Tuesday, August 19, 2025

January Home Sales Climb

Wed, 17 February 2021  |  real estate 

Despite record low inventory, January home sales posted a 13.5% increase over a year ago. That followed four consecutive months of year-over-year sales increases of 19% to 22% on the heels of pandemic lockdowns.

January's year-over-year increase in homes sold represented a sizable gain from the year before and was in line with the pre-COVID months of December 2019 (13.5%) and January 2020 (10.5%).

"January home sales started the year off with a bang despite the current shortage of homes for sale," said Adam Contos, CEO of RE/MAX Holdings, Inc. "January's year-over-ye... Read More

A Record 52% of Homes Under Contract Within 2 Weeks

Fri, 12 February 2021  |  real estate pandemic 

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a key factor in the real estate market, driving both prices and speed of sales according to a new report from Redfin, a read estate brokerage. In it's latest report covering the four-week period through February 7th, Redfin found that asking prices of newly listed homes hit a new all-time high of $334,770, up 10% from the same time a year ago, and pending home sales were up 29% year over year.

The pandemic real estate market is further compounded by a severe lack of inventory. New listings of homes for sale were down 11% from a year earlie... Read More

Coupled Parents Increasingly Working Together to Manage Finances Through Pandemic

Fri, 12 February 2021  |  pandemic saving retirement 

As Valentine's Day approaches, the most recent wave of StreetWise, the E*TRADE quarterly tracking study of experienced investors, looked at how parents with a partner or spouse have managed their financial decisions amid a year of disruptions. The survey found that more parents value a helping hand from their spouse when it comes to money. Over four out of five coupled parents (82%) say their spouse is helpful when it comes to financial decision-making, up 7 percentage points from last year.

More have opened lines of communication, with over half of parents who share investing... Read More

Mortgage Delinquency in November Reaches the Lowest Level Since March

Tue, 09 February 2021  |  mortgage housing 

A new report from CoreLogic indicates that despite the pandemic, mortgage delinquency in November reached the lowest level since March. On a national level, 5.9% of mortgages were in some stage of delinquency (30 days or more past due, including those in foreclosure), which represents a 2-percentage point increase in the overall delinquency rate compared to November 2019, when it was 3.9%. This is the lowest overall delinquency rate since an initial jump in April 2020.

To gain an accurate view of the mortgage market and loan performance health, CoreLogic examines all stages o... Read More

American Consumers Turn to Stock Market amid Pandemic Restrictions and Stimulus

Tue, 09 February 2021  |  investing 

Record-high stock valuations—and fewer things to spend on as COVID-19 restrictions enter a second year—are enticing more US consumers to invest discretionary funds in the stock market. In Q4 2020, 20% of consumers surveyed invested in shares of stocks or mutual funds, up from 16% in Q2. By contrast, record-low interest rates have resulted in just 43% of consumers putting money into savings in Q4—down from 49% in Q2.

These findings and more are detailed in US Consumer Dynamics Report: Q4 2020. It is the first in a new quarterly series drawn from The Conference Board® Globa... Read More

Texting Is the Best Way for Businesses to Reach Consumers Quickly

Tue, 09 February 2021  |  communication 

New research shows that one of the permanent changes to come out of COVID-19 is the way consumers and businesses communicate. Zipwhip, the leading business-texting platform in the U.S., surveyed 2,000 consumers and businesses for its 2021 State of Texting report and found that 70% of businesses are texting their customers today.

Business texting has gained traction in the past five years as channels like email have become more crowded, and the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically accelerated adoption. Out of all businesses that started texting in 2020, 34% did so as a direct result of... Read More