This morning, the S&P/Case-Shiller Index report for November was released showing US home prices decreased from the month before as well as the year before. The 10-city and 20-city composites fell by 1.3 percent each and the home price indexes were down 3.6 percent and 3.7 percent respectively from the year before. For a second consecutive month, 19 of 20 cities covered by the indices also saw home prices decrease. [...]
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Have you ever thought about the similarities between houses and the human body? For example as our bodies age, things are not quite as straight, square and firm as they once were in our younger years. At one time I had a 44 inch chest and now with age it seems that chest dimension is closer to my waist line. In most cases, this aging in homes translates into floors not being totally level and windows and doors being skewed slightly or not latching. While this may create slight operational issues these conditions are quite common in older homes, some more so than others depending on the age, floor plan, design etc. While one could, in theory go through and re-level the floors, in my opinion in most cases this would be an unnecessary expense and cause additional problems. Quite frankly many look at these conditions as part of the “character” and “charm” of an older home. [...] Until recently, home ownership was no bargain compared to renting, according to Paul Diggle, a housing economist at Capital Economics. Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau and published statistics from Thomson Datastream indicate that rising rents and falling mortgages are tipping the scales towards home ownership. The median monthly mortgage payment has fallen to about the same as a median monthly rent check. [...] Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau released new home sales data for December 2011 showing a decrease of 2.2 percent from the month before, and a decrease of 7.3 percent from a year ago. The seasonally-adjusted new home sales rate for December was 307,000 homes, down from an [...] Foreclosure Price 34 Percent Below Average Price of Non-Foreclosures RealtyTrac, today released its third-quarter 2011 U.S. Foreclosure Sales Report, which shows that sales of homes that were in some stage of foreclosure or bank owned accounted for 20 percent of all U.S. residential sales in the third quarter of 2011, down from 22 percent of all sales in the second quarter and down from 30 percent of all sales in the third quarter of 2010. [...] Based on what we’ve heard, the settlement between major banks and states’ Attorneys General (AGs), the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Justice would represent an important step forward in addressing foreclosure abuses. The settlement would include key reforms to clean up unfair mortgage servicing practices. It would also provide an important template for ways banks can use principal reduction to reduce unnecessary foreclosures and put the country back on a path to economic recovery. [...] Realtor.com, which claims to have more traffic on it’s website than any other real estate website in the world, released their report for December showing how 146 metro areas in the U.S. stack up in terms of popularity for home searches. Chicago was number 1 on the list again this month, followed by Detroit, MI, and Los-Angeles-Long Beach, CA. [...] Today’s existing home sales report from the National Association of REALTORS® shows existing home sales in December were at at a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 4.61 million units which is an increase of 5.0 percent from the month before and an increase of 3.6 percent from a year ago. The actual number of homes sold in December was 350,000 which is 4.5 percent more than the month before and 1.4 percent more than December 2010 when there were 345,000 homes sold. [...] The last couple of months I have said that, “unless something changes dramatically, 2011 will hit a new record low of new home starts. Unfortunately, nothing dramatic happened, and 2011 has ended with only 428,600 new home starts setting a new record low and significantly below the prior all-time low of 445,200 starts in 2009. [...] What income is required to qualify for a mortgage? That largely depends on your monthly debt payments and the current interest rate. This calculator collects these important variables and determines your required income to qualify for your desired mortgage amount.(click here)
Mortgage interest rates have fallen this [...] Mortgage delinquencies in December increased to 2.24 percent of all mortgages, a slight increase from the month before when delinquencies were at 2.22 percent but a decrease of over 25 percent from a year ago when the rate was 3.01 percent. The mortgage delinquency rate is something I pay close attention to because it is the “leading indicator” of foreclosures and foreclosures and REO’s are one of the major hurdles to a recovery in the housing market. Declining delinquency rates are our first clue that the housing market is headed to a recovery. [...] This morning, RealtyTrac released their 2011 year-end U.S. Foreclosure Market Report which shows that 2,698,967 foreclosure filings (default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions) we’re reported on 1,887,777 properties in the U.S. during the year, a decrease of 34 percent from the year before and marking the lowest level since 2007! [...] A report released this morning by CoreLogic, one of the nations leading providers of property information shows that home prices in the U.S. fell in November 4.3 percent from the year before and declined by 1.4 percent from the month before marking the fourth consecutive monthly decline in home prices. [...] This morning, Freddie Mac released the results of it’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey revealing that the interest rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 3.91 percent, matching the all-time low! Makes me want to go out and borrow some money! The National Association of Realtors’ research staff recently released its comprehensive annual report: Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers for 2011. Market researcher, Paul C. Bishop, Ph. D., Vice President and Jessica Lautz, Manager of Consumer Survey Research state that they’ve identified “trends that have not been seen in the last 10 years,” which will affect the housing market as we enter 2012. [...] |
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At this time last year, the interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.77 percent. [...]