What would an influx of 3.8 million entry-level homes do for housing affordability? Limited inventory and strong demand continue to push home prices higher in America’s hottest housing markets, leading to declining affordability.  Forecasters are raising their predictions as tight inventories of homes, particularly lower priced properties, keep first-time buyers on the sidelines. Those 3.8 million homes, nearly twice … Read More »

Prices increased on a month-over-month basis in 253 of the top 300 markets, fewer than 293 in July, according to Homes.com’s Local Market Index for August. Read More »

In September, inventories have returned to levels of a year ago and the buying season ended with the greatest price gains seen in years, according to realtor.com’s September trend report. Read More »

Nearly two-thirds of divorce attorneys report an increase in prenuptial agreements over the past three years. Protection of the increased value of property was the leading asset spouses want protected. Read More »

August showed a slowdown in traffic for all three groups of homebuyers – current homeowners, first-time homebuyers and investors but investors were the only group in the HousingPulse Homebuyer Traffic Indexes that scored below 50 in August, which indicates traffic dropped below what is considered a “flat” traffic level. Read More »

Rising home values helped some 2.5 million homeowners return to a state of positive equity, but under-equitied mortgages-those with less than 20 percent equity– still account for one out of five, or 21.1 percent, of all residential properties with a mortgage nationwide in the second quarter of 2013, according to the latest CoreLogic report. Read More »

Once again in June, prices increased at a double digit pace in both the 10-City and 20-City Composites Indexes from S&P/Case-Shiller, posting returns of 2.2% for June and 11.9% and 12.1% over 12 months. Read More »

Some 19 out of the top 100 markets show a complete price recovery in July from the peak-to-trough decline amount attributable to the housing bubble – up from the 16 that showed full recovery in June. Read More »

July national home value appreciation rose again in July, up 0.4 percent from June to $161,600, reaching 6 percent year-over-year, the first time year-over-year appreciation rates have reached 6 percent since 2006. Read More »

The share of consumers who believe interest rates will go up over the next year increased another 5 percentage points to 62 percent, the highest level in the three-year history of Fannie Mae’s July 2013 National Housing Survey. Read More »