New Construction Numbers Flatten Existing Home Sales
Two major housing reports were recently released: the U.S. Census Bureau's New Residential Sales and NAR's Pending Home Sales. The former focuses on new construction, while the pending sales data supplies an early look at potential existing home sales based on contract activity.
Not much has changed for the existing housing market, as new construction sales continue to outperform existing and pending sales.
The New Home Sales report for September showed a 12.3% surge, which was more than enough to offset the losses seen in August. The result is the highest sales pace since 2021, when the housing market was still decelerating from the post-COVID surge.
Numbers for Pending Home Sales were as expected, in an environment where mortgage rates are keeping some buyers and sellers out of the market. On a regional level, the Northeast PHSI increased 0.8% from last month while the Midwest index expanded 4.1%. The South PHSU rose 0.7%, while the West PHSI fell 1.8%, dropping a painful 12.9% from September 2022.1
Get Literate and Save Time with ChatGPT
Whether you've already had some conversations with the Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT, or simply curious, you'll want to consider putting it to use.
ChatGPT can answer almost any question you ask (these are called prompts), providing you with a draft of your required text. Check for errors, tweak so it sounds like you, and you're done. Here are three assignments to try.
Property Descriptions: These are ideal first auditions for ChatGPT. Try typing in the prompt below, in the box at the bottom of the screen that says Send a Message, and you'll have a listing in literally seconds.
Can you craft a property listing description for a {#}bedroom/{#}bathroom home in {city or community}, focusing on the unique features, proximity to shopping, attractions, and nearby schools?
You'll want to add some details such as house style and square footage, but most AI-produced property descriptions will cut at least 60% off the time you spend writing these on your own.
Client Follow-ups: Need to let a client know that an appraisal is scheduled, or an offer is ready? ChatGPT can compose this message as a text or email. Instruct Chat to make it sound like you. If you don't like the first version, reword your prompt until you get a winner. You can also draft commonly-sent messages with ChatGPT to keep on hand for future needs.
Community Insights: These can be a fun prompt with terrific results. Ask Chat to give you some insights for your farm area that you can then put together in an infographic, newsletter, or social media campaign. Just share your area with Chat and it will dig up info for you. Be sure to fact-check for accuracy...for example, your chatbot may not know that the new dog park's opening is delayed, or that the neighborhood pool is closed for the season.
After you've spent half an hour with ChatGPT or another AI chatbot, you can move on to bigger projects, such as content for your website or a calendar for your upcoming social media posts. You can also try out other AI chatbots, such as Bing or Jasper.2
The Big Event's Almost Here
One of the nation's biggest real estate events, the NAR NXT conference, is just two weeks away. This year's event takes place at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California from November 14th to the 16th.
You'll hear from industry leaders, attend your choice of learning events, and much more, including networking with over 15,000 other attendees. And there's another bonus: Disneyland is literally next door to the Convention Center.3
HUD Introduces Office-To-Housing Conversion Initiatives
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Biden Administration have released details for uses for its Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding.
Uses for this $10 billion fund include boosting housing supplies by acquisition, rehabilitation, and commercial to residential conversions. The PDF publication Commercial to Residential Conversions: A Guidebook to Available Federal Resources is also available at the HUD website.
Considering that a percentage of the post-COVID workforce continues to work remotely, the rising numbers of vacant office properties are seen as solutions to housing shortages. MBA President and CEO Bob Breskmit described the situation: "The initiatives announced today should help facilitate more commercial-to-residential projects. We encourage state and local governments to ensure zoning laws, tax credits, and subsidies are aligned to take full advantage of these programs."
You can read more by downloading HUD's Fall 2023 issue of Evidence Matters. The lead article focuses on office-to-residential conversions, which provides a research overview of these conversions, together with examples of ongoing projects.4
Tips For Lowering Email "Unsubscribe" Requests
If you're wondering what compels people to unsubscribe from any email, not just yours, recent research turned up these statistics.
- 21% report that the emails were not relevant to them.
- 19% received too many emails from a specific company.
- 19% complained that the emails were always trying to sell something.
- 17% stated the content of the emails were boring or repetitive.
- 11% said that some emails were focused on the sender's needs instead of the customer's needs.
- 7.0% unsubscribed because they said emails didn't look good or were hard to read on their cell phones.
Sources: 1mortgagenewsdaily.com, 2theclose.com, 3narnxt.realtor, 4themreport.com, 5theamericangenius.com
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