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Our Verdict
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Homes were selling in an average of 42 days, three fewer than April but two days slower than May 2025.
The months’ supply of inventory stood at 2.5, unchanged from a year ago and up from 2.3 in April.
“The housing market was finding its footing this spring, with steady month-over-month sales gains showing that buyers are still engaged,” said Chris Lim, RE/MAX President and Chief Growth Officer.
“At the same time, the slowdown in new listings limited inventory growth. That’s keeping conditions competitive in many markets, even as price growth remains relatively moderate. For buyers and sellers alike, this is a market where timing and expert guidance matter more than ever.”
New listings retreat extends seven-month streak
The supply picture is the defining friction point. Overall inventory rose 8.4% from April and 2.0% year over year, the 29th consecutive month of annual inventory growth, but those gains are shrinking.
President Donald Trump on Saturday announced that federal authorities had made “multiple arrests” of people he said were vandalizing the Reflecting Pool as he struggled to explain why the $14-million-plus rehabilitation project he launched for the nation’s 250th anniversary seemingly backfired.
Trump said his predecessors had let the pool turn an algae-stained green and that he’d line it with “American flag blue” so it better reflected the Washington Monument. But after the new pool was unveiled, its blue tinge quickly became a familiar green. Workers treated it with chemicals to kill the algae, but then the painted blue lining on the bottom began to peel.
On Friday night, Trump posted about the pool.
“We’ve had some real problems with Vandalism at the beautiful Reflecting Pool,” he posted on his social media site Friday night. “Just like three days ago, they destroyed the grass outside of the Pool, they’ve also done everything possible to hurt the inside surface that was just installed.”
He offered no details to substantiate his claim.
Agencies responsible for law enforcement and upkeep on the National Mall — the U.S. Park Police, National Park Service and Interior Department — did not respond to requests for comment. Trump on Saturday followed up by posting that Park Police “have arrested multiple individuals for vandalizing our Nations magnificent Reflecting Poll,” correcting his spelling to “Pool” later.
He went on: “Who would do such a thing? These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments. Years in jail!”
One man arrested was David Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Maryland, who owned a company that made composite used to build watercraft. He said he stopped by the pool during his 64-mile bike ride Friday to see what was going on.
Hearn, a former Olympic canoe racer, told The Associated Press that he reached into the pool because he wanted to examine the peeling new coating. He said he briefly touched a chunk that was still attached to the side of the pool, then let go shortly after a park worker told him to.
But, Hearn said, he was then detained by National Guard troops and Park Police for five hours before being released Friday night.
“I’m a curious citizen,” Hearn said in a telephone interview. “I reached down to see what it felt like. It was very rubbery.”
The Washington Post first reported Hearn’s arrest, and he said he has a date to appear in court next month and is looking for legal help.
Even if someone pulled ribbons of paint from the side of the pool, it would not explain the clouds of algae in green water and swaths of loose blue paint detached from the bottom.
Trump insisted something nefarious has been going on at the scene. “No different than the chemicals that were used on the National Mall, they used something similar in the Reflecting Pool to try to destroy and demean our beautiful work,” he posted Friday evening.
That was an apparent reference to the discovery of large numbers etched in discolored grass on the National Mall the week before: “86 47.” Authorities said the numbers could have been meant as a threat to Trump, the 47th president. The number 86 can be slang for “getting rid of.” They are investigating.
Trump’s claims came after days of negative attention to the state of the pool, which has drawn television cameras and curious onlookers.
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Amid the glut of shiny new amenity-filled rental communities, one type of home is disappearing from the investment landscape: the starter rental. However, savvy small investors are uniquely positioned to capitalize on the shortfall and bring them back, boosting their cash flow in the process.
Modest one-to-three-bedroom ranch houses, SROs, studio apartments, or the top floors of owner-occupied duplexes have long served as affordable landing pads for college grads, new immigrants, or arrivals to a city starting their first job. Those days appear to be over.
