RealEstateEconomyWatch.com

Foreclosures Dragged Down 2011 Prices to a 4.7 Percent Loss

Home prices in the U.S. decreased 4.7 percent in 2011, achieving the fifth consecutive annual loss after prices fell five straight months in a row in the second half of the year.

Bulk Sales of GSE Foreclosures Begin

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today invited Investors interested in purchasing pools of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA foreclosures in the nations hardest-hit metropolitan areas with the requirement they rent them for a period of year to pre-qualify.

Homeownership Declines Again

In the fourth quarter, the national homeownership rate fell to 66.0 percent,  0.5 percentage points  lower than the fourth quarter 2010 rate (66.5 percent) and 0.3 percentage points  lower than the rate last quarter (66.3 percent).

Foreclosure Markets Dominate Realtor.com Turnaround Towns

Ten of the nation's local real estate markets that suffered from high foreclosure rates in recent years, eight of which are in Florida, are leading America's housing sector towards a general recovery, according to Realtor.com's Top 10 Turnaround Town Report, fourth quarter 2011.

What Does Recovery Look Like?

Like everything in real estate, recovery will arrive market-by-market. Is this the year recovery will come to your market? Knowing your market's bottom could be critical; how will you recognize it?

Homeownership Stronger in Higher Priced States

Support for homeownership is greater in states whose median home value is higher than the national average, according to a new national survey of homeowners.

Obama HARP Expansion Builds on New Refi Momentum

In his State of the Union speech last night, President Obama announced he will push for legislation that will significantly expand the newly revised HARP program that allows underwater homeowners who are to refinance at today's historically low rates.

Angry Buyers Shoot Agents out of Cannons

British buyers who are angry at their estate agents, property lawyers or mortgage brokers now can take out their frustrations on Web site by firing them out of a giant cannon at buildings for sale, with the chance to get their mortgage or rent paid for six months.

Is the Problem Too Many Homes?

Is an oversupply of housing units the real reason that America is suffering from low prices? Is the glut is so serious that it will plague local housing markets and depress home values for a number of years to come?

Thirty-somethings Got Socked on Homeownership

Americans in their thirties have seen their homeownership rates decline more over the past decade than either younger or older owners.

Outlook 2012: Ingo Winzer Sees Tale of Two Cities

This year will be a tale of two cities. Local employment created by economic growth will drive housing market recoveries, and those markets that create more jobs will see property values and rents improve faster than others that don't.

2011 Foreclosures Fell to Four-year Low; Nevada at a Standstill

Foreclosure activity and the national foreclosure rate last year both fell to their lowest annual level since 2007 and a new state law has brought foreclosure starts and sales to a virtual standstill in the state of Nevada, which has led the nation in foreclosures for the past five years.

Outlook 2012: Total Mortgage’s John Walsh Sees Hope in National Loan Limits

John Walsh, CEO of Total Mortgage Services in Milford CT, is an entrepreneur who has built his mortgage company into a 25-state powerhouse that is continuing to expand. He is a forward thinker, and maybe a bit of a contrarian, who entered wholesale banking last year, with his wholesale channel TMS Funding, when the too-big-to-fail banks like Bank of America pulled out. But he must be onto something, as Total Mortgage has never had to repurchase one of its loans. In addition Walsh is an outspoken advocate for mortgage finance at a time when many lenders are putting their money elsewhere.

Outlook 2012: Why RE/MAX CEO Margaret Kelly Believes This is the Year to Buy

This year real estate markets across the country present a combination of unique buying opportunities that simply haven't been seen before, says Margaret Kelly CEO of RE/MAX, the leading global real estate franchisor with more than 80,000 sales associates in 80 countries.

Atlanta Won’t Miss 2011

Home prices in Atlanta plummeted during the fourth quarter as a flood of foreclosures saturated the market, leaving economists across the nation scratching their heads and local homeowners hoping for a turnaround.

Seller Negativity is Killing Sales

Blame sellers, not buyers, for the lousy real estate market. Deeply negative sentiment is causing sellers to lose sales or keep their homes off the market altogether. Buyer sentiment is not expected to improve in the near term and market activity will remain sluggish for months to come.

Ranks of Real Estate Agents Shrink

Five years of sinking prices and anemic sales have taken their toll on the entire residential real estate business, including the number of agents and brokers serving consumers.

Poor Homes Have Lost More Value than Rich Ones

In the five years since the market peaked in 2006, homes in the bottom quarter of the market have lost more value proportionately than those in the top tier.

Retiree Rentals and Foreign Owners: Is Florida the Future?

The Housing Crisis, which kicked off with the melt down of the Miami condo market in 2006, is changing Florida into a state where new properties are being exclusively marketed for foreign ownership and snow-state retirees who once were the lifeblood of the state's huge second home market now rent instead of buying.

Will Record Flood Losses Save or Drown Flood Insurance?

Just as Congress approaches a drop dead deadline Friday on whether or not to continue the nation's flood insurance program, a new report details the cost and extent of one of worst year for floods in recent history.

Mortgage Banks’ Profits on Originations Soar 377 Percent

Mortgage banks made an average profit of $1,263 on each loan they originated in the third quarter of 2011, up from $575 per loan in the second quarter of 2011 and $346 per loan in the first quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. That's a 377 percent increase over a six month period.

Do REO Sales Threaten Homeownership?

During the boom, the only way first-time buyers, minorities and working families could afford to buy a home was through subprime and creative financing. Now that homeownership is affordable, new barriers to financing and competition with investors are locking them out of homeownership and changing the residential fabric of our communities from ownership to rental.

October Prices Sink 3.9 Percent Below 2010

Home prices have declined steadily over the past three months and now trail last year by 3.9 percent, according to the latest CoreLogic Home Price Index.

Three Quarters of Owners Continue to Overvalue

Despite survey after survey showing that consumers expect home prices to continue to decline next year, most homeowners still believe their houses are worth more than what their agents recommend.

Two-time Losers Flood Foreclosure Inventory

Nearly half, 45 percent, of October foreclosure starts were redefaults-mortgages which had previously defaulted and were modified unsuccessfully either by the lender or the federal government. About 105,000 redefaults increased total foreclosure starts in October to 232,865, 11.5 percent more than the level of a year ago.

Closing Crisis Could Erase Pending Sales Gain

A surge in sales contracts signed in October announced by NAR yesterday that inspired hopes of a fall boomlet actually will problem have no impact at all on closed sales.

The Special Role of RealtyTrac

Yesterday's announcement that a West Coast venture capital firm has made a major investment in RealtyTrac, the national foreclosure database, should be good news for the housing industry and for policy makers, who have come to rely upon RealtyTrac data for understanding the foreclosure marketplace and formulating public policy.

2011 Home Sales Poised to Break 5 Million

This year sales of existing homes could exceed five million, a barrier broken only once since the housing markets crashed in 2007.

Investor Sales Surge

Low home prices and strong demand for rental properties are causing a surge in investor buying, driving up the market share of homes purchased by investors.

Soaring Contract Failures Torpedo Sales

A higher than normal rate of contract failures is stifling a recovery in home sales as home sellers and buyers are losing deals at an extraordinary rate.

Holidays Fill Spare Bedrooms

Homeowners fortunate enough to have a spare bedroom or two are putting them to good use this holiday season.  Some four in ten American families (39 percent) are hosting holiday get-togethers that include 15 or more family members and friends, and more than half (54 percent) say they stay overnight with their families so they can all be in one household during the holidays.

Delinquency Rate Hits Three-year Low as Boom Loans Improve

The national delinquency rate for residential home loans fell to 7.99 percent in the third quarter, the lowest reading since the fourth quarter of 2008, and it represents a decline of 45 basis points from the second quarter of this year and a drop of 114 basis points from the third quarter of last year

Home Buyers Suddenly Grow Older

Why did home buyers suddenly grow six years older in one year?

Home Sellers’ Equity Shrinks

They say that the longer sellers hold onto properties, the more equity they will realize.  In recent years, however, just the opposite has been the case.

Will Home Value Insurance Work?

The idea of insurance to protect homeowners from declining home values has been batted around for years, but now it's a reality.  On  September 28, Ohio homeowners became the first in the nation who can buy a real insurance policy to protect their primary residences against lost value when they sell.

Computerized Appraisals Win One in Harp 2.0

The federal government, with the reluctant support of the two leading professional appraisal organizations, has sanctioned the use of computerized, appraisals using algorithms and computerized databases of property data to determine a property's value.

Damaged Foreclosures Continue to Poison Prices

Nearly half of all foreclosures listed for sale are so seriously damaged they need major repair before they are habitable, a percentage that has remained virtually unchanged over the past two years.

Pressure Mounts on Property Taxes

Get ready for record property tax rate increases next year as cities and counties across the nation cut their budgets to the bone and scramble for every tax dollar they can find.

Too Many Renters, Too Few Apartments

They can't build apartment buildings fast enough to meet the demand for rental housing, even though construction is booming across the nation.

First-timers Hang Tough

Rumors to the contrary, first-time buyers are alive and kicking, buying houses at virtually the same pace as they were before the first-time homebuyers credit first stimulated demand two years ago.

