Jul 24
Commercial real estate continues to Lead Rebound. Two recent reports highlight the strength of the commercial market. Morningstar reports that commercial real estate is much stronger than housing as evidenced by real estate funds, which have recorded an average annualized return of 33 percent over the past three years. Through June, real estate funds have …
Jul 20
New Home Building at Highest Level in 3 Years. The New Home Building industry continues to dig out of its slump as the pace of construction posts big jumps for single-family and multifamily houses. Builders had a level of starts in June not seen since October 2008, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. New Home Building starts in …
Jul 20
Luxury Homes Linger Longer Than Lower-Priced Houses. While the market for lower-priced and entry-level homes is showing signs of momentum, the Luxury Homes market seems to be stagnant. The average days on the market for Luxury Homes — houses selling for more than half a million dollars — is 186 days, according to the Institute for Luxury Homes …
Jul 18
False Housing Recovery or for Real This Time? Deutsche Bank says that there have been seven false housing recovery reports with the housing market in the last six years. But housing analysts and economists are more optimistic that this time around a residential housing recovery will finally stick. The signs analysts point to for a …
Jul 18
Home Owner Insurance Deductibles on the Rise. Home owners beware: “Your home owner insurance now probably covers less while costing more,” The Wall Street Journal reports. Home owner insurance deductibles have been rising the last few years, as home owners who may have once seen $250 to $500 a claim soar to $1,000 to $2,500 a …
Jul 16
Mortgages Continue Record-Breaking. Record-reaching rates have practically become a weekly mainstay the last few weeks for 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages. For the past 16 weeks, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage alone has averaged below 4 percent, increasing affordability by cheapening the costs of borrowing. In its weekly mortgage market survey, Freddie Mac reports that average …
Jul 16
Home Owners Gain Equity. Rebounding home prices are lowering the number of home owners who are considered “underwater” on their mortgage, according to a new report by CoreLogic. More than 700,000 home owners are no longer considered “underwater,” owing more on their mortgage than their home is currently worth. At the end of March, 23.7 …
Jul 13
Housing Crisis Over? It’s official: The Housing Crisis market has reached bottom, at least according to 44 forecasters surveyed by The Wall Street Journal. Only three economists surveyed said they didn’t think the market had reached bottom yet. The recent momentum in housing has plenty of economists and forecasters convinced that the worst is behind. According …
Jul 12
Hidden ‘Second’ Foreclosure Crisis? An unpaid tax bill of just $400 could cost you your entire home in some states. A new report is calling such growing cases a second “foreclosure crisis.” Local governments are stepping up their efforts to collect unpaid taxes from home owners, facing shortfalls in their budgets to pay for services …
Jul 10
FHA Loans Post Higher Delinquencies, Foreclosure. At a time when the mortgage market is seeing steady signs of improvement, loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) continue to see an increase in the number of borrowers seriously delinquent on their mortgage and falling into foreclosure, according to a new quarterly report issued by the …
Jul 10
Retail Real Estate Inches Toward Recovery. The rows of vacant shopping centers plaguing many U.S. cities may slowly be vanishing. For the second quarter in a row, vacancy rates improved while rents continued to inch up in the retail real estate market, signaling a recovery for the hardest-hit commercial sector, according to Reis, a commercial real …
Jul 06
American Renters Getting Squeezed. Rents continue to inch upwards and many renters say they know it would be cheaper to buy a home than rent, but they can’t qualify for a mortgage, Reuters News reports. With rising demand for rentals, landlords are increasing their rents and some cities are even posting double-digit percentage rental increases …
