Inflation hits 8.5%, highest mark since 1981. Housing is only part of it

Rents rose by 0.4 percent from February to March — a slowdown from recent months even as gas and food costs spiked, according to the latest Consumer Price Index, released Tuesday Continue reading

Homebuyer sentiment hits record low

Only 24 percent of consumers think now is a good time to buy a home — the lowest reading ever recorded in a monthly survey conducted by Fannie Mae since 2010. Continue reading

‘Stock is not the company:’ Robert Reffkin on Compass 1 year after IPO

In a heartfelt letter posted on LinkedIn, Compass founder and CEO Robert Reffkin addressed his company’s stock market troubles and cast his vision for the future. Continue reading

Mortgage tech provider Blend pulls back on hiring, eyes Title365 layoffs

A sharp decline in mortgage refinancing prompts Blend to pull back “very hard” on hiring and reconsider the “right number of people” needed in the title insurance segment. Continue reading

Bond yields rise as Fed says it will double pace of tapering

The Federal Reserve will double the pace of its tapering of support for mortgage markets, as falling unemployment and worries about inflation outweigh uncertainty around the potential health and economic impacts of the Omicron variant. Continue reading

First-time homebuyers likely to be hit hardest by inflation in 2022

Real estate coach Brian Buffini shared his annual predictions for the year ahead during a webcast in which he urged agents to hunker down on the fundamentals of their training and get back to basics in preparation for a market shift. Continue reading

It’s official: Inflation ramps up to fastest annual pace in 40 years

It’s not just the housing market. The prices of U.S. consumer goods have been rising faster than at any 12-month period since 1982, according to the Consumer Price Index, released Friday. Continue reading

Home sales — and prices — expected to decline over next 2 years

For the first time, Fannie Mae is forecasting all the way out to 2023, when it expects the economy to enter “mature state of the business cycle,” with the risk of another recession moving into focus. Continue reading

5 reasons to be optimistic about the 2022 housing market

At the National Association of Realtors’ national conference on Friday, NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun shared promising insights about 2022. Continue reading