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Median Priced Existing Homes Less Affordable Than New Homes in Second Quarter

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NAHB’s Cost of Housing Index (CHI) highlights the burden that housing costs represent for middle and low-income families. In the second quarter of 2024, the CHI found that a family earning the nation’s median income of $97,800 must spend 38% of its income to cover the mortgage payment on a median-priced new single-family home. Because a typical existing home in the second quarter was more expensive ($422,100) than a typical newly built home ($412,300), the CHI for existing homes was higher, at 39%. 

Low-income families, defined as those earning only 50% of median income, would have to spend 77% of their earnings to pay for a new home and 79% for an existing one.

The latest results reveal that affordability has worsened for existing homes. A typical family needed 39% of its income to pay for a median-priced existing home in the second quarter, up from 36% in the first quarter. A low-income family needed 79% of its income vs. 71% in the previous quarter. In contrast, the CHI and low-income CHI for new homes remained unchanged between the first and second quarters of 2024, at 38% and 77%, respectively.

Additionally, CHI is produced for existing homes in 176 metropolitan areas, breaking down the percentage of a family’s income needed to make a mortgage payment in each area based on the local median existing home price and median income. Percentages are also calculated for low-income families in these markets.

In 14 out of 176 markets in the second quarter, the typical family is severely cost-burdened (must pay more than 50% of their income on a median-priced existing home).  In 89 other markets, such families are cost-burdened (need to pay between 31% and 50%). There are 73 markets where the CHI is 30% of earnings or lower.

The Top Five Severely Cost-Burdened Markets

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif. was the most severely cost-burdened market on the CHI during the second quarter, where 94% of a typical family’s income is needed to make a mortgage payment on an existing home. This was followed by:

• San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, Calif. (79%)
• San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, Calif. (76%)
• Urban Honolulu, Hawaii (76%)
• Naples-Marco Island, Fla. (74%)

Low-income families would have to pay between 147% and 188% of their income in all five of the above markets to cover a mortgage.

The Top Five Least Cost-Burdened Markets

By contrast, Decatur, Ill., was the least cost-burdened market on the CHI, where families needed to spend just 15% of their income to pay for a mortgage on an existing home. Rounding out the least burdened markets are:

• Cumberland, Md.-W.Va. (17%)
• Springfield, Ill. (18%)
• Elmira, N.Y. (18%)
• Peoria, Ill. (19%)
• Binghamton, N.Y. (tied at 19%)

Low-income families in these markets would have to pay between 30% and 39% of their income to cover the mortgage payment for a median priced existing home.

Visit nahb.org/chi for tables and details.

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This article was originally published by a eyeonhousing.org . Read the Original article here. .

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A 19-year-old real-estate agent has found an ingenious new way to sell homes and make money

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It’s chaos from the very start when Trenton Miller swings open the wooden doors of a four-bedroom home in McLean, Virginia, a suburb of Washington DC.

Miller, a 19-year-old real-estate agent, takes the viewer on a frantic jog through all three floors of the $3.4 million property.

He plays rock-paper-scissors with himself in the mirror, pretends to have a distressing trip to the toilet, and falls not once, but three times, on the hardwood floor.

Miller calls it a speed tour.

For the recent high-school graduate, it’s become an important calling card as he starts his career in his hometown of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, a small county seat west of Gettysburg.

In a stagnant real-estate market, Miller, like other agents, has been forced to get creative to make his listings stand out and find potential buyers. Enter the speed tour. Now, other agents have asked Miller to film his run-throughs of their listings, some even paying as much as $1,500 for a single speed tour posted to his account @trent_miller__, which has 1.3 million followers.

“It’s been a blessing,” Miller told Business Insider. “I really want to make sure I capitalize on the opportunity.”

Miller started posting ‘speed tours’ when he was feeling stuck

Miller intended to invest in rental properties, inspired by real-estate entrepreneurs he admired on YouTube like Grant Cardone, but determined the experience he’d gain as a broker was a good place to start.

