“Now we’ll sweep up everybody over the next two years who got stuck, who says I have home price appreciation, which they do. They bought right, but now they are stuck.” The chief executive officer of the second largest hedge fund landlord articulated in an interview with Bloomberg why a handful of megalords are the process of dominating the single … Read More »

Fewer first-time homebuyers are finding a way to buy a house with a relatively low down payment as their options shrink and lenders’ down payment requirements rise. From April through June 2014, about 67 percent of first-time buyers made a downpayment of 6 percent or less, down from 74 percent in 2009, according to the latest Realtor Confidence Index report … Read More »

  Prospective buyers aren’t even going through the motions of applying for financing as applications for purchase mortgages weakened in May.  Most housing markets remain stalled largely markets moved into their stable range of housing activity according to Freddie Mac’s Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi). The national MiMi value stands at -2.64 points indicating a weak housing market overall with only … Read More »

Student loans have been a problem for first-time buyers for generations, but they didn’t stop first-timers from buying 40 percent of the homes sold ten years ago. So what’s the whining all about? One thing that’s different is the size and scope of the problem.  Overall student loan debt recently breached the $1 trillion mark. There are more individuals with … Read More »

Latest mortgage data is a puzzlement.  A higher percentage of mortgage applications, including purchase mortgages, closed in June than in the past three years even though lending standards for purchase mortgages are virtually unchanged in a year. The closing rate for mortgages received by lenders in the past 90 days closed in June.  The jump in approvals drove the closing … Read More »

  The national apartment market maintained its strong 2014 performance in June, as year-to-date effective rent growth continued to exceed that of any other post-Great Recession year, according to Axiometrics, the leading provider of apartment market research and data. June’s concession rate of 0.78% was the lowest in at least five years, annualized effective rent growth of 3.6% was the highest … Read More »

Too many homeowners are still underwater on their mortgages for home values in half of the nation’s 100 largest metro areas to reach their pre-recession peak levels  within the next  three-plus years, according to the second quarter Zillow Real Estate Market Reports Nationally, home values remain 11.3 percent below their 2007 peak. Looking ahead, U.S. home values are expected to … Read More »

  The national Property Valuation Fraud Risk Index rose 27 percent in the first quarter and 17 percent from a year ago, evidence that an epidemic of fraudulent home valuations is sweeping certain real estate markets on the East and West Coasts. Property valuations are increasingly being manipulated by individuals who purchase and list multiple properties in the same neighborhoods … Read More »

New foreclosure activity data from June, when a total of 107,194 U.S. properties had a foreclosure filing, fell 2 percent from the previous month and was down 16 percent from a year ago to lowest level since July 2006, before the housing price bubble burst Total foreclosure activity in June was the lowest since the housing bubble burst in August … Read More »

It might be hot outside but its freezing in the inboxes of hundreds of the nation’s mortgage lenders.  Last week applications fell to their lowest level since February. Maybe it’s just a sign that the selling season is winding down. More likely it’s something a lot more serious—yet another signal that the housing recovery is seriously sick and keeps getting … Read More »