They've jumped 42% over the last three years, data shows. What are builders doing to bring some relief to the market?

Expanding your company's market reach requires more than just acquiring or merging with other real estate firms. Opt for smart, calculated growth to ensure the health of your business.

Homes & Gardens offers this curated collection showcasing how to select colors for neutral kitchens, noting that the kitchen is "now a multi-purpose room designed as much for living as it is for cooking."

Experts say a supply shortage is the primary cause of increasing real estate costs, though investors have played a role in boosting demand. Investor buying activity has risen in 2022, according to a review of CoreLogic data by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Although some properties have been receiving multiple bids, rising interest rates are changing the landscape and threatening to undo deals home buyers have made with new-home builders. Some buyers with signed contracts are facing trouble obtaining mortgages amid construction delays due to supply and labor shortages.

Increasing interest rates have significantly reduced home buyers' purchasing, according to a Redfin study. "Many house hunters now need to consider smaller homes—perhaps farther from their ideal neighborhood—or stick to renting if they're priced out of the market altogether," says Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin.

Only one in five companies meet the requirements that the association did to win the GBB's highest award.

While some aspiring home buyers are still finding a pathway to ownership in this tough market, NAR CEO Bob Goldberg writes in The American Genius that "becoming a homeowner shouldn't feel like such an extraordinary, exclusive achievement."

NHP Foundation CEO Richard Burns offers advice on how the business community can work with policymakers to advance affordable housing, citing the effectiveness of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. "All of us need to become knowledgeable advocates and raise our voices to address the dire shortage of affordable housing," Burns writes.

Black and Latino households in Massachusetts increased homebuying activity in 2020 with a record number of mortgages received, though this did not translate into geographic diversification. "Our analysis shows a homeownership market in Massachusetts that, while serving more home buyers of color than ever before, is still not closing the wide racial homeownership gap in the Commonwealth," said Carrie Bernstein of the UMass Donahue Institute.