Fannie, Freddie to Lose Only $220 to $311 Billion by 2015

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who have already cost taxpayers $169 billion since the federal government took them over in September 2008, will cost taxpayers a totl of $220 to 311 billion over the next three years.

Foreign Buyer Visa Bill Backfires

Legislation introduced in the Senate last week to stimulate property sales by giving visas to foreign investors who spend more than $500,000 to buy US homes is creating a firestorm of opposition on Web sites and talk shows across the nation.

Case-Shiller: Welcome Back to 2003

Remember 2003?  That was the year Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was the hottest movie, the year that America invaded Iraq, and in 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas.  Your home was worth then just about what it's worth today.

Lower Loan Limits Take a Bite Out of Sales

Over the past two weeks inventories and days on market for listings over $500,000 have soared at the same time that the reduction in loan limits that took effect on October 1 starts to bite in luxury markets across the nation.

Renters Outspend Owners on Housing

Renters now spend five percent more of their household budgets on housing costs than do homeowners, and the difference is growing as rents rise.

Landlords Welcome Strategic Defaulters

A new survey of former homeowners who have walked away from their homes found that their credit was good enough after foreclosure for the vast majority to rent new housing and few were required to make a larger than normal deposit.

Net New Renters 1.4 Million, Net New Home Buyers 0

That's what 2011's final score will be, according to Freddie Mac's latest outlook for 2011, as vacancy rates shrivel and sales struggle to stay even with last year's tax credit boom and bust.

Are Sellers Withdrawing?

A decline in inventories is normal at this time of the year as real estate markets buckle down for the fall and winter season.  But the 20 percent plus drop in inventories from last year at this time suggests something else is going on.

Americans Double Up to Make Do

During the Depression, few American homes had an empty bedroom.  The housing recession of the past four years has made empty spare rooms a luxury again by freezing families in place for years and limiting their housing choices.

New York Foreclosures Take 3.2 Years

The average time to process a foreclosure in New York State in the third quarter is now 986 days, the longest of any state and a new record for New York.  When sales time is added, the time from default to a new owner closes is now 1179 days, or 3.2 years.

Boomers are Betting on Real Estate

Even though the real estate depression  has delayed many from moving ahead with plans to sell the family home, baby boomers are a red hot market for investment properties.

Spooky Fears Haunt Consumers

Consumers don't plan to buy homes anytime soon because they think prices will fall farther next year, mortgage rates will stay low for a long time and they're very worried about their personal financial situation.

Real Estate Employment Shrinks

The real estate sector has lost 13,100 jobs since May, nearly reaching the employment level last year when sales suddenly crashed following the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit.

Jobs Report Lifts Rates Above 4 Percent

The U.S. economy added more jobs than expected last month, and employment gains for the previous two months were revised higher-not great news considering the jobless rate is unchanged at 9.1 percent but good enough to stop mortgage rates from setting new records.

Will Spring Bring a Triple Dip?

The unimaginable is now a possibility.  According to the latest forecast by one of the nation's leading housing data providers, by the end of the first quarter next year, the nation's average home prices could sink below the lowest levels reached earlier this last year, when prices set a new record low.

New Fees Drive Up Cost of USDA Home Loans

Government guaranteed mortgages that require no down payments are becoming increasingly expensive top borrowers due to fees that are designed to make the program revenue-neutral in the federal budget.

Seriously Delinquent Mortgages Hit Three-year Low

Of the approximately 4 million mortgages that are either 90 or more days delinquent or in foreclosure, the number that are delinquent 90 days or more days has shrunk to levels not seen since 2008.

Bank Risk Managers Foresee Years of High Foreclosures, Low Prices

FICO's latest quarterly survey of bank risk professionals found that growing optimism of late 2010 and early 2011 has been replaced with a markedly pessimistic outlook for defaults and home prices.

Loan Limits Drop Tomorrow

For the first time in three years, the upper limits on single family home mortgages in high-cost areas qualifying for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's government guarantee will decline at midnight tonight.

Mortgage Lenders Take a Week to Answer the Phone

Mortgage lenders take almost 7 days on average to respond to consumer inquiries via phone and over one day to respond to inquiries received via email, resulting in a poor return on their marketing investment, bottom line under-performance and a disappointing or even damaging customer experience.

Shadow Inventory Joins Biggest Losers

The so-called shadow inventory of foreclosures-properties that are seriously delinquent by not yet listed on multiple listing services for resale-is shrinking faster than a Weight Watchers spokesperson.

Mortgage Delinquencies Resume Decline

After two months of increases during and following the Congressional debate over the federal deficit last June, mortgage delinquencies may have resumed their decline.

Thirty-Somethings Fear Home Values Won’t Help Retirement

Nearly half of all homeowners in their thirties have lost hope that their homes will recover enough value in time to play an important role in paying for their retirement.

How to Predict Local Home Prices

You're about to put an offer on a home, but you're worried that prices will sink and you won't get the best deal.  You're putting your home on the market and you want to get the most you can for it but you can't wait forever to sell it.  You've found a great deal on a foreclosure that looks like a great investment, but how what will it be worth a year from now?

Soaring Prices Suggest a Florida Phenomenon

According to the latest data from Realtor.com, the world's largest real estate site, Florida single family home and condo prices are zooming at the same time that the rest of the nation is still recovering from the first quarter's double dip.

RE/MAX Reports Summer Sales Bump

Sales in July and August broke the seasonal summer sales pattern, which normally declines with the end of the traditional home buying season in June.   Instead, the hottest month this also produced sales hotter than 2010.

Millions of Drowning Homeowners Pay Excessive Rates

Seventy five percent of all homeowners who owe more on their homes than they are worth are paying mortgage interest rates nearly a point higher than today's average rate for a thirty year fixed mortgage.

DC, Baltimore Enjoy Best August Sales since the Bust

Pending sales in the Washington DC and Baltimore markets returned to boom levels for the first time in years, even though prices experienced a seasonal decline.

Summer Prices Fail to Warm the Double Dip Chill

As summer days fade away into fall, the long term impact of this year's buying season on prices is coming into clear focus.

Go Figure: Record Low Rates AND Record Low Mortgage Apps

The latest headlines from Freddie Mac and MBA make it clear beyond a doubt that the old assumptions about the housing economy no longer work.

Five Ways to Fight a Low Appraisal

What do you do when the appraisal on the dream home you want to buy comes in below the price in the offer the buyer has accepted... even as much as 10 to 20 percent below?

Seasonal Buying Drives June Prices

June home prices rose for the third consecutive month, ending the month with the largest seasonal gain year to date.

Independents’ Profits on Purchase Mortgages Soar 66 Percent

Independent mortgage banks and subsidiaries made an average profit of $575 on each loan they originated in the second quarter of 2011, up from $346 per loan in the first quarter of 2011, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's Second Quarter 2011 Mortgage Bankers Performance Report released today.

Foreclosures Now Take 20 Months

The average home entering the foreclosure process today won't house new owners until the next President has been inaugurated and in office for three months.

Irene Drowns Uninsured Homes

The price tag for residential properties caused by flood damage from Hurricane Irene's huge storm surges along the East Coast could total than $59 billion worth of flood-related damages to a total of 900,000 properties and many if not most are not covered by flood insurance.

Short Sales Soar 19 Percent in Second Quarter

Short sales of pre-foreclosure properties jumped 19 percent in the second quarter even as sales of bank-owned foreclosures declined and overall distressed sales were flat.

Purchase Mortgages Falling to 20 Year Low!

Lenders will write fewer mortgages for home buyers this year than in any year since 1991.

Old Rules No Longer Apply

Never before have housing markets experienced low interest rates, high unemployment, and a glut of inventory hiding in the shadow.

RE/MAX Faults Lenders, Appraisals

Strict lending standards, bad appraisals and concern about the economy all contributed to lower than normal sales in July.

July Sales Fell Less than Last Year

Existing-home sales declined in July from an upwardly revised June pace but are notably higher than a year ago, when sales suffered a double whammy from seasonal decline at the end of the spring buyer season and the expiration of the home buyer tax credit.

Fixing the Housing Crisis Would Create One Million Jobs Annually

By writing down all underwater mortgages to market value, the nation's banks could pump $71 billion per year into the economy, create more than one million jobs annually, save families $6,500 per year on mortgage payments.

Despite Unemployment, Mortgage Default Rates Plunge

First and second mortgage default rates in July fell to levels lower than three years at the onset of the recession three years ago  despite continued high unemployment levels.

Credit Concerns Keep Renters from Buying

Only 23 percent of renters living in single family homes-where more than half the nation's renters live today--believe that renting makes more sense than buying a home.

REOs Extend Foreclosure Pain

Bank-owned foreclosures (REOs) are taking significantly longer to sell than foreclosures bought and resold by investors, extending the timeline for REO foreclosures even longer than the extraordinary delays for resulting from slower processing.

USDA Has $11.2 Billion to Guarantee No-Down Mortgages

The US Department of Agriculture has only two months to spend $11.2 billion on its no-down payment rural development loan program, a record amount at this juncture in the federal fiscal year for the program that provides no down payment mortgages to borrowers in rural and suburban markets.

Tight Credit Strangles First-Time Buyers

Difficulties getting financing are increasingly keeping first-time buyers from buying homes in spite of very affordable prices in most markets.  One serious result has been a slowing of the absorption of foreclosures and short sales.