As rents have increased, the entry-level house that was often shared amongst roommates and cost under $1,500 per month has been priced out of reach.
The Quiet Demise of the Starter Rental
Although the death of the starter home has been much discussed of late as the affordability crisis has taken hold, the death of the starter rental has made fewer headlines. Low-cost rentals have become something of an oxymoron amid steadily rising rents.
According to a 2026 report from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, as quoted by Realtor.com, the number of rentals priced under $1,400 fell by 9.3 million units between 2014 and 2024, while units priced at $1,400 or above increased by 11.8 million, suggesting that affordable entry-level rentals were replaced by more expensive residences.
“Entry-level rentals are the first rung of the housing ladder,” Jiayi Xu, economist at Realtor.com, said in the Realtor.com press release. “An affordable entry-level rental gives a young household the financial breathing room to build savings, establish credit, and accumulate the down payment that makes homeownership possible.”
Nearly 60% of Young Adults Have Moved Back in With Their Parents
The Harvard report found that in 1990, nearly half of U.S. rental units cost under $600 a month, adjusted for inflation. By 2017, that share had dropped to about 25%, and it has steadily fallen since.
Realtor.com quoted a survey from storage solution company SpareFoot showing that 58% of adults who moved out of their parents’ home have since moved back in, with most citing affordability as the main reason.
“The under-30s is facing an uphill battle in terms of homeownership, in terms of saving, in terms of the labor market, in terms of inflation, in terms of a global pandemic disrupting a lot of young adulthood. So, I think it’s been challenging,” Kyla Scanlon, an economics writer and founder of personal financial education company Bread, told the BBC.
The Pendulum Swings Back to Affordability
The movement against bottom-rung affordable housing has not been recent. Pew Research found that 1 million SROs were destroyed or converted between 1970 and 1980 due to shoddy upkeep and substandard living conditions in major cities. Couple this with Wall Street-funded upscale rental housing communities aimed at high earners, and an essential stepping stone in the rental journey was lost.
As the housing crisis deepens, many states are looking to legalize SRO development, ADUs, basement conversions, workforce housing, and co-living set-ups. It could serve as a boon to small landlords.
Mom-and-Pop Landlords: Still the Backbone
Despite the hype around new, expansive rental developments—both built-to-rent master-planned communities and apartment buildings—mom-and-pop landlords still dominate the rental landscape, with about 90% of single-family rentals owned by landlords with under 10 units in their portfolio. As such, these landlords have the most sway in providing starter rental units.
Las Vegas real estate broker Brandon Roberts, co-owner of Signature Real Estate Group and past president of Nevada Realtors, wrote in a recent op-ed in theLas Vegas Review:
“The vast majority of rental housing in this country isn’t owned by large institutions. It’s owned by individuals, our friends, family, and neighbors. These landlords, commonly referred to as ‘mom-and-pop’ landlords, who hold anywhere between one and five properties, own 89.6% of single-family rentals. Collectively, these small-scale owners provide roughly 40% of all U.S. rental housing and disproportionately supply the most affordable options available on the private market.”
How Mom-and-Pop Landlords Can Profitably Fill the Gap
Mom-and-pop investors have an arsenal of strategies to offer lower rents while still cash-flowing investment properties.
Rent by the room
The most obvious way for mom-and-pop landlords to fill the affordable rent gap is to rent their homes by the room. This can take many forms—whether as an “official” co-living space, often marketed as workforce housing, or as student rentals.
The basic setup is that tenants pay for their own bedrooms and usually share bathroom and kitchen facilities. For landlords, it means a more labor-intensive management role, but, equally, itusually results in greater cash flow than with a whole-house 12-month lease.
Rent ADUs
ADUs come in all shapes and sizes—from luxury setups to tiny-house-like glorified backyard sheds. They require start-up costs, which, if your ADU is on the lower-cost end, can be quickly recouped.
For landlords, it can be a winning strategy—boosting cash flow from your rental while leaving the main house structure untouched. Special mortgages are available for many of these projects.
