Three things you can take to the bank: Politicians will bend with the wind, Property taxes will never decline, and Rising home prices will increase low appraisals. It’s no surprise that complaints that appraisals are once again killing too many sales are once again on the rise this summer.  Through June, home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased year … Read More »

Is it just the end of the buying season or are home sales hitting a wall? A growing consensus of economists foresees a flattening in sales growth—or even year-over-year declines in the months to come-for the balance of the year and even into next year.  Sales may have reached a ceiling for the season. A combination of rising prices, slow … Read More »

A new Freddie Mac study of older Americans over 55 finds that more than a third still have a mortgage—36 percent-, and a majority of those with a mortgage have more than ten years left until their loan is paid off.  In many ways , the Freddie Mac survey that was released last month, “Fun After Fifty”,  found that the … Read More »

Apartment rental rates are declining so much in several of the nation’s hottest major real estate markets that the national annual effective rent growth rate fell to 3.1 percent in July, which recorded the lowest rate since 2.8 percent in July 2014, according to the latest report from Axiometrics. Leading the declines were: Houston, whose -2.2% annual effective rent growth … Read More »

  Prior to the Great Recession and home-price crash, the typical length of ownership had been fairly stable, but after 2008 the length of time that owners have kept their home lengthened. And the trend is consistent whether looking at how long recent sellers had owned their home, or looking at how long current homeowners have been in their home. … Read More »

Job growth and better housing values in America’s heartland will reverse the movement of families to the coasts in recent years and generate population growth in Midwestern markets which have declinded in recent years. Over half of experts surveyed in the latest quarterly Zillow Home Price Expectations (ZHPE) Survey said they don’t expect migration to the coasts to continue indefinitely. … Read More »

In the glory days of the housing boom, “pulse loans“ were popular.  (If you had a pulse, you could get a loan.)  Since those days, mortgage approval rates to buy a home have stayed roughly the same; in 2004, some 14.4 percent of purchase loan applications were turned down compared to 13.2 percent in 2014.[1] One might assume that access … Read More »

The first analysis of June market data confirms forecasts that sales peaked in the first half of the year and will hold on to make 2016 a moderating, normalizing housing market like those preceding boom, at the turn of the Millennium. Clear Capital forecasted between sales growth at 1% to 3% in January and is sticking a with the same forecast, which … Read More »

  Demand for apartments surged during the second quarter, gaining momentum after a sluggish performance in the first three months of the year and outstripping new units completed during the quarter. The occupied apartment count across the nation’s 100 largest metros increased by 127,402 units in the secone quarter, topping 2015’s second quarter demand volume by 23 percent. Demand surpassed … Read More »

  Forty-five percent of people who are no longer in college and have student loan debt believe college was not worth the cost  according to a new report on education debt report released this week by Consumer Reports and the Center for Investigative Reporting. The report includes a March 2016 Consumer Reports National Research Center survey of some 1,500 Americans … Read More »