In September, mortgage rates maintained their downward trajectory, returning to levels last seen two years ago. According to Freddie Mac, the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 6.18%, a decline of 32 basis points (bps) from August. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage saw an even steeper decline, decreasing by 42 bps from August…

The latest NAHB study on home buyer preferences – What Home Buyers Really Want Study – asked consumers about the features and amenities they would want in a home, specifically regarding windows and exterior doors.  Respondents were asked to rate eight window and four exterior door features using the following four-point scale: Windows ENERGY STAR…

Forward-thinking and progressive architecture reacts to two different frontages. On the urban side, the building is more built up, and on the interior, the courtyards open up to smaller-scale buildings. Knowing that many of the residents would be commuting for work, the buildings were designed to connect to the local transit stop and promote active mobility. A well-crafted pedestrian paseo, highlight both the walkability of the site and the adjacency to the BART station. Ground-floor retail activates the streetscape. Although…

State & local tax revenue from property taxes paid reached $780.9 billion in the four quarters ending in the second quarter of 2024 (seasonally adjusted), according to the Census Bureau’s estimates. This is a 1.7% increase from the revised $767.7 billion in the four quarters ending in the first quarter of 2024. Year-to-date, total state…

This speculative single-family home was created for a production builder wanting to offer something fresh and outside of their normal design and building practices. The challenge for this project was to push the design boundary for an established builder with a strong reputation for traditional home design, quality construction practices and energy efficiency. Although the region is generally very traditional, the client’s market research showed a rising need for contemporary design trends from both an interior and exterior perspective. The…

With its eclectic, yet contemporary, style and combination of retail and unique amenities, this community creates an enriched environment adjacent to Nashville’s downtown area, known as the Gulch. This infill site’s irregular shape, 10-foot change in grade and proximity to residential and retail areas—each with distinct zoning requirements—required the architects to create a building that was cohesive in its design while addressing each of these challenges. The architects utilized covered parking, public terraced plazas, pedestrian alleyways and stoops to accommodate…

Porches continue to rank as the most common outdoor feature on new homes, according to NAHB tabulation of the latest data from the Survey of Construction (SOC, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau with partial funding from HUD). Of the roughly 950,000 single-family homes started in 2023, the SOC data show that 67.7% were built with porches. This…

Expectations of the Federal Reserve beginning the first in a series of rate reductions kept potential home buyers in a holding pattern in August. Sales of newly built, single-family homes in August fell 4.7% after an unusually strong July, according to newly released data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the…

The homeownership rate for multigenerational households increased by 4.9 percentage points (pp) over the last decade, but there’s another household type that experienced an even larger increase in the homeownership rate over the same period—single parent households. In further analysis of the Census’s American Community Survey (ACS) data, NAHB dives deeper into the homeownership rate…

Home prices remain elevated but price growth continues to decelerate, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index (HPI) recent release. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller HPI (seasonally adjusted) reached its 14th monthly consecutive record high in July 2024. The index increased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.15%, down slightly from a revised…