From Charts to Closings: What You Should Be Watching in the Market

Why It Matters

These indicators—rate drivers, inventory flows, and demographic fundamentals—help agents, lenders and investors anticipate demand, pricing and timing in an uneven, localized housing market. Monitoring high-frequency data lets market participants respond faster to changing supply-and-demand conditions.

Summary

Odetta Kushi of First American framed housing as an evolving organism driven by macro and local forces rather than a fixed mechanism. She advised market participants to focus on the drivers of interest rates—especially inflation and labor-market health—high-frequency inventory metrics (distinguishing active stock from new listings) and core demographic trends. Kushi highlighted millennials aging into prime homebuying years as a durable demand tailwind, while an expanding elderly population and localized supply dynamics will shape future listings and transactions. She emphasized using nuanced, high-frequency data to read short-term market shifts amid those longer-term fundamentals.

Original Description

Recorded at the HousingWire Housing Economic Summit at the George Bush Presidential Library in Dallas, this episode shifts the conversation from forecasts to practical application: what should housing professionals actually do with economic data?

Odeta Kushi, VP and Deputy Chief Economist at First American, explains why housing economics behaves less like a machine and more like a living organism shaped by labor markets, demographics, inventory dynamics, and consumer psychology.

She breaks down the small set of indicators that explain most of the market story — mortgage rate drivers, inventory trends, affordability fundamentals, and demographic demand. The conversation also tackles common misconceptions about down payments, market timing, and the “date the rate” narrative.

For loan officers, brokers, and agents trying to make sense of a shifting market, this episode turns economic signals into practical insight.

Related to this episode:

Zeb’s LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/zebulon-lowe-a02353a4/

Odeta's LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/odetakushi/

The Power House podcast brings the biggest names in housing to answer hard-hitting questions about industry trends, operational and growth strategy, and leadership. Join HousingWire’s Zeb Lowe every Thursday morning for candid conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.