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People walk into a house for sale in Floral Park, Nassau County, New York, the United States, on Sept. 6, 2020. Home buyers eying for cozy backyards and more office space are staging bidding wars in the suburbs surrounding New York City amid the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wang Ying | Xinhua News Agency

Despite another interest rate drop, demand for refinancing and purchasing mortgages fell last week, with total mortgage application volume down 4.8% from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Record-low mortgage rates are apparently not as impressive as they used to be, likely because rates have been so low for so long. The average

A Canadian flag flies amid the Toronto skyline Roberto Machado Noa | Getty Images Despite a global recession brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, home values in major markets around the world continue to rise, with some at risk of overheating. Of 25 major cities analyzed, more than half are either at risk of a

A sale pending sign is posted in front of a home for sale in San Anselmo, California. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images Pending home sales rose 8.8% in August compared with July, reaching a record high pace, according to the National Association of Realtors survey, which dates back to January 2001. Sales were 24.2% higher

U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to speak about the administration’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19) testing plan in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, September 28, 2020. Carlos Barria | Reuters The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday it will not seek to enforce a subpoena for President Donald Trump‘s income tax returns until

People wait to visit a house for sale in Garden City, Nassau County, New York, the United States, on Sept. 6, 2020. Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images Strong demand from homebuyers in July, coupled with rock-bottom mortgage interest rates, caused home prices to accelerate in major markets across the nation. Nationally, home values rose

It’s a dilemma many companies are facing: How and when to have staff return to the office, when the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns have meant vast numbers of employees are still working from home. The CEO of one commercial real estate business says working environments will need to be upgraded to encourage people back —

The coronavirus remote work experiment will become a permanent trend, but at some point, employees will return to the office in numbers that match the past. When? It could take five years, according to a new forecast from Cushman & Wakefield. Global office vacancies will not return to their pre-Covid peak levels until 2025 and,

General view of WeWork Weihai Road flagship is seen on April 12, 2018 in Shanghai, China. World’s leading co-working space company WeWork will acquire China-based rival naked Hub for 400 million U.S. dollars. (Photo by Jackal Pan/Visual China Group via Getty Images) VCG | Getty Images LONDON — Office space provider WeWork has sold a

Ariel Skelley | DigitalVision | Getty Images It’s no wonder so many Americans retire down south. The Sunshine State has four of the top five places for retirement, according to the latest WalletHub Best & Worst Places to Retire report. “Florida is a tax haven for everyone, but especially for the elderly, so when it

Katie Farmer, incoming CEO of BNSF Railway, told CNBC on Friday that her industry has clearly been impacted economically by the coronavirus pandemic, but there’s optimism on the horizon. “We have seen the economy start to pick up relative to rail loadings,” Farmer told “Squawk Box.” While BNSF, owned by Warren Buffett-led Berkshire Hathaway, anticipates a rebound,

Siri Stafford | Getty Images You probably know a Roth individual retirement account is one way to save for your post-working years.  It also may come in handy for certain homebuyers. Basically, up to $10,000 in Roth IRA earnings can be withdrawn — free of both taxes and penalty — for a home purchase if

People wait to visit a house for sale in Floral Park, Nassau County, New York, the United States, on Sept. 6, 2020. Wany Ying | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images Exceptional demand for both new and existing homes, brought on by the stay-at-home culture of the coronavirus pandemic, has the housing market severely depleted.

Mary L. Trump interview on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow MSNBC President Donald Trump and two of his siblings were sued on Thursday by their niece Mary on fraud charges accusing them of swindling her out of millions of dollars to which she was entitled after the death of her father. “For Donald J. Trump, his sister

Robin Azougi 1st R, a licensed real estate salesperson with Douglas Elliman Real Estate, talks with prospective buyers at a house for sale in Floral Park, Nassau County, New York, on Sept. 6, 2020. Wang Ying | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images Fierce competition for a limited supply of homes for sale has caused

