Category: Buying/Selling/Renting

A National Association of Realtors economist recently labeled the sharp drop in January 2026 home sales a “new housing crisis,” but the forces behind that label have been building for decades. The national housing supply shortage, persistent affordability pressure, and cyclical sales slumps are structural features of the American housing market, not sudden emergencies. For…

The New York City Council just launched a guaranteed income program that will put $1,200 per month into the hands of 60 young people experiencing homelessness, a direct cash intervention targeting one of the city’s most vulnerable populations. Called “Cash with Care,” the initiative pairs monthly stipends over nine months with a one-time $5,000 payment,…

Los Angeles is betting that its glut of vacant office space can become part of the solution to its chronic housing shortage. The city has moved to expand adaptive reuse rules that allow older commercial buildings to be converted into apartments, a strategy that could unlock thousands of new units without breaking ground on new…

Housing advocates in New York City are pressing Mayor Zohran Mamdani to go beyond standard city-owned lots and direct attention to underused parcels controlled by the City University of New York. The push comes just as Mamdani signed an executive order creating a task force to identify land for at least 25,000 new housing units,…

Hawaii has become the first state where housing costs have outpaced local incomes so thoroughly that no city, county, or metro area offers an affordable option for a typical working household, whether renting or buying. A University of Hawaii housing affordability report found that conditions are “as bad as it’s ever been,” and federal data…

After more than a decade of relentless price gains that pushed homeownership out of reach for millions, buyers in certain U.S. housing markets are finally gaining ground. The shift is measurable: sellers now outnumber buyers by the widest margin on record, discounts off asking prices have hit levels not seen since 2012, and existing-home sales…

Rents across the United States have slipped to a four-year low, and a wave of new apartment supply in Sun Belt cities is pulling prices down faster than anywhere else. But the relief is distributed unevenly. Mid-income renters in high-growth metros are catching a break, while the lowest-income households, many of whom already spend more…

A fast-growing financial product is letting homeowners pull cash from their properties without monthly payments, but federal regulators and state prosecutors warn the arrangement could strip away far more equity than borrowers expect. Home equity investment contracts, or HEIs, give homeowners an upfront lump sum in exchange for a share of their home’s future value….

Real estate professionals across the country say a growing mismatch between where homes are being permitted and where buyers need them is creating a distinct strain on the housing market. The concern centers on a geographic split: construction authorizations are concentrated in a handful of fast-growing regions while many high-demand coastal metros see comparatively less…

Homeowners over 70 who finally decide to sell are absorbing sharper price reductions than younger sellers, and the financial penalty grows wider with each passing year of ownership. The forces behind this gap are not mysterious: deferred maintenance, fewer renovations, and selling channels that bypass competitive bidding all chip away at returns. When you layer…