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(MCT)—Even before dawn breaks, workers at the lumberyard in Lynwood, Calif., were bustling around, getting a move on the day. Men in yellow safety vests drove flatbed trucks stacked to the brim with planks of wood.
Mortgage applications decreased 7.1 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 15, 2013.
In February, both home sales and prices rose higher than a year ago. After a decisive housing turnaround in 2012, this year looks to improve on recovering market trends. With data representing 52 metropolitan areas, the February RE/MAX National Housing Report shows home sales 2.3 percent greater than February 2012 ...
While recent economic reports suggest that home building took a pause at the beginning of 2013, leading indicators point to more growth for housing in the months ahead.
Per data from the Census Bureau, housing starts were down 8.5 percent in January. However, all of the loss was in the multifamily segment, where construction fell from an unusually high annualized rate of 365,000 in December to a steadier 277,000 rate in January.
The latest FNC Residential Price Index® (RPI) indicates that U.S. property values continued to recover through January—the 11th consecutive month of rising prices. Despite the uneven pace of price gains across different geographical markets, there are clear signs that the housing recovery is increasingly widespread.
A limited housing supply and declining foreclosure sales are contributing to the recovery of underlying property values.
Regional Spotlight--According to a monthly survey of real estate brokers by The Real Estate Board of New York, brokers remained confident in the market in February 2013,
Pocket listings—listings sold outside of the MLS—are gaining heat inside the real estate industry. Far from a new concept, they are one of real estate’s biggest in-house controversies, with professionals from across the country
It’s been a long time since the original “free lunch” prompted economists to remind us there’s no such thing as one. Saloon patrons in the late 19th century were often treated to a free meal in exchange for a drink. In turn, the saloon raked in the cash as lunching patrons munched on heavily-salted foods like crackers and ham and cheese and ordered more and more rounds of beer.
Not quite as long ago, but a solid five years ago, Onboard Informatics CEO Marc Siden
reminded us of the price of putting “free” information on your site:
“Let’s play a game of what ifs shall we? What if Mercedes started putting used parts in their cars because it saved money? What if they replaced the wood panels with plastic and the leather seats with vinyl?
The new documentary Home exposes the decline and devastation of the foreclosure crisis in the west Phoenix neighborhood of Maryvale. Filmmaker Gail Buck, founder of the nonprofit
Project Maryvale, a community activist and one of the state’s leading real estate brokers, tells the story of the suburb’s decline from an industry insider’s perspective as she shows how failed bank policies, favoritism toward cash investors and current housing remedies have, in fact, contributed to the community’s decay.
The 50-minute film, which is being privately screened at Cinema Latino in Phoenix next week and by housing leaders around the country this month, characterizes the nation’s foreclosure crisis and traces the displacement of low-income families,
Freddie Mac recently released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing average fixed mortgage rates largely holding steady from the previous week, remaining near their 65-year record lows, and continuing to provide support for the housing recovery.
Results showed that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.52 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending March 7, 2013, up from last week when it averaged 3.51 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.88 percent.
Additionally, the 15-year FRM this week averaged 2.76 percent with
(MCT)—Andreea Stucker thought she made a good investment when she bought a Huntington Beach, Calif., condo with her boyfriend in December 2005.
But then she and her boyfriend split up.
Consumer attitudes toward the economy and housing continue to diverge this winter, according to Fannie Mae’s February 2013 National Housing Survey results. On the one hand, consumers continue to express strong
The American Securitization Forum has detailed possible ways regulators could merge mortgage-backed securities offered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in order to close the pricing gap between the two.
The market discounts Freddie securities on the belief these bonds prepay faster because of differences in underwriting and other guidelines. The government-sponsored enterprises always held smaller market share compared to its twin Fannie,
(eM+C)—There's no denying that social media has taken the world by storm. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter boast millions of users. Social media is a huge engagement, staffing, retention and, increasingly, branding tool.
The housing recovery is expected to grow at an annualized rate of 0.6 percent through the third quarter of this year, then gain momentum and prices are projected to grow 3.7 percent between the third quarters of 2013 and 2014 until settling down to 3.3 percent annual increases over the next three years according to Fiserv, a financial services technology provider using data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).
Both home prices and home sales volumes increased steadily last year, making 2012 the first positive year for both prices and sales since the housing market crash, excluding gains induced by the home buyer tax credits in 2009
