Archive | Consumer Report RSS feed for this section
Home Builder Confidence Dips as Homebuyer Credit Deadline Nears
With the expiration date for the first-time homebuyer tax credit approaching, builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes slipped one point to 18 in October.
Better Days Ahead for Remodelers
By: Steve Cook; Thu, Oct 15, 2009
The remodeling industry is turning a corner and annual consumer spending for home improvement should start to rise in the beginning of next year
Homebuyers Will Regain Negotiating Edge: Zillow Economist
By: Steve Cook; Tue, Oct 13, 2009
Foreclosures and the demise of the first-time homebuyer tax credit will swing the negotiating advantage back to buyers and away from sellers, who have been enjoying an improved status in many markets as declining inventories discourage price reductions.
Home Price Discounts Shrink as Inventories Fall
By: Steve Cook; Sun, Oct 11, 2009
Falling inventories are helping home sellers gain a negotiating edge over buyers for the first time in many months.
Apartment Renters Save Money With Roommates
By: Steve Cook; Sat, Oct 10, 2009
To save money, more and more renters are teaming up with a roommate or two in a larger unit rather than living alone in a studio or one bedroom apartment, but they are driving up vacancy rates.
Reverse Mortgages Could Become a Fiasco for Senior Citizens
By: David Lereah; Wed, Oct 7, 2009
Senior households may become the next group of consumers harmed by irresponsible marketing and selling practices according to a report released by a major consumer organization released yesterday.
Apartment Rental Vacancies Go Through the Roof
By: Steve Cook; Tue, Oct 6, 2009
After setting a 20-year record last summer, the national apartment vacancy rate has risen even higher in the third quarter and there is no relief in sight for landlords through the balance of the year.
Customer Satisfaction with Homeowners Insurance Rises
By: Steve Cook; Mon, Oct 5, 2009
For the first time in five years, overall consumer satisfaction with homeowners insurance has increased significantly, driven by favorable customer perceptions of the value of their policies.
Massachusetts AG Busts Scheme to Prey on Homeowners in Trouble
By: Steve Cook; Fri, Oct 2, 2009
A Worcester, Mass. grand jury indicted an Oxford, Mass. attorney and three accomplices late last week for a complicated scheme to defraud desperate homeowners facing foreclosure..
Pot Planters Plead Guilty of Massive Mortgage Fraud
By: Steve Cook; Fri, Oct 2, 2009
Four South Florida brothers pleaded guilty in Miami yesterday to obtaining 18 mortgages fraudulently in five different Florida counties to buy houses for a massive marijuana farming operation.
Move-Up Home Buyers are Stuck in Neutral
By: Steve Cook; Thu, Oct 1, 2009
More renters became homeowners last month but fewer existing homeowners moved up to more desirable homes or neighborhoods even though they acknowledge current home prices are a good value, according to an industry-sponsored survey. Most potential move-up buyers believe homes are more affordable today than in recent months and 69 percent believe the economy is improving. [...]
Lennar Increases Home Starts
By: Steve Cook; Mon, Sep 21, 2009
One of the nation's largest homebuilders reported increased losses during the third quarter but also issued a forecast on the housing market that was so rosy it moved stocks higher during pre-market futures trading this morning.
3.7 Million Unemployed Miss Payments
By: Steve Cook; Tue, Sep 8, 2009
About one quarter of the nation's 14.9 million unemployed workers have missed a mortgage, rent, or credit card payment according to a comprehensive national survey of 1,200 Americans nationwide who have been unemployed and looking for a job in the past 12 months, including 894 who are still jobless.
Foreclosures Dim Minorities’ Dreams
By: Steve Cook; Tue, Aug 25, 2009
The make-up of American homeownership is becoming increasingly white as foreclosures turn the dream of owning a home into a nightmare for thousands of minority families, pushing the minority homeownership rate to its lowest level in decades.
Stocks Tank on First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit
By: Steve Cook; Mon, Aug 24, 2009
Even though the first-time home buyer tax credit doesn't expire for three months, analysts' assessment of the pending demise of the credit sent helped end the stock market's four day rally today, driving down housing and financial stocks.
Buying is Becoming as Cheap as Renting
By: Steve Cook; Wed, Aug 12, 2009
Home prices have dropped so much in the past two years that if they continue to fall as expected, monthly ownership costs will be less than monthly rents in a number of major markets, according to a new study from the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the Low Income Housing Coalition.
