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Fox Business - New home sales hit lowest level since January

Thumbnail of the video “Fox Business - New home sales hit lowest level since January”
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Author: Fox Business
Categories: Real Estate Business
Tags: real-estate, business
Views: 2 · Last viewed: 2026-10-16 14:01 UTC

Short Summary

Main recommendation: The transcript argues that the U.S. housing market's underlying demand is strong, but that high mortgage rates and headline risk are keeping buyers out, so regulatory and rate relief is needed for construction and sales to recover. Major banks such as J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo are committing large sums to housing, which the speaker, National Association of Homebuilders President and CEO Jim Tobin, frames as a sign of confidence in long-term demand.

Key Points

  • New home sales fell 10.5% in July, the lowest level since January, and the average 30-year mortgage rate was above 6.5%.
  • J.P. Morgan Chase plans to deploy more than $750 billion in housing over the next decade, including financing for 1 million affordable homes; Bank of America and Wells Fargo are also investing heavily.
  • Builders have been using price cuts, mortgage rate buydowns, and incentives for roughly eight to nine months to move inventory, with limited effect.
  • Tobin says about $130,000 of the cost of a single-family home is attributable to federal, state, and local regulatory burdens.
  • Tobin argues that millennials are in their prime homebuying years and that real demand exists through the mid-2030s.

Details Worth Noting

  • Concrete instructions: The transcript gives no step-by-step homebuying or building instructions. The only actionable direction is for builders to keep using price cuts and mortgage rate buydowns to move already-built inventory, and for policymakers to keep pulling back regulation to lower construction costs.
  • Tobin says buyers are waiting for a sign that mortgage rates will come down to a predictable, permanent level before they re-enter the market.
  • He points out that many older buyers still expect 3% to 4% mortgages, while he considers rates near 5% to 6% relatively reasonable compared with the post-Great Recession period.
  • The discussion references the Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, which reflects price cuts and incentives but also shows weak buyer traffic this summer.
  • The segment mentions EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin's focus on regulation, though the transcript does not detail specific EPA actions.

Bottom Line

Bank investment and underlying demand suggest a long-term housing recovery, but near-term sales depend on mortgage rates stabilizing and regulatory costs falling.