As household formation strengthens and returns to previous levels over the next ten years, a new report from the Demand Institute projects that demand for rental housing will continue to lead the way and the home ownership rate is unlikely to revert to previous highs seen during the housing boom in the early 2000s. According to the report, while … Read More »

A new survey from Bankrate found that primary reason 29 percent of renters can’t buy a home is they can’t afford a down payment.  However, at least one out of five of them are overestimating how much they think they will have to raise for a down payment. The more than 3250 non-homeowners participating in the survey expect that they … Read More »

Next September, two months before the Presidential election, America celebrates eight years since the Treasury Department took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and turned them into wholly owned subsidiaries. Since then the federal government’s control over the nation’s housing markets has grown even greater than ever. While we’ve been waiting for policymakers to fix a broken system of housing, … Read More »

Though 2015 was dubbed the Year of the Millennial, though the final sales data are not yet in, actual purchases by young first-time buyers disappointed many real estate observers. Between July 2014 and June 2015. first–time buyers declined to 32 percent (33 percent a year ago), which is the second–lowest share since the survey’s inception (1981) and the lowest since … Read More »

Home sales dropped 3.4 percent in October, surprising housing economists and raising concern about the strength of the recovery especially since mortgage rates remaining below 4 percent for the third straight month, existing According to Bloomberg, economists had forecast that existing sales dropped 2.7% in October at an annual rate of 5.40 million. Economists had noted that after a 4.7% … Read More »

‘Closed loan credit scores continued tumble, while DTI rose in October’ promised the headline from Ellie Mae this month. Eagerly I scanned through the data, hoping at last to see a relaxation of the squeaky tight lending standards for purchase loans, enough to really mean something to the millions of young buyers trying to maneuver their way through student loan … Read More »

Tight inventories and strong demand are combining to push starter home prices out of the reach of buyers, keeping them in rentals.  As a result, rents are rising even more, trapping young households in a cycle of price pain with no escape. The latest September data from the CoreLogic HP reports home prices nationwide, including distressed* sales, increased by 6.4 … Read More »

Student loan debt continues to grow as an obstacle in a consumer’s ability to buy a home, as 57 percent of 2015 respondents who acknowledge having student loans said this debt was either “very much” or “somewhat” of an obstacle, compared to 49 percent of 2014 respondents, according to the third annual America at Home survey from NeighborWorks America. The survey … Read More »

Purchases by current homeowners helped bolster home prices in August, according to results from the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. “Current homeowner purchases are supporting the housing market,” said Tom Popik, research director for Campbell Surveys. “Metrics such as the sales-to-list price ratio show a strong housing market, particularly in western states. Nonetheless, forward-looking commentary from real estate … Read More »

A study by Federal Reserve economists Elora Raymond and Jessica Dill found that it’s true that first-time homebuyers prefer to buy in the city.  They tend to live closer city centers than existing homeowners who are burying a new home.  First-timers buy within an average of 5.8 to 5.9 miles from city centers whereas existing owners prefer 6 to y25 … Read More »