Aramco Report

The spending habits of San Diego households The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week that households in the San Diego-Carlsbad metropolitan area spent an average of $79,672 per year in 2017-2018. This includes all major living expenses including housing, healthcare, food and transport...

Concerns about an economic recession on the horizon appears to be dragging the housing market down. According to data from CoreLogic, August was the worst month for home sales in four years. This marks the twelfth month out of the last 13 in which sales were down on a year-over-year basis, the repor...

The California Association of Realtors reports that Chinese international homebuyers accounted for 40 percent of all foreign homebuyers in California last year. That buying trend appears to be waning in 2019. The 2019 share of Chinese international home purchases in California appears to be half of...

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced last week that it was refunding more than $400 million in loan fees that were incorrectly charged after a lengthy review of millions of mortgages issues over the last 20 years. The VA sent letters to those who would be receiving a refund. Veterans a...

An increase in home values helped push housing wealth among homeowners 62 and older to a new all-time high. According to the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association, senior housing wealth grew by 0.5 percent or $32 billion in the second quarter to $7.17 trillion. “Many retired and soon-to-be-...

The number of homeowners who belong to a Homeowners Association has ballooned over the past 50 years, growing from 10,000 communities in the 1970’s to over 300,000 today. And according to a survey from Porch.com, it’s a love-hate relationship. HOA households appreciate that their community associat...

Some homeowners invest in a renovation of their kitchen or bathroom because they hope that it will pay off when they sell their home, adding value and appeal. But in a new report from The National Association of Realtors, the benefits of a home remodeling project can pay homeowners back in ways that...

With more and more retirees choosing to age in the place, the popularity of single-family homes with only one story is growing. While two-story homes are still more popular among homebuilders and buyers, the gap is slowly shrinking. The National Association of Home Builders reports that the share of...

Using information from the National Association of Realtors, mortgage data provider HSH.com put forth a study that shows how much one needs to earn in order to afford a median home in a given region. On a national level, a household needs to take in $61,123 per year to afford a home but this varies...

A rush of homeowners looking to refinance their home in response to another drop in mortgage rates helped push the volume of mortgage applications higher last week. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported in its Market Composite Index for the week ended September 27 that total volume jumped 8.1 pe...

In a sampling of California voters, over half have said they have considered leaving the state, primarily because of the high cost of housing. According to a new poll from the UC Berkley Institute of Governmental studies of registered voters in the Golden State, 24 percent of respondents say they h...

San Diego’s Treasurer-Tax Collector Dan McAllister announced this week that his office would be mailing out this month over one million property tax bills. This marks the first that the number of bills going to local property owners has reached the 7-figure mark. “Despite the need for more housing...

The days are getting shorter, school is back in session and the triple-digit heat is gone. Autumn has officially arrived. But while the weather is cooling, the housing market may not be. In fact, according to a report from Realtor.com, the best time to purchase a home is the first week of Fall. Aft...

A cooling off the housing market has not translated to more affordable homes for the average household in the U.S. ATTOM Data Solutions reported last week in its Q3 2019 U.S. Home Affordability Report that homes in 371 of 498 U.S. counties analyzed are simply too expensive for average wage earners....

Mortgage rates at their lowest levels since 2016 will push mortgage originations in the U.S. to a three-year high by the end of the year according to a new forecast. The Mortgage Bankers Association predicts that the combined purchase and refinance originations for 2019 will top $1.9 trillion. Sale...

Many don’t find car shopping to be the most pleasant experience but the idea of simply turning in the keys and upgrading to a new model is an exciting concept. So much so, that online real estate site Zillow is in talks to make changing your home just as easy. Zillow is partnering with home builder...

Low mortgage rates appear to be propping up the U.S. housing market as seen in a resurgence of new home sales in August. According to the Department of Commerce, sales of newly-constructed homes increased 7.1 percent on a month-over-month basis to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 713,000, just s...

The desire to become a homeowner is not unique to those with stellar credit. With demand for housing at it’s highest levels in decades, some lenders have returned to offering mortgages for a wider variety of consumers, including those who have sub-par FICO scores. Borrowers with credit scores in th...