Convert basements, attics, and garages
Taking in a “lodger” doesn’t necessarily mean having to pass them in the hallway in your bathrobe every morning. Sectioning them to rarely used parts of the house, with their own entry, could add cash flow while maintaining privacy.
Take advantage of zoning changes
Zoning reform is sweeping the U.S., enabling investors to convert former commercial spaces into residential use. Though this is not applicable to every city, finding a poorly used commercial space and converting it to residential—often as SROs, micro-units, and co-living set-ups—could be a cash flow windfall while securing a rental in a bustling part of the city.
Final Thoughts
Demand for affordable housing is so high that incentives to fund it make this an ideal time for both homeowners who have never considered being landlords and professional landlords with rental portfolios to tweak their holdings to offer lower-cost housing in smaller spaces. There is a wealth of resources out there for you to tap into to help ease the housing crisis while turning a profit in the process.
The Federal Court of Canada has issued the first site-blocking order in the country’s history obtained on behalf of the music industry, targeting three stream-ripping services that siphon copyrighted audio from licensed streaming platforms.
The ruling, issued on Monday (June 15), was secured by Music Canada – the trade association representing Canada’s three major record labels: Sony Music Entertainment Canada, Universal Music Canada, and Warner Music Canada.
Stream ripping is the practice of inputting the URL of a track or video on a licensed streaming service – including YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music – into a third-party website, which then converts and downloads a permanent audio file, cutting artists and rightsholders out of the royalties those streams would otherwise generate.
The order, which you can read here, requires nine major Canadian internet service providers – including Bell, Rogers, and TekSavvy – to block access to the targeted domains using DNS blocking or rerouting, for a period of two years.
All nine ISPs are also required to display a notification to visitors of the blocked domains explaining why they are no longer accessible.
Justice Fothergill of the Federal Court found that the operators had infringed copyright by providing services with the “sole function” of enabling unauthorized reproduction, in violation of Canada‘s Copyright Act.
According to the court order, the stream-ripping platforms “circumvent the security measures implemented by YouTube in order to create a permanent, downloadable copy of audio or video content from the stream provided on YouTube, without authorization by YouTube or the Applicants.”
Alongside the blocking order, the court issued a permanent injunction requiring the operators – unidentified “John Doe” respondents – to cease all infringing activities and deactivate the domains, which include Y2mate.ws, YTmp3.lat, Savefrom.space, and Spowload.cc.
The order carries a provision allowing Music Canada to expand the blocklist to cover future copycat domains without requiring a new full hearing.
Rightsholders need only file an affidavit identifying a new infringing domain; if none of the nine ISPs object within ten business days, the court can expand the blocklist without further proceedings.
“Music Canada is committed to taking action against bad actors who deliberately steal from artists and rightsholders,” said Patrick Rogers, CEO of Music Canada. “Our goal is to ensure that artists are paid when their music is played.”
“Preventing stream ripping services from operating is one way in which we can help do that,” Rogers added.
“I believe artists should be paid when their music is played. To create the best possible environment for that to happen, we have to shut down sites that promote stealing music.”
Patrick Rogers, Music Canada
In a separate statement following the ruling, Patrick Rogers wrote: “I believe artists should be paid when their music is played. To create the best possible environment for that to happen, we have to shut down sites that promote stealing music.”
“Big thank you to everyone who worked with us to make sure that artists are paid when their music is played,” Rogers wrote, in a statement also sent to Billboard Canada.
Monday‘s ruling was the culmination of a broader enforcement effort that preceded the court action.
Before filing, Music Canada had issued successful cease-and-desist notices that closed or blocked four separate stream-ripping sites operated by three services – including what Music Canada describes as the most popular stream-ripping destination in Canada, which had been recording upwards of 1.7 million monthly visits.
Music Canada says online streaming now accounts for more than 75% of recorded music revenue in the country.
“Stream ripping… cuts artists out of the royalties they’ve earned by siphoning listeners away from legitimate streaming services, and it directly threatens the foundation of Canada‘s music marketplace.”
