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Housing begins to tip in favor of buyers; sellers slash prices to entice them back to market: report

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Buyers may finally get the upper hand in the housing market. (iStock)

As buyers retreat from housing, some home sellers have had to cut their listing price to close the sale, a recent Zillow report said.

Nearly 1 in 4 sellers have had to cut prices to try and get buyers struggling with affordability interested in buying – 24.5% of listings in June had a price cut, up from 23.8% the previous month.  The lack of buyer appetite is also contributing to an increase in inventory. The total number of homes on the market increased 4% from May to June to stand nearly 23% above last year’s low level.  Well-priced and marketed listings are still selling relatively quickly.

Market dynamics are shifting toward a pre-pandemic normal in terms of competition among buyers and their negotiating power, Zillow said.

“A growing segment of homes that aren’t competitively priced or well marketed are lingering on the market,” Zillow Chief Economist Skylar Olsen said. “Sellers are increasingly cutting prices to entice buyers struggling with affordability.”

“For years, the housing market has been defined by fast sales and few options,” Olsen continued. “Now it’s starting to look more like it did before the pandemic in terms of competition, if not costs. As the wait for mortgage rate relief drags on, slower price growth and even dips in some areas will help buyers catch up on saving for a down payment.”

If you’re considering becoming a homeowner, it could help to shop around to find the best mortgage rate. Visit Credible to compare options from different lenders and choose the one with the best rate for you.

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Home price appreciation slows

Buyers continue to struggle to get a foot on the housing ladder due to affordability challenges mainly driven by expensive borrowing rates and high home prices. According to Zillow, the typical mortgage payment is up 6% from last year and has increased by 112.5% since the pandemic.

The good news is that there is evidence that home price appreciation is slowing in some markets, Zillow said. The typical home value increased by 0.6% in June to $362,482, but the monthly growth is the lowest seen in any June since 2011. Zillow has forecasted home values to rise just 1% nationally through June 2025, which could give buyers who are currently in the market some relief.

“Home value growth has slowed as inventory rises,” Zillow said. “Annual appreciation is a reasonable 3.2% nationally, down from a 2024 peak of 4.6% in March. Monthly growth has decelerated to 0.6% — the slowest June appreciation since 2011. Slower home value growth in the months ahead could give struggling buyers a chance to make up ground.”

If you’d like to see if you qualify for a mortgage based on your current credit score and salary, consider visiting Credible, where you can compare multiple mortgage lenders at once.

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Mortgage rates tip lower

Mortgage rates have tumbled for several weeks running, dropping to the lowest level since mid-March. Strong economic data and a positive inflation report provide some reassurance that the Federal Reserve may finally pull the trigger on interest rate reductions.

The Fed, which has held its policy rate in the 5.25%-5.50% range for the past year, may soon cut borrowing costs. Speaking at the Economic Club of Washington D.C. earlier this week, Fed chair Jerome Powell said that due to the policy’s long lag effect, the central bank won’t wait for inflation to hit the 2% target rate before cutting interest rates. Instead, it seeks greater confidence that inflation will return to the target before initiating rate cuts. 

“Fortunately, June’s more moderate jobs report and cooling CPI were solid readings that should help the Fed gain more confidence that the economy is moving in the right direction and could raise hopes for a rate cut signal in the July FOMC statement,” Realtor.com Economist Jiayi Xu said in a statement.

If you are ready to shop for the best rate on a new mortgage, consider visiting an online marketplace like Credible to compare rates with multiple lenders at once.

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Have a finance-related question, but don’t know who to ask? Email The Credible Money Expert at [email protected] and your question might be answered by Credible in our Money Expert column.

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Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says markets are too complacent

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Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, leaves the U.S. Capitol after a meeting with Republican members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on the issue of de-banking on Feb. 13, 2025.

Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Monday that markets and central bankers underappreciate the risks created by record U.S. deficits, tariffs and international tensions.

Dimon, the veteran CEO and chairman of the biggest U.S. bank by assets, explained his worldview during his bank’s annual investor day meeting in New York. He said he believes the risks of higher inflation and even stagflation aren’t properly represented by stock market values, which have staged a comeback from lows in April.

“We have huge deficits; we have what I consider almost complacent central banks,” Dimon said. “You all think they can manage all this. I don’t think” they can, he said.

“My own view is people feel pretty good because you haven’t seen effective tariffs” yet, Dimon said. “The market came down 10%, [it’s] back up 10%; that’s an extraordinary amount of complacency.”

Dimon’s comments follow Moody’s rating agency downgrading the U.S. credit rating on Friday over concerns about the government’s growing debt burden. Markets have been whipsawed the past few months over worries that President Donald Trump‘s trade policies will raise inflation and slow the world’s largest economy.

Dimon said Monday that he believed Wall Street earnings estimates for S&P 500 companies, which have already declined in the first weeks of Trump’s trade policies, will fall further as companies pull or lower guidance amid the uncertainty.

In six months, those projections will fall to 0% earnings growth after starting the year at around 12%, Dimon said. If that were to happen, stocks prices will likely fall.

“I think earnings estimates will come down, which means PE will come down,” Dimon said, referring to the “price to earnings” ratio tracked closely by stock market analysts.

The odds of stagflation, “which is basically a recession with inflation,” are roughly double what the market thinks, Dimon added.

Separately, one of Dimon’s top deputies said that corporate clients are still in “wait-and-see” mode when it comes to acquisitions and other deals.

Investment banking revenue is headed for a “mid-teens” percentage decline in the second quarter compared with the year-earlier period, while trading revenue was trending higher by a “mid-to-high” single digit percentage, said Troy Rohrbaugh, a co-head of the firm’s commercial and investment bank.

On the ever-present question of Dimon’s timeline to hand over the CEO reins to one of his deputies, Dimon said that nothing changed from his guidance last year, when he said he would likely remain for less than five more years.

“If I’m here for four more years, and maybe two more” as executive chairman, Dimon said, “that’s a long time.”

Of all the executive presentations given Monday, consumer banking chief Marianne Lake had the longest speaking time at a full hour. She is considered a top successor candidate, especially after Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Piepszak said she would not be seeking the top job.

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Stocks making the biggest moves midday: UNH, TSLA, BABA

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Klarna doubles losses in first quarter as IPO remains on hold

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Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna, speaking at a fintech event in London on Monday, April 4, 2022.

Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg via Getty Images

Klarna saw its losses jump in the first quarter as the popular buy now, pay later firm applies the brakes on a hotly anticipated U.S. initial public offering.

The Swedish payments startup said its net loss for the first three months of 2025 totaled $99 million — significantly worse than the $47 million loss it reported a year ago. Klarna said this was due to several one-off costs related to depreciation, share-based payments and restructuring.

Revenues at the firm increased 13% year-over-year to $701 million. Klarna said it now has 100 million active users and 724,00 merchant partners globally.

It comes as Klarna remains in pause mode regarding a highly anticipated U.S. IPO that was at one stage set to value the SoftBank-backed company at over $15 billion.

Klarna put its IPO plans on hold last month due to market turbulence caused by President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff plans. Online ticketing platform StubHub also put its IPO plans on ice.

Prior to the IPO delay, Klarna had been on a marketing blitz touting itself as an artificial intelligence-powered fintech. The company partnered up with ChatGPT maker OpenAI in 2023. A year later, Klarna used OpenAI technology to create an AI customer service assistant.

Last week, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said the company was able to shrink its headcount by about 40%, in part due to investments in AI.

Watch CNBC's full interview with Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski

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