Uncertainty over the Federal Reserve’s next moves is disrupting the housing sector and threatening to send the U.S. economy into a tailspin, three prominent real estate industry trade groups warned in a letter Monday.

The joint letter from the Mortgage Bankers Association, National Association of Realtors and National Association of Home Builders urged Fed policymakers to promise they’re done hiking rates and have no plans to sell trillions of dollars of mortgage bonds that the central bank bought during the pandemic. It echoes concerns voiced on national television last week by MBA CEO Bob Broeksmit.

In a CNBC appearance Wednesday, Broeksmit urged Fed policymakers to “be clear that they’re done with rate increases” and to also “make clear that they’re not going to sell mortgage-backed securities off their balance sheets.”

In an attempt to keep the economy from crashing during the pandemic, the Fed not only brought short-term interest rates down to nearly 0 percent but bought trillions of long-term Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) to bring interest rates down and encourage borrowing.

Mortgage rates dropped to historic lows until the Fed began tightening last year — not only by raising short-term interest rates but by trimming its massive holdings of government bonds and MBS.

So far, the Fed hasn’t sold any of those assets — it’s just allowing up to $60 billion in maturing Treasurys and $35 billion in MBS to roll off its books each month without replacing them.

But the fear that the Fed will actually sell MBS in the open market has widened the “spread” between 10-year Treasurys and mortgage rates, meaning mortgage rates are even higher than they should be, Broeksmit told CNBC.

Now NAR and NAHB have joined with the MBA in voicing those concerns, in writing, to Fed leaders.

“The difference between the current spread and the long-run average indicates mortgage rates for homebuyers across the country that are at least 120 basis points higher than they otherwise would be,” the trade groups said. “In other words, the uncertainty-induced mortgage-to-Treasury spread is costing today’s homebuyers an extra $245 in monthly payment on a standard $300,000 mortgage. Further rate increases and a persistently wide spread pose broader risks to economic growth, heightening the likelihood and magnitude of a recession.”

A spokesperson for the Federal Reserve declined to comment on the letter.

Most Fed policymakers signaled last month that they think the Fed will need to raise short-term interest rates at least one more time this year, and several — including Powell — have said they expect the Fed will have to pursue a “higher for longer” rate strategy to keep inflation in check.

Historically, Fed leaders have said that in trying to achieve the central bank’s dual mandate of fostering maximum employment while keeping inflation at bay, they make decisions based on the data that’s available to them.

But in a message to MBA members last week following his CNBC appearance, Broeksmit suggested that the group does have the ear of Fed policymakers.

“We are in regular conversation with senior leadership at the Fed and share real-time market color on both residential and commercial lending,” Broeksmit said in an email to members. “The state of the housing and real estate finance markets is key to the Fed’s overall outlook for the economy, and they constantly seek such market color from us. One thing we have gathered from this ongoing engagement is that they are keenly aware of how difficult housing market conditions are.”

Broeksmit also explained that, in his view, “Fed policy alone is not responsible for the recent rate instability,” saying Congress “must take steps to restore budget discipline and effective policymaking.”

The most recent rate spikes “started when Fitch downgraded the U.S. credit rating following the debt limit crisis and continued with the increase in Treasury issuance needed to cover growing deficits,” Broeksmit wrote. “Ongoing gridlock on Capitol Hill, including a ‘near miss’ government shutdown last week, continues to be a concern for financial markets, further driving up the price of government debt.”

The MBA, he said, “will continue to urge policymakers to stop the shutdown threats and come together to address budget and spending priorities that restore fiscal discipline.”

Artificial intelligence has changed the game, and though AI will never replace the need for professional agents, professional agents who effectively use AI could replace the need for those who don’t. This article shares five tools and strategies agents can utilize right now to help generate more business.

1. Captions app for talking videos

This app utilizes A.I. to enhance video production at an unprecedented level. The original function of this app was to create word-by-word captions, synchronized with your voice. It still creates captions but the use of AI to edit and enhance video production has grown exponentially.

The app has an edit feature that can add jump cuts, stock images, emphasis captions, emojis, and more details to make your videos easier to watch. This feature allows you to shoot a simple talking video on your phone that will look like a professionally edited video in seconds.

