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Business Outlook Archive
Commercial and multifamily mortgage originations increased 49 percent between the third and the fourth quarters of 2012, and were also up 49 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2011,
Several federal agencies recently unveiled Advancing Healthy Housing – A Strategy for Action. White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Chair Nancy Sutley, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Clear Capital, a premium provider of data, collateral risk assessment, and real estate asset valuation and analytics, recently released its Home Data Index™ (HDI) Market Report with data through January 2013.
Fannie Mae, provided $33.8 billion in financing to the multifamily market in 2012, the third highest acquisition year in its history. The company remained the largest source of multifamily financing in 2012,
The U.S. housing recovery is real and underway. The end-of-year numbers are in for the primary housing measures. Existing home sales were up 9 percent in 2012 from 2011; new home sales were up 20 percent in 2012 from a year earlier and housing starts were up 27 percent this past year compared to the previous year.
Granted, these advances were based off historically low bases but we will take what we can get after six years mired in a housing recession. Perhaps a more telling statistic for the nation’s housing outlook is appreciating home values. Over the past six months, home prices increased between 4 and 9 percent, according to the major home price indexes.
U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, who serves as President Obama’s Chairman of the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, and Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Edward J. DeMarco recently announced that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac will extend expiring protections against foreclosure actions against homeowners whose properties were damaged or destroyed due to Hurricane Sandy.
The additional 90-day foreclosure moratorium applies to homeowners with properties in states where the President issued major disaster declarations following Hurricane Sandy. The extended moratoriums announced today apply to the initiation of foreclosures and foreclosures already in process.
Leads, leads, leads. They’re probably always on your mind. Where to find new leads, how to respond to them quickly, and what it takes to convert them into clients.
While you may spend plenty of time focusing on the best way to find new leads, have you thought about the valuable, qualified leads that may already be in your existing database? Why not spend some time working those leads? Consider these four best practices for stirring up your database and finding new opportunities.
1. Research and reach out
Spend some time discovering the types of leads that are sitting in your database. Even better? Segment those leads so you have a better handle on the best strategies for reaching out to a specific group.
As part of a broad effort to strengthen the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund (MMI Fund), FHA Commissioner Carol Galante announced a series of changes
2013 is going to be the year of the first time homebuyer. With home prices rebounding, the job market stabilizing, and mortgages more affordable than ever, the next wave of home buyers are ready to act. This will be the first time that generation Y will make up the majority of the first time home buying market.
Some changes are about to occur. Today’s buyers are not going to make the same mistakes their parents made a few years ago.
First, agents have to know who this prospective client is. The millennial client is coming to the transaction with a critical eye,
Hot foreclosure markets have come and gone over the past seven years but one thing seems to stay the same. The markets with the most and the cheapest foreclosures are still located in Florida.
A judicial state that has had its share of controversy over robo-signing practices as well as high levels of negative equity and deep declines in home values since 2006, Florida markets still offer investors the best opportunities to buy and profit by either flipping or renting and holding renovated foreclosures.
(MCT)--A leading measure of home prices in the biggest American cities posted strong year-over-year growth in November.
The S&P/Case Shiller 20-city index
Homeowners looking for the most return on their investment when it comes to remodeling should consider exterior replacement projects. According to the 2013 Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report, REALTORS® rated exterior projects among the most valuable home improvement projects.
“REALTORS® know that curb appeal projects offer great bang for your buck, because a home’s exterior is the first thing potential buyers see,” says National Association of REALTORS® President Gary Thomas.
Regional Spotlight—The number of completed foreclosures in Massachusetts dropped by almost 13 percent in 2012 to 7,424, down from 8,531 in 2011, according to the latest report from The Warren Group,
TD Bank has announced that it is now offering “Right Step,” a mortgage product built for home buyers in TD Bank’s Maine to Florida footprint who make up to 80 percent of the median area income
Pending home sales declined in December but have stayed above year-ago levels for 20 consecutive months, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.
The Pending Home Sales Index,*a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, fell 4.3 percent to 101.7 in December from 106.3 in November but is 6.9 percent higher than December 2011 when it was 95.1. The data reflect contracts but not closings.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says there is an uneven uptrend. "The supply limitation appears to be the main factor holding back contract signings in the past month. Still, contract activity has risen for 20 straight months on a year-over-year basis," he says.
