Pending Home Sales Rise in October

Pending Home Sales Rise in October

Pending home sales rose strongly in October with mixed regional results, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, increased 5.2 percent to 104.8 in October from an upwardly revised 99.6 in September and is 13.2 percent above October 2011 when it was 92.6. The data reflect contracts but not closings. Click on the Picture to watch the video and learn more about today's market ....

Rents to Keep Rising

Rents to Keep Rising

Rents are forecasted to rise nationally 4.6 percent next year, and that’s following a 4.1 percent increase this year, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.

What’s more, rents are expected to continue to climb for the foreseeable future, rising more than 4 percent a year for 2014 and 2015, forecasts Reis, a market research firm. 

“The pendulum has definitely swung back in favor of landlords, not renters,” Ryan Severino, senior economist for Reis, told USA Today. Read more ....

Five Reasons Home Prices Have Been Rising

Five Reasons Home Prices Have Been Rising

Home prices rose by 0.1% in September from the prior month and by 3.6% from one year ago, the largest such gain in six years, according to a report released Monday by Lender Processing Services.

Compared with one year ago, prices are up by 17.7% in Phoenix, the largest gain among the nation’s 40 largest metro areas. Other cities with notable year-over-year increases include Detroit (11.7%), Las Vegas (11.5%), San Jose, Calif. (11.3%), San Francisco (10%), and Sacramento (8.3%).

Among the top 40 metros, only a handful have posted year-over-year declines, led by St. Louis, which was down by 4.1%. Bridgeport, Conn., was down by 2.3%, while Chicago (-0.5%) and Cincinnati (-0.1%) also posted declines.

The LPS figures serve as a good reminder that it’s still hard to generalize about housing. Some markets are up sharply amid big declines in both prices and the share of distressed sales, while others are still soft. Generally, though, there are at least five significant contributors to rising prices: Read more....

Mortgage Rates Reached New Lows Again Last Week

Mortgage Rates Reached New Lows Again Last Week

Mortgage rates continue to fall, with fixed-rate mortgage rates reaching new record lows last week for the second consecutive week, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey. 

'Fixed mortgage rates continued to ease somewhat this week to record lows and should help the ongoing housing recovery,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. 
Here’s a closer look at mortgage averages for the week ending early due to the holiday on Nov. 21: See rates....

Fannie Mae Releases Forecast on Housing

Fannie Mae Releases Forecast on Housing

Given improvements seen in housing, Fannie Mae revised its housing forecast higher for 2012 and 2013 in its November economic outlook report.

According to the GSE, the fundamentals are set in place for a “solid” housing recovery, such as low interest rates, rising prices, and a labor market that’s healing.

Considering these developments in housing, the GSE’s Economic & Strategic Research Group anticipates single-family housing starts will jump 25 percent this year, then rise by another 22 percent in 2013.

Existing-home sales should also rise and see a 9 percent increase in 2012 and a 4 percent gain in 2013. Learn more....

Foreclosure Discounts Vanishing

Foreclosure Discounts Vanishing

Foreclosure discounts have nearly dried up due to low inventory levels, according to the latest housing reports.

The average discount nationwide for foreclosure properties has fallen to 7.7 percent, according to Zillow research. In some parts of the country, there is no foreclosure discount when compared to other sales. 

“The smallest foreclosure discount is found in places where competition for homes is so high, people there are willing to pay the same amount for a foreclosure re-sale that they would for a non-distressed home simply to take advantage of historic affordability,” says Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist. See which states...

FHA Looks to Raise Mortgage Fees to Avoid Bailout

FHA Looks to Raise Mortgage Fees to Avoid Bailout

The Federal Housing Administration plans to raise its mortgage fees next year in order to help avoid a taxpayer bailout, the Obama administration announced. A report last week revealed the FHA, which insures mortgages, faces a $16.3 billion deficit due to a rise in mortgage delinquencies over the last few years, particularly among loans that originated during the housing bubble from 2007 through 2009. 

FHA says it plans to raise its premiums on loans it guarantees by 10 basis points, which equates to about $13 per month extra to borrowers’ costs, Reuters reports. Also the FHA says it plans to increase short sales on loans it guarantees, in an effort to avoid more borrowers foreclosing on their properties. Find out how this could affect you  Read more....

Rising Rents

Rising Rents

Press More Americans to Make Big Decision

Fifty percent of Americans recently surveyed say they expect home rental prices to rise in the next year, and it’s making them lean more toward home ownership, according to the Fannie Mae October National Housing Survey, which surveyed 1,000 Americans. 

'This has been a year of steady growth in the percentage of consumers with positive home price expectations,' says Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae’s senior vice president and chief economist. 'Increasing household formation, encouraged by an improving labor market, is adding additional momentum to the housing recovery and putting upward pressure on rental price expectations. Expected increases in both owning and renting costs may encourage more consumers to buy and add further strength to the housing recovery already under way.' Read more...

