Home prices have significantly jumped over the past year, forcing home buyers to borrow more to keep up. The average mortgage purchase application reached $411,400, the highest since February, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The average loan for a new home rose to $377,000 last month, a record high.

Home prices are climbing at their fastest pace in more than 15 years. While low mortgage rates are helping to offset some of those higher prices for successful buyers, mortgage rates are predicted to head up soon. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3% this week, up from 2.94% the week prior, according to Freddie Mac.

“We’ve seen very red-hot house-price appreciation across the country—double digits nationally,” says Len Kiefer, deputy chief economist at Freddie Mac. “That puts pressure on loan sizes because, to purchase a home at a higher price, you’re going to need to borrow more money.” Also, more homeowners have been upsizing since the beginning of the pandemic.

But to get these larger mortgages, borrowers will need stellar credit to qualify, Odeta Kushi, deputy chief economist at First American, a title insurance company, told MarketPlace. The median credit score for applicants for new mortgages was 788 in the first quarter of this year, up from 773 a year earlier.

More Americans are now reliant on fast internet as remote work and school and tech-enabled personal connections grew during the COVID-19 pandemic. House hunters even say fast internet and cell service are crucial as they shop for homes, new surveys show.

Where you live may have a stake in just how fast your internet speed is. A new study from HighSpeedInternet.com analyzed and ranked the average internet speeds of the top 100 largest metro areas in the U.S.

The U.S. metro with the fastest average internet speed in the nation: Washington, D.C., according to the study. On the other hand, Charleston, W.Va., has the slowest internet speeds in the country—about four times slower than Washington, D.C.

The nationwide difference between the fastest and slowest metros’ internet speeds is 96.4 Mbps, according to the study.

Researchers identified the following 10 metros as having the fastest internet, based on median download speeds:

1. Washington D.C. (129.1 Mbps)
2. Philadelphia (127.4 Mbps)
3. San Francisco (126.1 Mbps)
4. New York (124.2 Mbps)
5. Boston (123.6 Mbps)
6. Baltimore (120.9 Mbps)
7. San Antonio (119.7 Mbps)
8. Dallas-Fort Worth (117.2 Mbps)
9. Las Vegas (117.1 Mbps)
10. Houston (116.2 Mbps)

On the other hand, the metros with the slowest internet speeds of the top 100 largest metros are:

1. Charleston, W.Va. (32.7 Mbps)
2. Boise, Idaho (56.9 Mbps)
3. Toledo, Ohio (58.2 Mbps)
4. Myrtle Beach, S.C. (59.0 Mbps)
5. Scranton, Pa. (59.0 Mbps)
6. Little Rock, Ark. (60.8 Mbps)
7. Portland, Maine (67.0 Mbps)
8. Lansing, Mich. (68.9 Mbps)
9. Fort Wayne, Ind. (69.1 Mbps)
10. Rochester, N.Y. (69.5 Mbps)

View the complete list of the top 100 metros to see where your area ranks.

The median rent in the 50 largest metros nationwide increased 2.7% year over year, the largest growth since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, according to a new report from realtor.com®. The nation’s largest tech hubs are seeing some of the biggest rebounds in rental prices as more technology firms announce return-to-the-office plans.

The U.S. median rent in April averaged $1,483, the fastest growth since March 2020. Prior to the pandemic, rents were growing 3.2% annually.

Rents for two-bedroom units are seeing the most growth, now surpassing pre-COVID-19 growth rates—up 5.2% annually, realtor.com® notes.

Rents in the largest tech hubs saw prices fall the most in 2020 due to the growth of remote work. Rents in tech hubs are still down 5.4% from a year ago but that marks an improvement from a 6.6% decline in February, realtor.com® notes.

“In tech centers, rent declines are getting smaller, signaling they are on the path to turnaround,” says Danielle Hale, realtor.com®’s chief economist. “If the trend continues, renters could expect to be paying pre-pandemic rates by as early as this fall.”

The median rent in the nation’s largest tech hubs was $2,086 in April, up 1.1% from March. Still, rents continue to be lower in the largest tech centers like San Jose, Calif. (-12.5%); San Francisco (-10.9%); and Seattle (-7.35). But the declines are lessening, researchers note. On the other hand, Denver and Austin, Texas, are leading the rental market recovery among tech hubs. The median rent in Denver is up 2.2% and is up 1.7% in Austin annually.

“Overall, the U.S. rental market is beginning to return to pre-pandemic levels,” says Hale. “With the largest growth occurring outside of major cities, renters are encountering different scenarios depending on the market in which they are searching and size of the unit they are looking for.”

The commercial real estate market is seeing prices rise as investors place bets on a return to the workforce and travel, even more quickly than they had expected. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently issued new guidance that says vaccinated Americans no longer need to wear masks or observe social distancing in many cases. That may bring workers back to the office sooner than anticipated and prompt more Americans to travel once again too.

“The CDC’s new guidance will send a strong message to all businesses and their employees that a full return to the office and other indoor settings will be achieved safely and effectively,” James Whelan, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, said in a recent statement.

Pension funds and private equity firms are already spending record sums on buildings, particularly for office buildings and hotels, The Wall Street Journal reports. Commercial real estate prices have increased 7% since July, which is helping to make up for more than half of its pandemic losses.

Inflation, however, has become a growing concern in the financial community. That may prompt even more investors to turn to commercial properties with leases that include rent increases to keep pace. “People view it as inflation-protected,” Eric Rosenthal, managing partner at Machine Investment Group, a real estate investment firm, told The Wall Street Journal.