The gain of wealth from owning a home in the U.S. appears to have no end in sight. Homeowners’ equity in their properties increased again during the second quarter of 2019 according to a new report. CoreLogic’s quarterly Homeowner Equity Insights Report shows an aggregate increase in equity levels o...

The number of investors in the U.S. flipping homes for a profit climbed during the second quarter of 2019 but data suggests that the practice is growing less profitable. ATTOM Data Solutions released its Q2 2019 U.S. Home Flipping Report last week which showed 59,876 single-family homes and condos w...

The Commerce Department announced last week that home building in the U.S. increased in August to its highest level since June 2007. Home construction has lagged behind demand for new homes for several years resulting in skyrocketing home prices. This latest data is a positive mark on the overall ho...

Share The high cost of living alone would be enough to keep many American households from being able to afford a home. When combined with credit card payments, student loan debt and stagnant wages, the obstacles on the road to homeownership become seemingly insurmountable. In a new survey conducted...

It’s been a long-time coming, but the California housing market finally saw an increase in home sales in July. For the first time in a year, CoreLogic reports that 42,432 new and existing homes and condominiums in California exchanged hands in during the month, a 5.1 percent increase from June and 1...

Last week, California became one of only three states in the Union to impose statewide rent control. Oregon enacted rent controls in March and New York began limiting annual increases on a statewide basis in June. While the measure won the favor of leases across the state and even the California Ap...

Paying for sunshine is one way to look at it. In an analysis of federal weather data, Zillow estimated the number of “pleasant days” per year for every city in the U.S. The result of the analysis confirm the conventional wisdom: regions with the best weather also tend to be more expensive places to...

The rate at which home values are increasing across the nation has slowed significantly over the past year and many experts anticipate this trend will continue for the foreseeable future. Over the past year as potential homebuyers found prices beyond affordable levels, demand declined, resulting in...

The number of foreclosure filings in the U.S. increased four percent from July to August with the addition of 53,007 properties nationwide. That equates to approximately one in every 2,554 properties. Despite last month’s increase, overall filings remain 24 percent lower than they were a year ago....

Realtor.com reported this week that home prices fell 1.8 percent in August, unordinary for a month that traditionally still sees summer homebuyers clamoring over real estate. “What it tells us is, fall came earlier than expected,” said Senior Economist George Ratiu of Realtor.com. A lot of homes on...

Lawmakers in California last week approved a statewide limit on annual rent increases for most tenants. This sweeping mandate is the latest step to curb rapidly rising rent prices in the State. Specifically, the new law, which would become retroactively effective as of March this year, caps annual r...

The national home ownership rate, property values and sales are all elements of the housing market that have either returned to pre-recession levels or are making strides in that direction. Despite this, the rate at which new homes are being built in the U.S. are far from a full recovery. In fact, a...

Buyers in San Diego need to take out a mortgage nearly four times their annual income in order to afford a home in the region according to a new report from Realtor.com. The conventional wisdom is that home buyers shouldn’t spend more than three times their annual salary on the price of a property b...

Be prepared. Tonight, goblins and witches will roam the streets. As trick-or-treaters canvass neighborhoods in search of sweets, ensuring you have a safe path to your front door is as essential as having a plenty of candy on-hand. Before the sun sets tonight, it is recommended you inspect your walk...

San Diego’s most expensive land sale of the year so far just closed for a whopping $48,638,200. According to information from the San Diego County MLS and Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty, the 22-acre site in Mission Valley is slated for construction in 2020. The four-parcel property, located...

The Federal Reserve announced this week that it was lowering its benchmark federal funds rate for the third time this year but hinted at a pause in further rate cuts for the time being. The policy statement released on Wednesday downplayed the need for further rate cuts in the coming months despite...

A steady decline in mortgage rates over the past year has led to a significant increase in home sales in San Diego County. According to new data from CoreLogic, sales shot up 14.7 percent in September compared to a year ago. The 3,393 home sales in the region during the month is up from 2,959 in Sep...

