Real Estate

A customer looks at listings on display outside a Brown Harris Stevens offices in New York.Brendan McDermid | ReutersThe rise of reality TV shows featuring real estate has been "horrible" for the industry and the image of its brokers, a top brokerage CEO said Thursday."This is not who we are," said Bess Freedman, CEO of Brown Harris Stevens, at the The Real Deal's NYC Showcase + Forum on Thursday. "We want to make sure that we maintain the integrity of our business."Freedman took aim at shows like Netflix's "Selling…

U.S. home prices climbed to a record of $391,200 in April, but the number of sales fell as high prices and rising interest rates pushed more buyers out of the market.The U.S. housing market has started to slow after a two-year frenzy spurred by record-low mortgage interest rates and a desire for more space during the Covid-19 pandemic. Mortgage rates have climbed sharply in recent months, making home-buying less affordable. Existing-home sales fell 2.4% in April from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate…

How well is the American consumer holding up against sky-high inflation? It depends on whom you ask.Four major retailers — Walmart, Target, Home Depot and Lowe's — reported quarterly financial results this week, and they each offered a different perspective on where and how people are spending their money.Walmart said some of its more price-sensitive customers are beginning to trade down to private-label brands, while Home Depot emphasized the resiliency among its customer base, a sizable percentage of which is…

A sign of a home for sale is pictured in Alhambra, California on May 4, 2022.Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty ImagesMortgage rates actually fell slightly last week, but the damage has already been done to housing affordability. Both refinance and purchase loan demand dropped, pulling total mortgage application volume down 11% for the week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's seasonally adjusted index.Mortgage applications to purchase a home declined 12% week to week and were 15% lower compared with the same…

Lowe’s LOW -0.36% Cos. posted a drop in first-quarter sales, citing cooler weather that delayed some home projects, a day after rival Home Depot Inc. said sales rose in the same conditions. Lowe’s said comparable sales, which strips out effects of store openings and closings, fell 4% in the period. Revenue took a hit as 75% of its customers take on projects themselves rather than hire contractors,…

BEIJING—A monthly measure of new home prices in China fell for the first time in more than six years, offering further evidence of the pain that Beijing’s regulatory campaign is inflicting on a sector that has long served as an economic growth engine.Average new-home prices in 70 major cities edged 0.11% lower in April from a year earlier, according to Wall Street Journal calculations based on data released Wednesday by China’s National Bureau of Statistics. The decline, though slight, marks the first such decrease since…

Contractors work on concrete slabs in the Cielo at Sand Creek by Century Communities housing development in Antioch, California, on Thursday, March 31, 2022.David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesBuilder sentiment in the market for single-family homes fell sharply in May, as mortgage rates shot higher and building material costs showed no relief.Sentiment fell an outsized 8 points to 69 in May, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. Readings above 50 are considered…

Atlanta’s top-performing residential real-estate agent lives in Florida. He didn’t set foot in Georgia for two years, and he sees no reason why he should. A.J. Steigman runs his own real-estate brokerage firm from his house in Parkland, Fla. From 600 miles away, he bought or leased more than 300 homes at a total value of more than $86 million, according to the Atlanta Realtors Association. That was the most combined sales and leases in the Atlanta metro area for any broker last year, the…

A Home Depot store in Livermore, California, US, on Thursday, May 12, 2022. Home Depot Inc. is scheduled to release earnings figures on May 17. Photographer:David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesHome Depot is set to report first-quarter earnings before the bell Tuesday.Here's what Wall Street analysts surveyed by Refinitiv are expecting:Earnings per share: $3.68 expectedRevenue: $36.72 billion expectedThis marks the first quarterly report with Ted Decker at the helm of the company. Decker, a longtime Home Depot…

The former Hamptons home of the late Johnson & Johnson chief executive James Burke has sold for close to its $48 million asking price, according to people familiar with the situation. The roughly 4-acre oceanfront estate in Sagaponack, N.Y., includes two distinct parcels, according to listing agent Christopher Covert of Compass. One is an oversize oceanfront lot with two 1980s-era houses connected by a breezeway, as…