While you help your clients find the perfect home, you can’t guarantee they’ll have the perfect neighbors. “The neighbors’ noise and aesthetics are among the top concerns of home buyers,” says Noah Goldberg, a Redfin real estate professional in Northern New Jersey. “If you have a bad neighbor, that’s something you’ll deal with every single day. You might hate that they still have Christmas decorations up in February or that the family upstairs lets their kids run around at night. Many people list their homes not because of a fault of the property but due to the surrounding situation.”

Goldberg shared on Redfin’s blog some of the most common type of neighbor complaints he encounters, whether from single-family or apartment dwellers, including:

The noisy neighbor. Apartment dwellers may share thin walls with their neighbors, which can be problematic if the neighbors are loud. However, single-family homeowners also have plenty of complaints, from barking dogs to the “7 a.m. lawn mower,” Goldberg notes.

The party animal neighbor. Sometimes you get a neighbor who loves to party. “I’m working with a couple that want to upgrade to a larger ‘forever home,’” Goldberg writes. “We found a fantastic, newly renovated house at a great price. We were planning to submit an offer when we noticed the neighbors’ yard. It looked like a frat house after a huge party. The driveway was filled with old cars, and in the yard was a tiki bar, assorted junk and furniture, and a pool filled with leaves. As much as my clients loved this home, they passed [on it] out of concern they’d be living next to a party house. That property was on the market for a year before the seller opted to rent because no one wanted to live there long-term.”

The pests who become your neighbors. Unresolved pest problems or proximity to wildlife can also bring about some uninvited guests. “The solution to this type of problem is to have an experienced agent on your side who’s a neighborhood expert,” Goldberg writes. “A good agent can steer you to well-built buildings and away from problematic poor construction. They know the neighborhood and can point out issues you likely won’t notice, such as an airport flight path, a rowdy neighborhood restaurant, or whether buses and trucks will use your street as a commute ‘cut-through,’ bringing traffic and noise. We also have good recommendations for trusted inspectors who will be able to identify potential problems we can’t know for certain.”

To avoid bad-neighbor issues, Goldberg advises clients to spend a significant time scouting out an area at different times of day and night before buying a home. Also, he encourages his buyers to talk to potential new neighbors, but make it casual rather than knocking on doors. Spend time in the lobby or common areas for chance meetings. Also, he suggests paying close attention to the exteriors to judge whether the homes in the neighborhood look like they’ve been well-maintained.

Mortgage rates have slowly been inching up over the past month, but they remain below their levels a year ago.

“Despite the recent rise in mortgage rates, both existing- and new-home sales continue to show strength—indicating the lagged effect of lower rates on housing demand,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “This, along with improved affordability, should push housing activity higher in the coming months.”

Freddie Mac reports the following national averages with mortgage rates for the week ending April 25:

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 4.20 percent, with an average 0.5 point, rising from last week’s 4.17 percent average. Last year at this time, 30-year rates averaged 4.58 percent.
• 15-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.64 percent, with an average 0.5 point, rising from last week’s 3.62 percent average. A year ago, 15-year rates averaged 4.02 percent.
• 5-year hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages: averaged 3.77 percent, with an average 0.4 point, falling from last week’s 3.78 percent average. A year ago, 5-year ARMs averaged 3.74 percent.

Housing developers recognize the broad demand among home buyers for modestly priced new-construction homes but differ with consumers on how the nation should boost its supply of so-called “attainable” housing, according to a report from the Urban Land Institute.

Developers say it’s worth limiting community amenities, opting for lower-quality finishes, and building in less-desirable areas to limit costs, according to a ULI survey of its Community Development Council, which shares strategies for planning, financing, and developing master-planned communities. But home buyers see things differently: Research shows they want to live in amenity-rich neighborhoods in attractive locations and are willing to give up space in their homes and live in denser communities to achieve those goals, ULI says. The findings, released during the Urban Land Institute’s spring meeting in Nashville, Tenn., last week, are based on a survey of members of the organization’s Community Development Council conducted last fall.

According to the ULI survey, builders cite the cost of capital, lack of building efficiencies, impediments to financing for buyers, and the cost of materials as the most significant challenges they face in building housing that meets the needs of middle-class Americans. In addition, developers want subsidies and support from communities and local governments to help them build more attainable homes.

Even though participants in the ULI survey believe the market is showing a need for attainable housing, more than a third are not building any homes that fall into that category. Only 15 percent of the developers feel that at least a fifth of the homes they are constructing are affordable to middle-class buyers.

Builders have focused on building homes with at least four bedrooms, even as the percentage of one- or two-person households has increased, contributing to a growing disconnect between the housing needs of the middle class and the supply of newly built homes. Just 10 percent of newly constructed homes have one or two bedrooms, while half come with at least four, ULI says.

Housing starts continued to underperform in March, despite calls from the housing industry to build more to help inventory-starved markets. Total housing starts fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.14 million in March, the lowest since May 2017, the Commerce Department reports. Starts are 14.2 percent lower than a year ago. “Despite signs of stabilization of confidence in the marketplace, housing affordability continues to be a concern as housing construction weakens into March,” says Greg Ugalde, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders.

Single-family housing starts in the early months of 2019 are off 5 percent from a year ago, the NAHB notes. “Several factors are negatively affecting the housing market, including excessive regulations, a lack of buildable lots, and ongoing labor shortages,” says NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz. “Recent declines in mortgage rates should help support the market in future months, however.”

Regionally, combined single-family and multifamily housing starts dropped by 27.1 percent in the West, 14.2 percent in the Northeast, and 10.9 percent in the Midwest, the U.S. Commerce Department’s data shows. The South was the only region to post an increase in new-home starts last month, increasing 1.5 percent month over month.

Housing permits—a sign of future production—was also down in March, decreasing 1.7 percent. Permits were down by 16.9 percent in the West, 3.7 percent in the Midwest, and 0.4 percent in the South. Permits remained unchanged in the Northeast.

But some housing economists are hopeful for a turnaround, given low mortgage rates and a stable job market. Analysts at Credit Suisse also noted in a homebuilding report last week that they believe March’s shortfall could be partially blamed on bad weather and could have been a temporary blip. “We note March’s slowdown is partially attributable to inclement weather including atypical rainfall, snow, and cold, which affected the majority of the country for half of the month,” the analysts wrote. “As such, we remain cautiously optimistic on the strength of the overall selling season.”