The latest housing market report by RadarLogic showed home prices in the 25 major metropolitan areas it tracks increased 1.9 percent in February from the month before (in contrast to the Case Shiller home price index which showed home prices fell a little under 1 percent from the month before) however was 3.18 percent lower than a year ago. Continue Reading →
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The National Association of REALTORS released it’s Pending Home Sales Index for March today showing an increase of 4.1 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and an 12.8 percent increase from a year ago and is now at the highest level it’s been since April 2010 Continue Reading → Mortgage Insurance, also know as Private Mortgage Insurance, is required by lenders on conventional home loans if the borrower is financing more than 80% Loan-To-Value. Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) allows borrowers to purchase a property by qualifying for conventional financing with a lower down payment. Private Mortgage Insurance protects your lender against non-payment should you default on your loan. It’s important to understand that the primary and only real purpose for mortgage insurance is to protect your lender—not you. Home prices fall to lowest levels in almost 10 years; 20-city case shiller lowest since October 2002This morning, the S&P/Case-Shiller Index report for February was released which showed both the 10-city and 20-city composites, after both hitting record low levels in the two prior months, fell further in February. The 10-city and 20-city composites saw annual price decline of 3.6 percent and 3.5 percent respectively and both saw price declines of 0.8 percent in February from January. Continue Reading → Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau released new home sales data forMarch 2012 showing a decrease of 7.1 percent from the month before, and an increase of 7.5 percent from a year ago. The seasonally-adjusted new home sales rate for March was 328,000 homes, down from a revised rate of 353,000 homes the month before. It’s worth noting that February’s sales were originally reported by the Commerce Department to be 313,000, so the revision to 353,000 was significant. So, in the end, March may not look so bad either if the revised numbers follow suit with the month before. Continue Reading → The Home Builders Association of St. Louis & Eastern Missouri just released their single family building permit data for March 2012 which shows an increase in activity from March 2011 for most of the St. Louis area. St. Louis City and County both saw declines in permit activity with 6 permits fewer issued total for the two than the year before, but this was more than made up for by St. Charles County increase of 38 permits which helped bring the total permits for the 7 St. Louis Counties covered by the HBA report to 260 for the month, an Continue Reading → Today’s existing home sales report from the National Association of REALTORS® shows U.S. existing home sales in March decreased 2.6 percent from the month before but the Midwest region saw sales activity remain steady coming in at the same rate as the month before. Here in St Louis the story is even better as home sales for the St Louis five-county core (City of St Louis and counties of St Louis, St Charles, Jefferson and Franklin) increased 22.5 percent from the month before and increased 12.4 percent from a year ago. (not seasonally adjusted – see chart below). Continue Reading → Yesterday, MarketWatch published their list of the 10 best cities in the U.S. for real estate investors and St. Louis made the list! Coming in at #10, St. Louis was included in spite of the fact that home prices are still falling in St. Louis and MarketWatch says the St. Louis rental market is softer than the rest of the country. Citing a median list price of $159,000, the site says St Louis houses can still be bought at bargain prices and are recommending the St Louis market “for long-term investors interested in a conservative market that will promise annual appreciation as the market improves.” Continue Reading → Under this program, up-front mortgage insurance premiums will be reduced from 1.75% percent to 0.01 percent of the total loan amount for borrowers with FHA loans made before June 1, 2009. In addition, annual fees will be cut to 0.55 percent from 1.25 percent. This streamlined refinance program is available to borrowers who are current on their payments and may qualify even if they owe more than their homes are worth. Continue Reading → For the second month in a row, home prices have risen higher than a year ago. Median prices in March were an impressive 5.8% higher than March 2011 in the 53 metro areas surveyed for the RE/MAX National Housing Report. February marked the first time in 18 months that home prices rose higher than the previous year, and year-to-year price increases haven’t occurred in two consecutive months since August 2010. Home sales in March were 25.4% higher than February and 1.5% higher than March last year. For the last 9 months, sales have reached a level higher than the same month in the previous year. Following these trends, the spring and summer months should experience increased activity. With falling inventory and many markets witnessing multiple offers with bidding competitions, prices are likely to continue to rise in many areas. Continue Reading → The U.S. Census Bureau and US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued their report on New Residential Construction for March 2012 showing a decrease in single-family home building permits from the month before of 3.5 percent and a 17.9 percent increase in new home starts compared to the year before. Continue Reading → FICO, a provider of analytics and decision management technology to the banking industry, today announced results from its latest quarterly survey of bank risk professionals which showed that almost half (46 percent) expect the volume of strategic defaults in 2012 to surpass 2011 levels as a result of more than 25 percent of U.S. homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. Continue Reading → This morning, RealtyTrac released their U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for the first quarter of 2012 which shows that foreclosure filings (default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions) we’re reported on 572,928 properties in the U.S. during the quarter, a 2 percent decrease from the previous quarter and a decrease of 16 percent from the first quarter of 2011. During the month, 1 out of every 230 homes in the U.S. had a foreclosure filing. Continue Reading → And then it happens. The underwriter runs a new credit report just before closing and it turns out the prospective borrower had run up a credit card balance, buys new furniture/appliances etc. and now the new debt kills the loan. Continue Reading → Over forty years ago Congress passed Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 known as “The Fair Housing Act”. This act prohibits discrimination in public and private housing markets that is based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability or familial status. At that time, the most common type of discrimination in housing was based upon race or color. Today, according to a recent report by HUD, the majority of housing discrimination complaints filed are based on disability discrimination. Continue Reading → According to the LendingTree Monthly