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Shares of companies linked to New York City real estate fell Wednesday as Zohran Mamdani, a state Assembly member who has vowed to freeze rents, looks all but certain to become the Democratic nominee for mayor.During his campaign ahead of Tuesday's primary, Mamdani called for a progressive agenda that also included cheaper groceries at government-owned stores and making city buses free, to be financed in part by tax increases. Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who conceded Tuesday night, has said Mamdani's plans would spur wealthy residents to leave.READ MORE: Who made housing unaffordable? Survey says…Real estate was the worst-performing sector in the S&P 500 Index on Wednesday and Wall Street analysts pointed to the electoral result for the nation's biggest city as a key reason. "The net of all this — or the concern — is if this agenda would stifle corporate investment, hiring and ultimately drive individuals out of the city," Mizuho analyst Vikram Malhotra wrote in a note to clients Tuesday before polls closed.While many office owners have scaled back exposure to New York City real estate in recent years, office real estate investment trusts weighed on the sector. So did those with a residential focus: Shares of REITs that own multifamily properties in the city sank, including AvalonBay Communities Inc., Equity Residential and UDR Inc. READ MORE: Homeownership stalls after a decade of gainsMamdani's platform could curb demand for office leasing, Malhotra wrote, though he still favors New York City over West Coast investments in that segment. He sees this as a chance to buy shares of New York-based Vornado Realty Trust, which sank more than 6% Wednesday.The primary results won't be official until a ranked-choice runoff on July 1, and Mamdani would still need to win the general election in November. As Alexander Goldfarb at Piper Sandler pointed out, he could adjust his policies in the interim."A lot can change between now and November," the analyst said. "Candidates' positions will change based on voter receptiveness and unions are a big constituent and they like office jobs."But the market reaction Wednesday underscored investors' concerns.New York-based bank Flagstar Financial Inc., a major lender to owners of New York City apartment buildings, slumped almost 4%, the most in about a month."For rent-stabilized landlords around the city who already don't have much, if any, profit margin, I think this will accelerate the pace at which a lot of landlords give up," said Peter Hungerford, founder of PH Realty, a commercial real estate investor that owns rent-stabilized properties in New York City.It could be a source of worry for banks that hold defaulted real estate loans, he said. 

Housing regulator Bill Pulte has instructed the two government-sponsored enterprises he oversees, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to move toward recognizing crypto holdings without requiring conversion when assessing borrowers' ability to repay, a move that could help bring digital currency further into the mainstream.He formally authorized this Wednesday and directed the GSEs to plan for a change following a social media post hinting at it earlier, adding to a broader backing of crypto the Trump administration has been engaged in since day one. Pulte, who has disclosed personal investments in Bitcoin and Solana, directed each of the GSEs "to prepare a proposal for consideration of cryptocurrency as an asset for reserves in their respective single-family risk assessments without conversion of said cryptocurrency."What Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac crypto use could meanA growing number of mortgage fintechs active in this space say if the two influential government-related loan buyers Pulte oversees would allow crypto use, it would be transformative for digital currency use in housing."If Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac begin to recognize crypto holdings within their underwriting framework, it would be a turning point, " said Milo Credit CEO Josip Rupena. "These institutions set the tone for how creditworthiness is defined across the mortgage ecosystem."Currently, Freddie and Fannie require conversion of crypto investments to U.S. dollars before they can be counted for mortgage qualification purposes. Further study could lead to more comfort with treating them like other other types of securities."As an increasingly large number of consumers own cryptocurrencies, it's natural that the agencies would explore using those to qualify for reserves in loans underwriting, similar to how stocks and bonds can count," said Michael Tannenbaum, CEO of Figure, a fintech lender."As blockchain and crypto become more mainstream and used more readily in lending, we are excited about further adoption," he added in an email."Including crypto would open the door for more inclusive lending criteria that reflect how modern investors hold and manage their wealth," Rupena said.Private companies' embrace of cryptoEven without the GSEs' broader acceptance, private companies have increasingly been using both, evidenced by Beeline Title's announcement Wednesday that it had completed a transaction funded through the sale of a crypto token backed by real property.How fast the technologies' use in the mortgage industry will continue to spread will depend on the willingness and ability of companies to devote resources to certain prerequisites."For these models to function at scale, you need a title company that not only understands blockchain transactions — but has the infrastructure to disburse and reconcile them in compliance with federal and state regulations," said Nick Liuzza, CEO of Beeline Holdings, in a press release.Fintech involvement in crypto has sometimes wavered due to regulatory concerns, but recently confidence has increased due to Trump's backing. SoFi announced a return to crypto Wednesday citing the regulatory shift. The company had exited in late 2023 due to regulatory frustrations.Any mortgage entity considering involvement with crypto will be exposed to some market risks as evident in the delisting of more than 1,000 smaller digital currencies since January. That marks the largest drop of this type since a crash in 2022, according to Crypto Presales.Differences in the risks based on the types of currencies could be something Fannie and Freddie examine in their study.When asked about such market risks, Rupena said, "Volatility is real, but it is not unique to crypto. Public equities move. Currencies fluctuate. Real estate cycles rise and fall. What matters is how you manage that risk."At Milo, we evaluate the full financial picture, including loan-to-value, reserves, property quality, and borrower profile. Used thoughtfully, crypto can be a powerful tool for expanding access to home financing without forcing people to liquidate," he added.