Ahead of what could be a return to normal life, some investors are targeting places that were hit hardest by the economic crisis during the pandemic. For example, in San Francisco, the share of office space available for lease is at the highest on record, according to CBRE data.

Following the CDC’s updated guidance last week, some offices decided to speed up their return timelines. For example, Blackstone, JPMorgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs among others reportedly announced returns to the office, possibly even by next month. Sabre Corp., a Dallas-area travel technology firm, said the updated guidance will likely accelerate its return-to-office plans this fall and allow them to open more desks on certain floors.

“Anything that makes people feel comfortable to come into work is positive for the landlord business,” Eric Meyer, principal of real estate investment company Meyer Equities in New York, told The Real Deal. “If the CDC is saying it’s safe, and people are on the same page with that, it certainly helps.”

Still, some employers may delay or prolong a return to the workplace. Some companies had announced plans to bring workers back around Labor Day; The Wall Street Journal said that, with a tight job market, some CEOs may be concerned about upsetting their workers or preempting plans based on their prior guidance.

Property taxes can vary considerably based on where you live. Homeowners in some metro areas pay thousands of dollars more per year than owners elsewhere. Home shoppers will want to factor in these added costs when they buy to avoid unexpected tax surprises.

For example, the median real estate tax in Las Vegas—the lowest of the 50 largest metros analyzed—is about $7,700 cheaper than in New York, where property taxes are highest, according to a new analysis from LendingTree. Las Vegas and Birmingham, Ala., are the only two metro areas in the study that had median real estate taxes that were less than $1,000 a year—at $696 and $892, respectively.

On the other hand, homeowners in New York and San Jose, Calif., pay the highest real estate taxes nationwide, at a median of $8,400 and $7,051 respectively.

Demand for homes in some of the lowest-cost neighborhoods in the country is surging in the red-hot housing market, prompting neighborhood revitalization projects to spread.

U.S. ZIP codes where the median home price is less than $100,000 have posted a 42% jump in home values in the past three years, according to an analysis by CoreLogic and The Wall Street Journal. That’s double the increase in ZIP codes where the median price was between $150,000 and $200,000 and triple the hike in areas with prices $300,000 and up, according to the analysis.

The higher home prices are helping to revive local economies in places like Detroit and Cleveland, where there are pockets of homes that aren’t even eligible for financing, the Journal reports. In Detroit’s cheapest ZIP codes, where the median sales price was $45,500 in early 2018, home prices have surged 113%, according to CoreLogic. The Detroit Land Bank Authority, which manages thousands of vacant properties, sold 1,091 homes in the first three months of the year and decided not to demolish about 300 other homes due to the increase in demand.

Investors and first-time home buyers are helping to lift the bottom end of the housing market, the Journal reports. Still, housing experts warn that rising prices could ultimately keep more potential buyers out of the market.

Home buyers are facing relentless competition in the housing market, driven by low mortgage rates and inventory. According to the latest REALTORS® Confidence Index, based on real estate transactions nationwide in March, practitioners report an average of five offers on their most recent listing.

In a separate report by Redfin published in April, 72% of the brokerage’s agents faced competition when submitting an offer for their clients—up from 66.7% in March. “Bidding wars are intensifying,” says Kristin Lopez, a Redfin real estate pro in Boise, Idaho. “In March, we were seeing three or four offers on a home. Now, we’re sometimes seeing more than 20.”

Earlier this spring, a home in Dallas drew 97 offers. “The list price is the starting point,” Mark Wolfe, broker-owner of RE/MAX DFW Associates, told the Dallas Business Journal about the competition. Bidding wars have grown so common that nearly half of homes on the market are being sold for more than their list price, according to Redfin.

What’s more, bidding wars are the most common reason house hunters who have been searching for at least three months haven’t been able to buy a home. Forty-five percent of longtime house hunters say they continue to lose out in bidding wars, which is higher than those who say they can’t find an affordable home (32%), according to a recent analysis from the National Association of Home Builders.

Buyers are facing some of the steepest competition for housing in Salt Lake City, where 83.5% of offers written by Redfin real estate professionals reportedly faced competition. San Diego and Spokane, Wash., closely followed at 83.3% each, as well as Boise at 81.8% and Phoenix at 80.5%.

Holly Meyer Lucas, a team leader of Meyer Lucas at Compass in South Florida, came up with an idea for bringing home bidding wars to Zoom to “open the playing field” for sellers and buyers. She believes it could provide more transparency in multiple offer situations if all bidders could meet over video conference to present and discuss.

Meyer Lucas shared her Zoom bidding wars idea recently with FOX-29 WPTV News. But she’s still looking for a seller willing to participate.

After recently hosting a charity event with a live auction, she had the idea of a roundtable Zoom bidding war for selling a home. Each buyer would be with their agent on the video call, along with other interested parties, too, as the agents discuss pricing and options.

“The way I see this is buyers can participate. They can be on the phone, but they’ll be muted,” Meyer Lucas says. “We’ll open it up for questions, where the buyers’ agents can ask the questions like, ‘How old is the roof? Are there impact windows?’ So that we get all the answers out in the open.”

The current market frenzy has Meyer Lucas concerned. Some buyers are subjecting themselves to risky contracts by waiving contingencies just to try to win bidding wars. Other buyers may get outbid for a home they wanted but not know why they lost out.

“We absolutely are going to do this,” Meyer Lucas told WFLX.com. “If it doesn’t work, then it doesn’t work. Whether or not other agents will play ball is a great question. The few that I’ve talked to have said for sure, they will participate. There are going to be some … agents who might push back.”