TransUnion: Mortgage Delinquencies Plummeted in Second Quarter

The national mortgage delinquency rate (the rate of borrowers 60 or more days past due) decreased for the sixth consecutive quarter, dropping to 5.82 percent at the end of the second quarter in 2011 according to a quarterly analysis of credit-active U.S. consumers by TransUnion.

A Triple Dip for Housing Prices in 2011?

Will the latest stock market crash, the debt ceiling fiasco, the shaky economy,  the mess in Europe, and soft housing markets result in a triple dip in home prices across the nation this year?

Rental Vacancy Rate at 6 Year Low

Lost in the announcement last week that homeownership rates have fallen to their lowest rate since 1998 was a piece of good news for real estate professionals and landlords alike.

Foreclosure Timeline Soars to 587 Days

The average loan in foreclosure today has not seen a payment for 587 days, a new record and the total of loans in foreclosure or seriously delinquent now is 12.8 percent higher than last year.

June “Normal” Home Prices Only 1.1 Percent Below 2010

June prices of non-distress sale homes were down only 1.1 percent from Juje 2010, and improvement over May, when prices were 2.1 percent below the previous year.

MID Survives Untouched by Debt Compromise

The debt compromise that cleared Congress today and is headed to the President for his signature before the midnight deadline does not change the mortgage interest deduction, which allows homeowners to deduct the interest on mortgages they pay if they itemize.

Foreclosures Fall Across America

  Foreclosure activity decreased in 85 percent of nation's metropolitan areas in the first half of the year and all top 10 metro areas with the highest foreclosure rates posted decreasing foreclosure activity.

Contract Rate Falls to 2011 Low

The National Average Contract Mortgage is 4.62 percent, lower than it has been all year. This is a decrease of 0.12 percent from the previous month. Many lenders use this rate in adjusting some adjustable-rate mortgages. This index was the only index rate that federally chartered savings and loan associations could use as an adjustable-rate mortgage [...]

Luxury Homes are Moving Faster

Homes valued over a half a million a selling faster than they have in more than a year, and prices are holding steady, according to the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing's weekly report.

Deficit Compromise Opens the Door for Huge Cutbacks in Mortgage Deduction

The "Gang of Six" compromise on the federal deficit that has been endorsed by President Obama mandates the most significant reductions in the mortgage interest deduction in the 98 years it has been in effect.

Closing Costs Soar

Though home prices are just drying off from a painful double dip earlier this year, closing costs are soaring.  Title and origination fees alone now cost 2 percent of the mortgage, an increase of 8.8 percent in just one year.

Freddie Mac Sees 2011 Sales Up 5 Percent

Freddie Mac's economists are sticking with a prediction of positive sales growth this year despite the abysmal June jobs report.

RE/MAX Reports Inventories Are Shrinking

Inventories in 53 markets surveyed last month by RE/MAX are down nearly fifteen percent from a year ago, when the tax credit boom was winding down, another indication that housing markets have recovered from the tax credit-induced sales boom and the bust that followed it.

Foreclosure Filings Fall Yet Processing Takes Longer

Foreclosure filings in the first half of this year fell 25 percent from the last six months of 2010 and are off 29 percent from the first half of 2010.

June Makes it Three in a Row!

For the third month in a row, modest increase in list prices and inventories are creating the most positive pricing trend since the homebuyer tax credit expired a year ago.

New Foreclosure Study Finds the More that’s Owed, the Longer the Defaulter Can Stay

Homeowners living in houses worth over $417,000 can live in their homes mortgage-free without fear of foreclosure for more than a year, but those in the less valuable homes are getting thrown out in 300 days or less.

Clear Capital Forecasts More Price Declines this Year

  Economic consulting firm Clear Capital reported prices nationally have decreased by 3.2 percent in the first six months of 2011 and are forecast to drop another 2.4 percent in the second half of 2011

New Billion Dollar Emergency Loan Program Hopes to Stave Off Foreclosures

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in conjunction with NeighborWorks America launched a new Emergency Homeowners' Loan Program (EHLP) today to help homeowners who are at risk of foreclosure in 27 states across the country and Puerto Rico.

High Rollers Move Up

  While a third of homeowners struggle to stay above water on their mortgages, nearly a quarter of those in the upper income tiers have been trading up to take advantage of deals in the luxury home market.

Agents and Owners Turn Increasingly Pessimistic on Values

  Half of agents and 42 percent of homeowners in a second quarter survey expect home values to decrease or stay the same through the end of the year, according a second quarter survey.

Freddie, Fannie Delinquencies Down a Full Point

The percentage of seriously delinquent mortgages-those that are 90 past due or in foreclosure-held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have fallen more than a point in the last year.

Prices Rise for Second Consecutive Month

Hours after NAR announced an 8.2 percent jump in May prices, CoreLogic confirmed its May numbers show a second consecutive month-over-month increase.

May Pending Home Sales Rise Above 2010 Levels

NAR's Pending Home Sales Index 8.2 percent to 88.8 in May from an upwardly revised 82.1 in April and is 13.4 percent higher than the 78.3 reading in May 2010. The data reflects contracts but not closings, which normally occur with a lag time of one or two months.

Third Residential Web Site Goes Public

HomeAway, Inc., an Austin, Texas based site that matches home owners with travelers looking for vacation rentals and sales, priced eight million shares at $27 each this morning to raise $216 million in its initial public offering under the symbol AWAY. The Austin, Texas-based online marketplace for vacation properties priced at the top end of its $24-$27 price range.

Foreclosure Sales Plummeted in May

There are significantly fewer foreclosure sales today than there were before foreclosure moratoria were put into place during the Robogate scandal last fall and foreclosure sales are declining.

Case-Shiller: Slight Increase in April

S&P/Case-Shiller's 10 and 20 city composites rose less than one percent in April over March, the first price increase the indices have measured in eight months.

Experts Agree Prices Have Bottomed Out and Will Stay There

A significant majority of the 108 economists and experts participating in MacroMarkets' June Price Home Expectations panelists believe that the bottom for home prices arrived in the first quarter or will arrive sometime before year-end.

Real Estate Economy Watch Honored by NAREE

The National Association of Real Estate Editors recognized Real Estate Economy Watch as the second best web site of 2011 dedicated solely to real estate or home design coverage.

Prices Perked up in April

U.S. house prices rose slightly in April for the first month-to-month increase since last May, according to new numbers released today by the Federal Home Finance Agency, a branch of the Treasury Department.

Shadow Inventory Slowly Fades

The so-called "shadow inventory" of foreclosures, properties in the foreclosure pipeline but not yet listed on multiple listings services, slowly shank over the pst year but still amount to five months' worth of home sales.

Mortgage Defaults Hit Four-year Low

Default rates on first and second mortgages sank lower than they have been since 2007 and 2006 as more and more homeowners are meeting their mortgage obligations on time.

Mortgage Mess Cripples Spring Sales Season

Homebuyer traffic, a major indication of future home sales, tumbled in May, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey.

Biggest Generations will Redefine Cities and Suburbs

The largest generations in the nation's history, Baby Boomers and their children, will be hugely influential in redefining living and working environments for decades to come

New Index Finds April Prices Improved

  April home prices have improved over March in the new national composite index launched yesterday by FNC at the National Association of Real Estate Editors Annual Meeting in San Antonio.

CB: Niagara Falls Most Affordable

  Once America's favorite honeymoon destination, Niagara Falls, NY is the most affordable housing market in the nation, and Newport Beach, CA is the priciest.

RE/MAX: Home Prices Hang Tough

  Year to year prices in May are still 7.2 percent below those of a year ago, but they've virtually the same as April's on a year to year basis.  However, the number of closed transactions and price also increased from April to May.

Radian’s Mortgage Delinquencies Rose 8.6 Percent in May

New mortgage delinquencies reported by Radian Guaranty Inc., the mortgage insurance subsidiary of Radian Group Inc., rose 8.6 percent in May and the major mortgage insurer reported a slower pace of the decline in its delinquency inventory.

Administration Rips Four Major Mortgage Lenders

Four of the nation's largest mortgage lenders are "in need of substantial improvement" to service homeowners applying for mortgage modifications  under the Making Home Affordable Program (HAMP).

REAL Trends: May Sales Show Surprising Strength

A third consecutive spring market report has May home prices rising in the wake of the double dip reported by S&P/Case-Shiller in the first quarter.

May Home Prices Spring Back

Home sales prices continued a downward trend in May, but only half as far and half as fast as in April.

Negative Equity Ducks a Bullet

Despite double dipping to their lowest levels since 2009, housing prices in the first quarter failed to drive up the percentage of homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages.

Fannie Finally Mandates Consistency

After more than 3.5 million families have lost their homes to foreclosure over the past five years, Fannie Mae has issued new standards requiring servicers to take a consistent approach for handling delinquent mortgages.

“Catfish” Recovery Outswims Case-Shiller

New listing prices, which lead transactions by three to six months, are already up 8.7 percentage points over the March trough, an indication that sellers are pricing more confidently, said Scott Sambucci, vice president of market analytics for Altos Research in a Webcast for customers yesterday.

