Portfolios at U.S. life insurers tilted more toward mortgage investments, and away from bonds, in 2022, according to new data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Capital Markets Bureau.Life insurers ended the year with $5.3 trillion in cash and invested assets, up 2.9% from the total at the end of 2021.Life insurers’ mortgage assets increased 8.5%, to $695 billion. The share of life insurers’ assets inve
However, 31% of metros saw prices fall—some as much as 10%—amid a slowdown in sales in the first quarter, new NAR data shows. But those declines could be short-lived.In most areas of the country, home prices are still rising as buyers face higher mortgage rates, which fluctuated between 6.1% and 6.7% in the first quarter of this year, according to new National Association of REALTORS® data. The average monthly mortgage payment on a typical e
Home buyers are being squeezed tighter by higher mortgage rates and home prices. What are consumers in your state paying?Higher mortgage rates and home prices are clawing away at home buyer’s budgets, with the average monthly home loan payment now at $2,317, according to a new study from LendingTree. Buyers are taking out larger mortgages to afford the costs: The average size of a LendingTree mortgage in 2022 was $333,342, the study shows. Loan
Borrowing costs are lower even after the Fed’s hike this week—but a bigger issue looms large.At 6.39% this week, the average for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has been settling in below the 6.5% range for some time now and is only one percentage point higher than a year ago, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. But while the outlook for borrowing costs bodes well for prospective home buyers this spring, the lack of inventory does not.The number o
U.S. job openings as recorded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics fell to 9.6 million in March, the lowest level since April of 2021. This marks the third consecutive month of decline and points to ongoing success in the cooling of the labor market. The construction sector faced similar declines with the number of openings in the industry falling from 404,000 in February to 341,000 in March.Additionally, though hires increased 33,000 in the constru
When staging a home to attract potential buyers, we really don’t know their personal preferences, so custom styling isn’t an option. On your initial walkthrough of the property, determine the style of home—whether it’s a colonial, farmhouse, Cape Cod, contemporary, etc.,—and assess the neighborhood’s features (family-friendly, first-time home buyers, retired community) and go from there. These staging tips should get you started.Neutr
Despite the weekly volatility in borrowing costs lately, the overall trend is down, NAR says.Though mortgage rates inched up this week, they remain below 6.5%, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.43%, up from 6.39% last week. But “with the rate of inflation decelerating, rates should gently decline over the course of 2023,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Incoming data suggest the hou
US economic growth slowed in the first quarter by more than expected as tepid business investment and a pullback in inventories tempered a pickup in consumer spending.Gross domestic product rose at a 1.1% annualized rate on the back of the strongest consumer spending in nearly two years, the Commerce Department’s initial estimate showed Thursday. The Federal Reserve’s preferred underlying inflation metric accelerated to a one-year high.
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Consumer spending remained high while the broader economy slowed, growing just 1.1% in the first 3 months of 2023, according to data released Thursday by US Bureau of Economic Analysis The nation’s economy slowed during the first three months of the year, growing at a sluggish rate of 1.1 percent at a time when the nation continued to endure a period of high interest rates.It marked the second quarter in which real GDP growth slowed, according
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