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Alena Botros

Alena Botros

Fortune

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Newsom’s call to sweep homeless encampments caught the eye of a Silicon Valley billionaire 

But Vinod Khosla’s dealing with his own housing woes, and has been for years.

yesterday 0

Fortune

Alena Botros

The ultra-rich are scooping up mansions while almost no one else can afford a typical home 

Luxury-home prices rose more than twice as fast as non-luxury homes, and still their sales jumped compared to typical homes, according to Redfin.

previous day 4

Fortune

Alena Botros

Austin is the best place for renters, according to Realtor.com—forget the northeast or west

The top three metropolitan areas for renters are Austin, Oklahoma City, and Birmingham.

wednesday 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

With homebuying ‘more expensive than ever,’ buyers are backing out of deals at a record pace

Last month saw more in-contract sales canceled than any June on record, according to Redfin.

23.07.2024 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

Kamala Harris went toe-to-toe with Jamie Dimon over a settlement for California homeowners. The big banks offered $4 billion—they settled at $20 billion

Harris took a big risk walking away from a national settlement in the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis, and it could make the case for how...

23.07.2024 30

Fortune

Alena Botros

Newly built homes are now cheaper than existing ones, and the discount is the greatest in 6 years

Before the pandemic, new homes were $15 to $22 more expensive than existing homes per square foot. In May, new homes were $3.50 cheaper than existing...

22.07.2024 6

Fortune

Alena Botros

A Fed interest rate cut won’t send mortgage rates plummeting, a top housing analyst says

Markets being what they are, “the simple act of the Fed cutting is not necessarily going to have a direct impact on mortgage rates,” Zelman &...

19.07.2024 8

Fortune

Alena Botros

The typical monthly housing payment just fell from an all-time high

In a rare bit of good news, mortgage rates are the lowest they’ve been in months.

18.07.2024 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

Home prices are still sky high, but the frenzied housing market is slowly coming down to Earth

In some ways the housing market is beginning to feel more like it did before the pandemic.

17.07.2024 6

Fortune

Alena Botros

Monthly housing payments have almost doubled in swing states since the last election

Swing states “have not been immune to the affordability crunch the country has been facing for the last several years,” Redfin’s senior...

16.07.2024 5

Fortune

Alena Botros

Mortgage rate waiting game means buyers gained more than $20,000 in purchasing power

On the back of last week’s inflation reading, mortgage rates dropped to their lowest level since early spring.

15.07.2024 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

Rents are reheating after flatlining for some time

“The months long slowdown in the rental market appears to be leveling off as the busy summer season kicks off,” according to Zillow.

12.07.2024 5

Fortune

Alena Botros

Investors scooped up close to 15% of homes sold in first quarter—‘a bigger piece of the pie than in any other’

But sales were way down, so the “pie was much smaller,” according to Realtor.com.

11.07.2024 6

Fortune

Alena Botros

Top economist: Buyers and sellers should brace themselves for the 6% mortgage rate reality

Mortgage rates won’t be going back down to the historical lows seen throughout the pandemic, the National Association of Realtors’ chief economist...

10.07.2024 9

Fortune

Alena Botros

There’s a wave of apartments coming, but building permits have plummeted almost 30% since the pandemic—and it could mean higher rents

“Property owners might start jacking up rents again once all of the new apartments hitting the market fill up with tenants and there’s no longer...

09.07.2024 6

Fortune

Alena Botros

If mortgage rates stay above 6.5%, ‘the chances of an imminent recovery are slim’ for housing demand, Capital Economics says 

Mortgage applications and sales are weak, to say the least, off the back of dampening demand.

05.07.2024 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

We’re passing through ‘the worst housing affordability crisis’ ever seen, former Housing Secretary says— and it isn’t going to fix itself

Home prices rose at levels never seen before, and while the market is cooling down, housing costs are still beyond what people can afford, the Obama...

03.07.2024 9

Fortune

Alena Botros

Office vacancies set a new all-time high, ‘breaking the 20% barrier for the first time in history’

“The slow bleed occurring in the office sector has led to a steady rise in the vacancy rate as permanent shifts in working behavior have outlasted...

