Woof woof! Seattle named best dog city in the nation, again
With more pets than children, dog services galore and a slew of bars and restaurants that welcome canine friends, Seattle has once again been named top dog in a ranking of the nation’s most dog-friendly cities.
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Fed officials expect to keep interest rates unchanged this year — unless economy shifts
A majority of Federal Reserve officials last month believed that economic conditions would likely warrant keeping the Fed's benchmark interest rate unchanged for the rest of this year.
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Mortgage application volume slows as interest rates rise
Mortgage application volume fell 5.6% from one week earlier as rising interest rates put an end to the recent surge in refinancings, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
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Puget Sound housing market roars back to life in March
After a winter lull, the housing market across the Puget Sound region rebounded in a big way in March. Why the quick turnaround, and where should potential buyers look for bargains?
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King County home prices fell last month while outlying counties saw prices rise
A majority of home buyers – 78 percent — expressed that a ‘linen closet in the master bathroom’ is a desirable (52 percent) or an essential/must have bathroom feature (26 percent), putting it in first place in the most wanted bathroom features list (Figure 1). (Subscription may be required)
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In March, warmer weather and lower interest rates kicked off peak real estate season
Though the "snowpocalypse" created some obstacles for Seattle's real estate market, just as many houses came on the market as went off in February. And in March, that market warmed up even more, with both pending sales and new listing activity surging as it emerged from the record snowfall.
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Seattle home sales heat up in March
Though the "snowpocalypse" created some obstacles for Seattle's real estate market, just as many houses came on the market as went off in February. And in March, that market warmed up even more, with both pending sales and new listing activity surging as it emerged from the record snowfall.
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Bedrooms, Kitchens Consume Copious Space in New Homes
In the average new home, 28.0 percent of the finished floor space is allocated to bedrooms and 11.2 percent to the kitchen area, according to a recent NAHB study. The study is based on special questions appended to the November 2018 survey for the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. The questions covered 13 specific types of areas or rooms, plus a catch-all “other” category for any types not on the list. The averages are illustrated in the figure below.
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Light Your Fire With An Environmentally Friendly Fireplace
Still a relatively new concept, ethanol and isopropyl alcohol gel ventless fireplaces have grown substantially even since I began writing about them.
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One Fascinating Fact Linking The Oldest Documented Housing Bubble To The Recent U.S. Crash
From 1604 to 1810, Amsterdam had three real estate bubbles. House prices doubled or tripled and then fell back to their initial values. Each bubble lasted decades.
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How To Find The Real Estate Broker For You
Selling or buying a home is a crazy stressful process. It can be quick and painless or long and labored. It involves feeling every emotion you’ve ever had and probably a few new ones you didn’t even know existed.
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Column: PHIMBYs add new dynamic to housing debate dominated by NIMBYs and YIMBYs
Public housing advocates contend the market-driven “Yes In My Back Yard” concept won’t create affordable housing
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Selling the family home: Helping seniors navigate the market and the move
You’ve lived in your home 30 years or more, and you’re starting to think about downsizing, or perhaps your health or even age is dictating a move to a different type of residence.
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Why Amazon is pulling a giant team out of Seattle, and what it means for the tech giant’s home region
News that Amazon is shifting its worldwide operations team out of Seattle to nearby Bellevue, Wash., quickly ignited a debate in the region about the tech giant’s incredible growth and what the future holds.
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Zillow Group launches Home Loans business, tweaks website as pivot to home sales continues
Zillow Group today launched a Home Loans division, establishing another pillar of the company’s new identity of directly buying and selling homes.
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How the Bay Area tech IPO boom could create a ‘ripple effect’ in Seattle’s housing market
As the spring home buying season kicks off, a new survey from the National Association of Looking ahead to what could be the biggest IPO bonanza since the dot-com era, experts expect a wealth shock that could jolt the San Francisco Bay Area’s already high-priced housing market. With little available housing supply in the Bay Area, some of that new wealth is expected to trickle out to other parts of the country,
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Prices of Construction Inputs Rise Despite Declines in Lumber, Gypsum
Prices paid for goods used in residential construction increased 1.5% in March (not seasonally adjusted) according to the latest Producer Price Index (PPI) released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Prices have risen more quickly thus far in 2019 than they did during the same period in 2018 and are at their highest level since last October (see below). The average January-to-March increase since 2000 is 1.1%, though the recent trend is inauspicious—prices rose 0.0%, 0.7%, 1.9%, and 2.3% over the first three months of 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, respectively.
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Energy Prices Rose Sharply in March
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index for March. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 0.4% in March, after a 0.2% increase in February. Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the “core” CPI increased by 0.1% in March, the same increase as in February.
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It’s hard to believe, but the U.S. has gone through a quarter-century of low inflation
News flash: Inflation in the U.S. has been very low — unusually low — for a long, long time.
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Prices down, listings way up, sales flat from a year ago
The NWMLS published their March stats today, so let’s take a look at how the month shook out for the housing market. The King County median price of single-family homes was down year-over-year in March, falling more than it has since March of 2012. Inventory was up from a year ago again, but the increase was the smallest in the last five months. Pending sales recovered from the February snow storm dip, but were only up five percent.
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Relief for Seattle-area condo buyers as prices drop amid flood of new units
Local condo prices skyrocketed even faster than single-family home costs or apartment rents in recent years, but now a shifting condo market is offering a welcome reprieve for fatigued buyers.
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Here’s why Seattle is the country’s top emerging life sciences market
Seattle is the top emerging life sciences hub in the U.S., according to a recent report from commercial real estate firm CBRE. That’s welcome news for an industry that has faced its share of ups and downs in the past decade.
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Facebook sets its sights on housing. Should Zillow be worried?
But there was a nugget of far greater interest to members of a certain industry in another point. “We’re building a tool so you can search for and view all current housing ads in the U.S. targeted to different places across the country, regardless of whether the ads are shown to you,” said Facebook FB, +0.90%
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Market Hotness Index
Metro Hotness - Zip Code and County Hotness
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HOUSING STATISTICS
Housing Statistics offers 43 different sets of data, downloadable either as Excel or PDF files (updated weekly). Housing data and primary indicators of the industry are housed in one easy-to navigate location containing historical and current sets of statistics such as: Housing Starts (by Region & Structure Type), Homes Sold by Region, Producer Price Indexes (for Building Materials), Manufactured Homes, New Home Characteristics, Residential Vacancy & Absorption Rates, Units Under Construction, Value of New Construction, and many more.
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Economic Indicators
U.S. Census Bureau Economic Indicators
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CoreLogic Home Price Insights
The most geographically comprehensive and current home price index.
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Bureau of Economic Analysis
U.S. Economy at a Glance
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U.S. Housing Market Tracker
The U.S. housing market has struggled to find equilibrium after the bubble of the past decade. Here’s a look at where various gauges of supply and demand stand today.
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Mortgage Market Survey Archive
Compilation of Weekly Survey Data for 2015
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Housing Economics
NAHB produces in-depth economic analyses of the home building industry based on private and government data. Our economics group surveys builders, home buyers, and renters to gain insight into the issues and trends driving the industry.