A growing number of single women are moving ahead with a real estate purchase. More than two-thirds of single women recently surveyed said they’d rather not wait until marriage to purchase a home, according to a Bank of America survey that suggested more single females are “skipping the spouse ahead of the house.”

Eighty-seven percent of single women agreed that it’s an “outdated idea” that someone must be married to purchase a home. Once they have the finances in place, single females surveyed say, they won’t hesitate to buy on their own.

Women are second only to married couples as a homebuying presence in the real estate market, according to 2021 data from the National Association of REALTORS®. Currently, 19% of the homebuying market are single women, while 9% are single men and 60% are married couples, according to NAR. Read more: Single Women Buyers Outnumber Single Men

What’s more, 71% say they intend to have their future partner move in if they buy a home while single, according to the Bank of America survey.

Finances are the main hurdle in the way of single females’ homebuying ambitions. Nearly three-quarters of single women who have not purchased a home yet say they haven’t done so because they want to feel financially stable first, compared to 64% of men. They say they’re working to save more for a down payment and improve their credit score.

Single women report saving more diligently than single men. Seventy percent of single women say they save money first and only spend what’s left after covering the basics. That is a higher percentage than 63% of single men who report such an aggressive saving plan.

Eighty percent of single women who are prospective home buyers also say they feel excited by the idea of buying a home themselves. The majority also feel it would be a great accomplishment to buy a home on their own. Source: “Bank of America Homebuyer Insights Report: Spotlight on Single Women Homebuyers,” Bank of America (2022)

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Reprinted with permission

Applications to purchase new homes remain skewed toward higher-priced homes, the Mortgage Bankers Association reports.

The average loan size for a new home soared to a record high last month, reaching $423,102, the MBA reports. That marks an increase from $414,114 in November on new-home loan sizes.

Higher sales prices are following higher building costs. They’re also sidelining the buyers who are priced out of a new home. Mortgage applications for new-home purchases fell 5% in December 2021 compared to November and are down by 7.1% from December 2020.

“Applications to buy a new home slowed in December, while the activity remains tilted to higher-priced homes,” says Joel Kan, the MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting. “Supply chain challenges, labor shortages, and higher materials costs also contributed to last month’s decline, as projects were delayed or cost more to complete.”

The MBA also recently reported a record high average dollar amount of a mortgage purchase application overall—for both existing and new homes—to $418,500.

“The continued rise in purchase loan application sizes is driven by high home price appreciation and the lack of housing inventory on the market—especially for entry-level homes,” Kan said.

The larger loan balances also are occurring while government loans are making up a lesser share. On new-home applications, conventional loans comprised 77% of loan applications, while FHA loans accounted for 12.6%, VA loans 9.8%, and USDA/RHS 0.4%. Source: “MBA Says New Home Sales Tilting to Higher Priced Properties,” Mortgage News Daily (Jan. 21, 2022)

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Reprinted with permission

Builders ramped up construction on new homes last year as buyers eagerly sought more housing options. Single-family housing starts jumped 13.4% in 2021 compared to 2020, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. But builders say supply-side challenges pose challenges to keeping that pace in 2022.

In December, builders pointed to supply challenges as the main culprit behind a 2.3% month-to-month decrease in single-family construction.

“The price and availability of building materials, and the supply chain in general, remains the most pressing, immediate challenge for builders as they seek to add housing supply,” says Chuck Fowke, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders. “Policymakers must focus on easing production bottlenecks and eliminating tariffs on Canadian lumber to help address the issues builders are currently facing.”

A shortage of homes for sale among the existing-home market is prompting more consumers to consider new-home construction. Builders say buyer demand has soared over the past year.

“The double-digit gain for single-family starts in 2021 was a continuation of the rebound and expansion of home building that took place in the wake of the pandemic,” says Robert Dietz, NAHB’s chief economist. “However, as mortgage interest rates are rising and construction costs increase, affordability headwinds are steepening. NAHB’s outlook for 2022 calls for relatively flat conditions for single-family construction, with additional gains for multifamily and remodeling.”

The multifamily sector, which includes apartment buildings and condos, rose 10.6% in December 2021 compared to November 2021. Demand for rentals has soared as some buyers get priced out of the housing market. Starts in the multifamily sector climbed 22.1% in 2021 compared to the previous year.

On a regional and year-to-date basis (January through December of 2021 compared to a year earlier), combined single-family and multifamily housing starts rose by the highest amount in the Northeast, up 22.2%, followed by a 16.9% jump in the West, a 15.3% increase in the South, and a 10.9% rise in the Midwest.

Permits for both single-family homes and multifamily homes—viewed as a gauge of future home buying—rose 9.1% in December on an annual basis. Single-family permits were up 2% and multifamily permits jumped nearly 22%. Source: National Association of Home Builders

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The kitchen pantry has become a craved amenity in more homes today. They may be worthy of your attention if staging the space in a home listing.

Larger, more functional pantries are a popular add-on in home remodels, according to the latest trends study released by the National Kitchen & Bath Association.

Sixty percent of designers and industry professionals said adding a “working pantry” has become one of the leading emerging kitchen ideas, the survey shows. The pantry has become a space not only for storing food but might also have working areas for small appliances, like coffee machines, as well as storage space for serving dishes, pots, and pans, Forbes.com reports on the trend. Microwaves are increasingly being placed in the pantry too.

Also, beyond just shelves in the pantry, homeowners are adding in roll-outs, specialty organizers, and deep drawers in upgrading their pantry spaces.

James Barry, CEO of seasonings brand Pluck and a private chef, told Forbes.com that he’d even suggest converting a kitchen utility closet to a food pantry. A walk-in food pantry would be even better, he says.

Barry also recommends having shallow shelves so you can see everything easily in the pantry. “I want everything to be visible,” he told Forbes.com. “The deeper the shelf, the harder it is to see everything. If the shelf is wide and deep, a rack that elevates or tiers the pantry items is great.”

Get staging and storage ideas for making over a kitchen pantry: Kitchen Pantries You’ll Envy Source: “Bigger, Better Kitchen Pantries Are a COVID-Inspired Wellness Design Trend,” Forbes.com (Jan. 18, 2022)

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Reprinted with permission

Buyers May Find Opening With Mortgage Credit

HUD Gives Early Chance to Owner-Occupant Buyers

‘Foreclosure Tsunami’ Fears Unfounded

With moratoriums in place, foreclosures were nearly non-existent last year. Even as pandemic protections have lifted, a foreclosure wave—which was an industry concern—has not occurred.

“The COVID-19 foreclosure tsunami that some people had anticipated is clearly not happening,” says Rick Sharga, executive vice president at RealtyTrac, an ATTOM company. “Government and mortgage industry efforts have prevented millions of unnecessary foreclosures, and while it’s likely that we’ll see a slight increase in the first quarter, we probably won’t see foreclosure activity back to normal levels before the end of 2022.”

 

 

Foreclosure starts also were at a record low nationwide in 2021, according to the ATTOM Data Solutions report. The states that saw the largest declines in foreclosure starts compared to the previous year were Maryland (down 81%), Oklahoma (down 70%), Idaho (down 64%), Nebraska (down 63%), and Connecticut (down 60%).

“The government’s foreclosure moratorium, the mortgage forbearance program, and the mortgage servicing guidelines enacted by the CFPB in August have kept foreclosure starts artificially low over the past year,” Sharga says. “While the recovering economy should prevent a huge increase in defaults, we should see a gradual increase in foreclosure activity as these programs expire, and servicers exhaust all loan modification options for delinquent borrowers.”

Mortgage Rates Post Big Jump This Week