02.07.2024 6

Fortune

Alena Botros

Homeowners are sitting on a record amount of equity, driving a shift toward more expensive homes, top economist says 

“They are able to navigate these higher prices without as much of a ramification,” Realtor.com’s chief economist recently said.

01.07.2024 6

Fortune

Alena Botros

Former President Donald Trump’s debate reelection bid relied on a callback to Reagan’s 1980s America

Trump seemed to be aiming for a Reaganesque economic revival in his reelection bid during the CNN debate against President Joe Biden.

28.06.2024 30

Fortune

Alena Botros

Landlords are on edge over the housing market’s insurance shock—a whopping 80% say they’re anxious, survey reveals

One small landlord told Fortune his insurance and taxes went up between $600 and $700 a month for a property in Fort Lauderdale.

27.06.2024 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

Home prices just broke another all-time high. But things might be changing as price inflation slows 

For the first time in close to a year, the pace of annual home price inflation dipped. Still, home prices and mortgage rates are considerably higher...

27.06.2024 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

Real estate CEO says pandemic boomtowns in Florida and Texas are overvalued—and in some cases, are crashing 

“These pandemic boomtowns, they just got way too expensive over the last two or three years,” chief executive of Reventure Consulting and...

25.06.2024 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

The magic mortgage rate is anything below 6%, top real estate CEO says

“That’d be marketing magic, and would tell the world that mortgage rates are at a level where they should go and grab a property,” Compass...

24.06.2024 6

Fortune

Alena Botros

Say goodbye to the 20% down payment. Zillow says you’ll need to put down roughly 35%, or almost $128,000, to afford a typical home

In Los Angeles, a median-income household would need to put roughly 80% down to afford a typical home and its monthly payments in the city, according...

21.06.2024 9

Fortune

Alena Botros

Billionaire Melinda French Gates endorses a presidential candidate for the first time ever

“While Trump has boasted about rolling back the rights of women, Biden understands that the future of our country depends on them,” French Gates...

20.06.2024 5

Fortune

Alena Botros

The ‘affordability crisis’ has long plagued renters—but now it’s coming for homeowners

Nearly one in four homeowners are now “stretched worryingly thin,” states a new Harvard University report.

20.06.2024 4

Fortune

Alena Botros

Home prices are rising at their slowest pace in more than a year, and mortgage rates could drop soon, setting up a showdown between buyers and sellers

“A drop in mortgage rates would bring both buyers and sellers back to the market, which could either accelerate price growth or pull it back,” a...

18.06.2024 5

Fortune

Alena Botros

This mortgage rate statistic impacting more than half of American borrowers shows why sellers are hopelessly locked in

“Many homeowners have chosen to stay put, holding off on listing their home for sale until mortgage rates come down,” Realtor.com said.

17.06.2024 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

The $200,000 starter home is going extinct

There are some “affordability havens” for now, though.

15.06.2024 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

After sitting on the sidelines for months, sellers finally want to offload their houses, but no one’s buying

“Home sellers are returning to the market but finding buyers hesitating,” Zillow’s chief economist wrote in a monthly housing report.

13.06.2024 6

Fortune

Alena Botros

The hot metros of the pandemic are crashing back to earth as demand for their homes cools

Housing markets in Texas and Florida were once all the rage, so their home prices and rents soared, but now they’re falling in this very different...

12.06.2024 4

Fortune

Alena Botros

America is a tale of two rental markets, data reveals—here are the regions where rents are climbing and falling the most

The country's median asking rent hit its highest point in almost two years, but there’s a ton of variation nationwide.

11.06.2024 5

Fortune

Alena Botros

The housing market’s pivotal spring selling season is coming to an end—not with a bang, but with a whimper 

Capital Economics says “mortgage demand and sales activity won’t recover until rates fall meaningfully below 7%.” The research firm only expects...

