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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.

Markets Seen Stabilizing This Year

By: editor; Mon, Jan 9, 2012

Home prices this year cease their decline and gain a slight 0.2 percent across all markets as more and more individual markets stabilize in the months to come.

Gloomy Price Picture Forecast for 2012

By: editor; Sun, Dec 25, 2011

Expect at least another full year of falling home prices before things get better. That's the bottom line from Fannie Mae's economists in their final forecast for 2011.

Retiree Rentals and Foreign Owners: Is Florida the Future?

By: Steve Cook; Tue, Dec 20, 2011

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.

Consumers Expect Big Rent Hikes in 2012

By: editor; Thu, Dec 8, 2011

Consumer sentiment on housing expectations is stabilizing as the year winds down and consumers are adopting a "wait and see" attitude towards 2012, according to Fannie Mae's November National Housing Survey.

Will Prices Slide 3.6 Percent More in 2012?

By: editor; Wed, Nov 9, 2011

We're going to have to wait a few more months for an upturn in housing prices. Down 5.9 percent through the second quarter of this year, home prices will decline an additional 3.6 percent until the middle of next year before they recover 2.4 percent from the second half 2012 through the first half 2013.

Too Many Renters, Too Few Apartments

By: Steve Cook; Fri, Oct 28, 2011

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

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

By: Steve Cook; Thu, Oct 27, 2011

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.

Net New Renters 1.4 Million, Net New Home Buyers 0

By: Steve Cook; Tue, Oct 18, 2011

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.

Mortgages Won’t Recover in 2012

By: editor; Wed, Oct 12, 2011

Even though purchase mortgage applications perked up last week, anemic was the word used by the Mortgage Bankers Association to describe the outlook for mortgage originations next year, including purchase originations, which it projects will grow only 3 percent in 2012 after they plunge 15 percent this year.

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.

Experts’ Forecast for 2011 Prices Improves

By: editor; Wed, Sep 21, 2011

The home price picture for this year is shaping up to be a little better than it looked June, according to the September 2011 home price expectations survey of 111 leading housing economists and experts sponsored by MacroMarkets LLC.

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.

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

By: Steve Cook; Tue, Dec 7, 2010

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.

Experts Forecast Low Prices For Years

By: Steve Cook; Tue, Nov 23, 2010

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

By: Steve Cook; Sun, Nov 21, 2010

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.

Fitch Foreclosure Forecast Casts a Pall on Recovery Hopes

By: Steve Cook; Tue, Nov 2, 2010

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 Bankers Bet on Rebound in Home Sales

By: Steve Cook; Thu, Oct 28, 2010

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

By: Steve Cook; Tue, Oct 26, 2010

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.

Fewer Economists See Housing Recovery in 2011

By: Steve Cook; Wed, Oct 20, 2010

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.

Fitch Expert Sees Prices Falling 10 Percent

By: Steve Cook; Thu, Sep 30, 2010

4 Comments

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.

Distress Sales Market Share to Rise

By: Steve Cook; Fri, Sep 17, 2010

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.

Freddie Foresees Price Declines

By: Steve Cook; Tue, Sep 14, 2010

4 Comments

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.

Gloomy Fannie Sees a Flat Fall

By: Steve Cook; Mon, Aug 16, 2010

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.

Home Prices Heading for a Second Dip

By: Steve Cook; Fri, Jul 30, 2010

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

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

By: Steve Cook; Wed, May 26, 2010

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.

Ready for a Housing Shortage this Year?

By: Steve Cook; Mon, Feb 15, 2010

5 Comments

With healthy inventories, 3 million foreclosures, more and more short sales, falling values, rising vacancy rates, shrinking rents and one third of all homeowners underwater, could we possibly be heading for a national housing shortage this year?

Mortgage Giant Predicts Strong Housing Recovery Next Year

By: David Lereah; Thu, Dec 17, 2009

Housing activity is expected to be brisk in the New Year according to Fannie Mae's recently released December Housing Forecast.

Fitch Ratings Sees Better Times for Builders in 2010

By: Steve Cook; Tue, Dec 15, 2009

A four-year downturn has evidently come to an end for U.S. homebuilders, according to Fitch Ratings in its outlook report for the sector.

Housing Forecasts

Housing Forecasts: National Association of Realtors; National Association of Homebuilders; Mortgage Bankers Association; Fannie Mae; and Freddie Mac

Moody’s Economist Sees Ten-Year Housing Recovery

By: Steve Cook; Tue, Sep 22, 2009

It will take more than a decade for housing markets to regain the ground that has been lost since 2006 predicted a top economic researcher with Moody's Economy.com yesterday, the second leading housing economist to issue a gloomy recovery forecast in the past week.

Can We Wait for the Echo?

By: Steve Cook; Mon, Jun 22, 2009