A 20-city composite of home prices through October as measured by the S&P/Case-Shiller Indices is teetering on the brink of falling below recent lows in 2009 to create a price new low and achieve the “double dip” in prices long feared by the real estate industry. Read More »

The government finds itself in the throes of a major housing crisis and asks, “What works? What doesn’t work?” Recent studies prove homebuyers working with housing counseling agencies are less likely to suffer foreclosure than buyers who go it alone. Homeowners working with housing counseling agencies are more likely to win a loan modification than borrowers making other choices. The government responds with a record 22% increase over last year’s federal funding in 2011. Read More »

All loss mitigators are not created equal. The odds of curing a foreclosure and avoiding redefault are 1.7 times better for homeowners enrolled in the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling (NFMC) Program than for homeowners who do not receiving such counseling, according to the Urban Institute. The group released a report yesterday analyzing the NFMC program December 2009. NeighborWorks America is … Read More »

In November inventories in 54 metropolitan areas rose to a year-high of 10 months’ supply as sales fell 25.9 percent and prices sagged 1.7 percent from a year ago according to the RE/MAX National Housing Report released today. Read More »

Allegations of legal misconduct and fraud mount as attorneys general and bank regulators investigate lenders and servicers. Charges of unauthorized practice of law by low level employees in a Philadelphia foreclosure mill that represented lenders and servicers in thousands of foreclosures is the latest wrinkle in the ongoing saga of the U.S. housing crisis. Goldbeck McCafferty & McKeever has come … Read More »

Is the homeownership rate really ten percent lower than the Census Bureau says it is? Read More »

Interest rates below 5 percent and prices bottoming out in the first half of the year will drive two of the three main ingredients for buyer affordability to cyclic lows next year, Freddie Mac’s chief economist said yesterday. Read More »

You’ve heard of the Shadow Inventory? The Heartland’s foreclosure inventory isn’t in a shadow. It’s totally hidden. Read More »

When it comes to getting a mortgage, building a new home or buying an existing one, there’s a good reason consumers don’t experience the same level of service that existed at the height of the housing boom five years ago. The ranks of real estate professionals have been devastated Read More »

Even as demand for mortgages declined with the expiration of homebuyer tax credit in the third quarter, a small number of banks tightened standards on both prime and nontraditional mortgage loans, reversing a slight net easing reported in the second quarter. Read More »