10.06.2024 20

Fortune

Alena Botros

Real estate billionaire Barry Sternlicht says rents will rise in two years—and it’s Jerome Powell’s fault

“This is my problem with Powell,” Sternlicht said. “His policy has now crushed multifamily starts; we need houses.”

06.06.2024 5

Fortune

Alena Botros

Zero percent down mortgages might help more first-time homebuyers break into the housing market—but there are caveats

United Wholesale Mortgage announced a 0% down program last month, and since then it’s been all the rage, but people are split: Does it eliminate a...

06.06.2024 20

Fortune

Alena Botros

Young voters’ top concern isn’t abortion—they care more about finding an affordable place to live, a new survey shows

The cost of starter homes has risen twice as fast as incomes, a Redfin economist said.

04.06.2024 8

Fortune

Alena Botros

Landlords and investors in the rental space are thriving as soaring prices keep homebuyers sidelined, top real estate leader says

A lot of people can’t afford to buy a home right now, so they’re forced to rent.

03.06.2024 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

Renters are moving less often than a decade ago: 1 in 6 have lived in their home for 10 years or more

Unaffordable housing costs are partly to blame; home prices have risen more than 40% since before the pandemic, according to a newly released Redfin...

31.05.2024 9

Fortune

Alena Botros

Top real estate economist offers one word to describe the housing market: Unaffordable

Scarcity is breeding soaring prices and buyers are outpacing listings, data shows.

30.05.2024 7

Fortune

Alena Botros

Apollo's chief economist defies Fed’s hawkish pivot; no rate hikes this year despite ‘dramatic turnaround’

Yet, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari recently refused to rule out interest rate hikes.

29.05.2024 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

National home prices just broke another record for the 9th time in 12 months 

“We’ve witnessed records repeatedly break in both stock and housing markets over the past year,” one analyst said.

28.05.2024 40

Fortune

Alena Botros

Massachusetts declares early victory in taxing the rich, saying $1.8 billion take from millionaires’ tax was double expectations

“Opponents of the Fair Share Amendment claimed that multi-millionaires would flee Massachusetts rather than pay the new tax, and they are being...

24.05.2024 20

Fortune

Alena Botros

Housing hit ‘rock bottom’ this year, but a top real estate CEO sees improvement over the next several months

Weekly mortgage rates just fell below 7%, a “milestone” in the housing world, according to Redfin’s Glenn Kelman.

23.05.2024 50

Fortune

Alena Botros

The skyrocketing cost of health care is creating ‘a new type of pandemic,’ health VC says

“When you can’t afford health care, you’re not buying your prescriptions, you’re delaying the delivery of care, you’re not making...

22.05.2024 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

Don’t expect health care to fix itself: It will take consumers wielding their money to ‘shift the big Titanic’ of the system, health exec says

“We are increasingly moving from patient to consumer, and consumers hold a tremendous amount of power,” Liana Douillet Guzmán said at Fortune's...

22.05.2024 30

Fortune

Alena Botros

The global ‘spermpocalypse’ proves infertility is no longer just a women’s problem, CEO of male fertility clinic says

The $30 billion global fertility industry overwhelmingly caters to women—but that's changing.

21.05.2024 80

Fortune

Alena Botros

Why do so few Americans trust the health system? The 90 million with low ‘health literacy’ offer a clue, CVS exec says

“They’re unable to gather and understand information and apply it to improve their health,” Dr. Michelle Gourdine said at Fortune’s Brainstorm...

21.05.2024 30

Fortune

Alena Botros

From NIMBYism to an office building disaster that ‘never happened before’ to the permanence of remote work, real-estate execs ponder a sector that’s ‘defying gravity’

"I’m here to tell you folks that the headlines are real for office," CBRE's Julie Ingersoll told the Fortune Future of Finance conference about the...

17.05.2024 40

Fortune

Alena Botros

Investors are scooping up 1 in 5 homes sold in the housing market and making more money than before

In the first quarter, investor purchases rose for the first time in almost two years, according to Redfin.

15.05.2024 20

Fortune

Alena Botros

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