realtor.com

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose to 6.52% for the week ending June 11, up from 6.48% the prior week, as a strong jobs report and inflation hitting a three-year high of 4.2% pushed the odds of a Fed rate cut this year to near zero.

Lawrence Nourzad, 32, paid $487,000 for a three-bedroom home at Wolf Ranch, a development north of Austin built by Icon and Lennar that is the largest 3D-printed home community in the world. He closed on a 1,977-square-foot model earlier this year with a monthly payment of about $2,300, after a builder rate buy-down, less than he had budgeted for an Austin apartment. He says thick concrete walls keep energy bills low, artwork hangs easily with masonry screws, and the structure feels reassuring in the event of severe weather. Get the full story at link in bio.

Fashion designer Michael Kors has listed his beachfront Fire Island compound in Water Island for $6.25 million, according to MSN. The five-bedroom, 5.5-bathroom retreat sits on two adjacent lots totaling 10,000 square feet in one of Fire Island's most secluded communities, with just 48 homes and 200 feet of Atlantic Ocean frontage. Designed by Scott Bromley of Bromley Caldari Architects, the compound features a one-bedroom, 2,100-square-foot main house and a four-bedroom, 1,500-square-foot guesthouse connected by a stone path, with the guesthouse featuring a pool, outdoor kitchen, and bar. Kors and his husband, Lance Le Pere, purchased the property for $950,000 more than a decade ago. See the full listing at link in bio.

SpaceX is set to debut on the Nasdaq Friday under the ticker SPCX, targeting a $135 share price and a valuation of nearly $1.8 trillion in what could be the largest IPO in Wall Street history. The offering is expected to create roughly 4,000 millionaires among SpaceX employees who hold stock options, and real estate agents in Brownsville, TX, near the company's Starbase headquarters, are already preparing for the impact. The Brownsville market has a median listing price of $290,000, and only 4.1% of active listings are priced above $1 million, meaning even modest demand from newly wealthy employees could move luxury prices quickly, according to @realtordotcom senior economist Hannah Jones. SpaceX's presence has already transformed the area since 2021, with land values surging and out-of-state buyers flooding the market sight unseen. Read more at link in bio.

Tamara King, 56, of Washington state was sentenced to 55 months in federal prison on May 15 after a jury convicted her of wire fraud, money laundering, and tax fraud for stealing $2.4 million from 22 real estate investors. King and her then-husband Paul Waln solicited investments in a fake real estate fund called Halcyon between 2009 and 2013, promising a 20% annual return. Instead, prosecutors say King used the money to buy a $121,950 customized Tesla, a $49,300 diamond ring, and pay off nearly $190,000 in personal tax debt. A federal judge called it "pure greed," saying King was "the primary instigator of this fraud." Waln was separately sentenced to 33 months after pleading guilty to wire fraud conspiracy. Full story at link in bio.

A 51,000-square-foot Connecticut estate once owned by Mike Tyson and 50 Cent, featuring a nightclub, casino, cigar lounge, and seven kitchens, is listed for $9.9 million in Farmington, CT. Full story at link in bio.

Anola Johnson, a 67-year-old Utah travel specialist with $300,000 in retirement savings and a nearly paid-off home, lost roughly $850,000 to a romance scammer she met on LinkedIn in 2023. The scammer, posing as a Spanish oil rig engineer named Pedro, spent months sending daily messages of affection before steering Johnson into fake cryptocurrency investments, fraudulent wire transfers, and ultimately a $350,000 home equity loan she took out under the pretense of home improvements. By the time a law enforcement agent called to tell her a package she had mailed to Texas was being diverted to Nigeria, Johnson had drained her retirement accounts, maxed out credit cards, and mortgaged her home. Her monthly house payments jumped from $1,000 to $2,700, and her home won't be paid off until she is 97. She now hosts a podcast called Romance Scam Rebellion to warn others. Full story on link in bio.

Chris Evans has relisted his Hollywood Hills home at $6.39 million, down $600,000 from his original $6.99 million ask after the property sat unsold for six months. Evans, who purchased the 1940s-era home in 2013 for $3.52 million, told @realtordotcom he is relocating to the East Coast with wife Alba Baptista and their daughter. The property, located on a secluded cul-de-sac near a neighboring Richard Neutra residence, features vaulted open-beam ceilings, sweeping canyon and city views, a pool and spa, and a detached guest house with a private gym Evans reportedly used while training for his role as Captain America. Listing agent Scott Moore said the ideal buyer is a private creative or high-profile all-cash purchaser seeking seclusion without leaving Los Angeles. Full story at link in bio.

Celebrities and their starter homes 👀 Some entered the market earlier, some later, all at different price ranges. 🤔 Who has your favorite starter home on this list? Comment who you want to see next!