If you have trouble looking into the camera or want to read a script, it’s difficult to create a connection with the viewer. The Captions app has a feature that solves this issue. The AI Eye Contact feature utilizes AI to correct your eye contact and make it appear as if you’re looking directly at the camera.

The app also has an Autodub feature that can translate your exact voice into 26 different languages. Not only does the AI put your voice in the other language, but it also syncs your lips so they are moving in alignment with how they would move speaking in that language.

These are amazing features, but without proper distribution of videos, it’s difficult to deepen existing relationships or expand your reach to new prospective clients. Captions simplifies this process by providing AI-generated video titles, descriptions and hashtags. This simplifies the process that often slows agents down when looking to grow their audience.

If you’re looking to take your video production, editing and distribution to an elevated level, Captions is a must.

2. Realtors Property Resource (RPR) AI market update presentations

RPR is available to all Realtors, and it has historically been a great resource for local current market trends and statistics, even down to specific neighborhoods. The charts and market details provided by RPR have always been helpful, but with the addition of AI capabilities, the value and ability for agents to utilize RPR to serve their prospects at a higher level has increased dramatically.

We all know we should update our clients and provide detailed updates on market trends and statistics. The problem has been gathering the information, formatting it in a way that prospects would find valuable, and then distributing it out via video, on social media platforms, or in written word via blog posts or LinkedIn articles. RPR has solved that problem with the addition of AI scripting.

If you aren’t familiar with RPR it can be found at www.narrpr.com, and it’s available to all Realtors. From the main page, click on the research dropdown box. Click on either the residential market trends tab or the neighborhood search tab.

After choosing the city, ZIP code, or neighborhood to generate market trends and clicking on the search button, RPR provides details and charts on the current market trends.

To harness the new AI features, click on the tab on the right side at the top of the page that says “Create Script.”

This takes you to the page where the A.I. features are available. The options include a tab that says, “Choose Tone.” This gives you the ability to choose the tone of the A.I. generated content. The choices include professional, engaging, or conversational.

The other tab allows you to “Choose Audience.” This tab gives you the ability to generate content focused on providing value to buyers, sellers, or both.

The next set of options asks: “What would you like to do?”

1. The first option is a “Video Script.” By choosing this tab, the RPR AI feature will generate a video script for you that provides all the market trends and data in a format you can quickly read on camera to distribute to your clients and prospects. If you’re worried about reading the script and not making eye contact with the camera, see the Captions app AI eye contact feature mentioned above, and your problem is solved.
2. The next option is a “Social Campaign.” By choosing this option, RPR AI will convert the market trends and data into a social media post complete with emojis and relevant hashtags. With a few clicks, you have a complete market overview with the most current market trends and statistics ready to post.
3. The last option is “Analyze Metrics.” This provides a more detailed, written explanation of the trends and data. We have been taking this analysis and dropping it into ChatGPT and asking it to convert it into an email for a market update, a 600-word, SEO-optimized blog post or to convert it into a 600-word, SEO-optimized LinkedIn post. With just a few clicks this has solved what took us hours to accomplish in the past.

3. ChatGPT 3.5 free version

ChatGPT has revolutionized the real estate business, and it is just getting started. The free version offers a number of uses that are amazing for the agent looking to begin utilizing this outstanding tool.

We’ve seen agents use it to create efficiencies and systems, optimize social media posts, and market themselves and their businesses at a higher level than ever possible.

The only limitation ChatGPT has is the user’s ability to prompt the system with exactly what is desired.

If you’re looking for prompts you can apply that will immediately impact your business, check out this article that provides 40 game-changing ChatGPT prompts ever agent should be using.

4. ChatGPT 4 paid version

The enhanced paid version of ChatGPT currently costs $20 per month. There are a number of reasons this version is so much more powerful, but for this article, I want to speak specifically about the expanded text capacity and how this helps agents.

The larger text capacity enables you to engage in more in-depth and extended conversation. It offers the ability for ChatGPT-4 to remember and utilize a conversation history allowing it to provide more accurate responses.