Realtor Income Off 7 Percent Since 2009

The real estate recession has been tougher on real estate agents and brokers than it has property owners over the past two years.

National Price Breakthrough!

Home prices increased on a national basis by 0.7 percent between March and April 2011 for the first time since the home-buyer tax credit expired in mid-2010.

Why Washington DC is in the Black

Only one market among the 20 tracked by the S&P/Case-Shiller index released today reported positive price growth in the first quarter.

Talent Shortages Ignite Relo Boom

The disparity between available jobs and skilled talent has sparked companies to adapt to a more competitive market and nearly half of hiring managers and recruiters say they have started to recruit talent from geographies outside their local market due to talent shortages, promising a boost in real estate relocation services.

Harvard Study Warns of Rent Bubble

For renters, the national recovery could be very bad news.  That warning came from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies' latest report on America's rental housing.

Investors are Bearish on Next 12 Months

Real estate investors are slightly more bearish than the general public about the outlook for prices in their local markets over the next six to 12 months.

Appraisals Are Still Killing Home Sales

One out of ten Realtors (11 percent) report that low appraisals are killing home sales contracts and an addition 10 percent say they are delaying closings, according to an April NAR practitioners survey of Realtors.  Some 14 percent report that appraisals coming in under the purchase price are sending purchase deals back to the negotiating table.

Luxury Homes Selling Faster

Luxury homes have been spending about 16 percent less time on market since early March even though inventories have been rising, which is normal during the Spring buying season, according to the latest weekly report from the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing.

RE/MAX: Prices Rise in 34 Markets

Nationally median home prices rose 2.2 percent in April over March, rising in 34 of 55 markets surveyed, but are still 7.9 percent below a year ago during the height of the tax credit frenzy.

First-time Buyers Evaporate

First-time buyer market share fell 18 percent below the level of a year ago, reducing absorption of distressed properties, which accounted for nearly half of all sales during the month.

Negative Equity is “Stubbornly High”

Negative equity, which remains "stubbornly high" as the economy slowly improves, is concentrated among lower valued properties in foreclosure and in properties valued between $100,000 and $200,000 reported CoreLogic in its monthly US Housing and Mortgage Trends Report.

Foreclosure Inventories Ebb But Still Outpace 2010

The inventory of homes in foreclosure awaiting resale fell slightly in April, but they are still 12.7 percent higher than they were a year ago, according to Lender Processing Services April 2011 month-end mortgage performance statistics.

More Owners Remodel Rather than Move

The March BuildFax Remodeling Index, which is based on building permit data, increased for the seventeenth straight month on a year-over-year basis as the residential remodeling industry continued to strengthen and more homeowners opted to stay where they are and remodel rather than move.

Financing Costs Sales for 75 Percent of C21 Agents

A survey of 1500 Century 21 professionals released this week confirmed what many real estate agents and buyers have been saying for months:  The lending environment is too constraining for potential homebuyers, slowing the rebound of the housing market and the economy in general.

Massive Backlog Freezes Foreclosures

"Massive" delays in foreclosure processing brought the number of new foreclosures to a 40-year low in April, extending the average foreclosure timeline to 400 days but reached 900 days in some states.

Turnaround: Four Months and Counting?

Price declines will end and average U. S. home prices will stabilize  by Labor Day.  Prices in even the hardest-hit markets will level out by the end of 2012.

Florida Sales Rise, Prices Fall

Will Florida, which has been at the forefront of both the housing boom and bust, also lead the nation out of recovery?

Q1 Home Values Echo Price Drop

First quarter home values fell dramatically, roughly echoing the significant prices drops in the first quarter reported by Clear Capital and others who have confirmed the long feared double dip.

Spring Breathes Life into Prices

  A seasonal uptick in both median prices and inventory has appeared in most metropolitan areas across the country, contradicting earlier price reports, according to Altos Research's 20-city Composite trends data in April.

Prices Double Dip and Keep Falling

Not only did April data confirm the double dip in home prices nationally, real estate markets now have entered "uncharted territory" with the absence of a tax credit incentive for the first time in three years and are still falling.

US: Deutsche Bank Fraud May Cost More than $1.5 Billion

Yesterday the Justice Department sued Deutsche Bank AG, one of the world's 10 biggest banks by assets,  for at least $1 billion for defrauding taxpayers by "repeatedly" lying to a federal agency when securing taxpayer-backed insurance for thousands of mortgages.

Banks Build Record Foreclosure Inventory

  The pace of foreclosure starts increased by a third in March, building the national inventory of REO properties to an all-time high of 2.2 million at the end of the month.

Gallup: Time is Right to Buy

Consumer attitudes towards the housing markets are echoing views in the years immediately preceding the peak of the housing boom, according to a new national survey by the Gallup poll.

Spring Warms Luxury Demand

It's still very much a "cold" buyer's market according to the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing's April 24 Luxury Housing Report, but early numbers from the spring home buying season suggest that demand is warming up.

High Rents Soak One in Four Tenants

 As a result of long-term increases in rents and utility costs combined with falling renter incomes, one in four renters, or 10.1 million households, spends more than half their income on rent and utilities.

Congress Doubles Funding for Troubled USDA Housing Loans

While slashing funds for disability, elderly, homelessness and Native American housing programs, Congress has doubled the funding for a USDA housing program that may cost the government $4 billion in defaulting loans because over a third of the government-guaranteed rural home loans in its portfolio may be ineligible for the program.

Nearly Half of Sales Now Distressed Properties

  Sales of distressed properties rose to 48.6 percent in March - the second highest level seen in the past 12 months, according to the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey.

Prices Turn Back the Clock to 2004

  House prices fell 1.6 percent in January, retreating to levels of seven years ago, before the housing boom began.

Delinquencies Fall After Negative Equity Rises

Mortgages delinquent 30 days or more are continuing to decline steadily even though the number home owners who owe more on their homes rose slightly in the fourth quarter last year.

Home Sales Seen Eking Out an Increase

Though deteriorating home price expectations among consumers could cause some potential homebuyers to remain on the sidelines this spring, leading indicators suggest that home sales will manage to eke out a slight rise from last year's record lows.

Agents Compete on Price

In a field once thought to be dominated by standard commission rates, today  home sellers select real estate agents on the basis of price more than any other factor, according to a new survey of nearly 800 sellers, by HomeGain.

Slow Processing Stretches Foreclosure Pain

Reforms in the processing of foreclosures that have been put in place in the wake of the Robogate scandal are slowing the foreclosure timeline and extending the corrosive effects of large numbers of foreclosures on local markets.

Homeowners Resigned to a Multiyear Recovery

Nearly half of all homeowners whose properties lost value during the housing recession expect it to will six years or more for their homes to return to pre-recession levels and nine out of ten expect it to take at least three years, according to a survey released yesterday by Pew Research.

Get Ready for a Weak Recovery

Some markets are stabilizing now and on the macro level, the housing recovery is not far away, according to Sam Khater, senior economist at CoreLogic.  But the long awaited recovery won't be much to get excited about, at least initially.

Refinancings, Reverse Mortgages Cost Mortgage Jobs

Mortgage sector jobs went from a net gain in 2009 to a net loss last year, though the drop was far from the 90,000 mortgage workers who lost their jobs in 2007.

Corelogic: Non-distressed Prices are Stabilizing

Nationally home prices fell for the seventh month in a row in February according to the CoreLogic HPI, declining by 6.7 percent year over year after declining by 5.5 percent in January 2011 compared to January 2010.

Housing Subsidy is $2,085 per Household

The federal government spent about $244 billion on housing-related grants and tax expenditures in fiscal year 2009, or roughly $2,085 per household, according to a new study by Pew's Subsidyscope project. By contrast, the government devoted a per household average of $212 to the energy sector (FY 2009), $400 to the transportation sector (FY 2008) and $429 to the nonprofit sector (FY 2008).

Fewer Homeowners Have Problems Paying Mortgages

A new Harris Poll released yesterday found that the percentage of homeowners having difficulty paying off their mortgages has fallen from 29 to 22 percent over the past year, a 24 percent decline.

Left Unloads on Qualified Residential Mortgage Rule

Lenders, home builders and real estate agents fighting a new regulation that could significantly raise down payments and loan-to-value ratios are gaining support from an unlikely quarter.

States Consider Dictating Foreclosure Appraisals

Outrage over legislation that would require appraisers to ignore distress sales in selecting comparable properties for appraised houses forced Maryland legislators to back down from the idea, though three other states are still considering the idea., including Nevada which is holding a hearing on the bill today.

Shadow Inventory Shrinks

  The inventory of unlisted properties that are in the foreclosure pipeline shrank slightly over the past year but remains at a nine months' supply.

Homeowners Still Pay Credit Cards Before Mortgages

Despite a steadily improving economy and declining mortgage delinquency rates over the past year, more homeowners still are paying credit card bills before their monthly mortgage payment, a three year old practice than roughly parallels the foreclosure era and the emergence of "strategic defaults," where mortgage holders walk away from their homes even though they can afford the mortgage payments

Depressed Prices Descend into Dreaded Double Dip

Home prices officially reached the long feared double dip in January as prices of single-family homes in 20 major cities fell for a sixth straight month, according to the authoritative S&P/Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday by Standard & Poor's.

