Weekly pending home sales disappointed in the last week of April, with 10% fewer than the same week in 2024.
To be specific, single-family home sales came in 8% fewer than the same week last year, and condo sales came in 19% fewer. Nationally, weekly pending home sales saw only a small rebound after the Easter holiday from two weeks ago.
The potential elimination of Section 8 housing vouchers and roughly 40% cuts to rental assistance were included in a recent White House request to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The cuts, first reported by NPR, target core HUD programs like Section 8 vouchers, replacing them with block grants to states.
Previously approved federal grants from Congress are now coming with allegedly unlawful fulfillment conditions for homelessness and transit assistance, which put these services at risk of failing to meet the needs of program beneficiaries.
This week, the Federal Reserve is holding a crucial meeting that could significantly influence the housing market in 2025 and 2026. The outcome could set the stage for mortgage rate cuts or a pause in action until there are shifts in the labor market. As many have observed, President Trump has expressed dissatisfaction with Jerome Powell’s reluctance to lower rates. While replacing Powell is not currently an option, a leadership change will occur next year.
Another jobs week has come and gone, and while we see some signs of a slowdown in the labor market, it’s not breaking. Since 2022, I have suggested that to get mortgage rates below 6% with a longer duration, we need to see either a shift in the labor market or additional rate cuts that would lower the Fed Funds rate to around 3.5% or below.
Russell Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), submitted the president’s fiscal year 2026 budget request to the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Friday and is calling for $163 billion in non-defense spending cuts.
David Rands, chief financial officer at housing nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners, is taking on an expanded role as the organization’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer. The move was effective May 1.
The move comes as Enterprise combines its finance and operations functions following the recent departure of former COO Drew Warshaw.
Today’s jobs report showed positive growth, with 177,000 jobs added and an unemployment rate of 4.2%. Mortgage rates went up a tad today, but the spreads improved, which was a positive. As market drama calms down, we should see some improvement with the spreads, something I discussed in this recent episode of the HousingWire Daily podcast.
Economists are bracing for the possibility of job losses as a result of economic uncertainty, but so far they’re not happening enough to offset job gains.
Florida’s housing markets were as hot as any after the COVID-19 pandemic began, but now they’re among the coldest.
Stubbornly high mortgage rates, rapidly rising inventory and macroeconomic headwinds are impacting housing markets all over the country, but Florida is notable for both how far it’s fallen and how much it’s slumping.
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