NAR Finds Black Home Buyers More Than Twice as Likely to Have Student Loan Debt, Be Rejected for Mortgage Loans Than White Home Buyers

January 21, 2021 in Community

The residential housing market across the Greater Kansas City Region remained strong throughout 2020 according to year-end data from the Kansas City Regional Association of REALTORS® (KCRAR). Closed sales were up 6.3% for the year, indicating continued buyer demand. While there was no shortage of buyer demand in 2020, the lack of homes for sale led to a 51.3% decrease in inventory from 2019, with the year closing […]

January 14, 2021 in KCRAR

By Kaycee Miller, REALTOR® Magazine 3 Takeaways: More buyers are looking for homes in locations not tied to their jobs. High costs are prompting people to move further from metro areas. Some states are seeing an influx of residents. In these turbulent times, one thing is for sure: The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the […]

November 11, 2020 in KCRAR

by Lawrence Yun, National Association of REALTORS® Remarkably, in the midst of a pandemic, the housing market is in a clear V-shaped recovery. Sales for both existing and new homes in August hit their highest mark since 2006. The data popped out as round numbers: existing-home sales at an even 6 million and new-home sales […]

July 9, 2020 in Guest Columns

This year has certainly been interesting for our industry thus far. While the full impact of COVID-19 and the resulting job losses to the KC real estate market will take more time to measure, we have already seen months with decreasing year over year sales. Only time will tell whether that trend continues, erodes further […]

April 30, 2020 in KCRAR

Pending home sales fell in March, seeing expected declines as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. Each of the four major regions saw drops in month-over-month contract activity and year-over-year pending home sales transactions. The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI),* www.nar.realtor/pending-home-sales, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, […]

February 28, 2020 in KCRAR

Real estate pros are having a busy winter, and with buyer demand high, it could be even busier if it wasn’t for a lack of inventory continuing to plague many markets. Pending home sales rebounded in January, rising 5.2% month over month, the National Association of REALTORS® reported Thursday. Contract signings are up 5.7% over […]

February 21, 2020 in KCRAR

Changes to the tax code eliminated many financial advantages for homeowners. Policy analysts say new tax measures to boost affordable housing are necessary to keep homeownership attractive. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which weakened longstanding homeownership tax breaks, has had the effect of sidelining many would-be buyers and dampening home sales, housing policy experts […]

January 31, 2020 in KCRAR

According to year-end market data from Heartland MLS, home sales across the Kansas City region were nearly equal to 2018. Sale prices and inventory, however, experienced significant movement. Declining inventory was an ongoing trend throughout the year, with a year-over-year decrease of over 19%. Local inventory totals have fallen each year since 2011. Comparing the […]

in KCRAR

The lagging pace of new-home construction has been a big contributor to the national inventory shortage, but a homebuilding resurgence—of sorts—could open up more options for buyers this year, economists predicted during January’s International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas. Strong buyer demand, coupled with solid job growth and low mortgage rates, helped builders boost productivity […]