Massive Foreclosure Inventory Overwhelms Sales

An enormous backlog of foreclosures dominates the foreclosure picture at every level, outpacing the monthly sales volume by a factor of thirty and promising to continue the Foreclosure Era for months and years to come.

Most Owners Pessimistic for the Long Term

Fewer than half the nation's homeowners expect the value of their homes to appreciate over the next five years, a 6 percent decline from last month and just three points above the lowest level measured in almost two years.

Bargains Beckon Canadians South

Lower prices and the strong Canadian dollar are encouraging one in five Canadians to buy U.S. property today, according to a new survey of by the Bank of Montreal.

Sellers Keep Faith as Inventories Rise

Despites declines in prices through the fourth quarter and January, sellers are expecting nearly demand to be as strong as it was at the beginning of the homebuyer tax run-up in sales a year ago according to February data released today by Move, Inc.

Experts See Only Weak Recovery by 2013

A panel of 111 leading housing economists, real estate experts, investment and market strategists have lowered their expectations of the housing markets and now see only a weak recovery taking place two years from now.

Investors Dominate Distress Sales

Investor activity dominated a sluggish distress sale market in February as homebuyers are increasingly frustrated by difficulties getting financing, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey.

Delinquencies Fell Faster in January

The delinquency rate on mortgages 30 days or more past due fell by more last month than it has in nearly a year, according to Lender Processor Services' Mortgage Monitor report to be released later this week.

RE/MAX Survey: February Prices Down 5.9 Percent from 2010

Though February home sales rose over January, they were 3.0 percent below the level of February 2010 and median prices were off 5.9 percent from a year ago in the 54 U.S. markets surveyed in the RE/MAX National Housing Report.

Default Risk Rises for Nonprime Mortgages

The potential default risk on nonprime mortgages that were closed in the first quarter rose to the same level as loans closed last spring and fall after a drop in the fourth quarter, according to the UFA Default Risk Index, which measures the risk of default on newly originated nonprime mortgages.

“Housing Sector Still Depressed”

  It's official.  The Fed's Open Market Committee yesterday affirmed that the housing sector still depressed even though the economic recovery is on a firmer footing and spending and investment continue to expand.

Foreclosures Take a Dive

Foreclosures hit their lowest level in three years in February, in part because of the continuing confusion and disruption caused by the Robogate scandal last fall and in part because delinquencies have fallen steadily for a year as the economy slowly recovers.

Buyers’ Selection of Luxury Homes Grows

Inventories of homes for sale for over one million rose above  30,000 nationally last week according to the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing's weekly housing report.

Prices Seen Stabilizing After Spring Fling

  Last month prices continued to decline in 27 key markets as listing inventories rose just in time to sweeten the coming home buying season for buyers but they should act now because small increases are appearing on the national level, according to Altos Research's Real-Time Housing Market Update.

Cash Deals Break the Bank

  All-cash home sales are setting records in market after market around the country as investors account for a growing share of home purchases and individual buyers, especially first-time buyers, fade as mortgage rates rise and home buyer demand softens further.

New Delinquencies Continue to Fall, But So Do Foreclosure Sales

New delinquencies and foreclosure starts continued to fall in January, but increases in foreclosure processing and sales were not enough to offset swelling foreclosure inventories or lengthening foreclosure timelines. In fact, the average loan in foreclosure has not made a payment in over 500 days, according to Lender Processor Services' February Mortgage Monitor report.

Minorities and Young Keep Homeownership Dream Alive

Fannie Mae's latest National Housing Survey found that younger Americans, Hispanics, and African-Americans are generally more positive about owning a home than the general population even though Gen Yers and minorities suffered the steepest decline in homeownership over the past five years.

Home Sellers Regret Going it Alone

  Homeowners who used a real estate professional to sell their homes reported a 50 percent better closing rate than those who went it alone, according to a new consumer survey by HomeGain.

Online House Hunting Rises 10 Percent over 2010

In January the number of searches for homes by buyers on the Internet's largest homes-for-sale site, a potential an indicator of future demand, rose 10 percent over a year ago, a time when large numbers of buyers were getting ready to take advantage of the homebuyer tax credits.

Half of January Home Sales were Distressed Properties

Almost half of the homes sold in January were foreclosures or short sales, the highest level of distressed sales in nearly a year, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey.

Delinquency Rates Dip Downward Again

  Delinquency rates (on mortgages 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure) have been the brightest light in the gloomy foreclosure picture over the past year.  Two new reports confirm that delinquencies are falling to pre-recession levels, a sign that the economy is steadily improving and the end of the foreclosure plague may be in sight.

CoreLogic Blasts NAR for Overstating Home Sales

The "most popular measure" of existing home sales, the National Association of Realtors' Existing Home Sales, has increasingly overstated home sales for ten years as measured by five other sources, and reached a level in 2010 that is 15 to 20 percent higher than actual sales, according to data provider  CoreLogic, which made the charges in its US Housing and Market Trends Report.

Three Biggest Lenders Close Over Half of U.S. Mortgages

More than half of last year's mortgage originations were generated by just three lenders, according to the Fourth Quarter 2010 Mortgage Lender Ranking from MortgageDaily.com.

Capping the Mortgage Interest Deduction: Third Time the Charm?

For the third straight year, the Obama Administration has proposed limiting the value of the mortgage interest deduction by limiting the amount that wealthier tax payers can deduct.

Obama Plan for Fannie and Freddie Holds Short-term Surprises

  The Administration's plan to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the next five to seven years and replace their functions with new regulation and private sector capital announced this morning contains some short term surprises that will impact real estate consumers and the housing economy within the next year.

Is There Light at the End of the Foreclosure Tunnel?

Not so long ago, foreclosures were rare and mortgage-backed securities were considered sleepy, conservative, super low risk investments.  In fact, there is reason to hope that the end of the multi-year foreclosure nightmare is finally in sight. The flow of future foreclosures has steadily slowed over the past year. Delinquency and default rates have been falling consistently.

Foreclosure Inventories are 7.8 Times above Normal and Rising

A report by Lender Processing Services today confirms Fitch Ratings' analysis yesterday that the volume of defaulted loans moving to REO status has fallen to a trickle as a consequence of the Robo-gate scandal, contributing to a backlog of foreclosures that threatens to reverse the overall decrease in foreclosure inventory caused by the steady decline in new delinquencies last year.

Robo-gate Will Haunt REO Inventory for Four Years

Fall-out from the scandal known as "Robo-gate" will lengthen the time frame for clearing all the current non-agency inventory of distressed properties to four years, according to a new report today by Fitch Ratings.

HAMP Cuts Re-default Rate

Homeowners who modified their mortgages under government's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) are staying current on their loans at a far better rate than critics expected and are outperforming industry modifications, according to the largest data from the Treasury Department.

Slower REO Sales Ease Price Declines

National quarter-over-quarter home prices slid 1.6 percent in January but prices turned positive during the month, the first uptick since mid-August, according to Clear Capital's Home Data Index.

Is Your Market Stabilized?

It's official.  Home prices in three major real estate markets have been declared stabilized by the authoritative Fiserv Case-Shiller Indexes and six more are in the offing.

Homeownership Tanks to 12 Year Low

A smaller percentage of American households own their own homes today than at any time since 1998, a dramatic decline from the all-time high in homeownership just six years ago

First-time Buyers Show Signs of Life

Seven months after the first-time homebuyer tax credit expired, first-time buyers registered a surprisingly strong share of housing markets across the country, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey.

Challenges Face Luxury Homes

Things were looking up for luxury home sales during the tax credit boomlet last year.  However, the credit wasn't the primary reason; after all, $4000 isn't a compelling incentive to well-heeled move up buyers in the million dollar plus housing bracket.

Private Mortgage Insurance Booms in a Shaky Market

  Even as overall home sales soured over the past six months, home buyers and lenders are turning to private mortgage insurance (PMI) at a record rate to get into homes with a lower down payment and reduce their exposure to risk. Since July, when home sales tanked following the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit, the [...]

Homebuilders Regroup After Miserable 2010

Look for fewer new home starts in 2011 as fears of a double dip in prices mount and builders lick their wounds from last year, which was the "worst year ever" for new home sales, according to the chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders.

Jobs and Distress Sales To Drive Local Prices in 2011

factors, unemployment and prevalence of distressed sales, will determine the fates of local real estate market prices in 2011, according to the latest forecast from Clear Capital.

Fewer Lenders Failed in 2010

Fewer mortgage-related firms closed their doors during 2010 than in 2009 based on the Mortgage Graveyard from MortgageDaily.com

Home Prices Teeter on a Double Dip

A 20-city composite of home prices through October as measured by the S&P/Case-Shiller Indices is teetering on the brink of falling below recent lows in 2009 to create a price new low and achieve the "double dip" in prices long feared by the real estate industry.

Insecurity Grips Consumers as 2010 Ends

Almost half of all Americans say they expect economy to get no better in the same in the coming year and two in five Americans (42 percent) feel less secure than they did a year ago while one-third (36 percent) feel just as secure and one in five (19 percent) say they now feel more secure.

