U.S. existing home sales fell in July for the sixth straight month, the longest streak of declines in more than eight years, as higher mortgage rates and a shortage of homes for sale are cooling this once red-hot market.
The FTC issued 42 letters of investigation over mergers or similar transactions during the 2021 fiscal year, almost double the number for 2020 and the highest in more than 10 years.
Home prices have hit new highs as the inventory of homes for sale held below historical levels. The median single-family existing-home sales price rose 14.2% in the second quarter from a year ago to $413,500.
The average sale price per acre for American land in the second quarter of 2022 was $18,083, doubling over the last two years.
This year, the sales-volume growth rate has been falling as rising inflation has pushed interest rates higher. In the second quarter, investors purchased $190.3 billion of commercial property, an increase of 17% over the same period in 2021 but down from a 150% sales-volume increase in the second quarter of 2021.
Public pension plans lost a median 7.9% in the year ended June 30, their worst annual performance since 2009.
Real-estate closings can now take place remotely in most states, with 43 states having laws permanently allowing remote online notarization up from 22 at the outset of the pandemic.
The red-hot rental market is starting to cool. Average apartment rents rose 9.4% in the second quarter of 2022 compared with the same quarter in 2021, down from the more than 11% annual increases seen the previous two quarters.