Music Canada
“Stream ripping is one of the most widespread forms of music piracy today,” Music Canada said in its announcement. “It cuts artists out of the royalties they’ve earned by siphoning listeners away from legitimate streaming services, and it directly threatens the foundation of Canada‘s music marketplace.”
Canada‘s Federal Court is not new to site-blocking orders.
The court has previously issued injunctions targeting operators of unauthorized live-sports streams – including broadcasts of the NHL – establishing the legal framework that Monday‘s music industry ruling follows.
The three services named in the order – Y2Mate, YTMP3, and Savefrom – are themselves copycats.
The original versions of those brands had been made inaccessible to Canadian users in earlier enforcement actions; the original Savefrom.net voluntarily blocked Canadian visitors under pressure from rightsholders years before the court order.
Justice Fothergill‘s order acknowledged this cycle explicitly, noting that the named respondents “operate platforms that are themselves ‘copycats’ of similarly branded stream ripping services that were previously deactivated, and additional copycat platforms have already begun to appear on the Internet.”
Site-blocking orders have been used against stream-ripping services in the UK, Brazil, Australia, and across Europe.
In October 2025, the IFPI — which has described stream ripping as one of the most prevalent forms of online music piracy — secured the permanent shutdown of Y2mate.com and 11 other stream-ripping services through targeted enforcement action in Vietnam.
Music Canada‘s enforcement effort extends across multiple fronts: in March 2024, the organization joined with the IFPI to shut down nine streaming manipulation sites operating in Canada, following a complaint to the Canadian Competition Bureau.
Canada ranked as the world’s ninth-largest recorded music market in 2025, with revenue growth of 5.6%YoY, according to IFPI’s Global Music Report 2026, as covered by MBW.Music Business Worldwide
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), Hong Kong’s central bank, said it is comimtted to advancing innovation that enhances efficiency and resilience.
In a statement, HKMA deputy chief executive Howard Lee reaffirmed the commitment as Hong Kong’s financial infrastructure evolves to meet the growing demands of the market.
Lee made the comment as the city’s central bank and bourse operator launched a pilot to test the use of e-HKD for derivatives after-hours trading.
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) and the HKMA said the joint pilot will explore the use of e-HKD, a wholesale central bank digital currency operating around the clock, for advance margin payments in the after-hours trading session of the derivatives market.
The initiative aims to improve Hong Kong’s capital market infrastructure by giving clearing participants a more flexible and timely way to make advance margin payments outside regular banking hours.
Under the current arrangement, clearing participants must submit advance margin deposit requests to HKFE Clearing Corporation by 3 p.m. for the funds to be counted for the subsequent after-hours trading session.
HKEX is inviting clearing participants under HKFE Clearing Corporation to take part in optional real-value trial transactions. Any wider adoption will depend on regulatory approval, market readiness and other considerations.
Vanessa Lau, HKEX chief operating officer, said the project aims to address longstanding operational pain points while strengthening the resilience of Hong Kong’s markets.
The pilot forms part of Hong Kong’s broader push to develop digital financial infrastructure and strengthen its position as an international financial centre through the adoption of emerging financial technologies, including wholesale CBDCs.
An old rule of thumb in investing says that when stocks go down, bond prices go up. This idea is called “negative correlation” — bonds and stocks tend to behave in opposite ways. But what if that is no longer true?
There’s a lot of concern among investors that bonds are no longer “safe” compared to stocks. IMF research from February shows that bond returns have become more positively correlated with stocks since 2020 — when stocks go down, bonds go down.
One reason for this change could be the rising levels of government debt in the U.S. and around the world. More issuance of government debt means more supply of bonds — and unless investor demand for bonds rises to meet that supply, that means interest rates will go up, and the price of bonds will go down.
Image source: Getty Images.
