One of the best measures of the housing recovery is the steady progress than is being made in markets across the country to return home values to their peak values seven or eight years ago.  While sales sag despite retreating interest rates and inventories provide just enough listings to prevent last year’s price eruption, homeowners are leaving negative equity and … Read More »

Housing markets overall are largely flat compared to a month ago and especially since last year at this time. Of those markets that are improving or experiencing a stable range of housing activity, most are benefiting from the energy boom taking place along the country’s mid-section. Freddie Mac’s Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi) reports that: The national MiMi value stands at … Read More »

Halfway through the spring buying season, mortgage applications fell 1.2 percent for the week ending May 21 and the  unadjusted Mortgage Bankers Association’s Purchase Index fell even more.  It was down 2 percent in just one week-15 percent lower than it was a year ago at this time. Such a decline in borrowing to buy a home in the third … Read More »

A few eyebrows raised when the latest FHFA House Price Index (HPI) reported the Charleston market led the nation in price increases during the first quarter (See South Carolina Plays Catch Up).  Charleston is not the only southeastern market to join the housing recovery. According to the latest monthly poll of southeastern broker and builder contacts by the Atlanta Federal … Read More »

April sales were 10.9% better than they were in a rather dismal March, but they were still slower than they were a year ago by 7.8%, according to RE/MAX’s monthly  market report. In March, all 52 surveyed metro areas reported monthly sales increases, a trend continued in April with 50 of the 52 metros experiencing sales increases from the previous … Read More »

More than 100 housing economists and experts participating in a quarterly survey expect nationwide home values to appreciate 4.4 percent through the end of this year.  The most optimistic group of panelists predicted a 5.8 percent annual increase in home values this year, on average, while the most pessimistic predicted an average increase of 3.2 percent. .Panelists said they expect … Read More »

Consumers apparently have not gotten the news. They remain rosy about homeownership even though not enough of them are taking the plunge themselves. Read More »

The year over year price increases that the real estate industry has grown accustomed to may be in for some dicey days if sales in April aren’t better than March.  March prices registered an 11.1 increase over 2013, 1.3 percent higher than February, but CoreLogic is forecasting a rise of only 0.8 percent in April. The CoreLogic HPI Forecast indicates … Read More »

  April is supposed to be the month that real estate agents’ phones ring off the hooks, yard signs sprout like dandelions, buyers line up for showings and offers fall from the sky like cherry blossom petals. Above all, this was to be the spring season when at last all the stars were properly aligned in the real estate galaxy … Read More »

The numbers of foreclosures and potential foreclosures have fallen dramatically over the past 12 months as the foreclosure picture rapidly returns to pre-2006 levels.  The decline in foreclosures in the pipeline has important ramifications for real estate investors and local markets that are returning to health as they recover from the foreclosure flood that produced 4.9 million foreclosures since 2008. … Read More »