Freddie Mac Paints Realistic Picture

Freddie Mac Paints Realistic Picture

Of a 'Healthy' Market

The housing market is slowly but surely getting back up to speed, but don’t expect it to recover to peak levels,Freddie Mac says in its latest U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook.

In the November outlook, Freddie Mac takes into account recent trends, housing indicators, shifting demographic patterns to put together a picture of what makes a “healthy” housing market. According to the GSE’s projections, the current trajectory of the recovery should bring the market to a healthy state by 2017.
According to the data, housing starts should increase to about 1.7 to 1.8 million homes per year, a pace below the 2.1 million peak set in 2005. However, Freddie Mac VP and chief economist Frank Nothaft said the projected pace should be “much more sustainable” given the pace of household formations.

Starts in Q3 reached about 790,000, according to the GSE’s data. Learn more...

Threat of Shadow Inventory Fades

Threat of Shadow Inventory Fades

Delinquencies, Foreclosures Decline

The percent of loans in foreclosure, or the foreclosure inventory rate, fell to the lowest level since the first quarter of 2009, according to the latest delinquency survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the foreclosure inventory rate in the third quarter was 4.07 percent, down 20 basis points from last quarter and 36 basis points from a year ago. MBA reported the quarterly decrease was the largest since the survey’s history.
“The level however, is still roughly four times the long-run average for this series as we continue to see back logs of loans in the foreclosure process in states with a judicial foreclosure system,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s VP of research and economics, in a release. Lean more...

Median Price and Sales Up

Median Price and Sales Up

A lower supply of inventory and fewer distressed sales led to stronger home price gains across the country, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) revealed in a recent report.

On a national level, the median price for existing single-family homes increased 7.6 percent to $186,100 in the third quarter of this year compared to last year. In the third quarter of 2011, the median price was $173,000.NAR says the annual gain is the strongest since the first quarter of 2006 when the median price was up 9.4 percent.

In the second quarter, the median price posted a 7.2 percent yearly increase.

When assessing third quarter price growth in metros areas, NAR found the median price for existing homes improved in 120 out of 149 metro areas since the same quarter a year ago. NAR’s findings are based on closings. Learn more....

NAR Forecast on Housing, Economy

NAR Forecast on Housing, Economy

NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun says he expects the market share of distressed sales to fall from about 25 percent in 2012 to 8 percent in 2014, according to a release on the forum.
Mark Vitner, managing director and senior economist at Wells Fargo, was one of the speakers at the NAR forum. Vitner compared distressed homes to an after-Christmas sale stating, “most of the best stuff has been picked over, but make no mistake they’ll be with us for a while.”

The housing recovery was expected to continue so long as credit does not further tighten and a fiscal cliff is avoided. Mortgage Rates and Housing Market projected for 2013....

Mortgage Rates Stay Low

Mortgage Rates Stay Low

Keep Buying Power High

A year ago at this time, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages dropped below 4 percent for the first time since Freddie Mac started reporting national average mortgage rates in 1971. Thirty-year rates have fairly much stayed below 4 percent since then too, continuing to hover near all-time record lows and pushing home buyers’ purchasing power higher and helping refinancers to unlock savings. 

Freddie Mac reports the following national averages in mortgage rates for the week ending Nov. 8. Read more ....

Foreclosed Home Owners

Foreclosed Home Owners

Rebound Faster With FHA Loans

Home owners who experienced foreclosures are finding themselves owning again sometimes only three years later—possibly even less—with Federal Housing Administration-backed loans.

Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac usually require a seven-year wait following a foreclosure. However, the FHA will approve loans after three years, if the borrower can show good credit and ability to pay the mortgage. 

The FHA insures loans with low down payments, such as 3.5 percent, and tends to have greater flexibility with income requirements too. Read more ....

FHA Revises Condo Rules

FHA Revises Condo Rules

Agency reduces barriers to financing, though restrictions still hamper some investments.

 When an investor seeking FHA financing last August tried to buy a condominium unit in Telluride, Colo., the picturesque ski town nestled in the Rockies, the transaction fell through. Too much space in the project was devoted to non-residential commercial use.

“The project didn’t meet the condo-to-commercial ratio, so I lost the deal,” says George Harvey Jr., broker-owner of the Harvey Team in Telluride and vice chair of NAR’s Resort Committee. “The FHA has all these check boxes—you can’t do this, you can’t do that—and even for loans that aren’t FHA-insured, a lot of banks won’t make a loan on the idea that, if the FHA isn’t going to make it, they’re not going to either. So, anything the FHA can do to make condo financing a little easier would be really important.” Read more ....

