By Dennis Norman, on January 26th, 2011 Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau released new home sales data for December 2010 showing an increase of 17.5 percent from the month before, but a decrease of 7.6 percent from a year ago.
The seasonally-adjusted new home sales rate for December was 329,000 homes, a 17.5 percent increase from November’s revised rate of 280,000 homes. The supply of new homes on the market decreased from an adjusted 8.4 month supply in November to a 6.9 month supply in December. The median new home price increased for the month to $241,500 whopping 12.0 Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on January 25th, 2011 Dennis Norman
The St. Louis foreclosure rate shot up 7 percent in November to 1.67 percent, according to a report published by CoreLogic. The report also shows that the rate of serious mortgage delinquencies in St. Louis (90+ days delinquent) increase slightly to 5.18 percent in November from 5.17 percent the month before.
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By Dennis Norman, on January 21st, 2011
A “first-look” report issued by Lender Processing Services, one of the countries largest loan servicers and aggregators of loan performance data, is somewhat encouraging as it shows the U.S. mortgage delinquency rate (not including foreclosures) for December was 8.83 percent which is a decrease of 2.1 percent from November’s rate of 9.02 percent.
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By Dennis Norman, on January 20th, 2011 Today’s existing home sales report from the National Association of REALTORS(R) shows St. Louis area existing home sales for December were 3.1 percent higher than a year ago and St. Louis area home prices in December were 7.8 percent higher than the year before.
Nationally, existing home sales in December were at at a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 5.28 million units which is an increase of 12.3 percent from November and is a decline of 2.9 percent from a year ago. Preliminary numbers for 2010 show 4,908,000 existing homes sold which is a decrease of 4.8 percent from 2009 when Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on January 13th, 2011
A report released by CoreLogic showed that the St. Louis foreclosure rate increased in October marking the fourth-consecutive month of increases. The report shows St. Louis to have a foreclosure rate in October of 1.58 percent, a slight increase from September’s 1.57 percent, however an increase of over 11 percent from a year ago. The foreclosure rate in the U.S. in October was 3.33 percent, an increase of 14 percent from the year before.
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By Dennis Norman, on January 7th, 2011 The real estate market has not been very nice to us over the past 3 years or so and we are all anxious to see the light at the end of the tunnel. With that in mind, and 2011 in front of us, where is the real estate market headed in 2011? Before I take my humble stab at answering this question I need to remind you I am not an economist nor do I have a PhD behind my name, in fact I have nothing behind my name. All I can offer is a whole lot of experience “in Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 31st, 2010 As 2010 quickly comes to an end I sat here early this morning pondering the real estate market and reading reports on the housing industry. One thing that caught my attention was an article titled “The Mortgage Interest Deduction and Negative Equity” by Ted Gayer, the co-director of economic studies at the Brookings Institute (and occasional contributor to this blog). Ted’s article made some interesting points related to the mortgage interest deduction, negative equity and home-ownership rates in the U.S.
In his article Ted states “It seems semantically incorrect to call someone who owes more on an asset than it’s Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 28th, 2010 It seems we always need to find someone to blame for our problems…
When it comes to the meltdown in the housing market that has taken place over the past three years there has been no lack of finger pointing by many inside and outside the industry as to factors that either caused or contributed to the collapse of the housing market. Sub-prime lending, Wall Street, mortgage fraud, the mortgage industry, banks, community reinvestment act, real estate brokers and agents, fannie mae, freddie mac, federal government over-regulation, federal government under-regulation, appraisers, unemployment, the economy in general, “flipping”, sellers, buyers and Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 20th, 2010
A “first-look” report issued by Lender Processing Services, one of the countries largest loan servicers and aggregators of loan performance data, is somewhat encouraging as it shows the U.S. mortgage delinquency rate (not including foreclosures) for October was 9.02 percent which is a decrease of almost 3 percent from October’s rate of 9.29 percent.
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By Dennis Norman, on December 20th, 2010 Freddie Mac, one of the nation’s largest investors in conforming, conventional mortgages, announced it will delay initiating foreclosure for at least nine months for financially troubled service members who are released from active duty through the end of 2011 and have Freddie Mac-owned mortgages.
“Our military make sacrifices every day to protect our homes and families,” said Anthony Renzi, Executive Vice President of Single Family Portfolio Management at Freddie Mac. “This small act will protect financially troubled service members when they return from active duty by giving them more time to work with their lender to stay in their home.”
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By Dennis Norman, on December 13th, 2010
A report released this morning by CoreLogic shows negative equity declined in third quarter of 2010 for residential properties, marking the third-consecutive quarterly decline. The CoreLogic reports that 10.8 million, or 22.5 percent, of all residential properties with mortgages were in negative equity at the end of the third quarter of 2010, down from 11.0 million and 23 percent in the second quarter. While the decline is good news, the bad news is that the report states the decline is “due primarily to foreclosures of severely negative equity properties rather than an increase in home values.”
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By Dennis Norman, on December 10th, 2010
Ah, the reverse mortgage battle continues…Consumers Union says their risky and dangerous; RetireSafe, a grassroots organization that advocates on behalf of seniors says they provide financial independence to Seniors…so who’s right?
First off, I have to say that I personally feel reverse mortgages offer an excellent opportunity for seniors to live a better life, or get them through a tough financial period, by tapping the equity in their homes. I have written before about a friend of mine, Tom Carter, who has helped dozens of seniors over the years with reverse mortgages. Having said that, obviously, like almost Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 9th, 2010 Report by Zillow estimates that U.S. Homes have now lost $9 Tillion in value since Market Peak
U.S. homes are expected to lose more than $1.7 trillion in value during 2010, which is 63 percent more than the $1 trillion lost in 2009, according to a report released by Zillow.com. That brings the total value lost since the market peaked in June 2006 to $9 trillion.
