Sep 14
Home Construction Is Trailing Job Growth New-home construction is insufficient in the majority of metro areas and is likely to lead to housing shortages and unhealthy price growth, according to new research by the National Association of REALTORS®. In its analysis, NAR measured the volume of new-home construction to the number of newly employed …
Sep 11
Prices Squeeze Out Young Buyers “One can say that we are having a nationwide housing cost problem,” says Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of REALTORS®, in a new interview with The Huffington Post. Housing’s affordability problem remains a barrier particularly for first-time buyers wanting to enter the market. Indeed, the latest …
Sep 10
Fannie, Freddie Extend Foreclosure Timelines Mortgage financing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are increasing the maximum number of days for a foreclosure sale in the majority of the country. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced that 33 states would see an increase in the maximum number of allowable days for “routine” foreclosure proceedings. …
Sep 09
43% of Homes at High Natural Disaster Risk About 35.8 million U.S. single-family homes and condos are located in counties with “high” or “very high” risk of a natural hazard, such as from hurricanes, wildfires, tornados, earthquakes, or floods, according to RealtyTrac’s 2015 U.S. Natural Disaster Housing Risk Report. That equates to an estimated …
Sep 08
Remind Your Clients: Do an Annual Inspection Do your buyers think that once the home inspection is over and the concessions have been negotiated, they’re done? Remind them that their own annual inspection can save them a bundle by preventing headaches and spotting problems while they’re still minor. Outside the house, they can …
Sep 04
Were Low Interest Rates a Good or Bad Thing? “Could the Fed’s low interest rates come back to bite us?” That’s the question Bankrate.com recently posed to leading economists. The Federal Reserve has kept key interest rates basically at zero since December 2008, which has also helped keep mortgage rates at historically low levels. …
Sep 03
Homes Still Selling Fast Heading Into Fall With home buyer demand starting to slow along seasonal trends, properties for sale are staying on the market slightly longer. For transactions that closed in July, the homes were typically on the market for 42 days, according to the latest REALTORS® Confidence Index. NAR notes that the …
Sep 02
More Consumers Have Higher Credit Scores Nearly one in five consumers have a FICO credit score that is 800 or higher. The percentage has slightly risen from 19.9 percent currently from 19.6 percent six months earlier, according to the Fair Isaac Corp. As such, fewer consumers have credit scores below 550, a steady decline …
Sep 01
Advantage Shifting Slightly to Home Buyers Home buyers may be gaining more leverage in the housing market. As the last few weeks of summer wind down, a realtor.com® analysis of housing data for the first three weeks of August reflects a market that is tipping slightly toward buyers’ favor. While sellers still have the advantage, it’s …
Aug 31
Signs Indicate No Drop-Off for Home Sales It appears existing-home sales won’t drop off at the end of the summer, as sales contracts rose modestly in July, reflecting an overall upward trend for the past seven months, according to National Association of REALTORS® data. The housing market has begun the second half of 2015 …
Aug 28
Where Americans Are Moving To? About 18 percent of people who moved last year – or 8.5 million – moved from one large metro area to another. But also a growing number moved to a smaller city that was not too far away from their prior residence, U.S. Census Bureau data shows. The top …
Aug 27
10-Year Housing Surge on the Horizon? The housing market is poised for one of its largest expansions in history. By 2024, demographic and economic changes are forecasted to bring 15.9 million additional households on board, according to a new study released by the Mortgage Bankers Association. That means an average of 1.6 million additional households …
