MarketWatch: Weekly Real Estate Update for Riverdale, Bronx – 3/30/2026 – 4/6/2026

Did You Know?

* The World Happiness Report 2026 found that life satisfaction has declined in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K. since 2006. Many attribute this to housing affordability challenges. Housing affordability explains just 6% of the variation in happiness, and is not statistically significant.  The Baltic and Eastern European countries—Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Slovenia, and Greece—experienced similar or larger rises in the price-to-income index as the Anglosphere, yet their happiness rose sharply. Portugal, which saw the single largest deterioration in housing affordability of any country in the sample, also experienced one of the largest gains in happiness. (home-economics)

* Barbara VanDyke sent me this little tidbit I thought we should all require to share with others:
According to the most recent US Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances:
Median homeowner net worth: about $396,000
Median renter net worth: about $10,400
That means homeowners are almost 40x wealthier than renters.

* Manhattan office leasing volume for high-quality office space reached 8.5 million sf in Q1, while vacancies dropped by 2.2 percentage points to 13.5%. Rents were up by 3.5% year-over-year. (CNBC)

Mortgage Rate Updates:

The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage rose by 8bps from the previous week to 6.46% as of April 2nd, the highest in seven months. The increase was aligned with the sharp increase in long-dated Treasury yields, as Iranian forces continued to attack energy tankers in the Middle East and disrupt oil supply for the global economy. The consequent surge in fuel prices stoked pro-inflationary risks and drove multiple FOMC members to project no rate cuts this year. 

Source: Freddie Mac