The fraction of buyers who are waiving appraisal and inspection contract contingencies has been trending downwards in recent months, with REALTORS® saying that 19% of buyers waived the inspection contingency in December 2021, down from 27% in July, and 21% waived the appraisal contingency, down from 29% in June.
In spite of the increased spread of the omicron variant in the closing weeks of 2021, retail property fundamentals continued to improve. In Q4 2021, retail net absorption was close to the year's high (recorded in Q3 2021) as vacancy decreased to a pre-pandemic low and asking rents for retail space increased.
Housing market activity in December fell 4.6% month-over-month. However, 6.12 million existing homes were sold in 2021, the highest level since 2006.
Florida is arguably the hottest commercial real estate market in 2021 Q4, boasting eight of the top 15 commercial real estate markets.
Mortgage rates surged for the third straight week of the new year, with the 30-year fixed mortgage rate rising to 3.56% from 3.11% in the last week of 2021, a 45-basis point (0.45%) increase in less than a month.
Take a look at the latest trends on the perception to obtain credit, income growth and moving expectations from the Federal Reserve Board of New York's Survey of Consumer Expectations.
Home buyers today have the ability to view homes online and quickly weed out what they want to see versus what can be discarded.
Compared to the prior month, the national monthly mortgage payment increased by 0.9% while the median family income rose modestly by 0.2%.
Retail sales recorded a seasonally adjusted total of $626.8 billion in December, a decrease of 1.9% from November.
Amid sustained job growth and the continuing re-entry of workers to the office, the demand for office space ended with a strong finish in the second half of 2021, mainly driven by office space absorption in secondary markets.
Search Economists' Outlook
