Thu, May 28 2015, 10:45 AM
April saw the highest number for pending sales in nearly nine years the
National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said today. The Pending Home Sal...
Tue, May 26 2015, 11:00 AM
New home sales beat most analyst expectations in April,
rising 6.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 517,000 units and
posting a 26....
Fri, May 22 2015, 11:22 AM
Yes,
I know it is the Friday before a 3-day weekend, after which it is okay
to wear white shoes to formal events. (And yes, there will be a
comm...
Fri, May 22 2015, 1:42 PM
Fannie
Mae's economists used their May economic and strategic summary to downgrade
expectations for 2015 growth but at the same time painted a slig...
Thu, May 21 2015, 11:01 AM
Existing home sales in April failed both to match their
corresponding numbers in March and to live up to the consensus of analysts in
advance of thi...
Thu, May 21 2015, 10:41 AM
Hundreds
of capital markets folks have returned, bleary-eyed, to their roosts
around the country. Unfortunately, as Cantor Fitzgerald's Dave Gottf...
Tue, May 19 2015, 2:00 PM
That headline question is the focus of the May Economic and Housing Outlook produced by
Freddie mac's Office of the Chief Economist.
The economic...
Mon, May 18 2015, 12:10 PM
While they were discussing different vintages, home sellers
have a slightly more upbeat outlook on home sales then do the builders of those
homes. ...
Mon, May 18 2015, 9:40 AM
The
last seven days has involved a little travel for me: Oregon, Incline
Village in Nevada, and now Manhattan for the MBA's Secondary Marketing
...
Fri, May 15 2015, 10:53 AM
It's all relative. The Mortgage
Bankers Association (MBA) said that applications for the purchase of newly
constructed homes rose a scant 0.3 perc...
Wed, May 13 2015, 10:57 AM
The influence of cash sales on the residential real estate
market continued to decline in February with those sales accounting for 37.9
percent of...
Mon, May 11 2015, 2:20 PM
Home price appreciation accelerated in
many metropolitan areas in the first quarter of 2015. The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) again
sa...
Thu, Apr 30 2015, 10:43 AM
I
travel around a fair amount, spending time with lenders, Realtors, and
TSA personnel. A major concern among the first two groups is whether or
...
Wed, Apr 29 2015, 10:39 AM
First
off, let me apologize for having the incorrect site in yesterday's
commentary regarding the funny history of the term "escrow" - this is th...
Wed, Apr 29 2015, 10:16 AM
Momentum appears to be building toward a
healthy spring market according to data released today on March pending home sales. The National Associat...
Mon, Apr 27 2015, 10:59 AM
Although a press release last week about a Gallup
survey showed Americans view real estate as a better long term investment
than stocks, gold, s...
Mon, Apr 27 2015, 9:07 AM
Many LOs are watching rent prices . Increasing
rent is a two-edged sword, of course, simultaneously moving households
to stop renting and buy a p...
Fri, Apr 24 2015, 9:55 AM
Filling key positions in our industry is not
an easy task sometimes, but as one banking vet I know likes to say,
"give me someone with a little bi...
Thu, Apr 23 2015, 10:17 AM
Home prices nationally are now within 3 percent of the peak
they reached in March 2007. The Federal
Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released its pu...
Thu, Apr 23 2015, 9:58 AM
The U.S. Census Bureau reported that nearly 10 percent of U.S.
residents are not happy with their current housing, neighborhood, local
safety or p...
Thu, Apr 23 2015, 2:25 PM
New home sales settled down a bit in March after a dramatic
surge in the Northeast in February that drove national sales figures up nearly
8 perce...
Wed, Apr 22 2015, 11:40 AM
The spring housing market blasted in across the county last
month and existing home sales jumped 6.1 percent from the February level to the
highes...
Wed, Apr 22 2015, 10:59 AM
Earth Day is celebrated on April 22 nd and this year marks the 45 th
anniversary. Leave it to the Census Bureau
(known as "The Bureau with a ca...
Mon, Apr 20 2015, 9:31 AM
There is a lot going on in terms of upcoming events. In no particular order...
Due to the high demand, Genworth has grown its live RESPA-TILA we...
Wed, Apr 15 2015, 12:43 PM
The index measuring building confidence in the market for
new single family homes stopped its three month slide in April, jumping four
points from...