Jobs, Rising Rents Help Pending Sales Inch Up

Jobs, Rising Rents Help Pending Sales Inch Up

NAR’s forward-looking pending home sales index showed a very small rise in September, just 0.3 percent, but it’s one more data point to suggest the recovery is solidly underway even if it remains modest. The rise represents the latest in a string of about half a dozen months in which pending sales have moved in a very narrow band, and that’s really what’s most informative about the latest release: it suggests that the underlying factors in the improved market are systemic and not due to just one or two transient factors. To Watch the video click on link: Affordable Utah Housing

Extra Touches to Help Sell This Fall

Extra Touches to Help Sell This Fall

Homes can look less inviting in the fall and cooler months, but there are easy ways you can evoke that “homey” feel buyers crave. 

'Inventory is low, so if you have your house on the market and it's priced well, it's going to sell,' says Gail Hartnett, a National Association of REALTORS® regional vice president and an agent with Keller Williams Realty Boise in Idaho.

Hartnett offers some of the following tips:  Read more .....

September See Biggest Yearly Price Gain Since 2006

September See Biggest Yearly Price Gain Since 2006

Home prices in September posted their biggest yearly gain in more than 6 years, but prices displayed a typical seasonal slowdown and fell month-over-month, according to the Home Price Index (HPI) report from CoreLogic.

When including distressed sales, the report showed home prices moved higher by 5 percent from September 2011, the seventh straight month of yearly increases and the biggest annual gain since July 2006.
From August to September, prices decreased by 0.3 percent.
CoreLogic’s pending HPI projects continued yearly gains into October, with prices expected to rise by 5.7 percent from October 2011. As the winter season sets in, prices are expected to continue moving downward and drop 0.5 percent month-over-month. Read more... 

Rent Prices Continue to Rise

Rent Prices Continue to Rise

Faster than Asking Prices

Rent prices are climbing faster than asking prices and are rising in metros where asking prices are falling, according to a report from Trulia.

Year-over-year, nationwide rent prices were up 5.1 percent in October, while asking prices were up 2.9 percent during the same period when including foreclosures.
Out of the top 25 rental markets in the United States, Houston led with a 16.5 percent yearly increase. Miami and Oakland took the next two spots with a 10 percent gain in rent prices, Trulia reported.
Denver was ranked number 4 with a 9.4 percent increase and Seattle fifth for its 8.8 percent improvement. Read more ...

Borrowers With Sub-660 Credit Scores

Borrowers With Sub-660 Credit Scores

 Face Big Hurdles

While standards for FHA loans have stayed about the same as they were in 2006, banks claim, borrowers with credit scores lower than 660 are facing a tougher time in getting approved, according to a new survey by the Federal Reserve of 68 domestic banks and 23 U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks.

The majority of the domestic banks surveyed said that their lending standards for approving an application for a Federal Housing Administration-backed mortgages are about the same as they were in 2006. But borrowers with credit scores lower than 660 may have a more difficult time getting approval, according to the Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on bank lending practices. Read more ....

Mortgage Rates Back Near All-Time Lows

Mortgage Rates Back Near All-Time Lows

Under signs of a growing economy and low inflation, fixed-rate mortgages inched down this week and are hovering near their record lows, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey. 

Here’s a closer look at average mortgage rates for the week ending Nov. 1:  Read more ...

Fannie, Freddie Streamline Short-Sale Approvals

Fannie, Freddie Streamline Short-Sale Approvals

Beginning Nov. 1, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac gave nine private mortgage insurers the ability to approve short sales and deeds in lieu of foreclosure for distressed home owners without requiring a separate review. The move is expected to reduce delays, costs, and uncertainty involved in processing short sales and deed in lieu, according to mortgage giant Freddie Mac.

Under the new agreement with the private mortgage insurers, the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) will allow the insurers to approve short sales or deed in lieu of foreclosure who have a Freddie or Fannie-backed loans without requiring a “separate and potentially time-consuming review” by the mortgage insurance companies, according to a news release. Read more...

Will the Upcoming Election Shed Some Light

Will the Upcoming Election Shed Some Light on Shadow Inventory?

Ever since the notorious subprime mortgage meltdown and subsequent collapse of the housing market in 2007-2008, many of the nation’s lenders have found themselves loaded down and plagued with a plethora of foreclosed real estate holdings.

Not wanting to create an influx of inventory in what had been an unambiguous buyer’s market for several years, lenders were hesitant to overstep the delicate tenets of supply and demand for fear that such a step would further reduce property values, diminishing their ability to recoup housing costs and possible ROI.

This “retreat” from the market resulted in a surplus of what is commonly known as the “shadow inventory.” Frustrated with how the market’s been trending, both buyers and lenders are just now beginning to actively seek out real estate transactions, but their previous inactivity has resulted in a stalemate of sorts, leaving the market sluggish and in desperate need of a kick-start. Read more ....