever deterioration in U.S. housing affordability.
That’ll happen when national home prices spike +40% in just over two years (2020-2022), followed by a historic mortgage rate shock (3% to 7%).
🚨🚨🚨
The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate hits 8.00% for the first time since 2000.
Taking into account mortgage rates, incomes, and house prices, October 2023 stands out as the least affordable month for U.S. housing this century.
Spread: 308 bps
IF U.S. incomes spiked 69%, we'd return to pre-pandemic housing affordability levels
IF U.S. home prices fell 41%, we'd return to pre-pandemic affordability.
IF U.S. mortgage rates fell 4 percentage points, we'd return to pre-pandemic affordability
The Economist takes a hard stance on U.S. realtor fees.
"Time to take a wrecking ball to realtors’ fees in America" writes
@TheEconomist
. "A court case is a first step to ending a racket"
#NEW
Zillow's forecast model predicts that U.S. home prices, as measured by ZHVI, will fall -0.1% over the next 12 months.
Just 3 months ago, Zillow issued a bold +6.5% call.
This is a SHARP downward revision.
Bill Pulte (
@pulte
), Pulte Capital CEO, shares these builder predictions w/
@MariaBartiromo
"earnings are going to continue to deteriorate"
"The M&A environment in housing and building products is something to keep an eye on over the next six, 12, 18 months. It's not time yet"
Monday was my last day at
@FortuneMagazine
.
After 10 years of working for media publishers, I'm ready to venture out and...
Details coming tomorrow 🏡📰
Middle class homebuyers are taking on $7,000 mortgages thinking they can ‘always refinance when rates come down in the future’
Here's my Q&A with
@AdvisorJohn
🏠
It’s official.
Taking into account mortgage rates, incomes, and house prices, September 2023 stands out as the least affordable month for U.S. housing this century.
The previous holder: August 2023
Housing chart of the day. 🏡📊
The blue bar = % of mortgages that could soon see their interest rate rise in 2023.
The % is so low in the U.S. that I had to circle it.
By and large, U.S. borrowers are blessed with fixed mortgage rates. via
@GoldmanSachs
There’s an insurance shock hitting housing markets in Florida and California.
“Some homeowners who are skipping coverage say they can no longer afford rising premiums”
via
@WSJ
IF U.S. incomes spiked 69%, we'd return to pre-pandemic housing affordability levels.
IF U.S. home prices fell 41%, we'd return to pre-pandemic affordability.
IF mortgage rates fell 4.3 percentage points (from 7.26% to 2.96%), we'd return to pre-pandemic affordability.
🚨🚨🚨
The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate falls to 6.82% following the Fed presser
That's the lowest reading since May 18th
Housing affordability has improved considerably since October's high of 8.03%
Spread: 279 bps
BIG.
NAR CEO Bob Goldberg is OUT.
This comes just days after a jury awarded plaintiffs in the Sitzer/Burnett buyer broker commission class action lawsuit damages of $1.78 billion.
Nykia Wright, former CEO of the Chicago Sun-Times, will replace Goldberg.
#NEW
@MBAMortgage
,
@NAHBhome
, and
@nardotrealtor
just wrote a letter to Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
They’re asking for…
1. No more rate hikes
2. The Fed to “not sell off any of its MBS holdings until and unless the housing finance market has stabilized”
#NEW
Zillow home price data for America's 30 largest metropolitan housing markets
1. MoM (month over month)
2. YTD (year to date)
3. Down from peak
4. YoY (year over year)
5. Change since March 2020
Seasonally adjusted, through May 2023
PulteGroup is a homebuilder ranked No. 259 on the Fortune 500.
An update on the growing tensions between members of the Pulte family and CEO (Ryan Marshall) 👇
BREAKING NEWS 🚨
Today, The Pulte Family won MAJOR COURT VICTORY, in part as a result of Brandon Jones & Ryan Marshall’s efforts to GAG ORDER ME!
The Court determined, as result of this & more, that Jones is SUBJECT to Florida, &
NOW THE CASE WILL PROCEED!
THANK YOU GOD! ❤️
Every market shaded blue below, remains at/just set a new all-time high for home prices.
Source: Seasonally adjusted Zillow Home Value Index data through March 2023
A close friend bought a rental property in Fort Lauderdale during the pandemic
His insurance and property taxes, he says, just went up $500 per month
That’ll cut the cash flow in half
The mortgage market is passing through a severe recession
It's one of the worst downturns in mortgage market history
Traditional refi is pretty much RIP right now
Total mortgage apps are still negative on a year-over-year basis
Austin home prices have further to fall
During the '00s crash, it took Austin 30 months to fall 6.7% peak-to-trough
This time around, Austin has fallen 11% in just 14 months
How did Austin—which dodged the worst of the 08 crash—become the epicenter of the pandemic correction?
