Nov 12
Home Interest Rates Move Higher for the First Time in Three Weeks Mortgage rates reversed course this week, moving upwards for the first time in three weeks amid more positive economic data, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey. Production in the manufacturing industry and non-manufacturing sector alike showed signs of expanding. …
Nov 11
More Sellers Having to Reduce List Prices One in four home sellers are reporting they’ve had to lower their list price, according to a new report released by the real estate brokerage Redfin. That represents the highest level since 2011, according to the Redfin survey. It also represents a far greater number than in February, …
Nov 11
9 Buzzwords Helping to Sell Homes Marble, big windows, and wine cellars are becoming popular words in listing ads to sell high-end homes, according to a new study by Trulia. The study defined luxury listings as those valued four times the median asking price in an area. The following buzz words have grown in …
Nov 08
High-Priced Properties Drive Housing Recovery Sales growth is strongest among homes in the highest home tiers, according to a new analysis of housing data from the National Association of REALTORS®. Homes in the above-median-priced categories are outselling homes in the lower-priced tiers. Over the past year, more than 11 percent of homes sold were …
Nov 07
Home Owners Don’t Like Renters as Neighbors Americans don’t care to get to know the neighbor renting next door, according to a survey of more than 3,000 adults conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Trulia. Home owners dismiss neighbors who are renters more than any other group living in their neighborhood, the …
Nov 07
More Banks Offering Up Loans for 5% Down? For the last few years, buyers have been hard-pressed to land a mortgage if they didn’t have a 20 percent down payment, unless they turned to the Federal Housing Administration’s low down-payment loans. But a growing number of banks are now offering loans with just 5 percent …
Aug 23
5 Inspection Problems Buyers Shouldn’t Ignore Home buyers need to be extra vigilant about inspections in the early stages of a purchase because if problems are discovered too late in the process, it can “dash home owners’ dreams and budgets,” writes Yahoo! Finance in a recent article. One home buyer in Long Island, N.Y., …
Aug 23
Household Incomes Improving, But Still Way Down Though median household income has been rising for the last two years, it’s still 4.4 percent below where it was in June 2009 when the recession officially ended, according to a new study by two former Census Bureau officials. Annual median household income rose to $52,100 in …
Aug 22
Pa. Woman May Not Lose Home Over $6 A western Pennsylvania widow has won a chance to argue that she should not lose her $280,000 home over $6.30 in unpaid interest on taxes. AP reported that the state’s Commonwealth Court ruled it was a mistake for a Beaver County judge to rule against the woman, …
Aug 21
Study: Price Home Higher, Get a Better Offer The higher a home is priced at the outset, the more likely it is that it will get a higher offer from a buyer, according to a new study by researchers Grace Bucchianeri and Julia Minson. The study appeared in the May issue of the Journal of …
Aug 21
Foreclosure Crisis Just Now Hitting Some States Many U.S. housing markets are recovering from the worst of the foreclosure crisis, but others are getting slammed. Maryland, Oregon, and New Jersey had relatively stable housing markets even during the housing slump. But new foreclosure filings in those states climbed by double- and triple-digit percentages in July, …
Aug 20
Can Housing Save a Sluggish Economy? “Good news in the housing sector bodes well for future economic growth,” according to Freddie Mac’s August 2013 U.S. economic and Housing Market Outlook report. Four years into the recovery, and lackluster economic growth persists. Housing continues to be one bright spot, providing a positive boost to the GDP …