Michael Vi - Adobe Stock SoFi Technologies is returning to crypto investing after a two-year hiatus — and the digital bank is also launching cross-border remittance payments in its app as it expands its "one-stop shop" strategy for digital financial services.The digital bank announced on Wednesday that its customers will be able to buy, sell and hold popular cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum through SoFi's website and mobile app. SoFi also anticipates expanding into stablecoins and other types of digital assets.SoFi, which originally started as an online student loan refinancer and has since expanded into a wide range of digital banking products and services, will be officially releasing both its crypto and remittance services later this year for its customers. An exact timeline or release date was not announced by the company."The future of financial services is being completely reinvented through innovations in crypto, digital assets and blockchain more broadly," said SoFi CEO Anthony Noto in a statement. "We're accelerating our efforts to give members more choice and more control, whether they're investing, sending money across borders, or planning for their future. Crypto and blockchain innovations can and will be threaded through each of our businesses and capabilities, including buying, paying, saving, investing, borrowing and protecting."Remittance payments — transactions sent to a foreign country when the sender is located in the U.S. — are a chunk of the global money movement economy that the United States contributes significantly to. The U.S. sent more than $188 billion in remittances abroad in 2021, according to the World Bank. All told, $478 billion in remittances were sent worldwide that year.Remittance payments processing in the U.S. could be subject to the 3.5% remittance tax in President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill if that portion of the bill passes in its current form. SoFi declined a request for comment, but the company's announcement did state that customers would have "full transparency on exchange rates and fees upfront" for remittance payments within the SoFi app.Not SoFi's first crypto rodeoThis isn't the first time SoFi has ventured into cryptocurrency services, as it previously hosted crypto trading on its platform before becoming a bank.SoFi entered cryptocurrency trading in September 2019 as part of its SoFi Invest platform, which provided robo advice and trading in stocks and exchange-traded funds.SoFi was then granted a "bitlicense" by the New York State Department of Financial Services in late 2019, which allowed customers in that state to trade cryptocurrencies through the company's digital assets platform.SoFi buys a bank, but crypto is rockySoFi, which started as a lending fintech called Social Finance in 2011, set its sights higher early on and initially applied for a bank charter back in 2017. Instead of gaining its own charter, however, SoFi followed the path of several other fintechs at the time and bought a community bank in late 2021. Regulators approved the $22.3 million deal to buy Golden Pacific Bank and turn it into SoFi Bank in January 2022 under one main condition: SoFi Bank "shall not engage in any crypto-asset activities" unless it cleared those efforts with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency."This levels the playing field and will ensure that SoFi's deposit and lending activities are conducted safely and soundly, including limiting the bank's ability to engage in crypto-asset activities," then-acting Comptroller Michael Hsu said in a press release at the time.Later that year, the collapse of FTX set regulators on edge. Members of the Senate Banking Committee expressed concerns in a series of letters to SoFi and banking regulators about whether SoFi's crypto activities were appropriate for the bank in November 2022. According to the senators, the digital bank had two years as of January 2022 to divest from SoFi Digital Assets or see that the subsidiary's impermissible digital-asset activities are in compliance with the law.SoFi discontinues cryptoIn November 2023, SoFi announced that it would be discontinuing crypto services by the end of the year and no new crypto accounts would be set up.Existing customers had the option to either liquidate their crypto holdings or migrate them to Blockchain.com, with transaction fees waived for both options. Any crypto holdings left unsold on SoFi would be automatically liquidated to close the accounts, with the funds deposited back into customer brokerage accounts."At SoFi, our mission has always been clear: to help you get your money right," the company said in a statement at the time. "However, sometimes this means making changes to our business … we're here to make the migration as seamless as possible while continuing to offer members access to all investment opportunities."Regulation becomes more crypto-friendlyAfter the November 2024 election, things started looking up in the fintech world — especially for crypto investments.Noto said in a January 2025 earnings call that "as the regulation changes, we will be incredibly aggressively tied to crypto and be in as many businesses as we can be across the entire platform. Previously we were just doing trading — you can see us going well beyond that, depending on the regulation. ... We hope the administration and the regulators come up with clarity on what the outlook will be, but we'll move as aggressively as anyone else once that is determined."Letters 1183 and 1184 issued by the OCC in March and May 2025 now permit nationally chartered banks to provide crypto custody and execution services on behalf of their customers.The GENIUS Act, a bill regarding stablecoin regulation, also passed in the Senate last week. Next, it will go to the House and if it passes there, onto President Trump for his signature.