The Zelman Buzz

Late last year, the average mortgage debt accumulated by homebuyers relative to their income was quickly rising, which was attributable to home price appreciation outpacing income growth, spiking mortgage rates and more lenient underwriting ...

Yesterday, the Census Bureau released its quarterly Housing Vacancy Survey (HVS), which is intended to measure the occupancy and ownership status of the nation’s housing stock. Although the second quarter release indicated a sequential decline ...

Last week, The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University (JCHS) released its Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) with a concerning headline: “Steep Slowdown Projected in Home Improvements.” We first wrote about the ...

From 2011-18, national existing home prices and apartment rents have climbed by 50-55% and 35-40%, respectively, easily outpacing 17% income growth for non-supervisory and production employees that represent the vast majority of the employment ...

In a blog post in late June (Don’t Call it a Comeback: Housing Investors Have Been Here for Years), CoreLogic raised some eyebrows with the conclusion that “in 2018, the share of home sales bought by investors reached its highest level in two ...

As detailed last December, national population growth for the year ended July 2018 was just 0.62%, modestly softer than 0.64% in the previous year and the weakest annual expansion since 1945. Contrary ...

Eight times a year, the Federal Reserve publishes its Beige Book, a qualitative assessment of economic conditions around the country based on conversations with business executives. Incorporating publications dating back to 1970, we have constructed ...

The Baby Boomers are commonly accepted as the generation that was born from 1946-64. For that 19-year period, there were 75.8 million births in the United States, which was an astounding 53% greater than the preceding 19 years – hence the generation’s ...

Earlier this week, Redfin, the technology-enabled real estate brokerage, published a study on the valuation premium associated with a garage versus a similar property without one. Across its national analysis, the average premium realized for ...

As most recently discussed in December, we have a proprietary process to analyze and estimate national housing units, households and vacancies, including our unique incorporation of residential electric customer ...