A San Francisco seller is listing a $3 million three-bedroom home in Duboce Triangle and will accept Anthropic or OpenAI stock as payment, targeting AI employees who may be sitting on valuable pre-IPO shares. The listing, held by Rachel Swann of Compass, has drawn a flood of interest since it went live May 28. Anthropic filed for its IPO on June 1, with the company recently valued at $965 billion, while OpenAI has signaled it plans to go public in the coming weeks. @realtordotcom economist Jiayi Xu called the listing a landmark moment, saying AI has created a class of wealthy people holding illiquid equity who can't easily spend it, and that the housing market is now adapting around that reality. Read more at link in bio.

Sarah Michelle Gellar, 49, and Freddie Prinze Jr., 50, have listed their Hamptons-style Mandeville Canyon home in Los Angeles for $10.5 million, nearly double the $6.1 million they paid for the five-bedroom, 7,300-square-foot property in 2013. Read more at link in bio.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 6.48% for the week ending June 4, down from a nine-month high of 6.53%, as a U.S.-Iran ceasefire eased energy prices and bond market pressure. Read more at link in bio.

A new Realtor.com analysis found that buying a newly built home can save the average buyer $25,335 over 10 years compared to purchasing a 20-year-old home, driven by lower utility bills and fewer major repairs. Savings vary by region, with New England leading the way. Buyers can stretch savings further through builder incentives, including mortgage rate buydowns that save new-home buyers an average of $250 a month compared to existing-home buyers. Read the full report at link in bio.

An 86-year-old Pennsylvania farmer turned down $15 million from a data center developer to preserve his two farms in Mechanicsburg, selling development rights to Lancaster Farmland Trust for roughly $2 million instead. Mervin Raudabaugh, who has farmed the 261 acres for 50 years, said the decision was never about money. "I just didn't want to see these two farms destroyed," he said. The move comes as Pennsylvania farmland has become a prime target for data center development due to its open land, proximity to power infrastructure, and the rapid expansion of AI. Land preservation groups say they can offer farmers only about 20% of what developers will pay, making it increasingly difficult to compete. "There's a passion for the land itself, and the desire to make sure it can provide for continuing generations," said Lancaster Farmland Trust CEO Jeff Swinehart. Full story at link in bio.

Aubrey Plaza has relisted her Los Feliz Spanish-style compound with a $1.2M price cut two months after a deal fell through. The property's previous listing agent described it as far from a typical sale, noting the emotional weight tied to the home required discretion and a thoughtful approach throughout. Despite the complexity, he said buyer interest remained consistent because the property itself is, in his words, incredibly special. Now listed with Carl Gambino of the Gambino Group at Compass, the property is now listed at $5.3M. See more at link in bio.

A San Francisco home seller is accepting Anthropic or OpenAI stock as payment for a $3 million three-bedroom home in Duboce Triangle, even though neither company has gone public yet. The listing, held by Rachel Swann of Compass, has generated a flood of interest since it went live May 28. @realtordotcom economist Jiayi Xu called it a landmark moment, noting that while crypto payments have become more common, trading residential real estate for private tech stock is rare. Anthropic filed for its IPO on June 1, with the company recently valued at $965 billion, while OpenAI has signaled it plans to go public in the coming weeks. Read the full story at link in bio.

Storm Duncan, founder of the tech investment bank Ignatious, is willing to part with his sprawling four-bedroom, five-bath estate in Mill Valley, CA, in exchange for shares in the San Francisco artificial intelligence startup, Anthropic, which is reportedly preparing for an initial public offering later this year. Duncan has not listed the property with an agency or even the multiple listing service but has a LinkedIn page for it. Interested parties can call or email. He says he has had some serious inquiries, but so far no sale. More at link in bio.

Empty nesters Rick and Bya Patzner paid $1 million for what they described as the ugliest house on the block in Sandy, UT, then spent $1.2 million converting it into three self-contained units, including a basement rental with a cold plunge, infinity pool, and sauna, and a 1,116-square-foot ADU. The two rentals generate $7,500 a month, covering the couple's $8,000 mortgage, utilities, and cleaning costs. After completing renovations, the Patzners refinanced and the property appraised at $2.4 million, up from their $2.2 million total investment. The couple, seasoned renovators who got their start remodeling homes in Shanghai, also run their interior design business from the property. See how they did it at link in bio.

Track your local housing market with our new Market Clock. Learn more at link in bio.

Would you buy a 3D-printed home? Wells Fargo announced it will now offer mortgages on homes built by Icon, an Austin, TX, company that uses a giant robotic printer to build homes out of layered concrete, and will give buyers a 0.5% discount on their loan when they use its mortgage products. Icon has built more than 250 homes since 2018, including Wolf Ranch in Georgetown, TX, the world's largest 3D-printed home community, where homes sell for $469,990 to $578,990. The company's robotic printer can build a 2,500-square-foot home in under seven days with three technicians. Read the full story at link in bio.