Mortgage rates and the housing market

[#UnleashThePortal]

You're super weird, no cap. Malik the male nurse. lol

Wow, what a joke from 1976. So manly.

 

Nazis also believed in male/female only "jobs"

[#UnleashThePortal]

Also, you play pickle ball. I cant think of anything more lame.

Edit: competitively 🤣🤣🤣

[Jay Bee]

Wow, what a joke from 1976. So manly.

 

Nazis also believed in male/female only "jobs"

Word, Nurse Mally. You the wo-man!!

[#UnleashThePortal]

Word, Nurse Mally. You the wo-man!!

It's a pretty sad thought that you think that!

[dgies9156]

From the Wall Street Journal:

The Sunshine State used to be where all walks of life could afford to retire, but now, wealthy individuals make up a growing share of people at or near retirement age arriving in Florida from other states, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

For many working- and middle-class people, the decades-old promise of an affordable sun-drenched sanctuary is fading in the face of high home prices, insurance premiums and property taxes, among other costs.

https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/luxury-homes/the-dream-of-a-florida-retirement-is-fading-for-the-middle-class-a29a5687?mod=djemwhatsnews

Just another example of the many hurdles facing the middle class today. Those aspiring simply to reach middle class are doing even worse, as the poors are being more dumped on than ever.

But on the plus side, there's never been a better time to be a billionaire!

OK, Florida residents understand there are a myriad of reasons why housing costs have increased substantially. Among the most severe are:

1) Insurance -- This is a killer. A policy that cost me $1,500 in Illinois is more than $6,000 here. That's despite living in a concrete bunker with 150 mph impact windows and a roof that a nuclear bomb couldn't separate from our house. The reality was that before Hurricane Andrew, most Florida insurance was underpriced relative to risk. It's probably overpriced now but that's what it takes to get carriers to underwrite here. Our state has created an insurer of last resort but this risk requires a very expensive price.

2) HOAs -- Many HOAs underpriced regular assessments relative to capital needs and replacement. After the Sunrise collapse, our state stepped in and required inspections to ensure HOAs were doing their jobs. The result was identification of massive amounts of deferred maintenance that required remediation, for which funds did not exist. Boards either hiked annual assessments or had humungous special assessments.

3) Demand -- The market demands different things in home today than 10 or 20 years ago. Top end appliances, granite countertops, high-end cabinets and a host of other things have have affected housing affordability. Add to that some of the toughest building codes in the country and homes get expensive.

4) Debt -- While not a direct contributor to localized affordability, more and more senior citizens are mortgaging their homes for one issue or another. The result is that while a hypothetical home in Long Island, NY might once have generated net proceeds sufficient for a downsized home in Florida, if debt that must be repaid, buying power on the Florida back-end is a lot less. A decade or more ago, one could buy here on a barrier island for around $450,000 and the buyers, after sale of their northern house, would be free and clear. Not the case anymore!

In fairness to our government, they have taken on the insurance industry in recent years. I'm expecting some drop in premium in the next year. The fact that John Morgan of Morgan & Morgan dislikes our governor probably is enough for me to believe our state has done something right. Also, for homesteaded properties in Florida, our legislature is expected to tackle initiatives that will severely reduce or eliminate property tax!

[Scoop Snoop]

Your governor is very dislikable, so I am with John Morgan on that point.

[MUBurrow]

Insurance -- This is a killer. A policy that cost me $1,500 in Illinois is more than $6,000 here. That's despite living in a concrete bunker with 150 mph impact windows and a roof that a nuclear bomb couldn't separate from our house. The reality was that before Hurricane Andrew, most Florida insurance was underpriced relative to risk. It's probably overpriced now but that's what it takes to get carriers to underwrite here. Our state has created an insurer of last resort but this risk requires a very expensive price.

Didn't know Florida was going communist.  SAD!

[MU82]

Home sales last year were tied for the lowest level in 3 decades

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/home-sales-last-year-were-tied-for-the-lowest-level-in-3-decades-155615598.html?

The housing market spent its third straight year in a deep freeze, as high mortgage rates and prices sidelined buyers and discouraged sellers from listing.

4.06 million homes were sold in 2025, according to National Association of Realtors data, unchanged from last year, when home sales were at the lowest level since 1995.

[JWags85]

Home sales last year were tied for the lowest level in 3 decades

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/home-sales-last-year-were-tied-for-the-lowest-level-in-3-decades-155615598.html?

The housing market spent its third straight year in a deep freeze, as high mortgage rates and prices sidelined buyers and discouraged sellers from listing.

4.06 million homes were sold in 2025, according to National Association of Realtors data, unchanged from last year, when home sales were at the lowest level since 1995.

