News / Features

Construction Spending Up 7.1 Percent From 2011

Construction spending posted a strong 7.1 percent year-over-year increase for the month of January, and though spending was mainly flat from December, it did show an uptick in residential

Foreclosures Comprise Sizable Chunk of Q4 Home Sales

Homes in some state of foreclosure accounted for 24 percent of all U.S. residential sales during the fourth quarter of 2011, up from 20 percent in quarter three but down from 26 percent in 2010’s fourth quarter, according to the latest

Homeowners Clamoring for New HARP Refinancing

In early February, news leaked that Bank of America was so overwhelmed by homeowners applying for the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) that it was literally asking borrowers to wait 60 to 90 days before starting their applications; if

Fannie Mae and the FHA Play a Round of Condo Bongo

Two government mortgage bodies, Fannie Mae and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), are revisiting their policies regarding condominiums, though their approaches could have contradictory effects on the condo

Consumer Confidence Jumps 9.3 Points in February

The Conference Board, the non-profit research group that is responsible for some of the world’s most closely-watched economic indexes, announced yesterday that consumer confidence rose 9.3 points in February in what is perhaps the strongest indication yet that the economy

HUD Aims to Disable BofA Lending Discrimination

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) slapped Bank of America (BofA) on Monday with a housing discrimination suit claiming that the bank unfairly treated homebuyers with disabilities. According to a press release released by HUD, BofA violated

FHA to Raise Mortgage Insurance Premiums in April

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has officially announced that, in an effort to boost its Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund (MMI), it will raise its insurance premiums in April. Confirming statements made last week by the agency’s Acting Director Carol

Congress Plays Principal Modification Roundabout

The principal modification just earned a new player in the form of Earl Blumenauer, a Democratic congressman from Oregon who is backing a bill that would allow bankruptcy judges to force write downs on loans during bankruptcy proceedings. The

FHFA Announces REO Initiative Pilot Transaction

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) yesterday announced the pilot transaction for its new REO Initiative, a program that targets some of the hardest-hit metropolitan areas with the intention of converting vacant and distressed properties into rental units. Now, pre-qualified

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

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