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced plans to relocate from its longtime headquarters located in the nation's capital to Alexandria, Virginia.Such a move had also been the subject of rumors since early in the second Trump administration, as its Department of Government Efficiency set out to target examples of what it classified as "waste, fraud and abuse." Officials cited the age of the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, pointing to claims of various hazards, leaks and structural deficiencies found on the property as reasons behind their decision."For too long, the Weaver building has struggled with aging infrastructure and ongoing maintenance issues that continue to burden the American taxpayer," said Michael Peters, commissioner of the General Services Administration's division overseeing its public properties.The move would save U.S. taxpayers over $500 million in deferred maintenance, as well as $56 million in annual operating costs, GSA said. "HUD will be the first major agency headquarter relocation in the Trump administration's effort to right-size our federal real estate portfolio," Peters added. Employees will move on a staggered schedule to its new location in Alexandria, Virginia, which currently houses offices of the National Science Foundation. NSF, another independent federal agency, will be displaced by the move. HUD began operating out of the Weaver building upon completion of construction in 1968. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places."Relocating is about more than just changing buildings; it's about a mission-minded shift that we hope will inspire every employee," said HUD Secretary Scott Turner in a press release. HUD's current headquarters had been included on a list of federal properties targeted by President Trump to potentially vacate, with the offices deemed "not core to government operations." Also on the initial list published weeks after he took office were the FBI's head offices and the building housing the Department of Justice. Cost-cutting measures proposed by Elon Musk-led DOGE had previously led the government to terminate the leases of some HUD field offices as well as regional locations of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Housing Service. 

Mortgage rates rose slightly last week, but refinancing demand continued to drive a modest uptick in overall applications, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage ticked up 4 basis points last week to 6.88%, the MBA said. This was a bounce back from the week before when the MBA survey recorded rates dropping nine basis points week-over-week."The combination of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, current economic conditions, and last week's FOMC meeting resulted in slightly lower Treasury rates on average. However, mortgage rates still edged higher but remained in the same narrow range," said Joel Kan, MBA's vice president and deputy chief economist, in a press release.Mortgage rates have fluctuated within a 20 basis point range since mid-April, moving between 6.81% and 6.98%. High rates have created a lock-in effect, with many Americans unwilling to move because they would lose low rate they have with their current mortgage. This, along with rising home costs, have contributed to a home affordability crisis in many areas of the country.Total mortgage applications were up 1.1% for the week, buoyed mostly by interest in refinancing. Applications for refinancing rose 3% for the week, making up 38.4% of all applications. This was also 29% higher than the same time last year. Purchase applications, meanwhile, dipped 0.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis. Conventional loans made up only 68.5% of all loan applications, a drop from two weeks ago when they made up almost 70% of all applications. Instead, data showed buyers and homeowners continuing to turn towards government-backed mortgages, particularly FHA loans, which accounted for 19.3% of all loans last week. The average 30-year rate for these loans ticked up two basis points to 6.59%.VA loans fell slightly to 11.7% of all applications, down from 12.1% the week before, while USDA loans decreased to 0.5%.Buyers hoping for an adjustable rate mortgage were left paying slightly more than the week before, with rates for those mortgages rising 6 basis points to 6.16%. These mortgages made up 6.9% of total applications.

