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February’s CPI report reveals steady annual inflation of 2.4%

Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index, Data & Visuals, First American, Housing Market, HWmember, Inflation /

U.S. consumer prices increased moderately from January to February, with annualized inflation holding steady, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Consumer Price Index rose 2.4% over the 12 months ending in February, unchanged from January. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the index increased 0.3% during the month. Core […]

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Mortgage rates steady near 6.15% as oil and jobs data pose risks

Bright MLS, Coldwell Banker, Data & Visuals, Existing home sales, Federal Reserve, Housing Market, HWmember, Mortgage Bankers Association, Mortgage Rates, Mortgage Rates Center, Zillow /

After spiking last week, mortgage rates remained relatively stable this week. But the question for housing market professionals is whether the brisk spring homebuying season that was anticipated at the start of 2026 will actually materialize due to rising headwinds. Mortgage News Daily reported Monday that 30-year fixed rates averaged 6.14%, their highest level in

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Investor share of U.S. home purchases holds at 30% in 2025

Investor share of U.S. home purchases holds at 30% in 2025

Cotality, Data & Visuals, Housing Market, HWmember, Institutional investors, Real Estate Investing, Rental Properties, Single-Family Housing /

Cotality reported Thursday that real estate investor activity in the U.S. single-family home market remained stable through 2025, accounting for 30% of all purchases, up slightly from 29% in 2024. Persistent housing unaffordability is keeping many owner-occupant buyers on the sidelines while fueling demand for rental properties, the report found. “Fewer first-time homebuyers mean more

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Is the lock-in effect loosening its grip on housing? Realtor.com thinks so

Data & Visuals, FHFA, Homebuying, Housing Market, HWmember, Mortgage Rates, Real Estate, Realtor.com /

U.S. homeowners who carry mortgages with rates of 6% or more now outnumber those with rates below 3%. This should drive a “meaningful shift in the housing market after years of historically low borrowing costs,” according to a Realtor.com report released Wednesday. The company analyzed residential mortgage data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)

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Midwest housing markets coming in hot for 2026

Affordability, Data & Analytics, Data & Visuals, Home Prices, Home Sales, Housing Market, Housing Market Data, Illinois, REMAX /

As the housing market moves into 2026, competition remains intense in many parts of the country — especially in smaller metros where inventory is critically low. New findings from HW Data based on supply, pricing and buyer activity show that demand for single-family homes continues to far outpace available homes in several markets, even as

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Will stable mortgage rates and home prices set the table for a strong 2026?

Bright MLS, Data & Visuals, First American, Home Price Appreciation, HWmember, loanDepot, Mortgage, Mortgage Rates, Mortgage Rates Center, Pending Home Sales /

Mortgage rate movement remains stuck in neutral as 2025 comes to an end, but the U.S. housing market has shown signs of life during a traditionally slow period. On Monday, Mortgage News Daily reported an average 30-year fixed rate of 6.19%, down 5 basis points from a week earlier. And on Tuesday, HousingWire’s Mortgage Rates

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Pending home sales rise in November as lower rates spur buyers

Affordability, Data & Visuals, Housing Inventory, Housing Market, HWmember, Lawrence Yun, National Association of Realtors, Pending Home Sales /

November’s declining mortgage rates enticed more homebuyers to come off the sidelines, resulting in an uptick for the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI).  According to NAR data released Monday, pending home sales were up 3.3% month over month in November, as the PHSI rose to a reading of 79.2. On

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Distressed property auctions outperform traditional REO sales

Auction, Auction.com, Data & Visuals, Foreclosure, Home Prices, Home Sales, Housing Market, HWmember, REO /

Auction.com released its 2025 Disposition Strategy Report on Wednesday, showing that distressed property sales at auction have increasingly outperformed traditional retail real estate sales over the past two years. The report analyzed more than 390,000 distressed property dispositions from January 2018 through September 2025, using Auction.com data and public records. Estimated net proceeds for auction

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Midwest dominates Zillow’s most popular housing markets of 2025

Affordability, Data & Visuals, Home Prices, Homebuyers, Housing Market, Housing Market Data, HWmember, Illinois, Ohio, Zillow /

Home shoppers in 2025 gravitated toward more affordable, midsized U.S. cities, with Midwestern markets accounting for most of the country’s most popular places to buy, according to new data released by Zillow. Rockford, Illinois, ranked as the most popular housing market in the country, moving up from second place last year. And the Midwest accounted

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Housing affordability challenges steepen in Q3

Affordability, Bankrate, Data & Visuals, First-Time Homebuyers, Home Prices, Homebuyers, Housing Market, HWmember, Mortgage Rates /

The housing market showed faint signs of near-term affordability improvement in late 2025, but it remains dramatically worse than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new research from Oxford Economics. In the third quarter, a household needed to earn $110,100 a year to afford to own a single-family home, including taxes and insurance.

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