Credit union membership and lending is growing as borrowers increasingly turn to them for mortgages. Between the end of 2019 and September 2020, credit union membership increased by 3.37 million, or 2.8%. Credit union membership now totals 125.11 million, CNBC reports. Further, loan portfolios at credit unions grew 6.6% over the last year, and these banks saw a nearly 5% boost in loans.

Affinity, a New Jersey-based credit union with 20 branches, reported record-high growth in mortgage originations in the last year. Low interest rates and a surge in home buying drove the uptick. But “we saw growth on the lending side and on the deposits side, which is counterintuitive amid the crisis and hardship,” Jacquelyn Kearns, chief brand officer at Affinity, told CNBC.

Credit unions are not-for-profit entities that tend to return earnings to members through lower loan rates than commercial banks. Borrowers also may seek more of a personal relationship with their lender, which credit unions promote.

Under times of economic uncertainty, credit unions tend to grow more popular. “During periods of risk and uncertainty, banks tend to pull back a lot more on lending and just get a lot more conservative,” Jordan van Rijn, senior economist for the Credit Union National Association, told CNBC. “But credit unions, as part of their mission, continue to serve the members.”

Despite the pandemic, credit union asset quality improved over the past year. The delinquency rate dropped to 0.54% in September, according to the Credit Union National Association.

Former urban dwellers who have fled to quieter, smaller towns during the pandemic may find resistance to their big-city lifestyles among their new neighbors. An estimated 5% of New York’s population—or more than 300,000 people—moved to the suburbs over the last year, according to U.S. Postal Service data.

Olga Avdaev, a resident of New York suburb Rockaway, N.J., told the New York Post about her new neighbors arriving from the Big Apple: “They seem to have a different life understanding: That living in New Jersey is just like living in the city—the constant noise, hosting friends until the wee hours of night. I used to live in the city. I know the mentality. But after living so long in the suburbs, you become neighborly. They are not there yet.”

Similar complaints are growing. Many new suburbanites may not be in tune with the slower, more neighborly vibe of suburban life, taking on noisy remodeling projects that irk their neighbors, letting their dogs relieve themselves on neighbors’ lawns, and hosting loud late-night parties—despite the health risks of doing so. Noise violations are becoming more common in suburban communities, and real estate pros are caught in the middle, having to set expectations that buyers from urban areas may not be used to.

“Whether it be construction early in the morning or late-night music—it’s just unacceptable,” Alison Bernstein, founder and president of The Suburban Jungle, a real estate advisory and tech firm, told the Post. “Understanding your family’s personality and planning accordingly will give you a greater shot at having successful relations with your neighbors. If you’re a family of six who likes to stay up late with two barking dogs, you may want to think about living where there is space and separation.”

But suburban residents can’t be too irritated with incoming ex-urbanites: They’re helping drive suburban home prices to new highs, which is good for current homeowners who may sell in the future. Suburban home prices in some locales in New Jersey and New York alone have jumped between 35% and 45% as a result of urban flight during the pandemic, according to realtor.com® data.

As home prices rise, home buyers are having to borrow more. The average amount for a mortgage on a home purchase recently surged to an all-time high of $395,200, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported for the week ending Jan. 22.

“Average purchase loan amounts in early 2021 continue to rise across all loan types, driven by a strong pace of home sales, tight housing inventory, and high home price-growth,” Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting, said in a statement this week in reporting the latest data on mortgage applications for the week ending Jan. 29. “Conventional, FHA, and VA purchase loan sizes all set new survey records last week.”

Record-low mortgage rates may be enticing more buyers to take on greater mortgage debt. Still, financial experts are warning home shoppers to beware of taking on too high of a mortgage and ensure they aren’t stretching their monthly payments beyond what is typically considered financially comfortable. Financial experts often say that families who pay more than 30% of their income for housing are considered “cost burdened,” which could put them in jeopardy of being able to cover other necessities like food, transportation, and medical care costs.

This spring will likely be another fiercely competitive one for home buyers. Real estate professionals should prepare their house hunters for record low inventories and rapidly rising home prices.

“Demand for housing was already strong coming into the year and we don’t see that slowing down with millennials reaching prime home-buying age, and many remote workers still in the market for more space,” says Danielle Hale, realtor.com®’s chief economist. “At the same time, sellers failed to materialize in January, which has pushed the number of homes for sale to new lows and suggests that our new normal of rising prices and brisk sales is here to stay at least through the first half of the year. Those thinking of getting into the market this spring should brace themselves for a competitive season, especially in the market for existing homes.”

