For the first time ever, sales of properties in some stage of foreclosure (largely short sales) outnumbered sales of bank-owned properties (REO) in the third quarter, as short sales continue to gain market share at the expense of REO and sales of completed foreclosures at auction. Read More »

October prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased on a year-over-year basis by 6.3 percent in October 2012, the biggest increase since June 2006 and the eighth consecutive increase in home prices nationally on a year-over-year basis, according to the latest data from CoreLogic. Read More »

In addition to banks’ tight mortgage lending standards that were criticized by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke two weeks ago, Fitch also said continued recovery in residential real estate prices will require regional improvements. Read More »

Two of the nation’s most authoritative national housing price indices today reported significant third quarter price increases over last year at this time, and the chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices confirmed that a housing recover is underway. Read More »

The first-time homebuyer share of home purchases fell to 34.7 percent in October, down from the 37.1 percent share in June and the lowest first-time homebuyer share ever recorded in the three-year history of the HousingPulse survey. 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 »

Over the past few months, the number of markets experiencing year-over-year price declines has steadily increased, while the number experiencing list price increases has steadily declined. Compared to one year ago, a higher number of markets are ending the year with a year-over-year price decline (44 in 2012 vs. 36 in 2011) and a lower number of markets have a year-over-year price increase (71 in 2012 vs.84 in 2011). Read More »

The latest research on consumer confidence shows that consumers’ forward-looking view of the economy is at its highest level since the onset of the recession, including interest in buying a new home, which is at its highest level since the recession. Read More »

The national average discount on foreclosures has shrunk by 1.4 percentage points over the past year as competition for foreclosures as inventories tighten is driving prices closer to full-price properties. Read More »

CoreLogic’s pending sales index indicates that October prices will rising by 5.7 percent on a year-over-year basis from October 2011 and falling by 0.5 percent on a month-over-month basis from September 2012 as sales exhibit a seasonal slowdown going into the winter. Read More »