A new Freddie Mac study of older Americans over 55 finds that more than a third still have a mortgage—36 percent-, and a majority of those with a mortgage have more than ten years left until their loan is paid off.  In many ways , the Freddie Mac survey that was released last month, “Fun After Fifty”,  found that the … Read More »

Job growth and better housing values in America’s heartland will reverse the movement of families to the coasts in recent years and generate population growth in Midwestern markets which have declinded in recent years. Over half of experts surveyed in the latest quarterly Zillow Home Price Expectations (ZHPE) Survey said they don’t expect migration to the coasts to continue indefinitely. … Read More »

The conventions are over and both nominees have laid out their agendas but neither has yet to capture the housing vote.   A new survey by the national Association of Home Builders taken July 22-24 during the Republican convention was evenly split on which presidential candidate would be best for housing. Thirty-eight percent of the respondents cited Hillary Clinton, 37 … Read More »

A new national survey sponsored by the Consumer Federation of America found that consumers greatly underestimate the cost of low credit scores and a significant minority do not know that credit scores are used by non-creditors. Only about half (53%) know that electric utilities may use credit scores (for example, in determining the initial required deposit), while only about two-thirds … Read More »

The percentage of renters paying more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs is increasing while cost-burned homeowners are decreasing, according to the 2014 State of the Nation’s Housing report released yesterday by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. On the owner side, the number of households facing cost burdens has fallen steadily as high foreclosure rates … Read More »

It’s no secret that chronicle inventory shortages are curtailing home sales.  Now Redfin reports evidence that buyers are getting the message and buyers are staying away. The Redfin Housing Demand Index fell 5.5 percent to 97 in February from a year earlier, marking the third consecutive month of year-over-year declines in demand. The drop in demand was a result of … Read More »

Nearly half of all homeowners who lost their homes to foreclosure during the housing bust own their own homes again and most have a mortgage. just nine years after home prices bottomed in 2007. A new report from the Urban Institute that compares credit profiles of renters and owners found nine million (7.1 percent) of all adult consumers with a … Read More »

More affordable and better choice are driving more millennials to buy in the suburbs and fewer in city neighborhoods, according to the 2016 National Association of Realtors® Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends study. The share of millennials buying in an urban or central city area decreased to 17 percent in 2016 from 21 percent a year ago while more … Read More »

As the build-up to the spring buying season winds down in a matter of weeks, the inventory picture is shaping up be significantly worse than it was last year—which was one of the tightest in recent years.  A rush of new listings in February and March could brighten the picture, but through January it’s clear that inventories are going starting … Read More »

In the cold light of winter. concerns about affordability are cooling potential buyers, according to the latest Sentiment Index from Fannie Mae. Fevers consumers believe this is a “Good Time to Buy”; figures trended down for the year in 2015 and declined an additional 4 percentage points in January. The share of consumers who reported that their income was significantly … Read More »