Early on, Miller realized that a traditional home tour — where a broker calmly narrates a walk-through of a home for sale and points out commonplace details like the height of the ceilings or finishings on a sink — would get lost on TikTok.

It was also difficult to find homebuyers prepared to endure relatively high mortgage interest rates and expensive home prices.

“Business was slow getting started,” Miller told Business Insider. “I was like, ‘Man, I got to do something different.'”

In April, he showed up to a rental listing in Chambersburg with two ideas: a speed tour, where he would run through the house, and a teleporting tour, where he’d pop up in each room.

He filmed both, but posted the speed tour first later that day. When the clip went viral — it has nearly 5 million views as of July 23 — Miller knew he’d struck gold. He never even got to post the teleporting footage.

Now, his running tours routinely rack up millions of views — some as high as 34 million. He even sells T-shirts with his signature catchphrases for $20 apiece. (One is “Most bathrooms have that!” which he says when he points to mirrors above vanities in bathrooms.)

The viral videos are slowly translating into real-world leads. Someone who watched a speed-tour video of a $600,000 home in Annapolis, Maryland, reached out as an interested buyer, Miller said.

The viral fame has opened doors for his real-estate career

Miller tries not to overthink the alchemy of his tours.

He’ll do one walk-through with a cameraman to map out their course, but purposely tries to go in with as little preparation as possible.

“I think people want to see a raw reaction to the home,” he said. “They want to see personality in videos.”

Miller said he doesn’t edit out the times he falls on camera and tries to make as few cuts in the video as possible to preserve the authentically manic energy.

Other agents representing sellers have reached out, asking Miller to run through their listings. He’s traveled to Florida, Virginia, and Maryland over the last three months to film speed tours of homes.

He told Business Insider he’s leaving for a trip soon to film speed tours for a vacation rental agency, showing off their luxury villas.

Miller said the connections he’s been able to make from his viral fame have put him in touch with the very real-estate investors who inspired him to enter the industry.

Recently, he added, he’s been in touch with one of his original heroes: Grant Cardone.





This article was originally published by a www.businessinsider.com . Read the Original article here. .

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New rules for buying, selling homes take effect Saturday after lawsuits

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First, before a seller may show a residential property or a buyer may tour a property, real estate professionals and their clients will be required to enter into a written representation agreement outlining the terms of realtors’ compensation, said Ali Whitley, president of Ohio Realtors.

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Written representation agreements must include an expiration date, information on fair housing and blockbusting laws, whether the relationship is exclusive or nonexclusive, and terms of compensation, according to House Bill 466, which was recently approved in addition to the settlement agreement.

ExploreNumber of homes sold, sale prices kept rising in first half of 2024

Stephen Brobeck, a senior fellow with Consumer Federation of America, told this news outlet that the lawsuit and resulting ruling is based on the fact that for the last century, the real estate industry has effectively set commission rates.

“DOJ (the Department of Justice) has been working for 80 years to try to force the industry to create a more price-competitive market … but the real watershed was the jury decision in the combined Sitzer and Moehrl cases,” he said. “A jury found the the industry defendants guilty of price fixing and awarded the Missouri plaintiffs over $5 billion including triple damages.”

For decades, real estate agents have typically been paid a certain percentage of the sales price once the home is sold. A typical agent’s commission has been 6% of the sale price, split between the agents or companies representing the buyer and seller.

Brobeck said in the new system, it is important for people who intend to buy or sell a home to carefully select an agent ahead of time who is both honest and competent. Before deciding on an agent, the buyers and sellers should get a proposed contract document from the agent and have an opportunity to read and understand it. He said the agent should be willing to discuss the contract before the buyer or seller selects them.

“If an agent will not present a readable contract that is consumer-centric, a consumer should look for another agent,” Brobeck said. “And it’s that refusal by consumers to work with agents presenting unreadable contracts that will persuade the industry to improve them.”

Second change: Compensation

Real estate professionals will be prohibited from offering cooperative compensation on listings on multiple listing service (MLS) databases, Whitley said. That includes all listing types that appear on the MLS, including residential, commercial and rentals.