This means the AI can understand who you are longer and offer more specific assistance. Andy Beal, an agent with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Beach Properties of Florida serving the 30A coastal market, shared the following prompt and process he utilized with this advanced version in his business:

You are my Instagram GPT. You will help me draft captivating Instagram captions for my posts. I will be posting reels, carousel content, and pictures. The captions should be between 138 and 150 characters, have line breaks, emojis, and include a call to action at the end. Please ask a series of questions to better understand me and my business to complete this task to the best of your ability.

ChatGPT then asked a series of questions to understand his business and who his ideal client is.

Once completed, ChatGPT-4 provided a summary of his business. For the version to remember who he is and to respond to future prompts based on the understanding of who he is, there are a few additional steps he needed to complete.

ChatGPT-4 has a custom instructions tab that allows it to respond based on the custom instructions you provide. The problem is the summary of his business was longer than the allowed number of characters in the custom instructions tab. This led him to provide the following prompt to ChatGPT-4 after his summary was provided. 

Now that we’ve established this, rewrite this in a condensed version that I can apply to custom instructions so for future conversations you’ll have this information as a background.

He then copied the condensed version, clicked on the tab at the bottom left-hand side of the webpage that has his photo and email address. This opened up to additional tabs including the custom instructions tab that he clicked on to be able to paste his condensed version from ChatGPT-4 into the provided area.

This is now the basis for any interactions he has in ChatGPT-4 providing more personalized and more professional answers to any prompts he provides.

The paid version has many upgrades that will enhance your ability to leverage the power of AI, but following this one suggestion alone will make the monthly fee worthwhile.

5. Vidyo.ai for repurposing content

Vidyo.ai is an app that utilizes AI to turn long videos into multiple short, social-ready clips that are cut and captioned. Many agents will say, “But I don’t produce long-form video content.” However, many overlook the video home tours they have created.

Imagine taking your longer home tour video and dropping it in Vidyo.ai, and in just a few seconds, that home tour is broken into multiple pieces of short-form content highlighting the kitchen, the outdoor space or the living room.

Vidyo.ai gives you the capability to compound your content turning one video into multiple post-worthy, short-form, social media video clips. This is a powerful tool for the agent looking to expand their content creation utilizing AI.

The future is here and AI is the vehicle. Take advantage of the business growth opportunities this technology is providing, and your business will begin to separate itself from your competition.

Jimmy Burgess is the CEO for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Beach Properties of Florida in Northwest Florida. Connect with him on Instagram and LinkedIn.

U.S. single-family rents grew by 3.3% year over year in June, the lowest gain since autumn 2020, according to a new report from property data provider CoreLogic. Meanwhile, monthly rent growth was 1.1%, nearly identical to June’s pre-pandemic average of 1%.

Corelogic’s Single-Family Rent Index (SFRI) analyzes single-family rent price changes nationally and across major metropolitan areas.  

“Annual single-family rent growth has returned to its long-term, pre-pandemic rate,” Molly Boesel, principal economist at CoreLogic, said in a statement. “But increases for attached properties were one-and-a-half times that of detached properties in June; this is historically not the case, as both housing types tend to rise at the same pace.”

While rent growth for attached properties trended under that of detached properties in 2020 and 2021, it has surpassed the latter in 2022 and 2023, Boesel said. For attached properties, rent growth was 4% year over year in June, while it was 2.6% for detached homes in the same period, CoreLogic shows.

“Rent growth for attached homes is projected to continue to exceed that of detached properties as the market balances,” Boesel said.

The rent growth slowdown scored consistently across all four tracked price tiers. All categories showed a 10 percentage points decrease since June 2022.

However, lower-cost rentals seem to be rising faster because of the strong demand for such housing. Properties that cost 75% of the regional median price were up 4.9% year over year in June, while rent for homes that cost 125% or more of the median was up 2.3%.

For a breakdown by region, Chicago posted the highest year-over-year increase in single-family rents in June 2023, at 6.6%. Boston came in second at 5.9%, followed by Orlando at 5.5%. Las Vegas, on the other hand, saw an annual rent price decline of -1.2%.