Kevin Wall, co-president of First American Title Insurance Co., has abruptly exited his role from the largest individual underwriter in the nation, the company confirmed.His departure was first reported by Inside Mortgage Finance. Wall also headed up the company's Agent/Lender Group, which consists of the Agency, Mortgage Solutions, Docutech, First American India, Servicemac and Firstfunding businesses, his LinkedIn profile noted."Kevin Wall has departed the company. First American is grateful for his many contributions over the years and wishes him all the best in his next chapter," a statement from the company said.First American did not provide a reason for the change. Sally Tyler, who heads up the Direct Title Group, is the other co-president.In 2013, Wall was hired as the president of First American Mortgage Services, coming to the company from the Solutionstar unit of what was then-called Nationstar (now Mr. Cooper).His LinkedIn profile states that at that time he was also executive vice president of FATIC. He became an EVP and group president of FATIC in 2021.Wall also has been a senior vice president of business and information services at Corelogic (recently rebranded as Cotality) and held marketing, business line operations, and portfolio management and retention positions at Norwest Financial, Wells Fargo Financial, Centex Home Equity, Saxon Mortgage and Morgan Stanley.FATIC had a 22.2% market share of title premiums written in 2024, according to American Land Title Association data, with Old Republic Title and Fidelity National Financial next at 14.3%. (Because FNF also operates the No. 4 and No. 7 most prolific underwriters, it is the largest title holding company).Wall's departure comes just two months after the CEO of First American Corp., Kenneth DeGiorgio, was fired following his arrest in an incident where he allegedly choked a man on a cruise ship.Mark Seaton, who had been chief financial officer, was named as the new CEO at the parent company.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.Bloomberg News WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that the central bank will consider a Basel III endgame proposal — in addition to the nascent leverage ratio proposal being unveiled later in the day — as part of bank regulators' deregulation push during the Trump administration. Powell, speaking before the Senate Banking Committee on the second day of his statutorily required biannual appearances in front of Congress, fielded questions from lawmakers on inflation and tariffs, but also gave more details on the Fed's bank regulation priorities. "We're looking at basically two big pieces now: Basel III and the leverage ratio," Powell said. "I'm pretty confident we'll move on both of those in the relatively near future." Powell said that the previous Basel III endgame proposal, put forward by regulators during the Biden administration, set minimum capital requirements "well above" the international standard. "I would agree we're going to take a fresh start at that," he said. Powell's comments come just before the Fed is set to meet on Wednesday to advance a proposal that would reduce the supplemental leverage ratio for the largest banks. Republicans applauded the planned meeting, while the Senate Banking Committee's ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., criticized the move. "Today, you will leave this hearing and go directly to a meeting where the Fed is expected to vote to lower capital requirements for JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, any of the other "too big to fail" banks," she said. "At a time when the economic data are flashing red, these shortsighted changes will increase the likelihood that these megabanks once again tank the economy and come back here, begging Congress for bailouts when they're risky bets go bust." Powell said that the proposal "would not in any way diminish the safety and soundness of the banking system." "The idea behind it is that we want risk based capital to be the binding capital requirement, because we want … banks [to] be sensitive to the risks that they're taking," Powell said. "If leverage ratio is not risk sensitive, it treats every asset as equally risky. So if that's binding, then that interferes with banks' incentives to manage the risks, and actually discourages banks from taking on relatively low-risk activity." At the same time, Powell threw cold water on a proposal from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, that would end the Fed's authority to pay interest to banks. The proposal hasn't gotten any other support and isn't likely to be passed by the Senate, and Powell's comments will likely further stall the bill. "There's an illusion that it would save money, that is not the case," Powell said. He said that the proposal would threaten the Fed's ability to control short-term interest rates and the central bank's so-called "ample reserves" monetary policy regime. "If you want to go back to scarce reserves, it would be a long and bumpy and volatile road," he said. "I wouldn't recommend that we take that road. Having a lot of liquidity which is what goes with ample reserves, means banks are able to continue to lend."

