Today’s existing home sales report from the National Association of REALTORS® shows existing home sales in July were at at a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 4.67 million units which is a decrease of 3.5 percent from the month before, an increase of 21.0 percent from a year ago and is the lowest rate of home sales since November 2010 when it was 4.64 million.
Having been in the mortgage industry for a number of years, I have found a lot of my “issues” when it comes to underwriting was a result of missing something at time of application. The following is a quick rundown of items that should be collected at application:
A report released by Trulia shows that, based on current market conditions, it is cheaper to buy a home than rent in 74 percent of major U.S. cities. At the top of the list is Las Vegas with a price rent ratio of 6 (the lower the number, the more affordable it is). At the other end of the spectrum, New York city leads the list of cities where it is cheaper to rent than buy with a price rent ratio six times higher than that of Las Vegas.
Today, CNN Money published their 2011 list of the best places to live in the U.S. At the top of the list is Louisville, Colorado. The criteria for selection of the best places to live include jobs, schools, crime, local economy, weather and activities. Unfortunately , St. Louis did not make the list of top 10, in fact only one place in Missouri did and that was Liberty coming in at number 7.
There were a total of four places in Missouri that made the top 100 list, they were:
A report released this morning by Standard & Poor’s and Experian show a decrease in monthly default rates on first mortgages from 2.02 percent to 1.93 percent and a decrease in default rates on second mortgages from 1.40 percent to 1.25 percent in July. A continuing decline in mortgage delinquencies is one of the things we need to help move the real estate market into a recovery. As the delinquencies come down, so do the foreclosures eventually back to a point where they are not negatively impacting home prices to the extent they are presently.
In 1959 the census bureau first started keeping track of new home construction activity and reported that there were 1.5 million new homes started that year. In 2005 a record high 1.7 million new homes were started and in 2009 a record low 445,100 new homes. In 2010 there was a little improvement as there were 471,200 new homes started and things were looking up a bit, however, unless something changes dramatically, 2011 will hit a new record low of new home starts.
The U.S. Census Bureau and US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued their report Continue Reading →
Last week, The Washington Post published an article by Kenneth Harney which said “if you take mortgage interest tax deductions, the next 100 days could have significant financial implications for you, thanks to Congress’s new federal debt ceiling plan……the compromise legislation created an unusual mechanism — an evenly split, 12-member bipartisan supercommittee — that could call for major cutbacks on real estate write-offs by Thanksgiving.”
The question is, would doing away with the mortgage interest deduction put the final nail in the coffin for the housing industry? Read on to hear two opposing opinions on the topic.
Weekly I produce a short (roughly 5 minute) video update on the St. Louis Real Estate Market that is published on various web sites. I do a quick recap of the news in the St Louis real estate market for the week, then an overview of the St Louis housing market itself. The update includes charts with up to the date data on the St Louis housing market including St Louis home prices, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show where the St Louis real estate market Continue Reading →
Finally some good news for the St. Louis Real Estate Market! This morning RealtyTrac released their foreclosure activity report for the St. Louis metro area for July 2011 showing that foreclosure activity in the St. Louis metro area in July was down 8.77 percent from the month before and down a whopping 35.46 percent from a year ago!
Credit Scores have and always be a hot topic in any economy. Recently, Jim Gallagher of the St. Louis Post Dispatch wrote an article regarding consumers that “fork over $1 billion a year to the credit agencies and credit monitoring services to obtain their credit scores.” But the scores they get probably aren’t the ones a lender will use to judge their credit worthiness.
This morning, Trans Union released a report showing the national mortgage delinquency rate (the rate of borrowers 60 or more days past due) decreased for the sixth consecutive quarter, dropping to 5.82% at the end of the second quarter in 2011 which is a 5.98 percent from the prior quarter, the largest quarterly decrease in 2 years.
A report by MortgageDaily.com shows that 20 percent fewer borrowers obtained a home loan in the second quarter of 2011 than in the first quarter. The report also shows that Wells Fargo again this quarter originated more home loans than any other lender in the U.S.
Originations Rank Q2 2011 Q1 2011 Q2 2010 1 Wells Wells Wells 2 BofA BofA BofA 3 Chase Chase Chase 4 Ally Citi Ally 5 Citi PHH Citi Continue Reading →
Clear Capital just released their housing market report which, based upon data available through and including July 2011, has ranked the 15 best and worst performing housing markets in the U.S. based upon their quarter-over-quarter change in home prices. St. Louis came in number 4 on the list of best performing metros with a 12.5 percent quarter-over-quarter increase in home prices! See all the results below:
Weekly I produce a short (roughly 5 minute) video update on the St. Louis Real Estate Market that is published on various web sites. I do a quick recap of the news in the St Louis real estate market for the week, then an overview of the St Louis housing market itself. The update includes charts with up to the date data on the St Louis housing market including St Louis home prices, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show where the St Louis real estate market Continue Reading →
A report released by CoreLogic shows U.S. home prices increased in June 2011 by 0.7 percent from the month before, marking the third consecutive month-over-month increase. However, U.S. home prices in June 2011 decreased 6.8 percent from the year before. If we take the distressed sales (foreclosures, REO’s and short-sales) then year-over-year home prices declined by 1.1 percent in June 2011 from June 2010.
