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Today’s Marketplace Archive
From homes to cabins to dormitories—and everything in between—re-purposed shipping containers, or ISBUs (Intermodal Steel Building Units) are making their mark on the residential real estate sector, blurring the lines between two very distinct industries as one’s trash becomes the other’s treasure. Originally built to transport goods, the average life of a shipping container is now being extended, thanks to environmentally conscious consumers, builders, designers and a host of other real estate professionals who see their potential when it comes to building homes.
With inventories down and prices up, sellers are ending the costly incentives they have been forced to offer buyers during the six-year long buyers’ market. Concession-free transactions make deal-making simple on both sides of the table.
There’s no better gauge of the onset of a seller’s market than the demise of concessions that were considered essential to attract buyer interest just a few months ago.
Regional Spotlight—After seven straight years of declining home sales in Connecticut, sales volume increased in 2012 - another sign of a recovering housing market,
CoreLogic®, a leading residential property information, analytics and services provider, recently released its December CoreLogic HPI® report. Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased on a year-over-year basis by 8.3 percent in December 2012 compared to December 2011. This change represents the biggest increase since May 2006 and the 10th consecutive monthly increase in home prices nationally. On a month-over-month basis, including distressed sales, home prices increased by 0.4 percent in December 2012 compared to November 2012. The HPI analysis shows that all but four states are experiencing year-over-year price gains.
Excluding distressed sales, home prices increased on a
(MCT)—It's called “shadow inventory,” and it could halt or reverse a recovering housing market. That's why the phrase, which describes homes in some form of distress but not yet on the market, popped up
Freddie Mac released the results of its fourth quarter refinance analysis showing homeowners who refinance continue to strengthen their fiscal house. This release also contains annual statistics on refinances
As the real estate market quickens its pace toward recovery, brokerage firms from around the country are reporting increasingly positive numbers. Brokers will document their organization’s success by participating in RISMedia’s 25th Annual Power Broker Report & Survey, the industry’s preeminent report ranking the nation’s top real estate firms.
Sponsored by Move, Inc. and HSA Home Warranty, the 2013 Power Broker Survey has long served as a competitive differentiator for firms of all sizes. To complete the survey now, please
click here. The survey deadline is February 27, 2013.
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,
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.
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) named the winners in its inaugural Best of IBS Awards last week during the 2013 International Builders’ Show (IBS) in Las Vegas. Awards were given to exhibitors with a product or line that shows the best combination of design, functionality and innovation.
Decided by a panel of independent judges made up of attending reporters and building professionals, the awards were given in five categories. The winners were:
• Best Home Technology Product: Key Digital Systems- Compass Control ®
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.
I was excited to gain access to a new feature that Facebook is rolling out, the Graph Search. For me, getting access to this new feature is like letting a kid loose in a candy store!
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