Economists See Slower Housing Recovery

The recovery of housing prices will take at least four more years, according to a monthly survey of 110 leading economists and real estate experts, significantly longer than previously estimated.

First-Time Buyers React to Rising Rates

A sharp increase in interest rates is driving first-time homebuyers back into the market, increasing first-timer share of the home buying market according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey.

RE/MAX Reports Inventories Reach Year High

In November inventories in 54 metropolitan areas rose to a year-high of 10 months' supply as sales fell 25.9 percent and prices sagged 1.7 percent from a year ago according to the RE/MAX National Housing Report released today.

TransUnion Sees Double Digit Decline in Delinquencies Next Year

Mortgage delinquencies will drop nearly 20 percent by the end of 2011 to 4.98 percent of all mortgages from an expected 6.21 percent at the end of 2010, according to the latest forecast from TransUnion, one of the three top credit rating bureaus.

Are Only 57 Percent of Americans Really Homeowners?

Is the homeownership rate really ten percent lower than the Census Bureau says it is?

Poor Condition of REOs Depresses Home Values

The quality, as well as the quantity, of many bank-owned properties in the REO inventory is creating a drag on home values because they are difficult to sell in today's market, Scott Sambucci, vice president of Altos Research, said yesterday in a Webinar for investors.

Midwest Home Prices Plunged in November

Home prices have fallen on a national basis for three months in a row, declining by 5.8 percent in November compared to August, according to a leading price index released today.  The Midwest region experienced the biggest quarterly price change (-9.9 percent) and increasing numbers of local markets dropped into double dip territory.

2011 Outlook: Stars Align for Buyers with Low Rates and Prices

Interest rates below 5 percent and prices bottoming out in the first half of the year will drive two of the three main ingredients for buyer affordability to cyclic lows next year, Freddie Mac's chief economist said yesterday.

Rural Foreclosures: The Hidden Heartland Inventory

You've heard of the Shadow Inventory?  The Heartland's foreclosure inventory isn't in a shadow.  It's totally hidden.

Foreclosure Discount Grows, Home Values Fall

Not only did the number of foreclosures grow during the third quarter, so too did the "foreclosure discount," the difference between the average price of foreclosed properties and properties for sale that are not in foreclosure.

Counting the Casualties of the Housing Depression

When it comes to getting a mortgage, building a new home or buying an existing one, there's a good reason consumers don't experience the same level of service that existed at the height of the housing boom five years ago.  The ranks of real estate professionals have been devastated

Fannie Finds The Bottom Has a Hole in it

Fannie Mae's most recent nationwide housing survey finds that consumers are less certain that the housing market has bottomed, and continue to be wary of buying a home.

Experts Forecast Low Prices For Years

A panel of 103 leading housing economists and real estate experts predict cumulative home prices will rise an average only 8.3 percent over at least the next three years, according to the latest 2010 MacroMarkets Home Price Expectations Survey.

Consensus Sees Better Sales by Mid 2011

Though most forecasters are bearish on the outlook for property values next year, due largely to the overhang of foreclosures that is worsening with the self-imposed moratoria by several big lenders, a consensus is building for improved demand by next summer as the overall economic picture brightens.

Mortgage Rates Soar

Freddie Mac's weekly survey of interest rates rose for the first time in eight weeks, soaring 22 basis points for a 30-year fixed loan, the highest rates have been since August and the largest one-week increase since June 4, 2009 when the rate on a 30-year fixed rose 38 basis points.

Mortgage Fraud Rises 20 Percent Since 2009

Mortgage fraud increased by more than 20 percent since the fraud rates reached their lowest point in early 2009, according to an update of CoreLogic's Fraud Trends Report.

Falling Prices: CoreLogic Makes it Two in a Row

Home prices declined for the second month in a row after rising slightly for the first seven months of the year, according to CoreLogic's Home Price Index for September.

Sellers’ Profits Fell 8 Percent Last Year

Even though home sellers are holding on to their homes longer, they are making less profit from the equity in their homes when they sell, according to new data from the National Association of Realtors.

Banks Tighten Standards as Mortgage Demand Falls

Even as demand for mortgages declined with the expiration of homebuyer tax credit in the third quarter, a small number of banks tightened standards on both prime and nontraditional mortgage loans, reversing a slight net easing reported in the second quarter.

Falling Prices Sweep America

Declining home prices spread across the nation last month, reaching 25 of the 26 top markets tracked by Altos Research.  Only Washington, DC, with its large Federal workforce, experienced a gain.

Owners Stay Home During Housing Depression

Homeowners are staying put as long as they possibly can and house flipping is almost nonexistent today as consumers weather the longest housing depression in modern times.

Rental Vacancies Shrink, Ownership Vacancies Rise

Nothing shows the pendulum swinging away from home ownership and towards rentals more clearly than the latest vacancy data from the Census Bureau.

Election Spells Doom for Fannie and Freddie

Among the many messages voters sent to Washington yesterday was: Get the government out of financing homes now and let the private sector do it.

Fitch Foreclosure Forecast Casts a Pall on Recovery Hopes

Not until March 1, 2014 will the last of the seven million properties that are currently delinquent, in foreclosure, or bank-owned  finally return to life as homes or investments.

Mortgage Insurance Booms as Buyers Struggle

Despite 19.1 percent fewer home sales in September than a year ago, private mortgage insurance applications received by leading mortgage insurers are up 32 percent in the past 12 months.

Mortgage Bankers Bet on Rebound in Home Sales

Expecting overall mortgage originations to fall about $400 billion next year, the Mortgage Bankers Association hopes for a 30 percent rebound in mortgages originated for home purchases next year, according to its economic forecast released Tuesday.

Home Prices Slide in Third Quarter

Predictions by housing bears that the fourth quarter will kick off a slump in housing prices that will last long into next year seem to be coming true a couple of months early, according to price reports released yesterday.

Fannie and Freddie Trump Homebuyer Tax Credit

Keeping Freddie and Fannie solvent has cost taxpayers six times as much as the homebuyer tax credit and, depending on the economy, could just about equal the cost of mortgage interest deduction over the next two years, according to projections released yesterday by the Federal Housing Finance Administration.

Fewer Economists See Housing Recovery in 2011

Hopes are sinking and uncertainty is on the rise that a housing recovery will begin next year, according to a monthly survey of housing economists.

Support for Homeownership Falls 6 Percent

The number of Americans who believe buying a home is a good financial decision has fallen every year since 2007 and reached a low of 77 percent this year, according to an annual survey released yesterday by the National Association of Realtors.

Farm Loan Defaults Soar in 2010

Farm loan delinquencies have hit a 17-year high, and 2.3 percent of all agricultural production loans made by commercial banks were past due, up from 1.3 percent a year ago, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Crisis Freezes Foreclosures as REO Inventories Rise

As investigations and multi-month delays in the foreclosure process begin, those who will suffer most are JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, according to a new survey of foreclosure exposure, and foreclosure suspensions are coming at a bad time, just as foreclosue sales are down and REO inventories are rising.

ForeclosureGate Won’t Close til 2011

Almost hourly the nightmare facing the housing industry worsens as the ramifications of what is being called ForeclosureGate become clearer.

Did Too Many FHA Buyers “Borrow Forward?”

  Will the newly imposed changes to the FHA loan program, which finances one out of every three residential transactions in America, cause another drop to home sales?

Owning Now Cheaper than Renting in 18 Major Markets

Rising rents and falling property values in many major markets are combining the change the rent vs. buy equation for thousands of potential homeowners around the country.  Suddenly homeownership is within reach of buyers who don't need a tax credit to make the numbers work.

Poverty Moves into America’s Suburbs

Some 1.6 million more poor people live in America's suburbs than its cities, according to a new study by scholars at the Brookings Institute.

California Faces Gloomy 2011

Real estate sales in America's largest state will decline 10 percent this year with hopes for a lackluster 2 percent rise in 2011.

Harris Poll Detects Uptick in Home Buying Sentiment

A new Harris Poll released today finds no significant changes in consumer expectations in how Americans will spend their money on big ticket items over the next 6 months, with the possible exception of homes.

Fannie Confirms Delinquencies Declining

In its second quarter report, Fannie Mae confirmed what others have previously reported:  since the first of the year, serious mortgage delinquency rates have slowly but steadily declined.

Fitch Expert Sees Prices Falling 10 Percent

Home prices will fall another 10 percent before they stabilize in the second half of next year, Roelof Slump, Managing Director of Structured Finance Experts for Fitch Ratings told investors Thursday.

Mortgage Modifications are Sticking

Though the Administration's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) is falling far short of its goal of helping three to four million homeowners, the program is succeeding at helping those who do make through the program are stay current on their payments and avoid re-default.

Low Appraisals Still Sink Sales

Despite the repeal of a rule unpopular with appraisers and agents alike, low appraisals are still killing deals across the nation, slowing sales at a critical time in the housing markets.

One-third of Americans Score Too Low for a Mortgage

Mortgage lenders have raised standards on credit scores so high that nearly one-third of Americans are unlikely to qualify for a mortgage because their credit scores are too low.

Though Foreclosures Rise, Delinquencies Wane

While foreclosure starts remain high, the longer term foreclosure picture is improving as evidence mounts that delinquencies, though still very high, are declining, despite the economy.