If January is in any indication of how the spring market will play out, home shoppers will need to be ready to act quickly and have their financing in order. There will be fewer choices and likely continued high buyer competition. The number of homes for sale nationwide in January plunged 42.6% year-over-year, a new low, according to realtor.com®’s records dating back to 2021.

New listings in the 50 largest U.S. metros were down by the largest amounts in Cleveland; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Memphis, Tenn., which posted drops at 37.1%, 36.9%, and 32.6%, respectively, according to realtor.com®’s January Housing Trends Report.

Median national home listing prices increased by 15.4% compared to a year earlier, reaching $346,000 in January. The nation’s median listing price per square foot grew by 17.5% in January compared to a year ago, realtor.com®’s report shows. Median list prices posted the highest annual growth in January in Austin, Texas (up 30.2%); Rochester, N.Y. (up 25.9%); and Los Angeles (up 22.4%).

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The U.S. received little relief from the occurrence of natural disasters in 2020, which marked the sixth consecutive year with more than 10 weather and climate events that surpassed $1 billion in economic losses, according to CoreLogic’s newly released 2020 Climate Change Catastrophe Report.

Many properties in the U.S.—even outside coastal areas—are at risk of flooding, hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, or damage from wind and storm surge. The homes at highest risk are in California, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and places along the Mississippi River. Large Gulf and Atlantic coastal stretches are at risk of hurricanes, storm surges, and river flooding, the report notes.

Home buyers and sellers are growing more concerned about natural disasters. Nearly three-quarters of Americans and Canadians who bought or sold a home in 2019 say that an increase in the frequency and intensity of natural disasters is “somewhat” a factor in their decision to buy or sell, according to a survey conducted earlier this year by real estate brokerage Redfin. Of the 29 metro areas tracked in the survey, Houston residents were the most concerned about natural disasters, with nearly 60% saying that an increase in the frequency or intensity of natural disasters “very much” factors into their decision to buy or sell a home. New York followed at 47%, and Miami was third at 46%. Overall, people in the South and Northeast—36% and 35%, respectively—say that natural disasters seriously impact their real estate decisions. Midwest respondents have the lowest concern about the impact of natural disasters, according to the survey.

CoreLogic researchers call for better disaster resilience to protect individuals and homes. For example, they say strengthening new homes is important to reduce losses from fires and natural disasters. Property risk analysis to accurately predict possible damage from disasters could help insurers protect homeowners, including private flood insurance, parametric insurance (which protects a policyholder against the occurrence of a specific event by paying a set amount based on the magnitude of the event), and wildfire insurance.

“2020 has been quite a year,” the report says. “The nation has seen record-breaking wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes, prompting governments, insurers and property owners to think of new ways to mitigate risk and make neighborhoods more resilient.”

Pending home sales reached a record high for December last month as the unseasonable housing surge continued in markets across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pending sales were up 21.4% year over year in December, reaching the highest reading for a December on the National Association of REALTORS®’ Pending Home Sales Index. All major regions of the U.S. recorded double-digit increases annually.

However, the index—a forward-looking indicator of home sales based on contract signings—did drop slightly, by three-tenths of a percentage point, in December compared to November. December’s index reading was 125.5. (An index of 100 is equal to the level of contract activity in 2001.) The slight month-over-month decline was blamed on fewer contract signings in the Midwest, NAR said. In other regions, contract signings saw an uptick or stayed flat in December.

Housing shortages continue to press on the housing market. “Pending home sales contracts have dipped during recent months, but I would attribute that to having too few homes for sale,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “There is a high demand for housing and a great number of would-be buyers, and therefore sales should rise with more new listings. This elevated demand without a significant boost in supply has caused home prices to increase and we can expect further upward pressure on prices for the foreseeable future.”

Yun projects that 2021 will see strong economic growth, supported by low mortgage rates and fiscal stimulus, that could help increase existing-home sales. He predicts the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage to stay near record lows, averaging 3%. He added that these low mortgage rates likely will help bolster existing-home sales to 6.49 million this year, which would be a 15% increase over the total 5.64 million sales in 2020.