More family members are moving in together under one roof, a trend that may help many better compete in the ultra-hot housing market. With record-high home prices still climbing, family members who pool their money may be able to afford a larger, higher-end home.

Multigenerational households have been on the rise since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. “I think [multigenerational households] could be a trend that’s here to stay,” Jessica Lautz, vice president of demographics and behavioral insights at the National Association of REALTORS®, told The New York Times. Families of Asian and Latino descent are the most likely to live with aging parents, Lautz said.

Fifteen percent of home buyers purchased a multigenerational property between April and June 2020, during the first wave of COVID-19 infections in the U.S., according to NAR data. That was the largest share since 2012. The most common reasons for this move were to bring aging parents into the home and to have grandparents help with child care. Respondents also cited greater affordability as a reason for family members to pool their finances for a home purchase.

“There was no way that I could afford the cost of a house on my own,” Erin Wentz-Lesman, 41, a public school teacher in Brooklyn, N.Y., told the Times. In October, Wentz-Lesman and her husband, along with their two children, purchased a home with Wentz-Lesman’s parents, both of whom are 68 and retired. They purchased a five-bedroom home for $1.25 million.

Many real estate agents may be missing out on a big opportunity to market their listings online through virtual tours and best professional photography practices. As more house shopping goes online, buyers are saying these items are more important to them.

Yet, 94% of listings do not include a virtual tour. Many listings claimed to have a virtual tour but only offered a photo-based slideshow, according to a new study of 25,000 listings conducted by BoxBrownie.com, a virtual staging technology provider. BoxBrownie.com conducted the analysis of listings’ photography and virtual tour assets on top U.S. real estate portals from March to June of this year.

Also, less than 30% of listings used best practices in professional photography, the study found. Only 16% of listings included a floor plan.

Sixty-seven percent of buyers say they want to see floor plans on listings and 58% say they want to see virtual tours, according to the 2021 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report, conducted by the National Association of REALTORS®.

“The results have been very enlightening and unexpected, with less than 30% using best practices in professional photography is surprising, and flies in the face of what we are led to believe,” says Peter Schravemade of BoxBrownie.com.

Apartment listings were twice as likely to include best practices for professional photography and a floor plan than single-family homes, the study finds.

The study also broke down findings on a state level, revealing New York as leading the way for having the highest percentage of properties featuring best practices using professional photography, floor plans, and virtual tours. The metro area was more likely to include all three of these features in their listings versus other regional areas.

BoxBrownie.com will release the full findings from its report on July 20.

Seventy-seven percent of consumers say it’s a good time to sell a home—a record high, according to Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index, a survey of 1,000 adults on their views of the housing market.

They have plenty of reason to feel so upbeat: Existing-home sales prices were at a record high in May and up nearly 24% compared to a year earlier ($350,300), according to the National Association of REALTORS®. The higher home prices have translated into greater equity for home sellers. In the first quarter of 2021, the average homeowner saw their equity climb nearly 20% in the past year, gaining about $33,400, according to a report from CoreLogic.

Meanwhile, home buyers aren’t feeling as good about the housing market. Sixty-four percent of consumers say it’s a bad time to buy a home, up from 56% the previous month—also a record high, Fannie Mae reports.

The “buy and sell components continued to diverge,” Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae’s senior vice president and chief economist, said about the latest consumer sentiment index readings. “Consumers also continued to cite high home prices as the predominant reason for their ongoing and significant divergence in sentiment toward homebuying and homeselling conditions.”

Renters who are planning to purchase a home in the next few years have demonstrated the steepest decline in homebuying sentiment than homeowners, Duncan adds. “It’s likely that affordability concerns are more greatly affecting those who aspire to be first-time homeowners than other consumer sentiments who have already established homeownership,” Duncan says.

Despite the pessimism over homebuying, “we expect demand for housing to persist at an elevated level through the rest of the year,” Duncan notes. “Mortgage rates remain not too far from their historical lows, and consumers are expressing even greater confidence about their household income and job situation compared to this time last year, when the pandemic had shut down wide swaths of the economy.”

Here are more highlights from Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index:

• 77% of consumers said it’s a good time to sell, up from 67% last month. Fifteen percent of respondents said it’s a bad time to sell.
• 64% of consumers said it’s a bad time to buy a home, up from 56% last month. Thirty-two percent of respondents said it’s a good time to buy a home.
• 48% of respondents said they expect home prices to rise over the next 12 months, up from 47% last month.
• 57% of respondents expect mortgage rates to go up over the next 12 months, up from 49% last month. Thirty percent expect mortgage rates will stay the same and 6% expect rates to decrease.
• 88% of consumers say they are not concerned about losing their job over the next 12 months, up slightly from 87% last month.
• 27% of respondents say their household income is significantly higher than it was 12 months ago, a drop from 29% last month. Fifty-six percent of respondents say their household income is about the same as last year while 13% say their household income is significantly lower.