“What that means is that if the buyer’s broker is authorized by the buyer to accept commission compensation from a different party than the buyer, then they’ll need to just get that communication directly from the listing agent or the seller,” Whitley said. “What a buyer should expect moving forward is that we have a written representation agreement that will delineate what the services of their broker or agent is to them, and the fee for those services. So prior to showing any homes or to touring any homes, they will have a written representation agreement with their agent.”

Buyers and sellers can still negotiate compensation arrangements directly with real estate professionals outside of the MLS. Additionally, sellers may continue to offer buyer concessions, such as closing cost contributions on the MLS.

Whitley said the changes are meant to be transparent and provide clarity to both the sellers and buyers in the transaction.

“Instead of there being a perceived situation of a listing broker determining what will happen moving forward with a buyer’s broker, it will be very clear that it is the seller and the agent are having a conversation and determining that the seller is or is not willing to offer cooperative compensation,” she said. “And if they are willing to offer cooperative compensation, what is that amount that they are wiling to offer.”

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On the buyer’s side “it’s clarifying that the buyer’s agent provides services to the buyer … and they advocate on behalf of the buyer,” Whitley said. “And so the written representation agreement will delineate what those services are, and then also what the fee is that that broker is charging for those services. And then the buyer and the buyer’s broker will be able to negotiate from there what that commission is that will be paid and how it will be paid.”

Whitley said the compensation obligation can be satisfied through the purchase agreement, if the seller is willing to offer it.

“It also can be negotiated between buyer and seller during the time of a purchase agreement, or the buyer could say ‘I prefer to pay my own agent because they are working on my behalf … or any combination of those things can happen,” she said.

Kelly McCormick, president of Dayton Realtors, said commissions were “always negotiable.”

“Now, creating that clarity between buyers and sellers is something that the real estate industry and agents will be doing every single day,” McCormick said. “There’s always going to be a cost to sell and a cost to buy. Those costs are always provided, as far as a lender of good faith estimate, and now both buyer and seller will have potentially more clarity in how that cost impacts their purchase and their sale.”

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Austin Castro, a team leader at Coldwell Banker Heritage, said part of the impact from the changes could come as a result of people signing agreements with buyers agents up front, as opposed to down the road.

“What I think that means is when someone wants to sell their house, there was always a big interview process?” he said. “They’d call three or four different agents. They’d sit down and interview them. They’d talk about it, you know, and then they sign an agreement to sell their house with whoever they thought was best fit for the job. I think we’re going to start to see that now with with buyer’s representation.”

Castro said buyers, when choosing an agent, used to go with the first person they met, someone they met at an open house or a friend of a friend.

“Now I think it’s going to be a little bit more of a interview process for buyers representation because people are signing those agreements up front, disclosing ‘Hey, this is what my agent makes on this transaction,’ so I think that’s probably where we’re going to see a biggest change is going to be maybe buyers putting a little more thought on who they’re going to have represent them,” Castro said.

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What’s About to Change For People Buying and Selling Homes

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It was huge news at the time: the National Association of Realtors (NAR) agreed in March to pay $418 million and make changes to how the home-buying process works in order to settle a class-action lawsuit that alleged the industry conspired to make agent commissions higher than they needed to be.

The provisions of the settlement go into effect on Aug. 17. For now, what consumers can expect is more paperwork, and potentially more confusion. 

“This is a grand social experiment,” says Leo Pareja, the CEO of exp Realty, one of the biggest real-estate brokerages in the country. “None of us know what’s about to happen.” 

Buyers now have to sign a contract

Here’s how the process used to work: a seller’s agent would list a home on an MLS, or multiple listing service, which is a database of properties for sale. Those listings would state that the seller of a home would pay a certain amount to compensate the buyer’s agent. This compensation was often about 3% of the sales price, which was also about what the seller’s agent would get from the seller. (The average amount ranges between jurisdictions and even from sale to sale; some agents were also paid flat fees.) 

