For the fourth time since January, Freddie Mac has lowered its forecast for home sales this year from 5.6 million in January to 5.31 million in August.  It also reduced its estimate of total mortgage originations  from $1,750,000 to $1,150,000. Freddie kept its projection for 2014 price appreciation at 5 percent, not quite as high as Fannie Mae’s forecast of … Read More »

      No one knows exactly how many renters become homeowners because—or partly because–they love their dog or cat. Faced the option of losing a loved pooch or biting the bullet and buying, certainly many more choose homeownership to keep a pet than admit it. There’s no doubt that pet unfriendly landlords are partly to blame for the boom in … Read More »

    Home price increases that were generated in the heady days of spring are drying up quickly in the summer months, increasing the chances that the year will end with the housing recovery’s performance far short of last year’s stellar performance and possibly in the red in more marginal markets than last year. The national median existing single-family home … Read More »

Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 7.5 percent in June 2014 compared to June 2013 and rose 1 percent over May, setting new highs for 12 states.  Despite low rates, investor purchases and tight supplies, prices are expected to slow down to a .07 percent monthly increase in July. A total of 12 states, plus the District of Columbia, … Read More »

As a percent of all sales, distressed sales fell to 18 percent in July from their peak of 40.8 percent in March of 2011. The major shift in home sale type, from distressed to fair market, will continue to impact future growth potential for markets overall, reports Clear Capital’s July Market Report. Does that mean home price gains will continue … Read More »

Price increases slowed so much in the second quarter that the numbers of seriously underwater homes and the percentage of equity rich properties barely increased over the first quarter of 2014. The second quarter of 2014 saw only a small percentage decline in the percentage homes that were seriously underwater, 17.2 percent versus 17.4 percent in the first quarter of … 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 »

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 »

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 »

  Existing and new home sales have recovered somewhat since 2010, but as of April 30, existing home sales were about 10% below their 1999 level, and new home purchases were just half of what they were that year. In fact, single-family housing starts remain below those of any year before 2009 and are at about half the 1959 total. … Read More »