Real estate news you may have missed

New home sales are on fire

June was a really, really good month for new home builders. In fact, you’d have to reach back to 2007 to find a month with a similar sales rate, according to the Commerce Department.

That sales were up nearly 14% and this figure is nearly 7 percent more than last year (pre-chaos) is good news for the housing market.

Low mortgage rates acted as the bait, but the overwhelming urge of so many Americans to move out of the cities was a big attraction as well.

New home sales in the Northeast were booming, up 89.7% from May and 111.1% over May 2019.

Existing homes aren’t doing too bad either

The overall real estate market is on fire as well. In fact, the folks at Ellie Mae say that the “summer market is a scorcher!”

While refinance loan applications gobbled up 62% of the nation’s loan volume, purchase apps represented 32%.

However, that is a 26% increase in June over May.

The 2020 summer purchase market is “… not only atypical, but also quite remarkable,” they said.

The short-term rental business is in deep doo-doo

You won’t find me and most people I know, boarding an airliner anytime soon, let alone staying in a hotel or airbnb. Apparently, we’re not alone.

“This has taken a toll on the short-term rental business, as short-term renters and hosts are working through solutions in response to coronavirus-related cancellations,” according to Desiree Patno at RisMedia.com.

Can you imagine the busy airbnb owner going into the summer season having to offer a full refund to all those vacationers?

“It is resulting in a substantial revenue loss for businesses that depend on the funds from renting out their properties to pay their mortgage and make other necessary payments, or as a source of passive income,” Patno suggests.