Fri, Apr 10 2015, 10:36 AM
In its Economic and Housing Outlook
for April Freddie Mac's economists point out that the spring homebuying season has
become familiar territory. ...
Fri, Apr 10 2015, 10:26 AM
Sales of new homes appeared to have surged in March. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association
(MBA) mortgage applications for new home purchase...
Tue, Mar 31 2015, 3:03 PM
Nationwide said on Tuesday that the overall housing market
is healthier than at any time since 2001 , the earliest point for which data is
availabl...
Mon, Mar 30 2015, 10:59 AM
Contract signings in the Midwest and South in February drove
pending home sales to their highest level in nearly two years. The National Association...
Mon, Mar 30 2015, 9:38 AM
In
like a lion, out like a lamb? Usually folks say that about March's
weather, not the economy. But economic data so far in the first quarter
ha...
Thu, Mar 26 2015, 12:13 PM
While a study released on Thursday by
RealtyTrac shows a huge discrepancy between the growth in home prices and
increasing wages, it appears that ho...
Wed, Mar 25 2015, 10:02 AM
Don't
think the gap between the haves and have-nots is widening? USA Today
reports the world's richest 1% of people control over 50% of total
gl...
Tue, Mar 24 2015, 11:13 AM
New home sales rose on a seasonally adjusted annual basis in
February, partially because of a near tripling of sales in the Northeast . Nationall...
Tue, Mar 24 2015, 11:11 AM
Thank you to Carol Kimball who sent along this site of " inexplicably terrible real estate photos ." My guess is that every underwriter has seen their...
Mon, Mar 23 2015, 11:51 AM
Short supplies of existing home inventory continued to hold
back sales in February the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said today, but
con...
Mon, Mar 23 2015, 11:02 AM
Today
I head off to Austin, Texas for four days of MBA STRATMOR Peer Group
Program meetings - a great opportunity to sit in a room with the MBA,
...
Mon, Mar 16 2015, 11:00 AM
Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single family homes has declined
to its lowest level in nine months. The
National Association of ...
Thu, Mar 12 2015, 10:48 AM
Applications for mortgages to purchase newly constructed
homes jumped significantly in February the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said
toda...
Thu, Mar 12 2015, 3:16 PM
Freddie Mac's economists restated their February forecast in
their Economic and Housing Outlook just
released for March, that 2015 could be the b...
Mon, Mar 9 2015, 1:09 PM
The share of all cash sales continue to fall in December along
with the volume of distressed property sales. CoreLogic said on Monday that
35.5 per...
Mon, Mar 2 2015, 9:59 AM
National MI recently added a Homebuyer Education
course to its offerings. This online course will help first-time
homebuyers navigate the home ...
Fri, Feb 27 2015, 11:27 AM
Even though sales of existing homes dropped by 4.9 percent
in January buyers were apparently out shopping and seriously so. The National Association...
Fri, Feb 27 2015, 11:06 AM
Zillow published an article
indicating that low-income renters have moved away from living in
rural, dense communities and into more affluent su...
Thu, Feb 26 2015, 12:43 PM
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) saw its share of
the mortgage market soar to 72 percent of all mortgages issued in 2008 as other
lenders pu...
Thu, Feb 26 2015, 12:13 PM
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) said today that
home prices in the fourth quarter of 2014 were up 1.4 percent compared to the
previous...
Thu, Feb 26 2015, 12:10 PM
Here
in North Dakota, at -9 degrees this morning, appraising properties is a
walk in the park, right? What about for appraisers in the Lake Erie ...
Wed, Feb 25 2015, 10:49 AM
Sales of newly constructed single-family homes dipped only slightly
in January from December levels. The U.S.
Census Bureau and Department of Hou...
Wed, Feb 25 2015, 9:27 AM
Although
the focus of this 6-day a week commentary is residential, it is good to
have an awareness of commercial lending - especially as it compet...
Tue, Feb 24 2015, 11:24 AM
Despite increases in 2014 that
were twice that of inflation, house prices are "faltering." The S&P/Case-Shiller composite city indices
for Decemb...
Mon, Feb 23 2015, 10:57 AM
Existing home sales in January were disappointing
to start the New Year, declining to their lowest rate in nine months. The sales, which include com...
