Real estate taxes vary widely across states both in terms of annual taxes paid as well as effective tax rates. In 2021, the difference between average real estate taxes (RETs) paid by New Jersey and Alabama home owners was $8,336. New Jersey continued its perennial distinction as having the highest average real estate tax bill per home owner ($9,151) as… Read More ›

Downshifting its pace of tightening of monetary policy, the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy committee raised the federal funds target rate by 50 basis points, increasing that target to an upper bound of 4.5%. This marked a relatively smaller increase after four previous 75 basis point hikes. The Fed has clearly communicated it will continue to tighten monetary policy however, raising… Read More ›

The most recent release of the Z.1 Financial Accounts of the United States shows a sharp slowdown in the quarter-over-quarter growth of households’ real estate assets. After six consecutive quarters of above 3 percent growth quarter-over-quarter, the third quarter of 2022 saw a 1.74% increase in households’ real estate asset value. The level of households’ real estate assets increased by… Read More ›

The prices of building materials decreased 0.3% in November (not seasonally adjusted) following 0.5% and 0.1% declines in September and October, respectively, according to the latest Producer Price Index (PPI) report. The index has decreased five of six months for the first time since 2015. The PPI for goods inputs to residential construction, including energy, fell 0.8% in November. The index… Read More ›

According to data from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC), custom homes accounted for 17.6 percent of new single-family homes started—down slightly from the 17.8 percent recorded in 2021 and the lowest the annual custom home share has been since the 2005 re-design of the SOC.  The custom home market consists of contractor-built and owner-built houses—homes built one at… Read More ›

The Census Bureau’s latest Survey of Construction (SOC) shows modest changes in the share of number of bedrooms for new single-family homes in 2021 compared with the previous year. The current estimates indicate the share of new single-family homes with 2 bedrooms or less is 9.2%, 3 bedrooms, the largest share, had a share of 44.5%, 4 bedrooms make up… Read More ›