Category: Investment

The U.S. housing market is showing signs of being infected by the coronavirus. With more Americans testing positive for COVID-19, the economy crashing, and increasing numbers of shuttered businesses and layoffs, fewer folks are seeking mortgages to purchase homes during this crisis.

The number of home buyers seeking mortgages dropped significantly in the week ending March 20, according to a weekly survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Weekly purchase applications fell 14.2% compared with the previous week—and was down 11.2% from the prior year, according to the nonseasonally adjusted numbers.

The survey spans more than 75% of U.S. residential mortgage applications.

This was the first year-over-year decline in home purchase applications in more than three months. The average loan size for home purchases was $336,000.

“Home purchase applications were notably impacted by rising rates and the widespread economic disruption and uncertainty over household employment and incomes,” Joel Kan, associate

After the federal government agreed last week to help out struggling homeowners affected by the coronavirus, many hard-hit renters struggling to pay their bills cried foul as they wondered if any help was heading their way as well. Well, now it is—sort of.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced this week that it would be offering financial assistance to many landlords—if they don’t evict tenants in apartments for rent who’ve lost jobs or income due to the pandemic and can’t make their rent payments. Think of it as trickle-down assistance.

Landlords will be eligible for mortgage forbearance for up to three months if they own multifamily properties, defined as buildings with five or more units. (They must also have Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans.) The hope is that landlords won’t have a financial incentive to kick out renters if building owners aren’t depending on those rent checks to

As coronavirus cases rise in New York, many residents can find themselves wondering: Should they leave to ride out the pandemic elsewhere?

Home rentals have surged in places New Yorkers typically turn to in the summer, from the Hamptons to Nantucket, Mass., as travel otherwise evaporated, according to AirDNA, a travel-booking analytics site.

Rental markets in areas outside other major, crowded cities as well from San Francisco to Chicago to Boston are seeing high demand.

Many families packed up and moved into summer homes that had been closed up for the winter in order to shelter in place. New Yorkers are ordered to stay home as much as possible and public schools are closed—raising the allure for families with small children and small apartments to find an escape, and a stroll on a beach.

The parking lot at Main Beach in East Hampton, N.Y., is as full as it is