Over the past years, many of Americans pulled money out their homes through “cash-out” refis. Today, many of my clients are bringing cash into their refinance transactions. Money is flowing in the opposite direction.
You might consider bringing cash to close your refinance to:
1. Lower your mortgage rate: If your LTV is close to the 80% Loan to Value (LTV) threshold, then bringing money to the table to push your LTV below 80% can get the borrower a better rate.
RealtyTrac released their Midyear 2011 Metro foreclosure report showing that foreclosure activity decreased on a year-over-year basis in 178 out of the nation’s largest 211 metropolitan areas which is some much needed good news!
Dennis Norman
The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for June shows an increase of 2.4 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and a whopping 19.8 percent increase from a year ago. This is the second month in a row that the index increased on a year-over-year basis.
Weekly I produce a short (roughly 5 minute) video update on the St. Louis Real Estate Market that is published on various web sites. I do a quick recap of the news in the St Louis real estate market for the week, then an overview of the St Louis housing market itself. The update includes charts with up to the date data on the St Louis housing market including St Louis home prices, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show where the St Louis real estate market Continue Reading →
Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau released new home sales data for June 2011 showing a decrease of 1.0 percent from the month before, and an increase of 1.6 percent from a year ago. The seasonally-adjusted new home sales rate for June was 312,000 homes, down from 315,000 the month before and is a rate that if we finish 2011 at will make 2011 new home sales the lowest since the Commerce Department began keeping track of sales in 1963.
Dennis Norman
This morning, the S&P/Case-Shiller Index report for May was released showing US home prices increased for the second consecutive month with average home prices in the U.S. being about the same as they were in the summer of 2003. The report shows their 20-city composite home price index increased by 1.0 percent from the month before and declined by 4.5 percent from a year ago. and the 10-city composite home price index increased by 1.1 percent from the month before and was down 3.6 percent from the year before.
A “first-look” report issued by Lender Processing Services, one of the countries largest loan servicers and aggregators of loan performance data, shows mortgage delinquencies increased 2.4 percent in June from the month before and decreased 14.7 percent from the year before. According to the report, the U.S. foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate declined 0.2 percent from the month before but increased 12.8 percent from the year before.
Radarlogic, real estate data and analytics company that frequently disagrees with the National Association of REALTORS® view of the housing market, released their RPX Monthly Housing Market Report for May 2011 yesterday and in it had a scorecard showing how their rather bleak predictions they made at the end of 2010 for the 2011 housing market were holding up. Unfortunately, as you will see below, it seems many of their predictions have been accurate and the housing market is performing as poorly as they expected in many areas.
Weekly I produce a short (roughly 5 minute) video update on the St. Louis Real Estate Market that is published on various web sites. I do a quick recap of the news in the St Louis real estate market for the week, then an overview of the St Louis housing market itself. The update includes charts with up to the date data on the St Louis housing market including St Louis home prices, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show where the St Louis real estate market Continue Reading →
As we watch the values of our homes drop, we would expect to see our county assessor’s valuations drop as well, resulting in lower property taxes. However, that is not the case in many counties as homeowners find their homes being valued higher by assessor’s than the market value is. Well, according to a survey conducted by FindLaw.com, one in four homeowners are doing something about it and challenging the assessed value of their homes. The good news? According to the responses, the majority who did so say they were successful in lowering their tax bills!
Over the last few months, I have had a few inquiries from parents of college-bound children about investment properties. The combination of low home prices, low interest rates, and a large inventory of foreclosure and short-sale homes have made buying much more attractive for parents of college-bound children.
Today’s existing home sales report from the National Association of REALTORS® shows existing home sales in June were at at a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 4.77 million units which is a decrease of 0.8 percent from the month before, a decrease of 8.8 percent from a year ago and is the lowest rate of home sales since November 2010 when it was 4.64 million.
The U.S. Census Bureau and US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued their report on New Residential Construction for June 2011 showing a very slight increase in single-family home building permits from the month before (0.2 percent), and a 9.4 percent increase in new home starts compared to the month before.
A report just released by Zillow.com shows that current home sellers who purchased their homes “after the bubble” (2007 or after) are overpricing their homes by more than sellers that bought during the bubble (2002-2006) or before the bubble (pre-2002). According to the report, current sellers that bought post-bubble are overpricing their homes by an average of 14.1 percent, compared with sellers that bought during the bubble that are overpricing their homes by an average of 9.3 percent and the sellers that purchased pre-bubble are overpricing by 11.6 percent. Hmm, notice a theme? On average, ALL sellers are overpricing their Continue Reading →
Weekly I produce a short (roughly 5 minute) video update on the St. Louis Real Estate Market that is published on various web sites. I do a quick recap of the news in the St Louis real estate market for the week, then an overview of the St Louis housing market itself. The update includes charts with up to the date data on the St Louis housing market including St Louis home prices, average time to sell a home in the St Louis area as well as other data and charts to show where the St Louis real estate market Continue Reading →