A Seattle real estate agent tells me:
"For what it is worth. The first two weeks of the year have been busier with buyer activity than the last 3 months combined were."
PulteGroup is a homebuilder ranked No. 259 on the Fortune 500.
There is growing tension, it appears, between members of the Pulte family and CEO (Ryan Marshall).
In my opinion, current CEO Ryan Marshall is the worst and most unethical CEO of the Top 5 Homebuilders, all while he gets paid $14 million a year from us the shareholders during his self-serving and unscrupulous behavior. $PHM
The seasonally adjusted Mortgage Purchase Application Index falls 18.1% to 147.1.
That's the lowest purchase apps reading of the 21st century.
On a year-over-year basis, total purchase apps are down 41.5%.
High-school sweethearts with good jobs, a baby on the way and a $600,000 budget can’t find a house after 2 years of hunting. ‘It is just so demoralizing, depressing, and defeating’
via
@AlenaBotros
The stat below is FAKE news
Not even close to true
Institutional operators—those owning at least 1,000 homes—own 0.73% of the single-family housing stock (1 in 137 homes)
This is extremely concerning and explains why the housing market didn't drop as interest rates doubled
It's becoming nearly impossible for a middle-class family to buy a home and this will make the issue much worse
Mortgage purchase applications just dipped to a new 28-year low.
Why? Mortgage rates are hovering around 22-year highs—and housing affordability has deteriorated to levels unseen since the '80s.
Red bar = The low point following the GFC housing bust.
The story of the U.S. housing market will always vary by market.
We need stronger data-driven regional housing coverage. 📊🏡
That's my goal as I transition into my new role (real estate editor) and work to build
@FortuneMagazine
's first-ever housing/real estate desk. ❤️🏡
The average 30-year fixed U.S. mortgage rate falls to 6.62%
That's the lowest reading since May 12th
We're 141 bps below October's 23-year high (8.03%)
Spread: 273 bps
LEFT: Zillow's 12-month forecast released 2 months ago
RIGHT: Zillow's 12-month forecast just released
Subscribers who upgrade to ResiClub Pro will get a regional home price forecast update today—including interactive maps for Zillow + Moody's Analytics
Lawmakers introduce a bill that'd force institutional homebuyers to sell off their homes over a 10-year period
Would kicking institutional investors out of the U.S. housing market actually improve housing affordability?
My latest for
@ResidentialClub
In August, Zillow predicted that 120 of the nation's 400 largest housing markets would see a house price increase of at least 7.0% over the coming 12 months.
This week, Zillow cut that number to 39 markets.
Zillow: "Over the last twelve months, active demand — as measured by the number of people actively shopping for a home – has fallen by an estimated 30%"
PulteGroup, which our family founded and which we remain a large shareholder, is currently worth $17.75 Billion.
In 2016, I led the turnaround of PulteGroup.
We grew the stock 30% per year. With 6,000 great employees.
Now, we have a bad CEO/ex COO. Will be fixed, I think. $PHM
Principal and interest payment on a $500k mortgage (30-year):
@ 3.11% it'd be $2,138 (Dec. '21)
@ 7.37% it'd be $3,452 (peak in Oct. '22)
@ 5.99% it'd be $2,995 (early Feb '22)
@ 7.10% it'd be $3,360 (today)
Boise real estate agent Shauna Pendleton has clients who bought at the peak and are now forced to sell as they get called back into the office.
“They’ll probably have to take a $100,000 loss on their home” she says
In the morning, I'm going to dump a TON of regional home price data (through February 2023) 🏡📊
For the 400 largest housing markets, I'll do:
1. MoM (month over month)
2. YTD (year to date)
3. Down from peak
4. YoY (year over year)
5. Chance since March 2020
Peak-to-trough, U.S. home prices fell 27% between 2007 and 2012.
If that level decline happened tomorrow, housing affordability would still be worse than prior to the pandemic.
IF U.S. incomes spiked 69%, we'd return to pre-pandemic housing affordability levels.
IF U.S. home prices fell 41%, we'd return to pre-pandemic affordability.
IF mortgage rates fell 4.3 percentage points (from 7.26% to 2.96%), we'd return to pre-pandemic affordability.
2.65%
That's the lowest ever weekly reading for an average 30-year fixed U.S. mortgage rate, as tracked by Freddie Mac.
It occurred on January 7, 2021.
Austin's housing market is taking it on the chin.
The seasonal head fake is over in Austin—it's time for more price give up
That's not a Lance Lambert call.
It's already in the data.
Left: How
@zillow
expects home values to shift over the coming 12 months.
Right: How
@MoodysAnalytics
expects home prices to shift over the coming 12 months.