Written by Chase Majerus
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Homes are full, plates are overloaded, and everyone suddenly remembers what actually matters. This week, we’re keeping it short, sweet, and a little sappy. Take a breath, enjoy the people around you, and let’s get into it.
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(from CNBC.com)
November home sales tried to make a comeback, but Santa forgot to bring more inventory.
Existing home sales barely moved up from October and were still lower than last year, as high prices, high mortgage rates, and shrinking supply teamed up like the Grinch, Scrooge, and inflation. Inventory actually fell nearly 6% from October, which means fewer homes under the tree and more buyers staring at empty stockings.
Sellers pulled listings faster than decorations coming down after Christmas, keeping prices sticky and pushing the median home price to a record November high. Meanwhile, affordable homes under $250K are getting coal while million dollar homes are sipping eggnog and doing just fine.
Homes are sitting longer on the market, but first time buyers are still stuck at about 30% of sales, well below the historical norm. The big takeaway: wages may be rising, but without more supply, the housing market is shaping up to be less “Home Alone” and more “No Vacancy” heading into the new year.
(from Hello! Magazine)
If you’re gonna put up a Christmas tree, you might as well need a ladder, a spotter, and possibly a building permit. Tim McGraw and Faith Hill unveiled a sky-high Christmas tree inside their $15.7 million Nashville mansion, and let’s just say this thing didn’t come from the Home Depot parking lot. The tree stretches toward the ceiling like it’s trying to get a record deal, perfectly framed by floor-to-ceiling windows and surrounded by cozy neutral furniture that screams “rustic luxury but make it Yeehaw.”
The house itself is a casual 22,460 square feet with five bedrooms and ten bathrooms, which means there’s roughly one bathroom per ornament on a normal person’s tree. Red-and-gold decorations, glowing lights, and a mountain of presents underneath bring warm, classic Christmas vibes, even though the setting is more “Hallmark movie finale” than “family room.” Now officially empty nesters, Tim and Faith have the place all to themselves, unless you count the echoes.
Between the mansion, the tree, and the joint $200 million net worth, this holiday setup proves one thing: when country royalty decks the halls, they deck all of them.
If you really want to be financially fit this Christmas, forget the spreadsheets for like five minutes. Hug your family. Help with the dishes without being asked. Laugh at the same stories you’ve heard every year since 2004. That’s wealth.
Be merry. Be present. Put your phone down. Eat the cookie. Drink the drink. Tell someone you love them even if it feels a little cheesy. And yes, absolutely blow all your money on presents… just kidding. Mostly. (Please don’t put a PS5 on a 29% interest credit card. Future you will not be merry.)
Remember, a house is just walls and a roof. A home is what happens when people show up, sit close, argue over board games, and somehow all end the night on the couch together. Homes are built on gratitude, not granite countertops.
So this holiday season, invest in the good stuff. Time. Memories. Togetherness. That’s the kind of return that compounds forever.
And if you’re reading this while “working” from the couch… go help with the dishes.
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(from Housingwire.com)
It’s beginning to look a lot like… rebranding season.
As political pressure ramps up, public homebuilders are quietly swapping out “DEI” for softer, less controversial phrases like “belonging,” “inclusive culture,” and “people-first,” kind of like hiding the weird gift in the back of the closet before guests arrive. Mentions of diversity, equity, and inclusion have dropped sharply in filings, not because the work is gone, but because the language has gone full stealth mode.
Many builders appear to still be doing the same internal work, just without putting “DEI” on the wrapping paper. Others, especially those that leaned hard into DEI when it was trendy, seem to have left it off the list entirely this year. The data shows modest gains in representation, but the real shift is rhetorical, not operational.
In short, DEI didn’t get canceled, it just got renamed, downsized, and quietly set next to the eggnog. Ho ho hold your assumptions.
(from Yahoo! Finance)
AI was supposed to make house hunting easier, but instead it gave buyers a brand-new migraine.
Listings are popping up with suspiciously perfect lawns, melted door frames, and even bonus windows that don’t exist IRL, leaving buyers to play a festive game of “spot the hallucination.” Virtual staging can help empty homes feel less like a ghost town, but some AI edits are crossing the line from helpful to straight-up housefishing.
Buyers are wasting time touring homes that look nothing like the photos, while agents are left explaining why the eight-seat sectional only exists in the Matrix. Regulators are starting to step in, with states like California requiring disclosures and original photos, basically telling AI to stop lying through its pixels.
The takeaway for buyers: if a listing looks a little too Hallmark-movie perfect, trust your gut and pack some skepticism with your measuring tape. In 2025, seeing isn’t believing, it’s just the trailer.
Alan Gordon with Synergy One Lending made a great video breaking down a housing trend most people aren’t talking about. You can watch it here, or keep reading to learn more.
Here’s the short version: Some longtime Denver homeowners, especially baby boomers, are choosing not to sell their homes even though they no longer need the space. And it’s not about emotion or stubbornness. It’s about taxes.
A tax rule from 1997 allows children to inherit a home with what’s called a stepped up basis. That means the home’s value resets to its market price at the time of inheritance, effectively erasing decades of appreciation for tax purposes.
But if the homeowner sells while they’re still alive, all that appreciation becomes taxable. In a market like Denver, where home values have climbed dramatically over the last few decades, that tax bill can easily reach tens of thousands of dollars.
So for many families, the financially smarter move is to hold the home and pass it down rather than downsizing.
The unintended consequence is bigger than one household. Older homeowners stay in larger homes longer. Fewer listings hit the market. Inventory stays tight. And younger buyers feel the pressure through higher prices and fewer options.
This is one of those behind the scenes factors quietly shaping the Denver housing market right now.
The big question is whether changing this tax rule would actually free up inventory or simply shift the problem elsewhere.
If you want a clear breakdown of how this works and why it matters, make sure to check out Alan Gordon’s video.
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