Some 9.3 million U.S. residential properties were deeply underwater – worth at least 25 percent less than the combined loans secured by the property – representing 19 percent of all properties with a mortgage in December. That was down from 10.7 million residential properties deeply underwater in September 2013, representing 23 percent of all properties with a mortgage, and down from 10.9 million properties deeply underwater in January 2013, representing 26 percent of all properties with a mortgage. Read More »

Rising inventory levels during the final months of the buying season are dramatically boosting sales and prices have continued to increase as the forces driving the housing recovery shift from lack of supply to demand. Sales are soaring despite new evidence that investors are buying fewer properties. Read More »

Four times more homeowners returned to positive equity in the first quarter of year as the recovery drove home values higher across the nation. Read More »

Are zombie houses where the monsters live in the latest Resident Evil sequel? Or are they fraternities decked out for Halloween? Neither. Read More »

President Obama is considering announcing a major expansion of the HARP 2.1 refinancing program in his upcoming State of the Union speech that would make it possible for underwater borrowers whose loans are not held by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to refinance at today’s low rates. Read More »

Data reports showing prices zooming in Florida and California markets that once led the foreclosure hit parade mask the reality that prices fell so far in some of those metros they still have a long way to go to reach their peaks in 2007-if they ever do so. Read More »

Some 10.7 million homeowners, or 22 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage, were in negative equity at the end of the third quarter of 2012, down by 100,000 from the second quarter. But the “sand states”, the states that dominated foreclosures for years, still account for a lion’s share of underwater borrowers. Read More »

In the third quarter, homeowners’ equity rose nearly 18 percent over the level of a year ago to reach the highest level recorded since the second quarter of 2008. Read More »

As the nation’s real estate economy has evolved and slowly improved over the past two and a half years, the geography of almost every leading metric measuring the health of local housing markets has changed to reflect local economic trends and conditions except the one that many economists and policy makers consider to be critical to the national economic recovery. Read More »

Unlike the past three years, this year the price appreciation gains achieved during the spring and summer won’t fade away in the fall and winter because an improved balance between supply and demand fueled by investors, pent up demand and consumer confidence is making today’s housing recovery more durable than past efforts in recent years. Read More »