Home Values Keeping Sinking in Q2
By: Steve Cook; Tue, Aug 11, 2009
There's little to smile about in Zillow's latest report on home values: US home values fell 12.1 percent year-over-year, marking the 10th consecutive quarter of declines; Total home sales fell 23.7 percent in June versus a year earlier; and more than one-fifth (23 percent) of all owners of single family homes with mortgages owe more on a mortgage than their home is currently worth.
Match-up of the Fixes: Cash for Clunkers vs. Homebuyers’ Tax Credit
By: Steve Cook; Tue, Aug 4, 2009
It's hard to turn on a newscast these days without hearing about the Cash for Clunkers program and what it has done for the auto industry. It's also hard to resist the urge to make comparisons between Washington's two great fixes to stimulate the economy: C4C and the first-time homebuyers' tax credit. If you're thinking that the real estate industry needs a Cash for Clunkers program, you might match up of the two fixes to see if it makes sense. New Housing Forecasts available now at: http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/category/housing-forecasts/forecasts/
This Schizophrenic Market is a Long Way from Healing
By: Steve Cook; Mon, Jul 27, 2009
Like black markets that spring up in ravaged cities during wartime, there's something inherently unhealthy about the existence of a two-tiered housing market, one for "normal" sales and one for "distressed" sales.
The Pending Supply
By: Steve Cook; Wed, Jul 15, 2009
Perhaps you've heard of the pending demand for real estate-prospective buyers who have postponed taking action until they perceive conditions have optimized. There's also a pending supply of real estate and it's large enough to have a serious impact on the housing markets if a recent study is correct.
Fear and Opportunity
By: Steve Cook; Thu, Jul 9, 2009
A new national survey by Move, Inc, operator of Realtor.com, sheds some light on the two most powerful factors motivating buyers in this complicated market. Those would be fear and opportunity.
Why They Walk Away…
By: Steve Cook; Tue, Jul 7, 2009
A recent study conducted by researchers from the graduate schools of business at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University found that one out of four homeowners who default on their mortgages make a strategic decision to clear out their belongings and walk away from their homes-even if they can afford to pay their mortgages.
Remodelers on the Rebound
By: Steve Cook; Sun, May 24, 2009
There's an old construction industry adage that goes something like this: when home builders prosper, remodelers have hard times and when remodelers are doing well, it's a bad market for builders.
Homeowners Accept Reality
By: Steve Cook; Sat, May 16, 2009
For the first time during the current real estate recession, most homeowners have come to grips with the fact that their homes have lost value during the past year.
Public Mood Swings to Real Estate
By: Steve Cook; Sat, May 9, 2009
National surveys over the past month are detecting a change in public attitudes towards real estate for both homeowners and investors.
Surveys Find Consumer Confidence Improving
By: Steve Cook; Fri, Apr 24, 2009
Two new public opinion surveys taken last week found encouraging stirrings of consumer confidence and pent- up demand for homeownership. A new national survey conducted last weekend and commissioned by Move, Inc. found that 23 percent of adults plan to purchase a home in the next five years, and more than half of them are first-time homebuyers, even though half of all Americans are concerned they or someone they know will face foreclosure in the next six to 12 months. The Move survey also found nearly one out of five home owners plan to take advantage of the Administration’s new program to help prevent foreclosures. While searching for answers in the past 12 months, 21 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage contacted a lender to restructure their loan. Half of those homeowners who contacted their lender experienced success while six percent still await an answer. Despite today’s challenging market conditions, 18.1 percent of adults plan to buy a home this year in order to take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit recently passed by Congress in the Administration’s economic stimulus package.
Confidence in Banks Plummets
Americans have less confidence in banks than ever, but most like the ...
Support Grows for Foreclosure Policy
By: Steve Cook; Tue, Mar 17, 2009
Two national surveys conducted immediately after President Obama released the outline of his foreclosure plan ten days ago show a marked shift in public opinion in support of using government aid to help homeowners having problems paying their mortgages. Yet the nation remains split over whether the policy is fair or unfair to those who have met their mortgage payments.
A Growing Confidence Problem
By: David Lereah; Tue, Jan 27, 2009
It is not an overstatement to say that confidence has played a significant role during the past decade with regard to the performance of the economy and housing markets. Who could forget the day when America shook after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and consumer and investor confidence plummeted?
Get this widget See local rates - Senate Clears Homebuyer Tax Credit Extension to Pass This Week
- CEOs Launch New Drive for Expanded Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Homebuyer Tax Credit Will Motivate First-time Buyers More than Move-up Buyers
- Congress Passes Homebuyer Tax Credit
By: Steve Cook; Mon, Oct 19, 2009
0 Comments