Technically, those fees were negotiable. But most homeowners either didn’t know that or feel they could negotiate. In addition, home sellers allege, real-estate agents would sometimes “steer” buyers to specific homes based on the amount of compensation they could receive. As of Aug. 17, real-estate agents cannot list any sort of agent compensation when they put a house on multiple listing services, a change designed to eliminate steering.

Read More: Stop Looking For Your Forever Home.

In addition, both buyers and sellers are now required to sign a written agreement with their agent before the agent shows them a property or assists with a transaction. The buyer’s side of this is more consequential—most sellers have signed these contracts in the past, but few buyers did. In the new buyers’ contract, sometimes called an “exclusive representation agreement,” the buyer agrees to work with the agent for a certain period of time. Most importantly, the buyer and agent also agree on how the agent will be compensated, whether through a flat fee, a specific share of the purchase price, or another method. Agents must also make clear in this contract that broker commissions are fully negotiable, a change that consumer advocates hope will drive commissions—and prices—down.

Many real-estate agents say the changes are positive, including Jennifer Stevenson, a real-estate agent in upstate New York and a regional vice president for the National Association of Realtors. “This makes the process better,” she says. “Clients are going to understand exactly what is expected of me and what I am offering them as a service.”

But others aren’t so sure that the changes will be positive for consumers. Realtor associations across the country have been releasing drafts of contracts that are extremely lengthy and written in legal terms that are difficult to understand, says Tanya Monestier, a law professor at the University of Buffalo. The draft buyer agreement from the North Carolina Association of Realtors, for instance, is seven pages long.

Read More: When Should I Buy A House?

Monestier analyzed the draft agreement by the California Association of Realtors (CAR) for the Consumer Federation of America, and issued a report criticizing the agreement for being opaque—so opaque, in fact, that Monestier says she had trouble getting through the document. “No seller will read this monster of a document—much less be able to understand it,” she concluded. 

Not all new buyer forms are so dense. Monestier says she reviewed a few forms that were clear; those from Exp Realty, for instance, are just two pages long and explicitly spell out buyer and seller responsibilities. Exp has made these forms available to any company that wants to use them, says Pareja, the CEO. 

Compensation may be changing

Before the NAR settlement, it was standard for the seller to pay for both the seller and the buyer’s agents. That may not be the case going forward.

In tight housing markets, sellers could refuse to pay for the buyer’s agent because they have so much interest in their home. Instead, agent’s fees may become a bigger part of the negotiation when people are buying homes. If a buyer really wants a house, for instance, they could offer to pay the seller’s agent fees, and include that provision in their offer letter. Conversely, if a seller in a slow market is desperate to unload their home, they could offer to pay the buyer’s agent fees—though the agent could not disclose that on the listing. 

Monestier says she also expects there will be more buyers who choose not to have an agent at all, because they don’t want to be on the hook for the agent’s fee. That could lead to less potential work for many of the real-estate agents out there.

Most of all, the settlement could lower compensation for both buyer’s and seller’s agents. Academic papers have predicted that fees could decline by 30-50% as a result, which would end up lowering home prices as well.

Of course, it’s possible that old habits are hard to break, and that not much will change at all. Sellers are accustomed to paying for buyers’ broker fees, and they may continue to do so. Even if everyone involved knows they can negotiate. 



This article was originally published by a time.com . Read the Original article here. .

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Homes Built in Age-Restricted Communities

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Of the roughly 950,000 single-family and 470,000 multifamily homes that started construction in 2023, 49,000 (30,000 single-family and 19,000 multifamily) were built in age-restricted communities, according to NAHB tabulation of data from the Census’s Survey of Construction. A residential community can be legally age-restricted, provided it conforms to one of the set of rules specified in the Housing for Older Persons Act of 1995. 

NAHB was first successful in persuading HUD and the Census Bureau to collect and publish data on the age-restricted status of new homes in 2009, during the depths of the housing downturn. In 2009, builders started only 17,000 homes in age-restricted communities (9,000 single-family and 8,000 multifamily).  The numbers then increased steadily until reaching 60,000 age-restricted starts (roughly evenly split between single-family and multifamily) in 2018. These numbers fell during the pandemic but rebounded in 2021-2022, almost reaching the peak from 2018.  