In the nearly five years since they were first proposed, only 11 states have fully adopted the Conference of State Bank Supervisors' prudential standards for nonbank mortgage servicers.Yet because of multistate examinations, these rules apply to 99% of nondepository mortgage servicers.The standards first went out for comment in October 2020, with 17 organizations making submissions by the end of the comment period."The prudential standards in the model framework as well as the individual state adoption to date applies to all investor types —  there are no exemptions to coverage by investor," explained Kevin Byers, CSBS, senior director of nonbank supervision and enforcement.Even with that small number, because of multistate examinations, 99% of the nonbank market is covered under this regulatory formation, Byers added."It's important to remember that states can adopt this framework through a variety of ways —  legislation, regulation, guidance or exam procedures," Byers continued. "It gives them the ability to accept and leverage each other's work."If anything, roughly double the number of states required have already adopted this framework to have "this fulsome market coverage," Byers explained.Those that have fully put this on their books are: Connecticut, Maryland, Georgia, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Colorado and Nevada.Oregon and Washington have partially enacted the CSBS standards, according to a map on its website.North Carolina is in process of adopting these, while New York has comparable standards.New York's new law applies to servicersOn June 18, New York also implemented a broader piece of legislation, the Fostering Affordability and Integrity Through Reasonable Business Practices Act, with Attorney General Letitia James specifically mentioning mortgage servicers."Too many New Yorkers are being taken advantage of by mortgage servicers charging unnecessary high fees, debt collectors stealing Social Security benefits, and health insurance companies with unfair billing practices," James commented in a press release. "The FAIR Business Practices Act will close loopholes that make it easy for New Yorkers to be cheated out of their time and hard-earned money," she added. The new law would keep mortgage servicers, along with auto lenders and student loan servicers, from "deceptively steering people into higher cost loans," the AG press release said.The impetus for the standards was the shift in servicing activities to nonbanks from depositories.The changing role of federal oversightThe changed regulatory environment at the federal level has some states, like New York in its the recent initiative, push harder for consumer protections across financial services."Numerous states have indicated their existing statutes allow for the prudential standards framework without new legislation and are implementing exam procedures only, and additional states have indicated a desire to pursue a legislative approach," said Byers."While we always welcome more state adoption, given the nationwide nature of financial condition and corporate governance requirements in the prudential standards framework, ensuring a networked approach to supervision is a critical operational component to ensuring broader coverage of the standards themselves."

In testimony to the House Financial Services Committee today, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said they haven’t cut rates this year because of the tariffs.And if there wasn’t the looming threat of inflation due to the tariffs, the data would say to keep cutting, as the Fed did in 2024.They cut the fed funds rate three times last year, including a 50-basis point cut in September, followed by a 25-bp cut in both November and December.Then they stopped cutting as President Trump came into office and shortly after announced sweeping global tariffs.Many expect those tariffs to result in some level of inflation, which makes it difficult for the Fed to continue cutting. That could also be why mortgage rates are having a tough time coming down too.The Tariffs Are Expected to Be Inflationary, One Way or AnotherWhile there’s been plenty of debate about tariffs since the start of the year, most expect them to be inflationary.And if you to speak to anyone who operates a small business, which relies to some extent on imports, they’ll tell you prices are going to rise.It’s pretty straightforward. If it costs companies more money to bring products into the United States, the price must go up for consumers.But the importer won’t foot the entire bill, nor will the retailer, or the consumer for that matter.It’ll be split up to some degree to lessen the blow, but even with a friendly arrangement of cost splitting, it still results in higher prices, aka inflation.The big question is how bad it’ll be.Powell said, “The effects on inflation could be short lived—reflecting a one-time shift in the price level. It is also possible that the inflationary effects could instead be more persistent.”In other words, it could be “transitory” or it could be lasting inflation, the latter of which would be an issue for the Fed.Either way, it means the Fed can’t keep cutting because they don’t yet know how it will affect consumer prices.In response to a question from one of the lawmakers about it being appropriate to cut again now, Powell again brought up the tariffs.