Category Archives: housing market

Mortgage Quality Highest in Decade

The Mortgage Corner Record low interest rates and low prices, are making housing more affordable than ever. This is also helping lower default rates, as average credit scores have soared, and Debt to Income Ratios used to quality borrowers have … Continue reading

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January Housing Inventory Declines 24 Percent

The Mortgage Corner The surest sign that property values will increase this year is the large decline in homes for sale. This is in part due to increasing sales, with existing-home sales up some 6 percent, year-over-year. But there is … Continue reading

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Housing Prices In “Sustained Recovery”

Popular Economics Weekly The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index October headline was “Sustained Recovery in Home Prices”, as housing inventories continue to drop, while the latest estimates of household formation for young adults in particular are as high as 1.3 million … Continue reading

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Home Sales Surging

The Mortgage Corner Total existing home sales are accelerating, and prices are rising along with declining inventories. Sales that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, rose 5.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million in November … Continue reading

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2013 Year of Housing Recovery

The Mortgage Corner Wall Street is jumping on the real estate band wagon. Not only are hedge funds now buying foreclosed homes in bulk, reducing the ‘shadow inventory’ of homes with delinquent mortgages, but the record low interest rates are … Continue reading

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Unemployment Rate Falls to 7.7 Percent

Popular Economics Weekly Economists are rubbing their eyes over the November jobs report. It seems stimulus spending works. Obama’s $830 Billion ARRA stimulus + the Federal Reserve’s QE efforts to hold down interest rates has now created almost 6 million … Continue reading

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Fourth Quarter Economic Growth Higher

Popular Economics Weekly We are seeing a boost in Q4 economic growth, in spite of “fiscal cliff” worries. Service sector growth has increased significantly, job formation is accelerating, and real estate is coming back to life, thanks mostly to more … Continue reading

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High Pending Home Sales—A 2013 Housing Shortage?

The Mortgage Corner The huge jump is pending home sales could presage a sharp drop in inventory of homes for sale in 2013. Why? There are fewer foreclosures because of the declining shadow inventory of homes in default that have … Continue reading

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Household Formation Key To Housing Recovery

Financial FAQs The formation of new households—young adults leaving the homestead—has always been an important ingredient of home sales. We are talking about 18 to 34 year-olds who have been staying at home during the Great Recession for understandable reasons—whether … Continue reading

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National Home Prices (Finally) Recovering

The Mortgage Corner Is the end of the housing bust in sight?  The Case-Shiller Home Price Index reported the fourth consecutive year-over-year (YoY) gain in their house price indexes since 2010 – and the increase back in 2010 was related … Continue reading

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