Real Estate

A real estate agent shows a home to a prospective buyer in Miami. Getty Images A brief drop in mortgage rates, due to the first news of the omicron variant, caused mortgage refinance demand to rise dramatically last week. But it will likely be short-lived. The rate drop wasn’t all that dramatic when looking at

Kaisa Group Holdings City Plaza development under construction in Shanghai, China, on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021 Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images Trading in shares of Chinese real estate developer Kaisa was halted Wednesday for the second time in two months, as troubles in China’s property sector resurfaced this week. The developer had been

A “For Rent” sign posted in front of an apartment building on June 02, 2021 in San Francisco, California. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images Apartment rent growth and occupancy set new records in November, yet another sign that the nation’s housing market isn’t following seasonal patterns this year. Rent growth and occupancy usually cool heading

In this article 3333-HK A housing complex by Chinese property developer Evergrande in Beijing. Noel Celis | AFP | Getty Images Evergrande is set to forge ahead into a restructuring that would include all of its offshore public bonds and private debt, according to analysts. The troubled real estate developer, swamped by $300 billion of

courtneyk | E+ | Getty Images Covid relief programs allowed millions of struggling Americans to pause mortgage payments, and many of those bailouts are now expiring, putting cash-strapped borrowers at risk. “The maximum forbearance term was 18 months for most programs,” said Michael Fratantoni, chief economist of the Mortgage Bankers Association. “And many borrowers are

Maskot | Maskot | Getty Images For parents who have a child with special needs, planning for their loved one’s life after they themselves are gone can be overwhelming. Breaking the process down into manageable parts and working with specialized professionals and companies can help. “The three main structures a family should put in place

Hundreds of thousands of homeowners could soon lose or sell their homes as Covid-related mortgage bailout programs expire. The federal government, big banks and mortgage servicers started emergency programs when the pandemic hit early last year, shutting down vast swaths of the economy. The bailouts allowed millions of homeowners to miss payments, some for up

If you want to buy a house in the next year, be prepared to save up and act fast. The housing market has been red hot for the past 18 months, with buyers sometimes opting to skip many of the traditional strappings of the process, such as appraisals, inspections or even seeing the house in-person

courtneyk | E+ | Getty Images With soaring home values, many sellers expect a sizable profit when listing their property. However, capital gains taxes may put a damper on their windfall.  Home sales profits are considered capital gains, taxed at federal rates of 0%, 15% or 20% in 2021, depending on income. The IRS offers

Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images Mortgage rates rose decisively again for most of last week, causing a massive drop in mortgage demand, but on Friday everything changed with the news of the Covid omicron variant. Last week the average rate on the 30-year mortgage with conforming loan balance ($548,250 or less) increased to

Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images Home prices are still considerably higher than they were a year ago, when the pandemic caused a massive run on housing, but the gains are finally starting to ease up. Home prices rose 19.5% in September year over year, down from a 19.8% annual gain in August, according

Pedestrians walk past commercial real estate in Manhattan. Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images Stocks of the nation’s largest office REITs moved lower again Tuesday, as the office market faces new concerns over the Omicron variant of Covid. This comes on top of a new cooling in office demand, which had been improving sharply