Single-family starts plunged, mortgage rates eased for a second week, the $876 million commission settlements survived appeal, and Real and RE/MAX cleared the way for a Monday closing.

Single-family attached starts totaled 42,000 in the second quarter, down 9% year over year, pulling townhouse market share off its 2025 record high while staying well above historical norms.

Fourteen percent of U.S. home-purchase agreements fell through in July, the highest share since November 2023, as a record-low buyer count and 51% more sellers than buyers shifted negotiating power.

New listings of U.S. homes rose 5.8% from a year earlier to their highest level in more than three months in the four weeks ending Aug. 16, even as pending sales slid to their lowest level since March, according to Redfin.

Hovnanian Enterprises reported fiscal third-quarter revenue of $705.7 million, down 12% from a year earlier, and a net loss of $4.5 million, as thinner margins and a cooler market weighed on the national homebuilder.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners on Aug. 5 released its first nationwide analysis of homeowners insurance market trends, and the numbers confirm what agents and buyers in wildfire- and storm-prone states have been reporting for years: coverage is getting more expensive and harder to keep, at a pace that is now reshaping the cost … Read more

Cash buyers made up just 3.5% of new-home purchases in the second quarter, the smallest share since the 2007 housing bust, as FHA-backed sales hit a five-year high, NAHB finds.