In 2023, the total number of age-restricted home starts decreased by approximately 17% from 2022, down to 49,000. Overall, housing starts were lower than the previous year, with single-family and multifamily starts dropping by about 6% and 14%, respectively. However, age-restricted home starts showed a mixed trend: they increased for single-family homes but declined for multifamily homes. This shift was due to a higher percentage of single-family home starts being age-restricted compared to the previous year, while a lower percentage of multi-family home starts fell into this category. 

The SOC data allow for a comparison of the characteristics of new age-restricted single-family homes with other single-family homes started in 2023. The analysis reveals that age-restricted homes were more expensive, with a median price of $500,000, compared to $422,000 for non-age-restricted homes. This follows a similar tendency observed in 2022, when age-restricted homes had a median price of $547,000, compared to $461,000 for non-age-restricted homes.

However, in 2022, the median size was the same for both types of homes, making age-restricted homes more expensive per square foot. In 2023, on the other hand, the median size was 200 square feet larger for age-restricted homes, resulting in the same median price per square foot for both types of homes at $152.63. A difference was also apparent in lot value. Although the median lot size was the same for age-restricted and non-age-restricted lots (0.2 acres), the median value for age-restricted lots was $50,000 compared to $60,000 for non-age-restricted lots.

Additional data from the 2023 SOC reveal that age-restricted homes have distinct characteristics compared to non-age-restricted homes. A higher percentage of age-restricted homes are attached, single-story, and lack a basement. These homes are also more likely to come with patios and porches, but less likely to have decks.  Finally, age-restricted homes are less likely to require a loan and more likely to be purchased for cash, as home buyers who are older have had more of a chance to accumulate the savings and assets (often equity in a previous home) that can be converted to cash.

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Do Selling Sunset Stars Actually Sell Homes? Us Breaks It Down

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The Realtors settlement is already changing the way some Americans buy and sell homes | CNN

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CNN
 — 

The seismic settlement announced by the National Association of Realtors earlier this month has not yet been approved, but it is already sending shockwaves through the real estate industry.

The mere prospect of a future settlement has already caused some Americans to change their behavior when buying and selling their homes. Some prospective homebuyers said they plan to restart their housing search after the new rules are in place in hopes of finding lower home prices, while some homesellers aren’t waiting for the new rules to take effect in July to lower — or even eliminate — the commission they offer to buyers’ agents.

Housing experts say the $418 million settlement will effectively demolish the current real estate business model, in which home sellers pay both their agent and their buyers’ agent, which critics say inflated housing prices.

If approved by a judge, the settlement comes with new rules for Realtors.

“This is unchartered territory,” said Debra Dobbs, a Realtor in Chicago, of the potential new rules.

The new rules could help lower home prices, experts say.

That’s what Jeremy Cannon, a 34-year-old teacher in Corona, California, hopes.

Last year, Cannon and his wife tried to buy their first home, putting in offers for multiple properties.

“All of our offers got denied because other people were bidding higher than us,” Cannon said. “We were already trying to bid above asking price for pretty much every place.”

At the time, Cannon decided to hit pause on his dream of owning a home. But, to Cannon, the new rules established by the NAR settlement could potentially clear what felt like an intractable hurdle for him: the high cost of housing.

Sales commissions, traditionally shared between a buyers’ agent and the agent who lists a home on the market, are usually between 5% and 6% of a home’s selling price. The median price of a home in the US is $417,000, according to census data, meaning the average seller could be paying more than $25,000 in brokerage fees.

Groups of sellers brought lawsuits against the NAR for this practice, alleging it was a violation of antitrust laws.

Under the proposed settlement terms, sellers’ agents will no longer be required to offer to share their commission with buyers’ agents, uncoupling commissions from home prices and opening the door to a more competitive housing market.

Many experts believe commission costs have been baked into home listings prices. Lower commissions could mean lower home prices.

