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Survey of Economists Finds Fears of New Bubble
More than 100 forecasters in a national survey said they expect the home values to reach an average of 5.4 percent year-over-year and that current Federal Reserve policies post some risk of re-inflating the housing bubble.
Southeastern and Northeastern Metros Rank Lowest on Home Value Forecast List
By: Steve Cook; Tue, Dec 11, 2012
While California and Texas markets dominate the top tier of the latest Home Value Forecast ranking, the bottom of the list includes metros that could miss the housing recovery in the months to come.
October Prices Lag in the Midwest
Price growth was strong in every region in October, including the Northeast where prices rose more than any other region. However, Midwest prices continued to trail the nation as the recovery is still fragile in the nation's heartland.
Housing Starts Blow Away the Experts
By: Steve Cook; Fri, Oct 19, 2012
More new residential units were started in September than any month since July 2008, blowing away expectations and making national headlines for the resurgence in home construction.
Rustbelt Markets are Missing the Recovery
By: Steve Cook; Tue, Sep 18, 2012
Not all is going smoothly with the housing recovery as the summer ends. August data from Realtor.com shows that, though inventories are still falling, more and more markets are seeing prices go in the wrong direction, dropping below levels of a year ago.
Lenders Show Signs of Easing on Refis
By: Steve Cook; Thu, May 17, 2012
In April lenders loosened up slightly on the loan-to-value ratio used to make approval decisions on mortgage refinance applications. However, but the lid is still screwed down tightly on purchase mortgages used to buy homes, according to the Ellie Mae Origination Insight Report.
Is Chicago the Next Atlanta?
By: Steve Cook; Mon, Apr 9, 2012
Will Chicago be the next big city to witness its housing market implode, virtually without warning?
Foreclosure Sales Soar
By: editor; Tue, Mar 6, 2012
Foreclosure sales spiked in the first month of 2012. Sales in non-judicial states outpaced judicial by over three to one, exacerbating the backlog of foreclosures soon to reach local real estate markets in states where court orders are required to foreclose on homes.
Foreclosure Markets Dominate Realtor.com Turnaround Towns
By: editor; Tue, Jan 31, 2012
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.
Will Spring Bring a Triple Dip?
By: Steve Cook; Thu, Oct 6, 2011
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.
FHA Applications Perk Up Purchase Mortgages
By: editor; Wed, Oct 5, 2011
Driven by a wave of FHA loans, applications for mortgages to purchase a home reached their highest level since May last week, but they still trail the 2010 application rate by more than 34 percent.
Foreclosure Sales Plummeted in May
By: Steve Cook; Wed, Jun 29, 2011
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.
Agents More Bearish on Home Values
By: Will Stein; Tue, Jun 21, 2011
Half of all agents and brokers and forty-two percent of homeowners think that home values will decrease over the next six months, a huge increase in price pessimism over the first quarter.
Harvard Study Warns of Rent Bubble
By: Steve Cook; Fri, May 27, 2011
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.
Turnaround: Four Months and Counting?
By: Steve Cook; Wed, May 11, 2011
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.
Get Ready for a Weak Recovery
By: Steve Cook; Tue, Apr 12, 2011
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.
Cash Offers Foil Homebuyers
By: Steve Cook; Fri, Jan 22, 2010
With prices hitting or approaching bottom in markets nationwide and record number of foreclosures available, professional investors armed with cash-rich investors are emerging as factor in the lower end of the residential market.
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.
Can We Wait for the Echo?
By: Steve Cook; Mon, Jun 22, 2009
It's clear the "echoes" will spawn a record number of households and boost housing demand but it's not such a given that they will become homeowners, at least right away. In fact, in the near term, demographic forces favor the rental over the for-sale market.
A Shadow Threatens Home Values
By: Steve Cook; Thu, May 21, 2009
It's called the "shadow inventory" and it's scarier than a ghost because it is very real. It's hanging over your local real estate market ready to ambush property values at the first sign of a rebound.
Difficult Housing Recovery Ahead
By: David Lereah; Sat, May 16, 2009
Recent data suggest the worst may be over for the housing markets. But only when home values stabilize will there be a true recovery in housing.
Housing Recovery May Be in Sight
By: David Lereah; Tue, May 12, 2009
There are more than subtle signs that the housing markets may be recovering and the worst may be over. Recent data releases support this notion.
Reality Check on Inventory
By: Steve Cook; Mon, Apr 27, 2009
Today's real estate economy watchers are focused on inventory as they look for a break in the...
Pre-retirees Perk Up Retirement Market
By: Steve Cook; Tue, Apr 14, 2009
According to a recent national survey of Coldwell Banker® real estate professionals, over half-53 percent--of those who work in popular retirement areas are seeing younger retirees (ages 60 and under) looking to purchase homes in their markets...
Bottom, Bottom, Wherefore Art Thou, Bottom?
By: Steve Cook; Tue, Apr 7, 2009
The Web is littered with predictions, forecasts, hunches and wild guesses about the long anticipated housing bottom, but only two things are certain. The first is that almost all of today’s bottom diviners will be wrong. The second is that no one will know for sure whether we have reached bottom of the real estate depression until it is past and we are into a period of recovery.
Struggling to Recover
By: David Lereah; Tue, Feb 3, 2009
Like a tired heavyweight boxer receiving blows to the head, some crushing economic reports released this past week kept the economy and housing markets in retreat and further away from recovery. The first blow was the December new home sales release which saw new home sales plummet 14.7 percent to an unimaginable 333,000 annualized units.
Harbingers for a Better Housing Market
By: David Lereah; Tue, Jan 20, 2009
Here are some signs that are likely to signal a market turnaround for the housing market. We define a turnaround as a steady increase in home sales from a trough.
Get this widget See local rates - Rising Values Push Nearly One Million Homeowners Above Water
- Buyer Satisfaction with Real Estate Brokerages Hits All-Time Low
- Frozen Foreclosures Frustrate Buyers
- One Homeowner Out of Eight Undervalues Their Home
- Danielle: This is a truth many of us have been living for th...
- properties for sale: thanks a ton for the post..It is very useful to me...
- jp moses: hi, Steve -- yes, these institutional buyers are g...
- Arnold Rabin: I have been sell ing real estate here in Kona sinc...
- Buyers Cry Uncle!
- Mortgage Originations Fell 6.2 Percent in Q1
- Built-for-Rent now Five Percent of New Home Construction
- List Prices Flatten Despite Sinking Inventory
By: editor; Tue, May 7, 2013
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