MarketWatch: Weekly Real Estate Update for Riverdale, Bronx – 7/1/2024 – 7/8/2024

Did You Know?

* In April, buyers paid entirely in cash for 64% of the homes sold in Manhattan. (Marketproof)

* Last year, about 650,000 individuals in the US lacked a permanent place to live, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, a 12% increase from 2022 and the most since tracking began in 2007. New Hampshire, New Mexico, and New York have experienced the highest percentage increases. New York, Vermont, and Oregon had the highest per-capita rates of homelessness in 2023. California accounted for nearly 30% of all homelessness in the US. Yet standardized by population, the states with the highest rates of homelessness were New York (5.2 people experiencing homelessness per 1,000 residents), Vermont (5.1), Oregon (4.8) and California (4.6). Homelessness dipped the most between 2007 and 2016 (15%), a period when home prices had dipped too and the US population grew over 7%. The combination of under-building, focusing on building more profitable, expensive homes, mass migration, growing weather and age related home damage is the perfect recipe for a housing supply crisis.

“I think it’s really time for Fed Chairman 
Jerome Powell to tee up in the July 
meeting a cut in September, and maybe 
another one in November. I think inflation 
is definitely under control and I don’t 
want to see this slowing economy turn 
into something worse.” 
– Jeremy Siegal, Wharton

* The London-based Institute for Quality of Life recently released its 2024 Happy City Index, a ranking of the world’s happiest places. It found that Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the happiest city in the US, and the only U.S. city to earn a coveted “Gold” ranking, alongside cities in Europe, Asia, New Zealand, and Canada. Cities were analyzed on the basis of five key categories of happiness-citizens, governance, environment, economy, and mobility, as well as 24 areas of activity, touching on everything from social inclusivity and access to cultural resources to smart public transportation and the planning and expansion of greenspaces with 180 parks that are home to 22 lakes, 12 gardens, and 55 miles of bike trails and walking paths. COMPASS has the best agents in Minneapolis: check out some swell listings in the area HERE.

Mortgage Rate Updates

The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage rose by 9 basis points to 6.95% as of July 3rd, rebounding from the lowest level in nearly three months, according to Freddie Mac. The average rate for a 30-year mortgage was 6.81% in the corresponding period of the previous year. “Mortgage rates increased this week, coming in just under seven percent,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist. “Both new home and pending home sales are down, causing active listings to rise. We are still expecting rates to moderately decrease in the second half of the year and given additional inventory, price growth should temper, boding well for interested homebuyers.”.

Source: Freddie Mac