National News

What if Home Values Kept it Real?

After a strong summer, home values have been charting a rough course in recent months. Between CoreLogic’s HPI, LPS’ home price index and Radar Logic’s RPX, home values in the most recent data sets declined between 1 and 2

FHA Continues Home Flipping Embrace

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has renewed a waiver for an anti-flipping regulation through 2012, according to a press release just issued by the agency. Originally passed to limit home flipping – the housing strategy of buying cheap properties

Pending Home Sales at Highest Level in 19 Months

The National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) Pending Home Sales Index, a measure of housing contracts for pending sales, rose 7.3 percent in November to its highest level in 19 months, according to a new press release from the association. Increasing

Case-Shiller Posts Second Straight Month of National Declines, 0.9 Percent for Dallas

Standard & Poor’s released the latest resultsof its influential Case-Shiller Home Price Indices just moments ago for the month of October, and like the previous collection of data, it shows both monthly and year-over-year declines for housing values in

Competing Price Indices Anticipate Case-Shiller Decline

Standard & Poor’s will release the latest batch of Case-Shiller Home Price Indices next Tuesday, and several of the other competing price indices have some analysts projecting the second negative month in a row for the Case-Shiller, which remains

Affordability and Refinancing Remain Paths of Opportunity

Affordability is a main feature of today’s market, as depressed prices have produced one of the most accommodating buyer’s markets in recent

New-Home Sales Increase Slightly in November

New single-family home sales in November rose 1.6 percent from October, a seven-month high that still continues a 19-month trend of mostly sideways growth at a low level. According to new data jointly released by the U.S. Census Bureau and

ABI Hits First Positive Territory in Three Months

After a nearly three-point jump in October, the Architecture Billings Index, a forward-thinking measure of future construction activity, increased by 2.6 in November to 52.0, the first positive level for the index since August. Additionally, the new projects inquiry, a

Multifamily Housing to Recover Strongly in 2012

Multifamily housing has been in the news quite a bit the last couple months, as analysts have pointed to the sector as one of the few bright spots in construction, if not the entire housing market, in recent months.

Inventories the Main Takeaway from NAR Revisions

As promised, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released its revised totals yesterday on existing-home sales, and the “meaningful” changes the association had foretold came out to a 14.6 percent downward revision for 2010’s existing-home sales and a 14.3

Huge HARP 2.0 Restriction Lifted by Fannie

One of the key provisions to the HARP 2.0 revisions was eliminating the LTV ratio limits that restricted a huge swath of underwater homeowners from refinancing their mortgages; it would appear that Fannie Mae has taken it one step further.

CFPB Law Risks Further Foreclosure Backlog

Foreclosures, on average, take a long, long time to complete in the U.S. In fact, according to the latest data from Lending Processing Services, it takes an average of 631 days to foreclose on a property, and if current

Fannie Projects Strong Economic Finish for 2011

A new economic report from the Fannie Mae Economics & Mortgage Market Analysis Group states that the U.S. economy is poised to finish the year strongly, though 2012 may prove to be a tricky year. According to the report, the

Housing Construction Posts Big Gains in November

Residential housing construction posted some of the most promising gains of the year in the latest joint report from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Data was especially strong for housing starts, which

How to Explain the NAR’s Counting Mishap?

We’re two days away from the official unveiling of the National Association of Realtor’s (NAR) revised existing home sales, and like many journalists and analysts, we await what will likely be a release of data that will greatly influence

What are the Costs of the Payroll Tax Cut?

The payroll tax cut drama continued earlier today when Speaker of the House John Boehner announced that the House of Representatives would not pass the two-month extension approved by the Senate over the weekend. The divergence in congressional behavior is

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