The Trump administration is proposing a $27 billion reduction in federal programs that provide rental assistance to low-income individuals. This cut would be part of an overall 44% reduction to HUD’s budget intended to slim down government spending.

A $418 million settlement by the National Association of Realtors last year came in response to a wave of class-action lawsuits in which plaintiffs charged the NAR’s practices unfairly forced home sellers to pay inflated commissions to buyer agents. A recent study found the national average for real estate commissions on the sale of a home was 5.44%, which was up from a 5.32% average in September 2024.

About 43% of baby boomers say they will never sell their home, the highest of any generational group. The biggest single reason cited for staying in place is that their home is almost or completely paid off, while others say they like where they live. About 30% say they are staying in their current home because prices are too high and 18% said they are staying because they don’t want to give up their low mortgage interest rate.

The Kingdom’s Public Investment Fund is teaming with Related Cos., which has said it is planning to build a 1,200-foot tower on a site one block from Central Park, which was purchased last year for more than $600 million. Related initially planned a mixed-use project there with residential, retail and a hotel. But more recently the firm said it has been considering an office building instead to take advantage of the strong demand among businesses for top-quality space in the city. The overall cost for the site and development is expected to be more than $1 billion.

Home prices for Cape Coral-Fort Myers have tumbled 11% in the two years through May, the most of any major metro area. The metro area of about 800,000 is feeling the effects of elevated home prices, ballooning insurance premiums and property taxes, natural disasters, a return to the office for remote workers, and waning demand from investors after a glut of building in the area brought rental prices down.

The city’s most recent report about rent-stabilized units says landlords’ profit was up 12.1% between 2022 and 2023.

America’s housing market is showing increased interest from international buyers. The data showed the share of home shoppers who came from outside the U.S. grew from 1.3% in the first quarter of 2020 to 1.9% during the same time this year. It was also up from 1.7% in the fourth quarter of 2024.

A Swiss building-materials company will spinoff of its North American operations, Amrize, the biggest cement provider and second-biggest commercial roofing provider in North America. It will debut as a public company with a market capitalization of $30 billion, marking the biggest spinoff so far this year.

Apartment occupancy among the nation’s 50 largest metro areas stayed steady in May month-to-month, at 95.7%, but is up 90 basis points year-to-date. And while all of those markets posted annual growth in occupancy, 40% were down on a monthly basis.

The number of property demolitions and the pace of office conversions into residential buildings are accelerating. Developers, meanwhile, have greatly slowed new office construction because of questions about future tenant demand. As a result, the amount of office supply in the U.S. is on pace this year to contract for the first time in a quarter of a century.