Real estate is an asset class that includes land or any buildings, whether residential, commercial, or public. A significant portion of the median American household’s net worth is often tied up in real estate. Roughly 66% of US households own real estate, and for the typical American homeowner, real estate makes up roughly half of their household’s net worth.
Hours of research by our editors, distilled into minutes of clarity.
The word "mortgage" comes from medieval French, meaning "death contract"—but the modern American mortgage has a more recent and complicated history. This explainer looks at how mortgages evolved from exclusive agreements for the wealthy into a key part of homeownership today, including the impacts of New Deal policies, redlining, and the Fair Housing Act.
Other categories of real estate include raw land and “special use” real estate, which includes cemeteries. Technically speaking, real estate is considered an alternative investment.
New York City was the world’s second-most expensive real estate market, and Hong Kong was the third. A visual ranks the top 20 most expensive real estate markets in the world at the time.
In the large-scale projects real estate investment firms handle (such as huge commercial developments), the parties involved in a sale are more likely to be large corporate real estate developers and investors than individuals.
As both rent prices and mortgage rates rise across the US, many companies have simultaneously continued operating hybrid or remote workforces post-pandemic. A podcast episode dives into why city dwellers aren't all living in their pre-pandemic break rooms just yet.
How much you could pay per month for a mortgage heavily depends on your financial standing, the cost of your property, and how much time you want to spend paying it off. Get a better understanding of what you can afford—and what you might be offered from a lender—with a mortgage calculator.
Humans learned to domesticate dogs long before they formed the concept of private property. But by the era of the ancient Greeks and Romans, property law and ownership became more sophisticated.
The Federal Reserve Economic Data, or FRED, tracks monthly “housing starts,” the number of new residential construction projects being built. Some argue this data can serve as an economic barometer.
Rising costs aren’t the only thing stopping first-time homebuyers from buying real estate—only 9% of recent new construction is for starter homes. The majority of new housing construction focuses on higher-end buyers due to the increased cost of land, labor, and resources.
Borrowing money to buy a house has been a global practice since the Romans in the fifth century BCE. But before the mortgage, there was the “dead pledge,” which labeled the property as “dead” to the borrower until they paid off their loan to the lender.
The United States is home to more than 33 million businesses, the vast majority of which are small businesses, with millions being created (and others closing shop) every year. These businesses often rely on loans, provide the goods and services that keep the economy flowing, and sometimes even grow large enough to enter public markets or provide private investment opportunities. Explore key topics central to business and finance, from the role of the Federal Reserve to how initial public offerings work, how millions of American students finance higher education, and more.