Straightening Out the MERS Mess

Could 62 million homeowners be secure from the threat of  foreclosure because their mortgages are held by an industry-run electronic mortgage registry that a California bankruptcy court recently ruled cannot be used to establish ownership of the loans?

August Existing Home Sales Spell Relief

The flood of bad news on home sales took a breather in August as sales, inventories and prices all moved in the right direction, though all three metrics have a very long way to go to return to normal levels.

Expectations Rise for Prices to Fall

Both real estate professionals and homeowners soured on the direction of home prices in the third quarter and nearly half of the 1,100 professionals participating in a new survey by HomeGain expect prices to fall over the next six months.

Support for Homeownership Sinks at Critical Juncture

Sliding numbers on the value of homeownership in Fannie Mae's latest nationwide housing survey brought in sharp focus the debate over Federal housing policy at a critical time.

August Sales Fall but Prices Hold Steady…For Now

Home sales tumbled in August but prices held steady, at least for now, despite falling demand and rising inventories in most markets according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance Monthly Survey of Real Estate Market Conditions.

Distress Sales Market Share to Rise

Distress sales, foreclosures and short sales will increase their market share during the fourth quarter as the tax-credit induced sales bump disappears and buyers return to bargain shopping.

PMI: Home Sales Set to Rise

The drop in home sales following the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit is probably over and sales may actually rise in the August to October period.

Freddie Foresees Price Declines

Home prices may fall an additional 1 to 1.5 percent in the third quarter but they will stabilize during the first half of 20011 and begin to rise during the balance of the year, according to the September forecast issued by the GSE's economists.

Outlook Brightens for Luxury Markets

While the end of the homebuyer tax credit has left most real estate markets begging for buyers, the luxury and second homes markets may be in for a boost in 2011

Nine of Ten Consumers Postponing Big Purchases Through 2010

Fear that a double dip recession will threaten their personal finances is driving nine out of ten potential buyers out of the market for big ticket items like homes and cars for at least the next three to four months, according to a new national consumer survey released today.

Move-up Buyers Claim One Third of Tax Credits

Preliminary reports indicate that more existing homeowners than expected took advantage of the homebuyer tax credit to help buy a new home this year.

FHA Softens Mortgage Insurance Blow

On October 4, buyers use FHA financing will encounter an unusual surprise.  Their mortgages will cost more over time, but it will cost them less than it does today to close on their loan.

Housing Faces the Fall

The consensus among the experts that home prices will fall farther before they hit bottom may become a self-fulfilling prophecy as the very buyers so desperately needed to buy up the excess inventory and stop the price slide will wait until they are absolutely sure that prices have reached their lowest point.

Banks Could Tank New FHA Refinancing Program

A new FHA program launching next Tuesday allows homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages to refinance at today's record low rates, take at least 10 percent off their principal, and get a new FHA loan that will leave them with positive equity in their home.

Positive Pending Home Sales Stifle Tax Credit Talk

Just when it seemed that only one more negative housing report would be enough to rev up the bandwagon for a new federal homebuyer tax credit, today's pending home sales index for August baffled prognosticators and restored hope the no more government stimulus would be needed to stabilize housing markets.

REOs Put New Pressure on Prices

Rising numbers of real-estate owned properties (REOs) and delinquencies are creating excess supply in housing markets across the country.

Tax Credit Talk Splits Real Estate Community

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan created turmoil in the real estate industry when he said on CNN Sunday that a restoration of the homebuyer tax credit is "not off the table" and that it is "too soon to say" whether the administration's credit tax credit, which expired April 30, will be revived.

Donovan Floats Tax Credit Balloon

After admitting twice that the July home sales numbers released last week were "clearly worse than we expected," HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan did not rule out the prospect that the Administration will revive the homebuyer tax credit that expired April 30.

Economists Saw Housing Recovery Faltering Before July Sales Report

Inventories Soar to Critical Levels

Inventories of existing homes for sale as measured by months supply broke an all-time record in July.

First-time Buyers Sink Below Pre-Credit Levels

Last month, first-time homebuyers' share of the housing market fell lower than it has been since 2008 when the first-time version of the homebuyer tax credit took effect.

Cost of Homeownership Reaches $1,000 Monthly

Homeowners paid a median of $1,000 in monthly housing costs in 2009, compared to $808 for renters, according to data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Homeowners: Worst is Yet to Come

Homeowners have turned more pessimistic about near-term prospects for home values in their local housing markets than they have been in the past three quarters.  One out of three now believes home values in their local markets have not yet reached a bottom and more than a quarter (28 percent) expect home values in will decrease over the next six months.

TransUnion Reports Delinquencies Fall for Second Straight Quarter

Another provider of national credit data reported today that mortgage delinquencies have been falling during the first half of the year, suggesting that the housing sector is beginning to stabilize.

Geithner Blasts Fannie and Freddie

He also announced the Administration will not support returning Fannie and Freddie to the role they played before they entered conservatorship in 2008, "where they fought to take market share from private competitors while enjoying the privilege of government support."

Price Increases Slowed Down Quickly in June

Year-over-year home prices increased in June for the fifth consecutive month, but at a much lower rate than April and May, reported CoreLogic's Home Price Index (HPI).

Gloomy Fannie Sees a Flat Fall

Fannie Mae's economists see 2.5 percent overall growth in the second half of 2010 but forecast housing will be flat for the remainder of the year due to a greater than expected number of sales being pulled forward into the second quarter by the homebuyer tax credit.

Credit Unions Cash in

When traditional banks and thrifts are reining in, credit unions are grabbing market share in mortgages at a rate no one would believe a few short years ago.

Foreclosure Report Stuns Wall Street

However, RealtyTrac;s news wasn't all bad.  In fact, it confirmed a trend of declining default, suggesting foreclosures will decline as well in the months to come

Foreclosures Show Signs of Decline

Another foreclosure listing site reported today that foreclosures are declining at an accelerating rate as subprime resets abate and unemployment, though high, remains relatively unchanged.

Tax Credit Temporarily Checked Falling Home Values

Though home values in the United States continued to decline in the second quarter of 2010, the percentage of single-family homeowners with mortgages who are underwater fell to 21.5 percent from 23.3 percent in the first quarter and 23 percent one year ago., according to the Zillow Real Estate Market Reports.

Apartment Rents are on the Rise

Apartment rents have made an about face during the first half of the year and they'll continue to rise if vacancies tighten as predicted as more and more households become renters.

Nearly Half of Sellers Cut Prices

The number of price-reduced homes on the market increased 5.3 percent in July as compared to June, according to a monthly review of MLS-listed properties within 26 of the country's largest housing markets conducted by the national online real estate brokerage ZipRealty.

Prices Rise 7.9 Percent

Despite reports that sellers were dropping prices following the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit April 30, a new national report found that prices rose an average of 7.9 percent in the second quarter over the first, though price increases on listings slowed in June.

Job Losses and Medical Bills Drive PA Foreclosures

A new study by the Pennsylvania of Realtors provides new evidence that job losses and unexpected medical bills, not subprime mortgages, are the two leading causes of foreclosure in that state.

Pending Sales Sink Even Lower

Pending home sales in June sank below the all-time basement level they reached in May as fall-out from the end of the tax credit continues to traumatize housing markets across the county

Poll Favors New Tax Credit Over Bulldozing Homes

Nearly half, or 48 percent, of those participating in an online survey released today said they want the Federal tax credit for home buyers back to re-stimulate the housing market.

BP Oil Spill Will Cost Gulf Real Estate $3 Billion

The BP DeepWater Horizon oil spill will cost homeowners n in the coastal counties along the Gulf Coast communities from $648 million over one year and to as much as $3 billion over five years, according to a report today from CoreLogic.

Home Prices Heading for a Second Dip

Recent gains in home values are temporary and markets are poised for a 5 percent dip during the balance of 2010.

States Bust Real Estate Agents

California's Department of Real Estate accepted record numbers of real estate licenses revoked and over the past year and accepted record numbers of licenses surrendered by real estate professionals facing disciplinary action.

Foreclosures Move in Next Door

While foreclosures fell in nine out of the nation's ten highest foreclosure markets during the past six months, they are increasing almost everywhere else in the nation as the changing causes of mortgage defaults bring foreclosures home to hundreds of communities.

Madmen to Market Mortgage Modifications

With the number of final mortgage modifications below target  and criticism mounting that it's not making a significant difference in the war to stem foreclosures, the Administration's Home Affordable Modification Program (*HAMP) is asking the advertising wizards of Madison Avenue for help.

Prices Fall on Move-in Properties, Rise on Fixer-uppers

Prices on homes ready to be occupied fell an average of 6.8 percent between May and June, but prices for damaged foreclosed properties increased by 5.9 percent during the same period.

New Financial Reform Legislation Transforms Appraisals

The financial regulatory reform bill signed into law the week could result in more accurate home valuations, higher appraisal costs, faster closings, more completed transactions and maybe even higher prices, according to critics of a controversial quasi-governmental regulation that the legislation eliminated.    

RE/MAX Finds Low Rates Lift Sales

In the wake of the homebuyer tax credit, home sales and prices are holding their own, due largely to record low interest rates and the most affordable prices in years, according to the RE/MAX June survey of 54 metropolitan areas.

