Buying a house — the most expensive purchase of your life — fundamentally sucks. The industry that facilitates real estate transactions is far more vast and opaque than most people expect when they decide to begin the buying process. And you don’t have any choice but to enter the labyrinth if you want to unlock that ultimate badge of adulthood, homeownership. It is emotional and full of paperwork and tends to making buyers feel, undeservedly, stupid. Much of that is by design, reinforced by the National Association of Realtors, a mega trade group with monopoly-like control over US real estate.…
Author: Amelia Greene
On Saturday, a new set of rules governing how most real estate professionals do business in the US officially take effect — and the changes could potentially upend how Americans buy and sell homes. The rules were agreed to by the National Association of Realtors, the powerful trade association that counts 1.5 million members, as part of a $418 million settlement into antitrust claims. The rules are designed to transform the way Realtors get paid and who pays them. It’s the largest change to the organization’s rules in at least a generation. In a statement, Kevin Sears, NAR’s president, said that the…
There may not be a lot of homes for sale these days, but there is a lot of housing space sitting empty. In fact, the most in recorded history. The number of extra bedrooms, which is defined as a bedroom in excess of the number of people in the home, and even including one for an office, has reached the highest level since the U.S. Census began recording this metric in 1970, according to a new report from Realtor.com. Last year, which is the latest Census data available, the number of extra bedrooms reached 31.9 million, up from 31.3 million…
High mortgage rates and elevated home prices combined to crush home sales in January. Pending sales, which are based on signed contracts for existing homes, dropped 4.6% from December to the lowest level since the National Association of Realtors began tracking this metric in 2001. Sales were down 5.2% from January 2024. These sales are an indicator of future closings. “It is unclear if the coldest January in 25 years contributed to fewer buyers in the market, and if so, expect greater sales activity in upcoming months,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “However, it’s evident that elevated home prices…
Mortgage rates hit their highest level in over a month this week, reversing course after a period of improvement. The average rate on the 30-year fixed rate jumped 22 basis points Monday and another 3 basis points Tuesday to 6.85%, according to Mortgage News Daily, fully erasing the decline from last week. Much like the stock market, the bond market has been on a roller coaster over the last week, and mortgage rates are along for the ride. Last week the 30-year fixed rate dropped to the lowest level since last October after President Donald Trump announced global tariffs. The announcement sent the…
The former chief executive of Barclays “rolled the dice” on misleading the financial regulator over his relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, a tribunal has been told. In 2023, Jes Staley was fined more than £1.8 million and banned from holding senior roles in the financial sector after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found that he misled it over the nature of his association with Epstein. In a letter to the FCA in 2019, approved by Mr Staley, Barclays claimed he did not have a “close relationship” with Epstein and their last contact was “well before” he joined the bank in December 2015. But the regulator found…
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said Monday that many business leaders believe the United States economy is already in a significant downturn. “Most CEOs I talk to would say we are probably in a recession right now,” Fink said at an event for the Economic Club of New York. “One CEO specifically said the airline industry is a proverbial bird in a coal mine — canary in the coal mine — and I was told that the canary is sick already,” Fink added. The asset management executive also said that he thinks the tariff policies of President Donald Trump could put upward pressure on inflation and make it…
Jimmy Kimmel poked fun at the senators who grilled social media CEOs at a recent committee hearing, saying they were “out of their element.” The Senate Judiciary Committee interrogated five big social media CEOs on Wednesday in what Mr Kimmel described as the senators’ chance to drag them ”into their chambers and yell at them on C-Span.” The hearing was a chance for the social media giants to testify to the committee on the abuse of children on their platforms. However, the host pointed out on Jimmy Kimmel Live that many of the senators doing the grilling seemed to be out of their depth when talking to the tech…
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg snapped back Thursday at criticism from airline executives who say the Biden administration over-regulated them, pointing out that some of those airlines are making large profits despite new passenger-protection rules. Buttigieg said the rules his department has imposed, including automatic cash refunds after flights are canceled, enjoy broad public support and “will stand the test of time.” The comments came after the CEOs of Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines said they hoped the government will be more pro-business when President-elect Donald Trump returns to office. Delta CEO Ed Bastian said the Trump administration will be “a breath of fresh air” for his industry. “I know…
“Wanted” posters with the names and faces of health care executives have been popping up on the streets of New York. Hit lists with images of bullets are circulating online with warnings that industry leaders should be afraid. The apparent targeted killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the menacing threats that followed have sent a shudder through corporate America and the health care industry in particular, leading to increased security for executives and some workers. In the week since the brazen shooting, health insurers have removed information about their top executives from company websites, canceled in-person meetings with shareholders and advised all…