AB 1482, a law capping rent increases at 5 percent plus inflation, goes into effect on January 1, 2020. Anticipating this, the opportunity to issue 60-day “notices to vacate” began going out to many California renters on October 31. That day was the last day landlords could issue such notice and tak...

In addition to the destruction and potential life-threatening dangers of wildfires that are becoming more common in California, a new analysis shows that these types of natural disasters could have a lasting effect on the housing market in the state. Four counties in California top the list of regi...

Construction of new homes in the U.S. fell more than 9 percent in September to an annual rate of 1.26 million units, down from 1.39 million in August, which was a 12-year high. However, experts anticipate the September drop to be only temporary as the number of permits filed to build new homes, an i...

Apple Inc. announced this week that it was committing $2.5 billion to combating the ongoing housing crisis plaguing California. The plan includes $1 billion to establish a mortgage assistance fund for first-time homebuyers and another $1 billion as an open line of credit to support the construction...

Homeowners in the U.S. are continuing to reap the benefits of a competitive housing market. Home equity levels, as reported by CoreLogic, climbed $428 billion since the second quarter of 2018. Negative home equity decreased over the same period with the total number of mortgaged residential properti...

A lavish estate used for the exterior shots of the 1986 comedy Money Pit, starring Tom Hanks and Shelly Long, has finally sold after sitting on the market for five years. The movie, about a nightmare home where everything that can go wrong will, seemed to have been prophetic as the Long Island mansi...

Despite regular reports of rising home prices, new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau shows that the housing cost burden for many homeowners has been getting lighter of the last several years. The Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) found that the number of households with housing related...

With natural disasters appearing to become more common in the last decade, insurance providers are raising rates. According to a new analysis by the Insurance Information Institute, there were 850 occurrences that were considered “natural catastrophes” worldwide – an increase from 740 in 2017 and up...

Sales of previously owned single-family homes and attached properties in San Diego fell from September to October while prices increased, according to new information from the Greater San Diego Association of Realtors. Sales for single-family homes dropped by 4.9 percent to 1,862 units, down from 1,...

With rising home prices showing no signs of slowing down, more homebuyers are asking family members for help to come up with a down payment. According to the National Association of Realtors’ 2019 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 30 percent of first-time buyers used down payment help from family...

The Federal Housing Administration’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, the portion of the FHA that handles reverse mortgages, saw a nine-digit increase in value over the past year. Although the capital ratio of the overall portfolio remains negative, the $7.7 billion increase since 2018 marks a 50 per...

The share of potential home buyers who believe that finding the perfect home will get easier in the months ahead has increased from 19 percent to 21 percent, according to a new report. The National Association of Home Builder’s Housing Trends Report for the third quarter of 2019 shows that the numbe...

Purchases of new homes will rise to their highest level since 2007 according to a forecast made by the National Association of Realtors’ Chief Economist, Lawrence Yun. Specifically, he anticipates a 11 percent increase to 750,000 units. “Some loosening in inventory will happen in 2020, and so we exp...

Americans are forced to fork over more money to buy homes, resulting in mortgage balances reaching a record high. Mortgage debt increased to $9.44 trillion during Q3 2019. The New York Federal Reserve reported in its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit that mortgage balances rose by $31 bi...

There are currently more adults in Nevada that were born in California than were born in Nevada. That’s according to Robert Lang, executive director of Brookings Mountain West at the University of Las Vegas. Over 50,000 Californians relocated to Nevada between July 2017 and July 2018. This is the se...

Despite a small dip in November’s reading, homebuilder confidence is currently at its second highest level of 2019 and 10 points higher than it was last year. The National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo’s Housing Market Index fell 1 point this month to a reading of 70. The nation’s low...

In a survey of 1,850 Americans by home improvement resource Improvenet, just over half of consumers say their home is only partly decorated to their satisfaction. Many homeowners say that they envision how they will decorate or furnish their home when house hunting, but those dreams fall by the ways...