
US Previously Owned Home Prices Fall for First Time Since 2012
The median sales price of a previously owned US home slid in February for the first time since 2012, offering some relief for buyers still faced with high borrowing costs.
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The median sales price of a previously owned US home slid in February for the first time since 2012, offering some relief for buyers still faced with high borrowing costs.
Homebuilders are rising as much as 1.7% Tuesday after data showed previously owned home sales snapped a yearlong slide, rising in February by the most since mid-2020.
A bomb threat was called in just as a judge in lower Manhattan was about to start a hearing over a $250 million lawsuit by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Donald Trump.
New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a state judge to force the accounting firm Whitley Penn LLP to produce documents and testimony in her $250 million lawsuit against Donald Trump.
US sales of previously owned homes rose in February by the most since mid-2020, snapping a record year-long slide tied to rising interest rates and affordability constraints.
Feb 5, 2019
Bloomberg News
,Canada’s banking regulator defended tougher mortgage underwriting rules blamed recently for a slump in the nation’s housing market, but left open the possibility that regulations could ease if conditions change.
Carolyn Rogers, the No. 2 at the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, said the tougher mortgage lending rules remain a prudent way to guard against risks in the the marketplace. Still, the regulator is continually assessing conditions.
“OSFI monitors the environment on a continual basis and when we determine that adjustments to our standards and guidelines are warranted, we make them,” Rogers said in a speech Tuesday in Toronto.
The country’s banking regulator has been facing pressure in particular to ease up on stress tests that require home buyers to prove they can handle payments at 200 basis points above the contracted rate. The rule came into effect in January 2018, triggering a sales slow down in the country’s two priciest markets — Toronto and Vancouver.
Rogers said that while interest rates have increased since the measure was introduced, borrowing costs still remain historically low and personal debts remain high. There could also be changes to income or other home owning expenses that make it difficult to pay off mortgages.
“It’s prudent to have a buffer for these changes as well,” she said.
At the same time, the introduction of the stress tests themselves were an adjustment to a “shift in risks” in the financial system and things could change.
“Should that margin of safety be monitored, and should changes be considered if conditions in the environment change? Of course they should,” she said.