CBS News
One first-time homebuyer has searched for 3 years for a house amid real estate “perfect storm”
Shruti Chauhan, 45, knows all too well how brutal the real estate market can be for a first-time homebuyer — she’s been searching for her first house for almost three years, putting up to three hours a day into the hunt and making over 30 bids.
“Go home, crunch the numbers, whether this is the right fit or not, both in terms of finances and whether you see yourself there,” Chauhan, a consultant who lives in New Jersey, told CBS News.
Still, this isn’t where Chauhan expected to be when she first embarked on her search for a home — without a house after years of fruitless hunting. She offered $50,000 over asking price for one home, but lost out when another bidder offered $5,000 more. She had one offer accepted, only for the house to fail inspection.
“I always thought that, yes, there will be a time where I’ll get a home. Never happened,” she said.
Chauhan exemplifies the often demoralizing financial and other challenges confronting many first-time homebuyers, who are facing not only record home prices but also mortgage rates that are still more than double their pandemic-era lows. Many people trying to put their foot on the property ladder also find themselves bidding against current homeowners who have equity in their properties, giving them more financial power to outbid competitors.
As a result, first-time homebuyers now make up just 32% of purchasers, down from almost 50% of the market in 2009 and near a historic low.
It’s “the perfect storm, which, of course, is affecting the first-time homebuyer the absolute worst,” said Stacy Esser, the founder of SEG Realty.
How would a Fed rate cut impact mortgage rates?
Homebuyers recently have gotten some relief on borrowing costs, with the average interest rate on a conventional 30-year mortgage sliding to 6.29% earlier this month. That marks the lowest level since February 2023, as lenders ratchet their rates lower ahead of an expected Federal Reserve rate cut starting on September 18 in what experts say is likely to be a series of moves to ease borrowing costs.
By May 2025, the Fed’s benchmark rate could be as low as 3%, according to economists polled by FactSet.
Yet there’s a very real downside to lower rates, said Esser of SEG Realty.
“It’s going to add another level of hardship onto the first-time homebuyer because what’ll happen is more people will jump back in, so you’re going to see more competition, and more competition means prices are going to rise,” she said.
While it can be emotionally draining to strike out on buying your first home, it’s important to keep one’s financial goals in perspective, CBS News business analyst Jill Schlesinger advises.
“There is a psychic benefit that people have from owning a home, and I understand that, but it never makes sense for you to buy a house and not be able to fund your own retirement,” Schlesinger said. “Try not to make this the most important thing, my forever home. These are things that can really be emotional traps.”
There are also some benefits to renting, Schlesinger added. For one, renting may provide more financial flexibility, since it means you don’t have to pay for the upkeep of a home and other costs. And that could help free up some money to invest in your 401(k).
As for Chauhan, she said she hasn’t given up on finding her dream home.
“Yes, this is the year,” she said.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
CBS News
Sean “Diddy” Combs at same Brooklyn detention center that held R. Kelly, Sam Bankman-Fried, other high-profile inmates
A second judge refused to grant bail to Sean “Diddy” Combs on Wednesday and he could remain in federal custody at a Brooklyn detention center until his trial for sex trafficking charges. Combs joins other high-profile inmates, such as singer R. Kelly, fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, rapper Ja Rule —even Al Sharpton served a brief stint— who were held at the same federal detention center.
Notorious for its horrible conditions —inmates won a $10 million class action settlement after enduring frigid conditions during an 8-day blackout in 2019— the waterfront industrial complex, MDC Brooklyn, houses 1,200 inmates.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images
Violence and corruption have long plagued the facility; U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown of the Eastern District of New York wrote the detention center had “dangerous, barbaric conditions” in a recent sentencing opinion. Two inmates were stabbed to death in recent months and several correction officers have been convicted for smuggling contraband and accepting bribes.
Combs joins a list of high-profile personalities that have landed at the MDC Brooklyn, partly because the city’s other federal detention center, MDC New York, closed in 2021, also due to horrible conditions. The disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in his cell there in 2019. “Numerous and serious” instances of misconduct among corrections staff gave Epstein the opportunity to kill himself, a subsequent federal watchdog investigation found.
Kelly sued the federal detention center in 2022 for wrongly putting him on suicide watch after his sentencing. Kelly sought $100 million because he said the detention center knew he wasn’t suicidal after he was convicted in 2021 for racketeering and violating the Mann Act, which bars transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former crypto billionaire Bankman-Fried survived on bread, water and sometimes peanut butter when he was in the MDC Brooklyn, his attorney said, because the detention center continued to serve him a “flesh diet” despite requests for vegan dishes.
Ja Rule stayed at the MDC Brooklyn for a brief time before being released after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal gun possession. Most of his prison time was spent in a state prison in New York.
Sharpton served a 90-day sentence in 2001 and went on a hunger strike for protesting the U.S. Navy bombing of the island of Vieques, in Puerto Rico.
Combs was taken into custody on Monday and according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.
His attorney Marc Agnifilo told CBS News, “It’s impossible to prepare for a trial from where he is,” after a first federal judge denied Combs bail on Tuesday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky agreed with prosecutors who argued the hip-hop mogul, who is accused of using his business empire as a criminal enterprise to conceal his alleged abuse of women, is a flight risk and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.
Agnifilo said the part of the detention center where Combs is being held is “a very difficult place to be.”
contributed to this report.
