The consumer sentiment index, which started the year at 71.7, ended it at 52.9.

U.S. condominium prices experienced their largest annual decline since 2012, falling 1.9% from a year ago. Over 10% of condos had a lower estimated value in November than their last sale price, with some metro areas seeing over 25%. Rising homeowner-association fees, higher insurance premiums, and maintenance costs are making condominium purchases less affordable.

There were a record 68 transactions valued at $10 billion or more announced globally in 2025. That drove the average annual deal size to a new high of nearly $227 million.

Downtown Dallas recorded a 27.2% office vacancy rate, the second highest of any downtown nationally, with many companies moving to newer suburban campuses. Real-estate investors purchased $51.7 million in downtown Dallas office property in the first three quarters of this year, versus $1.8 billion in Dallas’s suburban markets.

Los Angeles will implement new rent-control limits in February, capping annual increases at 1% to 4% for most multifamily apartments. The new policy affects approximately 651,000 apartments, or three-fourths of L.A.’s multifamily housing stock. The average rent for a rent-controlled unit in Los Angeles is about $1,800, compared with $2,700 for market-rate units.

Spending on data-center construction looks poised to surpass office-building construction as soon as next year. Data centers yielded an 11.2% return last year. That was higher than every other sector, other than manufactured housing.

The share of first-time homebuyers has dropped to 21%, or half from what it was before the pandemic.

The latest Household Debt and Credit Report showed a $197 billion increase in total household debt during Q3, reaching a record $18.59 trillion. Mortgage debt, which represents the bulk of household debt, grew by $137 billion to $13.07 trillion. Non-housing debt also increased with credit card balances rising by $24 billion from the previous quarter to $1.23 trillion and student loan balances increasing by $15 billion to $1.65 trillion.

Gross domestic product rose at a seasonally and inflation-adjusted 4.3% annual rate for the July through September quarter. It was the highest growth rate in two years, and reflected robust spending by consumers on services like health care as well as spending on vehicles. Growth picked up from 3.8% in the previous quarter, and beat the 3.2% forecast.

Nearly 30 million households, or 54% of primary mortgage-holders, have mortgage rates at or below 4%. They were able to buy homes or refinance their mortgages when rates fell to 3% or lower in 2020 and 2021.