Falling Home Prices Ignite Boom in Foreign Buyers

The number of American homes bought by foreign nationals has nearly doubled in the past year as falling property values and record numbers of distress sales encouraged immigrants and foreign investors to take advantage of affordable prices.  With home purchases by US citizens plummeting in the wake of the tax credit, foreigners are now poised to gain an even larger ownership share of the US residential market.

PMI Slashes 2010 Home Sales Forecast

PMI, the leading mortgage insurance company, has cut its forecast for increased 2010 sales by more than half after housing hit a wall in May following the end of the homebuyer tax credit.

Foreclosure Picture Improves in First Half

Foreclosure filings fell 5 percent in the first half of the year but still exceed the first six months of 2009 by 8 percent, according to figures released today by RealtyTrac. One in 78 home0wners received a foreclosure notice in the first half.

Home Prices Expected to Weaken

Virtually every other indicator from Pending Sales to Mortgage Purchase Applications is showing home sales headed south with the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit ended April 30.

Ten Percent of Homeowners Regret Buying Their Current Homes

Translated into hard numbers, the poll suggests that 6.75 million homeowners are unhappy and two million feel trapped in their homes because they cannot sell them in the current real estate markets. 

Falling Jumbo Rates Raise High End Sales

High end sales have been picking up through the spring and early summer, even in the wake of the demise of the tax credit, whose impact was felt almost exclusively at the lower end of the market.

Home Sales Contracts Plunge to All-time Low

Home purchase contracts signed in May dropped to their lowest level in the history of the Pending Home Sales Index.  Contracts fell to a level of 77.6\, 30 percent below April and 15.9 percent below May 2009.

Senate Beats Deadline and Clears Homebuyer Tax Credit Extension

After failing by two votes to pass an extension of unemployment benefits that included an extension of the homebuyer tax credit, the Senate last night agreed to a separate bill to give homebuyers an extra three-months to close on a purchase that qualifies for a federal tax credits of up to $8,000.

Foreclosure Sales Fell 33 Percent in Q1; Discounts Rose

Sales of foreclosed properties fell by one third in the first quarter from a year ago and 14 percent from the last quarter of 2009, according to a new report released today by RealtyTrac, the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties.

Sellers and Buyers Disagree on Home Values

Three out of four homeowners think their homes are worth more than the amount their agents recommend they list them for, and 63 percent of agents and brokers say buyers they represent think homes for sale are overpriced.

Critics Assail Dying Tax Credit

As the clock ticks down on the final hours of the homebuyer tax credits, critics of the policy are celebrating their demise even as housing industry lobbyists scramble valiantly for an eleventh hour legislative life boat that will extend them another three months.

Strategic Defaults May Have Peaked Last Year

Despite the recent publicity and current debate about homeowners who walk away from their mortgages even thought hey have the ability to pay; the phenomenon of "strategic default" may have peaked before it was identified.

Homebuyer Tax Credit Extension Hits the Wall

Legislation containing a three month extension of the popular homebuyer tax credits to allow buyers to close by September 30th died in the Senate last night and the opportunity to extend the credits past the current deadline of June 30th may have passed.

Supply is High as Shadow Inventory Looms

The inventory of unsold existing homes remained unnervingly high in May, raising questions about the price outlook for the balance of the year, especially in light of an immense backlog of foreclosed properties, known as the "shadow inventory," that will certainly have a depressing effect on prices as those homes begin to come on market.

California’s New Tax Credit Keeps Them Coming as First-timer Traffic Tanks Nationally

California enacted its new $10,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit just in time to avoid the precipitous drop in first-time buyer traffic in May that hit the rest of the nation's real estate markets, according to proprietary data from the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance Monthly Survey of Real Estate Market Conditions.

PMI Removes 105 Markets from Distressed List

PMI Group, the nation's leading private mortgage insurer, has removed 105 markets effective June 18, including some of the nation's largest, from its Distressed Markets List.  Homebuyers in those markets will find it easier and less expensive to obtain mortgage insurance.

First-Time Homebuyers Disappeared After Tax Credit Ended

Homebuyer traffic nationwide tumbled in May, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance Monthly Survey of Real Estate Market Conditions. Most of the decline was attributable to first-time homebuyers who sharply reduced their home shopping last month.

Housing Crisis Wreaks Havoc on Children

So many families are now paying half or more of their income to pay housing costs that they have little left to support their children, according to the latest State of the Nation's Housing Report from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Most Modified Loans Will Re-default in 12 Months

Despite the extensive and lengthy process required to modify mortgages in default so that borrowers could afford their payments, most will default again in a year or less, according to Fitch Ratings.

Post Tax Credit Price Cutting Eases

Price cutting of listed properties apparently has eased as real estate markets recover from the boom and bust of the tax credit. On an annual basis, price cutting declined slightly.

Growing Confidence Fuels Single Family Home Price Increases

Optimism that a sustainable economic recovery is underway is driving increases in home prices across many U.S. metro areas according to an analysis of fourth quarter 2009 prices in 384 metro markets by Fiserv, the leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, and data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

FHA Insurance Premiums to Triple

The House last week approved legislation allowing FHA to increase the annual premiums borrowers are required to pay for mortgage insurance. The Senate has yet to consider the bill.

Broker Price Opinions are Focus of Short Sale Fraud

 Banks using real estate brokers and agents to value short sales are increasingly becoming the victims of fraudulent schemes that have occurred in more than 1 percent of short sales this year and have already cost lenders at least $50 million in lost revenue, according to CoreLogic.

Mortgage Defaults Fell Seven Percent in May

Good news on the foreclosure front continues as defaults fell 7 percent in May. Overall foreclosure activity fell 3 percent during the month and is virtually unchanged from the level of a year ago, according to RealtyTrac's latest report.

Owners Slash Prices After Tax Credit

Nearly half of home sellers in 26 of the nation's largest markets slashed prices in May following the expiration of he Federal tax credit April 30, dropping average prices by nearly $2500 according to a monthly review of MLS-listed properties by the national online real estate brokerage ZipRealty.

Tidal Wave of Buyers Eyes Beleaguered FHA

Of the 12,000 readers of the Home Buying Institute website last month, some 87 percent of those who responded to the survey said they were planning to use an FHA loan to finance their home purchase.

High Risk Delinquency Rates Turn the Corner

The worst looks to be over for the high risk loans that ignited the housing depression.  Alt-A delinquencies declined for the second consecutive month following a steady four-year increase and subprime delinquencies also fell for the third straight month, according to the latest performance metrics from Fitch Ratings.

Record Loan Demand Strains FHA’s Capacity

A patchwork of 37 computer programs that date back to the early eighties and a “sadly understaffed” workforce probably won’t change until FHA becomes an independent agency apart from HUD, said former FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery.

Foreclosures Will Plague the Markets Until 2013

Processing of so many foreclosed properties has slowed down and the so-called “shadow inventory” has grow so large that it will take until 2013 to work them through the system.

Will the Tax Credit Bump Create a Summer Slump?

Evidence is growing that rather than stimulate additional home sales, the final phase of the tax credit may have only encouraged buyers who were planning to buy a home anyway to move up their purchase a few months so that they could make the April 30 deadline and qualify for the credit.

Restoring Default Risk to Pre-Bubble Levels Will Take Five Years

The risk of borrowers defaulting on their mortgages today is much less than in 2006 to 2008, but it will take at least five years for risk to return to pre-bubble levels, a leading expert on default risk told Real Estate Economy Watch.

Consensus Grows that Foreclosures Plateaued in April

A consensus is growing among different foreclosure reporting services that at last foreclosures have plateaued and will start to slowly decline.

First-time Buyers Fade in April

The end of the tax credit brought about a significant decline in first-time homebuyers in April, the heart of the 2010 home buying season.

UFA Sees Mortgage Risks Rapidly Returning to Normal

Default risk for nonprime mortgages fell during the first quarter.

Improving Values Discourage Property Tax Appeals

In recent years, falling market values have inspired millions of homeowners to appeal their property tax assessments in hopes of lowering their tax bills, especially in "sand states" where values have fallen the most since 2006.  But this year, the rush to judgment may be over.

New Survey Reveals Shocking Increase in Strategic Defaulters

 The Trulia-RealtyTrac survey produced the highest number yet of potential strategic defaulters.

Shadow Inventory Reaches 4.3 Million Homes

The large number of homes in serious delinquency, or in the foreclosure process, suggest that the so-called "shadow inventory" of properties owned by lenders but not yet on the market has reached 4.2 to 4.3 million homes, said Jay Brinkmann, MBA's chief economist.

Lowe’s Sees 2010 as Transition Year

Reporting a 2.7 percent rise in net earnings today for the first quarter, the nation's second largest home improvement retailer remains cautious about the balance of 2010.

Prices Fall in the Wake of the Tax Credit

However, if many buyers artificially inflated their prices to take advantage of the credit, that price drop might occur faster in many markets.

Housing Crisis Takes Toll on Agents

Hard times have come to real estate agents as well as to their customers.  With fewer houses to sell and commissions shrinking due to lower prices, more and more agents are looking for work in other fields or settling for less money.

Strategic Defaults Outpace HAMP Modifications