If bonds are moving more in lockstep with stocks, some investors might feel more comfortable allocating bond investments to the riskier portion of their portfolio. If so, the international Vanguard Emerging Markets Government Bond ETF(VWOB +0.48%) could be a better choice than the popular Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF(BND +0.27%).
Let’s look at these two bond ETFs and see which could be a better choice amid uncertainty in the bond market.
Vanguard Emerging Markets Government Bond ETF (VWOB): 923 bonds, 65 countries, 3 years of 9.65% annualized returns
Vanguard Emerging Markets Government Bond ETF
Today’s Change
(0.48%) $0.32
Current Price
$67.44
Key Data Points
Day’s Range
$67.39 – $67.50
52wk Range
$64.33 – $68.41
Volume
497.1K
The Vanguard Emerging Markets Government Bond ETF offers exposure to 923 international bonds issued by foreign governments of 65 countries. It charges an expense ratio of 0.15%. The fund’s top holdings include government debt from Saudi Arabia (13.2% of the fund), Mexico (10.9%), Turkey (6%), Indonesia (5.90%), and the United Arab Emirates (5.90%).
This fund has delivered annualized returns of 3.68% for the past 10 years, 9.65% for the past three years, and 11.32% last year. All of these returns have outperformed the Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF by a wide margin.
VWOB Total Return Level data by YCharts
Why have emerging market bonds delivered better returns? Because emerging-market governments are seen as riskier borrowers, they must pay higher interest rates on their government debt — and that means higher returns for their bondholders. If you buy emerging-market bonds, you are taking a risk that some countries’ governments might fall into political instability or economic crisis and default on their debts. Sometimes this happens; IMF research shows that since 1960, 147 countries have defaulted on their debts.
But for the past 10 years, that risk has been worth taking. The Vanguard Emerging Markets Government Bond ETF has strongly outperformed U.S. bonds (as represented by the Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF).
Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND): 11,455 U.S. bonds, 10 years of 1.7% annualized returns
So if the Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF has underperformed the emerging markets fund, why should anyone buy it instead? Because it’s an easy, low-cost way to get broadly diversified exposure to U.S. bonds. The Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF holds 11,455 U.S. bonds, including government bonds and corporate bonds. Its expense ratio is only 0.03%.
This U.S. bond fund has delivered annualized returns (by net asset value) of 1.7% for the past 10 years, 3.95% for the past three years, and 5.04% for the past year. Its returns haven’t been impressive for the past 10 years, but the Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF is rated by Vanguard as less risky (2 out of 5 on the risk/reward scale) than the emerging markets fund (rated as 3 out of 5).
Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF
Today’s Change
(0.27%) $0.20
Current Price
$73.34
Key Data Points
Day’s Range
$73.31 – $73.50
52wk Range
$72.34 – $75.23
Volume
6.3M
If you believe that U.S. debt is generally safer than emerging markets debt, you want to own dollar-denominated bonds with no foreign currency risk, and you just want a simple, low-cost way to own lots of bonds and are willing to accept potentially lower returns, then the Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF could be a good choice. It ranks among the best bond ETFs.
But let’s look at what happened in 2022, the last time there was a big year-long downturn in the stock market. That year, the S&P 500 index lost 18%. Instead of going up, both Vanguard bond funds went down along with the U.S. stock market.
VWOB Total Return Level data by YCharts
The Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF outperformed the S&P 500 by about 5%, and the emerging markets bond fund didn’t perform much worse than U.S. bonds — it outperformed the S&P 500 by 70 basis points. Bonds might no longer be a safe haven. In that case, could it be time to accept more risk from bonds — and better potential returns?
Why buy VWOB instead of BND?
I own the Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF, and I don’t plan to sell it. But if you believe that bonds are getting riskier, and that bond prices are likely to go down (or up) along with stocks from now on, some traditional reasons to buy the Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF might not apply.
Emerging market debt can be riskier than U.S. Treasury bonds and most U.S. corporate bonds. But for long-term investors who are comfortable with that risk, the Vanguard Emerging Markets Government Bond ETF could be a better buy.
