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Mortgage delinquencies have risen in nearly all US congressional districts from the levels of the last election, highlighting the political pressure on US policymakers as they gather in Washington on Tuesday to tackle the housing crisis...
Housing starts of 546k came in well below expectations of 560k. And in keeping with tradition, the US government once again revised the prior period data, to make today's print seem like an improvement...
While the road to housing hell may have been paved by the government, the road back will be built by the private sector.
No one wants to see the GSEs survive in their current form, but neither do they want to upset the mortgage market at such a crucial time. Beyond that there is little agreement on how to proceed.
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reports the housing market index (HMI) was at 13 in August. This is down slightly from 14 in July and below expectations. The record low was 8 set in January 2009, and 13 is very low ...
Home prices in metro Phoenix are falling again, and new data about upcoming sales suggest that they are likely to keep falling over the next few months, bringing concerns of a housing-market "double dip" closer to reality.
Announce that Fannie and Freddie will be closing for all new loan intake as of 12/31/2010. This must be a date-certain, and in the reasonably-current time frame. Four months is enough.
“It’s a government seal of approval,” said Gollinger, a director at the Developments Group of New York-based brokerage Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate. “We need as many sales tools as we can have these days, and it’s one more tool.”
One in four property listings on the market as of August 1 have experienced at least one price reduction, according to real estate search service Trulia.
Banks took over 92,858 properties in July, up 9 percent in the month and 6 percent in the year.
It’s typically at this age (20-29 year old) when a young person moves away from home and, in doing so, a new household is created. The catch is that the unemployment rate for this age cohort is well into the teens.
Fed-up North Carolina landlord spray paints 'deadbeat tenants' on home for unpaid rent.
Fresh projections say the rate could plummet to about 62 percent as early as 2012 and almost certainly by the end of the decade. Homeownership rates haven't been this low since they hit 61.9 percent in 1960.
Meredith Whitney appeared on CNBC earlier and was about as bearish as ever, not only on financials, but on housing as well. In addition to saying that she expects the housing market to get worse in Q3 and Q4, the maven again reiterated...
But probably the more important reasons are: a) appraisals are coming in below the agreed upon price, because the asking prices for similar homes have fallen since the end of April, and b) some buyers put in offers on two homes to beat the tax...
The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator, declined 2.6 percent to 75.7 based on contracts signed in June from an upwardly revised level of 77.7 in May [revised from 77.6], and is 18.6 percent below June 2009 when it was 93.0.
"Since much of this is dispersed among mutual funds, hedge funds, mortgage REITs, banks, etc., the pain would be spread out. However, one obvious sector which would be negatively impacted is the banks," according to KBW.
Bank analyst Meredith Whitney and economist Robert Shiller, both of whom did a good job of projecting the trajectory of housing prices pre-crisis, call for further declines, Whitney a scary additional 10% by year end.
For many individuals, now is a great time to buy a home: mortgage rates are low and house prices are lower than they’ve been in years. But gathering enough funds for the down payment, fees, and closing costs is a challenge for some families.
If you look at Arizona, 9.8% of homeowners (with mortgages) are more than 50% underwater, and another 20.5% are 20% to 50% underwater. These are the homeowners most at risk for foreclosure.
In a very alarming sign for the U.S. economy, foreclosures have continued to dramatically increase in 2010. But there has been a shift. Back in 2007 and 2008, experts tell us that most foreclosures were due to toxic mortgages.
Mark Hanson: The GSEs and the FHA may be preparing to imminently launch an instant aut-refi program which would take millions of borrowers to current market rates overnight! In the process $45 billion of consumer savings would be created.
The study ranks the top metro areas in terms of their foreclosure rates. Most of them are in Florida, California, Nevada and Arizona. See who made the top of the list this time. #7 Phoenix, AZ - 4.28% in foreclosure
There is still massive Federal Reserve subsidies in the form of record low rates. But the short term bounce caused by HAMP, Foreclosure abatements and first time home buyers tax credits are mostly over.
Job worries drove July U.S. consumer confidence to its lowest since February, with one in six people expecting lower income in the next six months, underscoring the precarious state of economic recovery.
Creative Home Engineering builds Hollywood-style secret passages for homes
As of the first quarter of this year, residential real estate investment (actual homebuilding activity) as a percentage of GDP checked in at an all time low over the history of the data. Not exactly a shocker given the unprecedented length...
Of the eight million homeowners currently not making mortgage payments, six million are expected to lose their homes over the next two years, according to the latest Market Intelligence newsletter from John Burns Real Estate Consulting.
U.S housing starts for June came in at 549,000 vs. 575,000 expected. New building permits nonetheless beat expectations, coming in at 586,000 vs. 572,000 expected.
Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes declined for a second consecutive month in July to its lowest level since April of 2009, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index...