“I think it could be helpful,” Cannon said. “I hope it might be cheaper and bring the prices of houses down more.”

He now plans to restart his home search this summer.

A price drop would be a much-needed reprieve for Cannon and others looking to buy a home: the median sales price of a new house has surged 21% since January 2020, according to census data.

The new rules also require agents to enter into written agreements with their buyers. Many agents plan to stipulate that if a home seller does not agree to pay their commission, their buyer is on the hook for that money.

But Cannon said if buying a home becomes more affordable, he would be willing to pay out-of-pocket for an agent, as long as it is “someone who has my interests in mind.”

Matt Hanley, a 49-year-old who works in insurance in Minnesota, has lived in his home since 2007. He was reacquainted with how real estate transactions work when he recently purchased a new home.

“We were confused,” he said. “I’m like ‘wow, I’m surprised the seller has to pay my agent’s commission.’ It seemed like a conflict of interest.”

Hanley now plans to list his home in April. After the NAR settlement was announced, though, he changed course: Instead of offering to pay a commission that would be split between his agent and his future buyers’ agent, he asked his agent to write “0%—negotiable” as the buyers’ agent commission on his home’s listing page.

“Why wait for the settlement? This is common knowledge now,” Hanley said. “I’m going to try to be at the start of this bell curve.”

Hanley’s experiment may be premature, though. The new rules will prohibit agents’ compensation from being included on centralized listing portals, which some critics say led agents to push more expensive properties on customers. But, for the time being, buyers’ agents will still be able to see that Hanley isn’t offering them compensation, potentially disincentivizing them from showing his home to clients.

But Hanley pointed to favorable conditions in his market as a reason that he believes buyers may still consider purchasing his home, even if they have to pay their realtor out-of-pocket.

“We’ve got everything going for us. We have no inventory in our area and we’re selling at peak time, so we said, ‘Let’s try it,’” he said. “If someone really wants it, they’re going to come up with their buyers’ fee.”

“They should be reporting to their agents, we should be reporting to ours,” he added.

Mariya Letdin, an associate professor of business at Florida State University, said this settlement has helped raise awareness that people have a right to negotiate. Even so, Letdin said it’s possible that the status quo is maintained.

“It’s up to the consumers on both the seller side and the buyer side to bring this to wide use,” she said. “I think it will take more than just a ruling. I think it will take consumers advocating for themselves and not being passive.”

“They now have a legally protected voice, and they should use it if we want to see change happen,” Letdin said.



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The way Americans buy and sell homes is about to get turned on its head | CNN Business

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CNN
 — 

The way Americans buy and sell homes is about to get turned on its head.

An earth-shattering, multibillion-dollar antitrust ruling against the National Association of Realtors late last year led to a settlement on Friday that will loosen the powerful trade group’s stranglehold on America’s housing market. The $418 million settlement with a group of homebuyers is expected to take effect sometime around July, pending a judge’s approval. It would transform a number of rules and guidelines set by the NAR that critics say have kept housing prices artificially inflated.

The TL;DR: 6% commissions, split between the buyer’s and seller’s brokers, will no longer be the norm. Agent commissions are expected to fall — in some cases, dramatically — because they will be competitive and negotiable, and sellers will be able to shop around for better rates. And other broker tactics that critics say are anticompetitive, such as a rule that made sellers’ agents set compensation for buyers’ agents, will be prohibited.

It’s not all good news: Buyers may have to pay their broker directly in the future, which could be tough for buyers accustomed to financing that commission as part of their mortgage. And some buyers could choose to forgo using a broker altogether. Also, a bunch of brokers are probably about to quit.

But the biggest takeaway for homebuyers is undoubtedly welcome: The overall cost to buy a home should fall by thousands of dollars on average.

For decades, Americans have paid a standard commission of around 6% when selling a home, split between the seller’s broker and the buyer’s broker. The National Association of Realtors and its 1.5 million agents say those fees are negotiable. But certain NAR rules have kept commissions significantly higher than in other countries, where they can average around 1% or 2%.

