Venture-backed startup Katerra Inc. aimed to revolutionize the construction business by mastering every element of the trade at once. Instead, its June bankruptcy filing wiped out nearly $3 billion of investor money, making it one of the best-funded U.S. startups ever to go bankrupt.
The median existing-home sales price in May topped $350,000 for the first time. The figure was nearly 24% higher than a year ago, the biggest year-over-year price increase NAR has recorded in data going back to 1999.
The Biden administration ousted the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency after the Supreme Court ruled it was structured unconstitutionally, and rejected most claims by a group of investors who challenged a government decision to channel the firms’ profits to the Treasury Department. The most commonly traded class of Fannie Mae preferred shares closed at $2.52 a share Wednesday, down about 62% from its close a day earlier.
Blackstone Group Inc. has agreed to buy Home Partners of America Inc., a company that buys and rents single-family homes, in a $6 billion deal that’s a sign Wall Street believes the U.S. housing market is going to stay hot. Home Partners owns more than 17,000 houses throughout the U.S., which it bought, rents out and offers its tenants the chance to eventually buy.
Investors looking to cushion their portfolios against inflation helped real-estate stocks lead the S&P 500 in recent weeks. The real-estate sector, which focuses on companies that rent properties, has gained 14% this quarter, more than double the 6.9% gain of the broader stock index.
Four NBA All-Stars are helping fund a new Harvard University real-estate development, joining more than 150 Black and Latino professionals in backing the roughly $1 billion project.
Between March and May last year, commercial real-estate prices fell 11%. Prices since July have increased 7%, erasing more than half their pandemic declines. That turnaround stands in sharp contrast to the 2008 financial crisis, when commercial real-estate prices in the U.S. fell 37%.
Last year was a banner one for the mortgage business. Lenders originated a record $3.83 trillion in home loans in 2020, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. This year, total originations are expected to fall to $3.3 trillion, a 14.2% decline. Still, at that level, 2021 would rank among the best years on record.
Energy-inefficient buildings will need to be upgraded if countries are to meet net-zero commitments. Although commercial real estate is less of a problem than residential, it will likely be targeted earlier as its ownership is less fragmented and less politically sensitive.
