Economist Doug Duncan weighs in on the challenges facing economic forecasters today, cutbacks in economic reports produced by Fannie and Freddie, Fed independence, and more
With Trump's Aug. 1 trade deal deadline looming, new readings on consumer confidence show would-be homebuyers may be getting less fearful that tariffs will tank the economy
Consumer confidence sank to a 5-year low in April over concerns about tariffs, while trade deficit surged to an all-time high in March, and job postings shrank more than expected
Investors who fund most home loans are now convinced that the Federal Reserve won't cut rates again until June after employers add 256K jobs and unemployment falls to 4.1%
Relief would be good news for would-be homebuyers, although purchase loan applications are still up 10% from a year ago as mortgage rates hit highest levels since July, MBA survey shows
Home transactions may be down, but you wouldn't know it from most brokerage payrolls. Real estate hiring churned along in July, according to new data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics
Brokers, agents and homebuilders tallied a solid hiring month amid the holidays even as the downturn in real estate transactions continued, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics
Sales of new homes have suffered, but plenty of projects remain active. Homebuilders have yet to make steep cuts to their payrolls, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday
Many real estate professionals say the pandemic made them reconsider things like when they want to retire and work-life balance, while others say the last year has just made them want to double down on work
The gains come at a time when unemployment remains high at 6.3% on the heels of the US adding just 49,000 jobs, according to data released Friday by the US Department of Labor
Total payrolls declined for the first time since April due to spiking COVID-19 cases
As Congress continued to negotiate a stimulus package, 947K individuals filed new unemployment claims, up 229K from the week prior, according to the Labor Department
The real estate sector — which includes rental and leasing — added 8.5K jobs on a seasonally adjusted rate in November and actually lost 3K jobs if unadjusted for seasonality
NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun predicts existing-home sales will rise 9% in 2021
Opinion
Looking for a little clarity on this week's news? Windermere Chief Economist Matthew Gardner examines jobs numbers. Although they beat forecasts, at October's pace, it would still take about another 16 months for employment to return to pre-pandemic levels