In this Real Estate News Brief for the week ending March 12th, 2022... we'll take a look at how the Russian invasion of Ukraine could affect the U.S. housing market, the number of homes selling for more than 100,000 over asking price, and why a federal court blocked a ban on homebuyer “love letters.”Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. Economic NewsWe begin with economic news from this past week, which includes the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. Housing experts have been weighing in on whether this will impact the real estate market. According to a blog post by the National Association of Realtors, Russian buyers account for less than 1% of foreign purchases. Most of that activity has been in Florida, Georgia and New York. But that reduces Russian input to .2% in Florida, for example. As a result, NAR researchers don’t think we’ll see any major disruptions for real estate. If anything, it could give domestic buyers a little less competition. It could also ease pressure on the supply chain. But they also caution that higher oil prices, interest rate hikes, and other economic impacts could be disruptive for housing over the long term. (1) Inflation is one of those indicators that economists are watching closely. The latest report shows the annual rate of inflation was 7.9% in February. That’s a 40-year-high for the Consumer Price Index, or CPI. It was up .8% for the month which was higher than Wall Street economists expected. .5% of the increase went to housing, which includes rent. Higher prices for gas and food are also contributing to inflation. (2) The latest unemployment report shows an increase in initial claims. They were up 11,000 to a total of 227,000 mostly because of a surge in claims in California and New York. MarketWatch says that economists are expecting claims to return to the 200,000 level in the near future. They had previously fallen to 188,000 which is a 52-year-low. Continuing claims were also higher last week. They rose to 1.49 million but that’s also considered extremely low. (3)Employment numbers show that the job market is “red hot” and the so-called “Great Resignation” continues. The number of job openings fell slightly to 11.3 million in January, but that’s not far below a record 11.5 million in December. 4.3 million people quit their jobs for other jobs. Layoffs are also at record lows as employees try to fill all those open positions. MarketWatch says that in January, 6.1 million people left their jobs while 6.5 million were hired. (4)Consumer sentiment is slipping because of high prices and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The University of Michigan’s latest consumer sentiment survey shows a decline from 62.8 to 59.7. Many expect the situation to impact their personal finances during the course of this year. (5)Mortgage RatesMortgage rates reversed course slightly and moved higher after two weeks of declines that brought them below 4%. Freddie Mac says the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose 9 basis points to 3.85%. The 15-year was up 8 points to 3.09%. Rates have been volatile because of the war in Ukraine. (6)In other news making headlines...Bidding Wars Continue Among HomebuyersCompetition is fierce among homebuyers. Redfin says that almost 6,000 U.S. homes were sold for more than $100,000 over asking price, so far this year. At the same time last year, just 2,400 had sold for that much. The largest portion of those highly priced homes were in the Los Angeles area. In fact, most of the top ten metros were in California, but Seattle, Boston, Denver and New York also made the list. (7)A Los Angeles Redfin agent says: “On top of a lack of homes for sale, which makes everything a hot commodity, buyers are just plain eager. They’re anxious to purchase a home ASAP because as rates rise, they won’t be able to afford the homes they’re looking at now.” Federal Court Block Oregon’s Love Letter BanA federal