Donate today and get a Marketplace mug -- perfect for all your liquid assets! Donate now

For a couple in Maine, calling a Grange Hall home means financial freedom

Feb 23, 2024
With the goal of living mortgage-free, "I really knew that I would go anywhere and I would live in anything," Kate Mill says.
After living in Nashville, Tennessee, for 23 years, Henry Pile and Kate Mills bought this  Grange Hall in Livermore Falls, Maine.
Courtesy Henry Pile

High mortgage rates, low inventory keep the housing market tight

Feb 19, 2024
High interest rates and limited inventory are key factors in restricting affordability.
The "mortgage lock-in effect" is part of what's keeping the inventory of homes on the market low right now.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Median home prices are down across the U.S., but location still drives valuation

Feb 15, 2024
When Caitlin LaClair and her family moved to Texas and then Massachusetts, they were hit with sticker shock.
The prices you'll encounter depend on where you're looking.
David McNew/Getty Images

Foreign investors are cooling on U.S. commercial real estate

Feb 9, 2024
Some of the drop is due to high interest rates and economic problems back home. Office buildings continue a slow burn, one expert says.
The height of foreign purchases of U.S. real estate was in 2017.
Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

Amid a national housing shortage, Texas is an exception

Feb 7, 2024
"This market is just really wacky right now," says Houston-based broker LaTisha Grant.
The number of homes for sale in Texas has more than doubled from its low during the pandemic.
Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Canada extends its ban on foreigners buying homes for two more years

Feb 6, 2024
The ban was supposed to make housing more affordable.
After foreign investors began buying up properties in places like Vancouver, "residents were being priced out of their own real estate market," said McGill University's David Wachsmuth.
Andrew Chin/Getty Images

Profits from sales of median-price homes fell slightly last year, but are still pretty huge

Jan 25, 2024
People who sold a median-price home last year made more than $120,000 in profit on a typical sale, according to a new report out today from the property data company ATTOM.
High home sale profits might be a sign that the market is starting to normalize.
George Rose/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

That empty feeling: Office vacancy rates hit a new high

Jan 9, 2024
Many companies have decided they want employees in the office only part of the time, but they don't want to pay rent on empty space.
As companies commit to long-term hybrid work environments, less office space is needed, leaving many buildings partially vacant.
C. Taylor Crothers/Getty Images

Will 2024 be the year the housing market gets slightly less tough?

Dec 27, 2023
High mortgage costs, low supply of houses for purchase and high rents made for a pretty bleak year. But there's a glimmer of light on the horizon.
“Single-family houses are starting to seem like a luxury good," said Chris Mayer of Columbia Business School.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Could commercial real estate still tank regional banks?

Dec 21, 2023
A new study says that 300 regional banks are at risk of collapse because of the high number of vacancies in office buildings.
The delinquency rate on office loans tripled this year, says Trepp's Stephen Buschbom.
Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images