Mortgage Review, average mortgage rates inched up in March, with more borrowers than ever taking advantage of low Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan rates which averaged just 3.85 percent on a 30 year loan, almost 1/2 of one percent less than a conventional mortgage. However, according to the report, this may change soon as a result of the FHA adjusting its loan program guidelines and insurance premium structure which will cause the cost of a loan for future FHA borrowers to most likely increase. Continue Reading → Below is a video update on the St. Louis Real Estate Market that I prepare monthly. In this video I do a quick recap of the news in the St Louis real estate market for the month as well as 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 is and where it is headed. (Check out all our market update videos on our YouTube Channel – click here. Continue Reading → Clear Capital just released it’s Home Data Index™ (HDI) for March, which includes their forecast that home prices in many cities in the U.S. will increase by year end 1.2 percent while St Louis home prices are projected to decline another 0.2 percent by the end of 2012. The report predicts home price increase of about 1.3 percent by year end in the Northeast, and home price increases of 1.6 percent in the South by year end. At the lower end of the spectrum, the West is projected to see price increases of about 1 percent by year end and the Midwest is expected to see less than 1 percent price increase by December (0.7 percent). Continue Reading → The primary indicator of value for residential real estate is comparable sales. The appraiser researches the market to gather information pertaining to sales, listings, pending sales that are similar to the subject property, and verfies this information is correct. The appraiser actually already has a good idea of the property’s value by the time they have scheduled an appointment to stop by the property. Continue Reading → Foreclosure starts and foreclosure sales were down in February 15 and 19 percent respectively from January according to the latest Mortgage Monitor report released by Lender Processing Services, Inc. today. The report also showed that mortgage delinquencies continue to decline as well with 7.57 percent of the homes in the U.S. with a mortgage being delinquent which is down 5.0 percent from the month before. As reported in LPS’ First Look release, other key results from LPS’ latest Mortgage Monitor report include: Attitudes About Homeownership as an Investment, Financial Constraints, and Mortgage Accessibility May Stand in the Way of Americans’ Purchase Decisions Fannie Mae’s latest quarterly National Housing Survey focuses on the state of homeownership aspirations among Americans across all demographic groups. The survey finds that despite the recent housing crisis, most Americans continue to believe that owning their home is preferable to renting it. The data also indicate that while financial constraints and employment concerns may may be keeping potential homebuyers on the sidelines in the near term, future improvements in employment and personal finances, a pickup in interest rates Continue Reading → According to a report just released by Homeaway, sales of vacation homes in 2011 reached a four-year high, fueled by the lowest median sales price in eight years, cheap mortgage rates, and the desire for a family retreat. The research found 33 percent of vacation home buyers purchased a vacation property last year primarily because of low real estate prices, while another 30 percent cited the desire for a family retreat. According to data from a National Association of REALTORS survey, the median sales prices for vacation properties at $121,300, putting ownership within greater reach of more consumers. Continue Reading → The St Louis foreclosure rate was 1.7 percent for February 2012, the same rate as a year before according to newly released data from CoreLogic. As usual, the St Louis foreclosure rate is significantly lower than the national foreclosure rate, which was 3.4 percent in February 2012. Continue Reading → Do I Have To Sell? No you do not have to sell if you are in a financial position where you qualify, i.e. Debt-to-Income Ratio is satisfactory and on paper you can afford both your current residence and the proposed payment on the new home. However, the borrower in this case must give consideration to other or additional expenses when maintaining multiple properties…increased property taxes, insurance costs, maintenance, un-expected repairs when making that decision. Continue Reading → This morning, the S&P/Case-Shiller Index report for January was released which showed both the 10-city and 20-city composites, after both hitting record low levels in December, fell further in January. The 10-city and 20-city composites saw annual price decline of 3.9 percent and 3.8 percent respectively and both saw price declines of 0.8 percent in January from December. Continue Reading → The National Association of REALTORS released it’s Pending Home Sales Index for February today showing home sales in the Midwest increased 6.5 percent from the month before and were up 19.0 percent from a year ago. This is in sharp contrast to home sales on a national level which saw a slight decrease of 0.5 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and an 9.2 percent increase from a year ago. Continue Reading → Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau released new home sales data for February 2012 showing a decrease of 1.6 percent from the month before, and an increase of 11.4 percent from a year ago. The seasonally-adjusted new home sales rate for February was 313,000 homes, down from an adjusted rate of 318,000 homes the month before. This is the second consecutive month new home sales have declined. Continue Reading → Today’s existing home sales report from the National Association of REALTORS® shows existing home sales in February were at at a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 4.59 million units which is a decrease of 0.8 percent from the month before and an increase of 8.8 percent from a year ago. The actual number of homes sold in February was 286,000 which is an increase of 10.0 percent from the month before and an increase of 13.0 percent from a year ago when there were 253,000 homes sold. Continue Reading → The U.S. mortgage loan delinquency rate was 7.57 percent of all home loans in February, down 5.0 percent from the month before and down 14.0 percent from a year ago, according to the “First-Look” report issued by Lender Processing Services, one of the countries largest loan servicers and aggregators of loan performance data. The foreclosure presale inventory rate was 4.13 percent in February, a 0.5 percent decrease from the month before and a 0.3 percent decrease from a year ago Continue Reading → Mortgage rates have been rising nonstop since the end of last week. If you are considering a refinance or taking the plunge and buying a new home, you’d better get moving. I just had a prospect shop rates and terms for his new home over the last couple of weeks and just called back; he finally decided on a lender and wanted an updated rate quote to lock his loan. Needless to say, he was terribly disappointed…the rates we originally spoke about on a 30 year fixed rate a couple of weeks ago was in the high 3’s, my quote yesterday was 4.25% (4.45% APR ). Continue Reading → |
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