Hot take, this is actually good.  There are myriad factors, but the housing market is still absurdly overheated in many places.

[MU82]

Just five of the metros Redfin analyzed were seller's markets in March, down from nine a year earlier.

https://www.redfin.com/news/buyers-vs-sellers-march-2026/

The strongest seller's market in March was Newark, NJ, which had an estimated 30.4% fewer sellers than buyers. The other four seller's markets were Nassau County, NY (-28%) Montgomery County, PA (-26.2%), Milwaukee (-19.7%) and New Brunswick, NJ (-12.5%).

On average, home prices rose 4.8% year over year across the five seller's markets in March, compared with a 1.6% increase across the 38 buyer's markets—an indication that buyer's markets offer house hunters more leverage.

[MU82]

From The Wall Street Journal:

When disaster strikes, many Americans face a near flip-of-the-coin chance that their home insurer will pay a claim.

And the problem is getting worse. The five biggest home-insurers as a group didn't pay out on more than 44% of claims resolved last year, forcing homeowners and renters to fund repairs out of their own pockets, an analysis by The Wall Street Journal found.

The risk that a claim will result in no payment among the group—State Farm, Allstate, Liberty Mutual, United Services Automobile Association and Farmers Insurance—shot up from 36% a decade earlier, according to the analysis.

Several factors are driving nonpayment rates higher, according to industry analysts and executives. Prime among them: Insurers are responding to a yearslong run of postpandemic losses in their home-insurance businesses by getting tougher on claims.

One way they have done this is to raise deductibles, or the amount the customer has to pay before the insurer kicks in. Some companies applied higher deductibles to specific risks such as hurricane and hail, and changed certain deductibles from a dollar value to a percentage of the value of a home. They have also set tighter criteria for claims on expensive items like roof replacements.

Consumers hit by rising premiums are themselves selecting higher deductibles to save money, insurers and consumer advocates say. This sets consumers up for disappointment when they put in for claims.

Home insurers pitch policies as a peace-of-mind financial safety net. But customers can find the apparent guarantee of compensation for disasters evaporates when they come to claim.

Vicky Weidner's four-bedroom, million-dollar home in South Tulsa, Okla., was hammered by a 2024 storm. The golf-ball-size hail put dents in her husband's pickup truck and ravaged their roof, according to Weidner. An outside contractor said the aging roof needed a $49,131 full replacement.

"There were shingles with holes in them falling off the roof," Weidner, an emergency-room physician, said.

"State Farm came out and inspected the roof and said, 'Nope, you're good.'"

The insurer told her the hail damage—to guttering and copper on the roof—tallied just $2,000, well below her policy's deductible. State Farm refused to pay a cent, Weidner said.

[tower912]

So, home insurance is like health insurance.  Common denominator?

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

From The Wall Street Journal:

When disaster strikes, many Americans face a near flip-of-the-coin chance that their home insurer will pay a claim.

And the problem is getting worse. The five biggest home-insurers as a group didn't pay out on more than 44% of claims resolved last year, forcing homeowners and renters to fund repairs out of their own pockets, an analysis by The Wall Street Journal found.

The risk that a claim will result in no payment among the group—State Farm, Allstate, Liberty Mutual, United Services Automobile Association and Farmers Insurance—shot up from 36% a decade earlier, according to the analysis.

Several factors are driving nonpayment rates higher, according to industry analysts and executives. Prime among them: Insurers are responding to a yearslong run of postpandemic losses in their home-insurance businesses by getting tougher on claims.

One way they have done this is to raise deductibles, or the amount the customer has to pay before the insurer kicks in. Some companies applied higher deductibles to specific risks such as hurricane and hail, and changed certain deductibles from a dollar value to a percentage of the value of a home. They have also set tighter criteria for claims on expensive items like roof replacements.

Consumers hit by rising premiums are themselves selecting higher deductibles to save money, insurers and consumer advocates say. This sets consumers up for disappointment when they put in for claims.

Home insurers pitch policies as a peace-of-mind financial safety net. But customers can find the apparent guarantee of compensation for disasters evaporates when they come to claim.

Vicky Weidner's four-bedroom, million-dollar home in South Tulsa, Okla., was hammered by a 2024 storm. The golf-ball-size hail put dents in her husband's pickup truck and ravaged their roof, according to Weidner. An outside contractor said the aging roof needed a $49,131 full replacement.

"There were shingles with holes in them falling off the roof," Weidner, an emergency-room physician, said.

"State Farm came out and inspected the roof and said, 'Nope, you're good.'"

The insurer told her the hail damage—to guttering and copper on the roof—tallied just $2,000, well below her policy's deductible. State Farm refused to pay a cent, Weidner said.

Jake wasn't there.