Buyers may be getting more comfortable shopping for homes via video tours. Three out of five home shoppers say they’d be willing to purchase a home after only a virtual tour, according to a new survey of more than 800 home buyers conducted by Rocket Mortgage.

Building material prices, production bottlenecks, and labor shortages will continue to dampen the pace of construction and affect home prices this year, economists told a crowd at the 2022 International Builders’ Show in Orlando.

The Internal Revenue Service says it will no longer require facial recognition software to be used to verify the identities of taxpayers online.

In January, the IRS announced that it was transitioning away from having accounts use just a username and password at IRS.gov for managing personal tax accounts online. Instead, the IRS said that it planned to use the private identity verification company ID.me, requiring users to upload a picture of themselves, to log into their accounts.

Borrowing costs held mostly steady this week, but how long will the reprieve last?

As the economic recovery continues through the spring and summer, mortgage rates are expected to resume their upward trajectory, says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.

But for now, “since mortgage rates are still near historic lows, many people are rushing to benefit from these rates,” Nadia Evangelou, National Association of REALTORS®’ senior economist and director of forecasting, writes on the association’s blog.

Many renters are making moves toward homeownership as quickly rising mortgage rates and rents have them feeling increased pressure.

Average monthly rents climbed more than 14% year over year in December 2021, reaching $1,877.

Economists point to homeownership as a way to stave off inflation and build wealth, The Wall Street Journal reports. But higher rents are making it tougher to save for a down payment to buy a home.

In an effort to tame inflation, the Federal Reserve announced it soon will need to raise its benchmark interest rate—the first time in more than three years. That likely will put pressure on mortgage rates, and even though the Fed’s benchmark rate doesn’t directly affect home borrowing rates, they do often have an impact.

The Fed hinted on Wednesday that a quarter-percentage-point increase is soon coming to its benchmark short-term borrowing rate. This would be the first increase since December 2018.

Home shoppers are showing less willingness to waive appraisals, home inspections, or other contract contingencies during the purchase of a home compared with just a few months ago, according to the December 2021 REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey, a survey of REALTOR® transactions conducted by the National Association of REALTORS®.

Nineteen percent of buyers waived the inspection contract contingency in December, down from a peak of 27% in July 2021, NAR’s survey shows.

“Mortgage rates moved up again as the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose and financial markets adjusted to anticipated changes in monetary policy that will combat inflation,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “As a result of higher mortgage rates, purchase demand has modestly waned in advance of the spring home buying season. However, supply remains near historically tight levels and home prices remain high, keeping the market competitive.”