Price growth will plummet to an annual rate of only 0.9 percent for the balance of the year after the tumble began with a stumble when price increases fell to just a 0.9 percent quarter over quarter growth rate at the end of second quarter in June. That’s the latest prognosis from Dr. Alex Villacorta, Clear Capital’s  vice president … Read More »

Sea changes are in store for residential real estate ten years from now.  Millions of new households will lift rental and starter home markets, half of the new families will be minorities and their ability to access mortgage finance will determine whether they own or rent. Those are some of the headlines from the Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies’ … Read More »

  Most housing markets remain weak despite declining mortgage delinquencies, improving local employment, house price gains and attractive mortgage rates due to weak home purchase mortgage applications. The latest data from Freddie Mac’s Multi-Indicator Market Index(SM) (MiMi(SM)) showing mixed signals for the U.S. housing market: The national MiMi value stands at -3.01 points indicating a weak housing market overall with … Read More »

  The nasty late spring that kept the northern states frozen into March and early April delayed the annual spring buying season for thousands of sellers and buyers, including first-time buyers.  Now that the sun is shining there’s no excuse and a lot of concern for the poor showing first-timers are making these days. This week the National Association of … Read More »

Rising prices, shortages of entry level homes and a lackluster economy are combining forces to change the face of homeownership.  The result is a sea change in the median prices of home purchases and a growing gap in the financial profiles of those who can afford to own a home and those who will live their lives as renters.  These … Read More »

Existing-home sales rose strongly in May as did new home sales, which rose in May by greatest monthly increase in 22 years.  Yet sales still trailed the torrid sales pace of a year ago. Total existing-home sales rose 4.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million in May from an upwardly-revised 4.66 million in April, but remain … Read More »

Steady price increases driven by another season of inventory shortages has convinced a record number of consumers that now is a good time to sell a house.  Unfortunately, millions of homeowners are missing the opportunity. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 44pecent of American adults say it’s a good time for someone in their area to be … Read More »

  Though home purchase applications have picked up with onset of the spring season, they’re still currently 13 percent below last year. As a result, last week Freddie Mac’s economists lowered their overall homes sales forecast from 5.5 million to 5.4 million. Low for-sale inventory is helping to sustain house price and rent gains but at the expense of affordability … Read More »

Despite tighter lending standards enacted by mortgage lenders beginning in 2007 and new regulations like the QM Rule, the risk of mortgages originated today is 13 percent higher than it was in the 1990s. The Default Risk Index for the second quarter of 2014 rose to 113 from last quarter’s revised 112 in our baseline scenario. Under current economic conditions, … Read More »

Home prices are projected to increase 1.0 percent every month from until May 2014, reaching an 6.3 percent year-over-year increase (+/- 1.5 percent) from April 2014 to April 2015, according to the latest forecast by the CoreLogic Home Price Index. excluding distressed sales like foreclosures and short sales,  prices are expected to rise between 0.8 percent month over month and … Read More »