The price of framing lumber has plunged about 50% over the last seven weeks, offering up a hopeful sign that skyrocketing building costs would ease. However, builders say that the prices they pay have only declined by a fraction of that percentage.

The disconnect in pricing has always existed in the lumber supply chain. It can still be a “long lag time” before the full price reductions come to builders, the National Association of Home Builders reports.

“As the price declines began grabbing headlines, the price of lumber packages quoted to builders held at record highs,” NAHB economist David Logan writes on the association’s blog, Eye on Housing. “This dynamic is primarily due to dealers’ inventory carrying costs and potentially large differences between the price at which inventory is bought and sold.”

The lumber supply chain consists of the following stages: from forest to sawmill to wholesaler to retailer to end user. The association offers up an explanatory reason prices are staying elevated at its Eye on Housing blog. Wholesalers and retailers have incentive to run through their existing inventory and recover what they paid for it—one of many factors that is currently keeping prices elevated for builders.

So, when will lower prices reach the builders and ultimately new-home buyers? The answer is unclear, but builders say more price drops in lumber may be needed. “Prices must fall for long enough to materially lower a supplier’s average costs after a run-up,” the association blog notes. “Depending on the rate and consistency of price decreases and whether prices have stabilized at the lower level, it may take a few weeks to a couple of months for builders to see price relief on the order initially reported in the futures or cash markets.”

Meanwhile, new-home building prices for home buyers continue to rise. In May, the median price of a newly built home was 18% higher than a year ago, at $374,400.

Widespread shortages on building materials continue to prompt home builders to raise their prices. Material prices have increased by 26% over the past year for building the same house, according to National Association of Home Builders data. That’s put pressure on new-home prices: In May, the median price of a newly built home was 18% higher than a year ago, at $374,400.

Material shortages have increased for appliances, paint, lumber, and more.

Paint Shortage Adds to Construction, Remodeling Woes

Appliance, Furniture Shortages Cause Headaches

To help offset these higher prices, builders are raising their prices and pre-ordering items, according to the latest monthly survey of the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index.

Forty-five percent of builders surveyed are also adding in price escalation clauses to protect themselves from rising prices during the process but passing those higher costs on to buyers.

Also, 39% of builders say they are waiting until late in the construction process to list a spec home in case prices increase more.

Some of the highest increases in material costs have been in lumber. Some builders have even changed their building methods as a result. Some builders are switching from traditional wood framing to other materials. Seventeen percent of builders said they were considering switching to steel, 16% to structural insulated panels, 14% to insulated concrete forms, and 8% to concrete masonry.

However, lumber prices have started to fall, now dropping for eight consecutive weeks. Lumber prices are now down more than 50% from their peak in early May.

According to a Trip Advisor survey from this spring, more than two-thirds of Americans said they plan to travel during this summer. Investors are discovering greater interest in their short-term vacation rentals, and business is booming.

Occupancy rates surged 21% in May compared to pre-pandemic levels from May 2019, according to AirDNA, a real estate company that collects data on Airbnb and Vrbo short-term rentals. Prices to rent vacation properties have increased by about 8.3% over the past year.

“There’s a very big opportunity to buy cheap and make a lot of money in return,” Luis D. Ortiz, a real estate broker who also stars on Netflix’s “World’s Most Amazing Vacation Rentals,” told realtor.com®. “Vacation rentals give you something that hotels can’t give, and it’s that sense of home.”

Realtor.com®’s research team identified the hot spots with the most profitable real estate markets for those wanting to purchase a property list on short-term rental sites like Airbnb or Vrbo. They found that smaller resort towns in remote locations that offer a big connection to the outdoors are surging in demand. Many are also within driving distance to larger cities.

Here are the top seven areas showing some of the most profits in short-term rentals, according to realtor.com®’s findings:

1. Joshua Tree, Calif.

• Median list price: $525,050
• Annual change in revenue generated: 113%
• Average daily rate: $268

2. Sea Isle City, N.J.

• Median list price: $1.2 million
• Annual change in revenue generated: 82%
• Average daily rate: $432

3. Lincoln City, Ore.

• Median list price: $764,950
• Annual change in revenue generated: 72%
• Average daily rate: $250

4. Sedona, Ariz.

• Median list price: $895,050
• Annual change in revenue generated: 65%
• Average daily rate: $264

5. Blue Ridge, Ga.

• Median list price: $599,950
• Annual change in revenue generated: 60%
• Average daily rate: $275

6. Leavenworth, Wash.

• Median list price: $799,050
• Annual change in revenue generated: 56%
• Average daily rate: $310

7. St. George, Utah

• Median list price: $635,050
• Annual change in revenue generated: 56%
• Average daily rate: $169

View the full list at realtor.com®.