“If you just look at the basic data and don’t look at the forecast, you would say that we would’ve continued cutting. The difference, of course, is at this time all forecasters are expecting pretty soon that some significant inflation will show up from tariffs. And we can’t just ignore that.”Would Mortgage Rates Be Lower without the Tariffs Too?So what about mortgage rates. Would they be lower if not for the tariffs?The answer is most likely yes, despite the Fed not setting consumer mortgage rates. The Fed merely adjusts short-term rates via its fed funds rate.However, their overall policy stance typically has a direction, e.g. cutting or hiking, and if they’re cutting, chances are bond yields are coming down too.It’s not a direct correlation, like the prime rate, which dictates HELOC rates and goes up or down whenever the Fed hikes or cuts.But if there’s the expectation the Fed is going to continue cutting, and such cutting is warranted by economic data (and outlook), bond yields could well front run those cuts.This is basically what happened in 2024 when mortgage rates fell to nearly 6% in September, before rising after the Fed cut.My logic was the cuts were baked in (since mortgage rates came down from as high as 8%), so it was a little bit of sell the news.And a hot jobs report surfaced shortly after too, followed by Trump winning the election.All those events led to higher mortgage rates post-Fed rate cut.But assuming those tariffs (and trade war) never happened, we could have had a lower 30-year fixed mortgage rate today.And perhaps more importantly, could have had a lower 30-year fixed rate for all of the key spring home buying season.Instead, mortgage rates rose above 7% several times, likely causing a lot of would-be home buyers to put their property search on hold.The general uncertainty of the tariffs and trade war may have also led to lower home sales volume as well, even if it wasn’t technically unaffordable to buy with mortgage rates at 7% versus say 6.5%. Before creating this site, I worked as an account executive for a wholesale mortgage lender in Los Angeles. My hands-on experience in the early 2000s inspired me to begin writing about mortgages 19 years ago to help prospective (and existing) home buyers better navigate the home loan process. Follow me on X for hot takes.Latest posts by Colin Robertson (see all)

US purchases of new homes fell in May by the most in almost three years as rampant sales incentives fell short of alleviating affordability constraints.Sales of new single-family homes decreased 13.7% to a 623,000 annualized rate last month, a seven-month low, according to government data released Wednesday. That was below all estimates in a Bloomberg survey.READ MORE: Homeownership stalls after a decade of gainsThe latest results show homebuilders are sitting on rising inventories amid mounting economic challenges, including mortgage rates stuck near 7%, higher materials costs due to tariffs and a slowing labor market. While builders are offering subsidies to reduce customers' financing costs, the concessions are yielding diminishing returns and encouraging many builders to slow construction."This spring and summer are shaping up to be very tough for the real estate market," said Heather Long, chief economist for Navy Federal Credit Union. "Buyers are staying on the sidelines as they worry about uncertainty and high mortgage rates."The home sales report showed a slight increase in the number of new houses for sale in May, to the highest level since 2007. That represented 9.8 months of supply at the current sales rate. The number of completed homes for sale rose to 119,000, an almost 16-year high.READ MORE: How to guide military PCS clients through home financingThe median sales price increased 3% from a year ago to $426,600 last month, marking the first year-over-year price gain in 2025. More limited inventory in the resale market has allowed prices to steadily rise there on an annual basis since mid-2023.Sales last month in the South, the biggest US homebuilding region, slumped 21%, the most in nearly 12 years. Contract signings in the West and Midwest also fell, while they rose in the Northeast.With increasingly bloated inventories and sagging sales, ground-breaking on single-family homes last month remained sluggish, according to figures out last week. Economists forecast residential investment will remain a soft spot for the economy in coming quarters.Confidence among homebuilders stands at the lowest level since December 2022, while at the same time an increasing supply of previously owned homes emerges as an additional threat to builders, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Drew Reading said in a recent note.READ MORE: Mortgage pros share tips for riding out volatilityBuilder Lennar Corp. has indicated a willingness to lower home prices and accept smaller margins by maintaining its volume of construction in order to preserve market share.New-home sales are seen as a more timely measurement than purchases of existing homes, which are calculated when contracts close. However, the data are volatile. The government report showed 90% confidence that the change in new-home sales ranged from a 26.8% decline to a 0.6% decline.