Mortgage rates continue to fluctuate
Mortgage rates eased a little bit Monday, with the interest rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate home loan dropping slightly to 6.98%, according to Mortgage News Daily. It had risen 13 basis points to 7.1% Friday, marking the highest level since mid-February, CNBC reported. Mortgage rates typically follow the 10-year Treasury yield, which dropped that day after the White House adjusted tariff rates on China and other nations.
Fewer owners sold their homes on their own last year
In 2024, the vast majority of homes (89%) were sold by a real estate agent, but about 6% were for-sale-by-owner transactions, or FSBOs, according to data from National Association of Realtors' "Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers." The typical FSBO property sold for $380,000 compared to $435,000 for one marketed by an agent, according to the trade organization.
Tariffs driving up construction costs, trade group says
The cost of homebuilding materials — including gypsum, lumber, and steel — rose 0.5% in March, the Associated Builders and Contractors said Friday. The cost of soft lumber grew 4.7% between February and March, the trade group said, while electric switchboard prices grew 2.1%.
Construction companies began warning Americans last month that the price of newly built homes would rise by roughly $10,000 because President Trump had imposed tariffs on aluminum and steel imports, two materials heavily used in home construction.
“The emerging effects of tariffs are glaring in the March data release, with iron and steel, steel mill products and copper wire and cable prices all rising more than 5% for the month," Anirban Basu, the contractor group's chief economist, said in a statement. "While contractors remain busy for the time being, according to ABC’s Construction Backlog Indicator, this pace of input price escalation, coupled with rising uncertainty, will cause projects to be delayed and canceled if it persists for any meaningful length of time.”