Eric Trump speaks in Portsmouth, NH on Sept. 17, 2020. Eric Trump, son of President Donald Trump, makes a stop in Portsmouth during one stop on his ‘Make America Great Again!’ tour. Erin Clark | Boston Globe | Getty Images A lawyer for the New York attorney general’s office argued Wednesday that President Donald Trump‘s

People wait to visit a house for sale in Floral Park, Nassau County, New York. Wang Ying | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images After a brief lull to start the month, mortgage demand surged ahead yet again — even with the highest interest rates in several weeks. Total mortgage application volume increased 6.8% last

A home for sale is seen in Santa Monica, California. Lucy Nicholson | Reuters After a record-setting July, the housing market still shows no sign of cooling off. Sales of existing homes rose 2.4% to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 6 million units, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sales were 10.5% higher

After a brief stall in home sales at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, homebuyers came rushing back in — so fast that prices never even took a hit. In fact, the gains in prices accelerated quickly, causing home equity to soar even more.   Home equity for homeowners with a mortgage rose 6.6% annually in

Retirement village in Florida. Ron Levine | Image Bank | Getty Images Where to live in one’s golden years is one of the most significant decisions a new retiree has to make, and the traditional notion of retirement is changing.  The old formula of cookie-cutter retirement communities is being challenged by the rise of customizable

Scott Heins | Getty Images News | Getty Images Mom-and-pop landlords are in a worse financial position relative to their higher-earning peers as unemployment remains elevated and Americans continue to struggle to pay rent, according to a new analysis. Roughly a third of individual landlords who own residential property are from low- to moderate-income households

Contractors work on a new home under construction at Taylor Morrison Home Corp.’s La Solara Community in Dublin, California. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images With no major move in mortgage rates, there was no sudden incentive to refinance a home loan last week, so fewer people did. That drove overall mortgage application

Homebuilding is booming. Homebuilder sentiment hit a fresh all-time high on Wednesday on the back of rising demand for suburban housing. The iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (ITB) and the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) climbed nearly 3% and 2% respectively following the spike, with the XHB hitting a new all-time high. Wall Street analysts also highlighted

Getty Images If you’ve thought about refinancing your mortgage, be aware that it may soon be a more expensive proposition. Due to a 0.5% “adverse market” fee, effective Dec. 1 and imposed on lenders by mortgage backers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, many homeowners are expected to absorb at least some of the cost when

Jb Reed | Bloomberg | Getty Images The number of borrowers in government Covid-19-related mortgage bailout programs is shrinking, but those in private-label or bank bailouts is rising. This suggests that there is still pain ahead in the mortgage market, as some borrowers are simply not recovering enough financially to afford their home loans. The

US businessman and son of the US president Eric Trump. Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images Lawyers for Eric Trump said Thursday that he is willing to be deposed as part of the New York Attorney General’s office’s probe of the Trump Organization, but only after the 2020 presidential election. In a court filing

Commercial real estate stocks are bouncing back this week after taking a big hit. Shares of SL Green, Manhattan’s biggest office landlord, are up 14 percent. On Monday, SL Green unveiled a $3 billion, 77-story new office tower in midtown, showing the company is betting on a future that includes workers going back into the

Sun Mountain Lumber Superintendent Nelson Bohrer walks past stacks of cut lumber at the saw mill September 12, 2019 in Deer Lodge, Montana. Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images With demand for housing surging, the nation’s homebuilders are positively ebullient. Builder confidence in the market for single-family homes in September increased 5 points to 83 on

Homebuilding stocks jump on all-time high sentiment. Where to invest in the space Fed leaves rates unchanged in its last meeting before the 2020 presidential election There’s a growing disconnect in emerging markets, but traders see opportunity Unusual activity suggests market volatility will jump after Election Day, Wells Fargo finds Market volatility may swell after

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday it would keep its benchmark interest rate near zero for as long as it takes to help the economy bounce back from the coronavirus crisis. The Fed said the ongoing coronavirus pandemic will “weigh heavily” on the near-term outlook and poses “considerable risks” for the medium term. In addition to holding rates near rock bottom, the