After the settlement, those commissions will be fully competitive, meaning brokers can advertise their rates to prospective sellers, and people can shop around for bargains.

Real estate commissions are expected to fall between 25% and 50% because of the new rules, according to TD Cowen Insights.

Without the guidelines that buyers’ and sellers’ brokers split commissions evenly, homebuyers may have to change they way they pay their own agents.

Typically, the 6% commission (typically 3% for the seller’s broker and 3% for their own agent) was passed on to the buyer in the overall cost of the home, which buyers can pay off over decades in their mortgages.

But after the settlement is finalized, buyers may end up paying their agents in new ways; including, perhaps, a flat fee. A separate new rule will require buyers’ brokers to enter into written agreements with their buyers.

Although that will add transparency to the homebuying process, it could become burdensome — particularly for first-time buyers, many of whom already have difficulty coming up with all the money they need for a down payment, closing costs, a lawyer and all the other fees associated with buying a home.

One rule that particularly irritated NAR critics is going away: The requirement that sellers’ brokers advertise the commission they will pay brokers’ agents. The NAR now prohibits brokers from advertising that compensation.

That rule had led to two bad outcomes for buyers, affordable housing advocates claim: The first is that it kept commissions artificially high. Second, it led buyers’ brokers to push more expensive homes on buyers, so their payout would be higher.

The ultimate question: Will buying a home get cheaper? Industry experts almost universally expect the answer to be yes. As brokers grow competitive on rates, commissions could fall significantly.

For the median-priced American home for sale — $387,000 — sellers are paying more than $23,000 in brokerage fees. Those costs are passed on to the buyer, boosting the price of homes in America. That fee could fall by around $6,000 to $12,000, according to analysis from TD Cowen Insights.

In aggregate, that will save people a ton of money: Americans pay around $100 billion in commission fees each year, and homebuyers could stand to save between a quarter to half of that once the settlement is finalized, according to Stephen Brobeck, a senior fellow at the Consumer Federation of America, an umbrella group of nonprofit consumer organizations.

The new reality could be tough on brokers, particularly people who don’t sell a lot of homes.

US home purchases dropped to nearly a 30-year low in 2023 as supply has dried up, mortgage rates have surged and home prices continue to rise in most areas of the country. Although falling commissions could persuade some buyers and sellers to get back into the market, Norm Miller, professor emeritus of real estate at the University of San Diego, said the settlement could lead to a mass exodus of brokers from the industry.

Potentially half of the 2 million or so agents in America could quit, Miller predicts, as the new rules become unworkable for many brokers.

In a sign of how nervous this ruling has already made the industry, stocks of real estate companies like Zillow (Z), Compass (COMP) and Redfin (RDFN) were down 13%, 14% and 5%, respectively, Friday, and Zillow and Redfin fell further Monday.

CNN’s Matt Egan contributed to this report.



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8 Coastal Homes With Awesome Ocean Views

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ZeroEnergy DesignSave Photo
8. Resilient Beauty on the Bay

This contemporary Portsmouth, Rhode Island, home sits atop helical piers, with a ground-level garage/indoor-outdoor living space and a first floor 12 feet above ground level. This elevation allows for sweeping views of Mount Hope Bay from the main living areas. But the purpose was, in fact, to keep the home safe from floods. When expecting a storm, the homeowners open the garage doors. If floodwater enters and applies pressure to the walls, they simply detach thanks to special fasteners.

Designed by architectural firm ZeroEnergy Design, the L-shaped home has its common areas in the gable-roofed horizontal section on the left and its kitchen, bedroom and office spaces in the vertical shed-roofed section on the right. Also on the right, behind a three-story glass wall, is an elevator wrapped by a staircase.

Airtight construction, continuous insulation and triple-pane windows create a tight envelope. Solar panels on the shed roof provide about the same amount of energy as the homeowners consume.

How to Protect Your Home From Hurricanes and Flooding



This article was originally published by a www.houzz.com . Read the Original article here. .

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