News / Features

Dec. Case Shiller Down 1.1 Percent, Hits New Post Bubble Low

Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index for the 20-City Composite fell 1.1 percent from November to December, capping off a 3.8 percent decline in the fourth quarter of 2011 and 4.0 percent year-over-year decline that pushed the rate

Bank of America Dumps Fannie Mae

Bank of America’s long-running relationship with Fannie Mae ended late last week, when the bank announced that it would no longer sell new mortgages to the GSE. According to a New York Times overview of the split, tensions were running

Double Gains for the PHSI in January

The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI), a monthly measure of pending home sales activity from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), posted both monthly and yearly increases for January, evidence of continued gains in housing for the next two

Have We Been Looking at Inventories All Wrong?

For nearly four years now, the narrative in housing has been essentially unchanged – as soon as inventories go down, and the vast number of vacant, excess homes are cleared from the market, prices will increase and a housing

Renters and Owners Squeezed by the Cost Conundrum

A new Center for Housing Policy study on housing affordability puts an interesting twist on the endlessly contentious debate of renting and homeownership, looking at the topic not from the perspective of one versus the other, but with the reality

New Home Sales Increase Year-Over-Year in January

January was a month of contradictory results for single-family home sales, as the U.S. Census Bureau reports that though sales of the properties decreased by 0.9 percent from December, they increased by 3.5 percent from January

Are Rising Rents a Blessing in Disguise?

The news cycles have been awash in reports the last six months on the growing demand for rental properties in the U.S., but too often, renting’s success has been presented  as housing’s loss, a creation of the post-2008 market

Premium Changes in Store at FHA

Acting Federal Housing Administration Commissioner Carol Galante hinted at further changes in the FHA’s mortgage premium system on Wednesday, referencing revenue models that would complement the recently passed premium hikes for the agency’s

ABI Retains the ABCs of Prospective Growth

The Architecture Billings Index (ABI), one of the leading economic indicators of future construction activity, reported positive numbers yet again in January, marking the third straight month that the index has been in such territory, according to the most recent press release from

The FHFA Envisions a Post-GSE World

Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Acting Director Edward DeMarco offered a long-awaited vision for the U.S. mortgage market, sending Congress a new plan detailing a secondary mortgage market without the presence of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. In his

Builder Takes Calculated Stand Against Foreclosure Sales

Things have been pretty good for builders the last couple months. After two years of sideways growth, construction activity has been charting upward, builder confidence has been rising, and, in the most positive news of all, there have huge increases in multifamily originations,

2012 Houston Home Sales Prepare for Takeoff

January marked the eighth consecutive month of positive home sales in Houston, with sales in the state increasing 9.2 percent from 2011 and 4.8 percent from December, according to the latest statistics from the Houston Association of Realtors

Sales Up, Inventories Down in Latest NAR Study

Existing-home sales rose by 4.3 percent from December to January, marking the third time in the last four months that the key housing measure has shown monthly gains, according to the latest data from the National Association of Realtors

Quicken Loans Takes the Stand

A lawsuit involving lender Quicken Loans began its arguments before the Supreme Court today, with the future of closing fees that lenders charge hanging in the balance. Officially called Freeman v. Quicken Loans Inc., the case originated in 2007, when

At Least One Victor in the Mortgage Settlement

The state attorneys general mortgage settlement received almost immediate criticism from homeowner and housing advocates alike after its Feb. 9 announcement, with common complaints being the limited reach of the settlement and the numerous consumer groups that were either

Short-Sale Expediency Goal of New Legislation

Short sales have rightfully earned a reputation of being slow, plodding and, in some occasions, maddening, but a new bill introduced in the Senate yesterday seeks to cut through all the red tape and simplify the process. Brought before

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