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By Dennis Norman, on December 7th, 2010 Today, Trulia and RealtyTrac released the latest result of their ongoing survey tracking the attitude of homebuyers toward foreclosed homes. The most recent survey, conducted in early November by Harris Interactive, showed that Americans are still concerned about the health of the housing market with 58 percent of adults survey expecting a housing recovery to take at least another two years.
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By Dennis Norman, on December 2nd, 2010
According to a report released by RealtyTrac, foreclosure homes accounted for 25 percent of all U.S. residential sales in the third quarter of 2010 and that the average sales price of properties that sold while in some stage of foreclosure was more than 32 percent below the average sales price of properties not in the foreclosure process — up from a 26 percent discount in the previous quarter and a 29 percent discount in the third quarter of 2009.
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By Robert Fishel, on December 1st, 2010 Freddie Mac announced today it has ordered all evictions involving foreclosed occupied single family and 2-4 unit properties that had Freddie Mac mortgages to be suspended from December 20, 2010 to January 3, 2011.
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By Dennis Norman, on November 30th, 2010
A report released by CoreLogic showed the St. Louis metro area to have a foreclosure rate in September of 1.57 percent, and increase of over 25 percent (25.6%) from a year ago, and an increase of a little over 3 percent from the month before. The national foreclosure rate in September was 3.29 percent, a slight increase from 3.20 percent the month before.
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By News Desk, on November 29th, 2010 Homeowners will be protected by a new Federal Trade Commission rule that bans providers of mortgage foreclosure rescue and loan modification services from collecting fees until homeowners have a written offer from their lender or servicer that they decide is acceptable.
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By Dennis Norman, on November 23rd, 2010 Today’s existing home sales report from theNational Association of REALTORS(R) shows existing home sales in October were at at a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 4.43 million units which is a decrease of 2.2 percent from September and is a decline of 25.9 percent from a year ago.
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By Dennis Norman, on November 23rd, 2010 On the heels of the post I just did on shadow inventory, it is good to see a positive report on mortgage delinquencies! According to a report issued by TransUnion, mortgage loan delinquencies in the third quarter of this year declined 3.45 percent to 6.44 percent, marking the largest quarterly decline since the fourth quarter of 2006.
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By Dennis Norman, on November 23rd, 2010 A report released today by CoreLogic shows that, while the overall inventory of homes for sale has remained the same in the past year at 4.2 million new and existing homes for sale as of August, the number of homes in “shadow inventory” has grown from 6.1 million a year before to 6.3 million as of August, 2010.
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By News Desk, on November 18th, 2010 The “robo-signing” scandal that has exposed illegal practices by servicers of mortgage loans has also showed the urgent need to reform a broken system that is plagued with abuses, lacks adequate resources and has pushed countless homeowners toward foreclosure.
That’s the message that Diane Thompson, a lawyer for the National Consumer Law Center, delivered in testimony earlier this week to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.
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By Dennis Norman, on November 17th, 2010
A “first-look” report issued by Lender Processing Services, one of the countries largest loan servicers and aggregators of loan performance data, is somewhat encouraging as it shows the U.S. mortgage delinquency rate (not including foreclosures) for October was 9.29 percent and, while that is a terribly high rate, it is just barely higher than Septembers’ rate of 9.27 percent. Mortgage delinquencies are a “leading indicator” of foreclosures, so perhaps that means we are getting close to the foreclosure activity leveling off.
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By Dennis Norman, on November 12th, 2010
Speaking at the National Consumer Law Center’s Consumer Rights Litigation Conference in Boston, Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin delivered some sobering news about the Fed Reserve’s expectations for the housing market.
Raskin discussed how foreclosures on residential properties soared from about one million in 2006, the “peak of the boom”, to 2.8 million last year. There were 1.2 million foreclosure filings in just the first half of 2010 and, right now, nearly five million loans are somewhere in the foreclosure process or are 90 days or more past due.
Raskin said “our projections remain very grim for Continue Reading →
By News Desk, on November 10th, 2010 Percentage of Homeowners Underwater Reaches New Peak; Length and Depth of Housing Downturn Approach Depression-Era Declines According to Zillow® Real Estate Market Reports for 3rd Quarter 2010…
The United States housing market continued its long decline in the third quarter with home values falling for the 17th consecutive quarter, according to Zillow Real Estate Market Reports. With home values 25 percent below their June 2006 peak, the current housing downturn is approaching Great Depression-era declines, when home values fell 25.9 percent in five years.
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By Dennis Norman, on November 5th, 2010 Dennis Norman
The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for September shows a decrease of 1.8 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and a 24.9 percent decrease from a year ago.
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By Dennis Norman, on November 1st, 2010 Dennis Norman
A report released by CoreLogic showed the St. Louis metro area to have a foreclosure rate in August of 1.52 percent which is a slight increase from July’s rate of 1.48 percent but is an increase of 25.6 percent from the year prior when the rate was 1.21 percent. Comparatively speaking, St. Louis is in good shape as the national foreclosure rate for August was 3.2 percent, almost double our rate here.
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By Dennis Norman, on October 25th, 2010 Dennis Norman
The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development today released their “October 2010 Scorecard” on the “Obama Administration’s Efforts to Stabilize the Housing Market”.
The scorecard points out the success of “The President’s housing market recovery efforts” but does point out that “data in the scorecard also show that the recovery in the housing market continues to remain fragile.”
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By Dennis Norman, on October 25th, 2010 Dennis Norman
Today’s existing home sales report from theNational Association of REALTORS(R) shows existing home sales in September were at at a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 4.53 million units which is an increase of 10.0 percent from August but is a a decline of 19.1 percent from a year ago.
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By Joe Plemon, on October 25th, 2010 Joe Plemon, ChristianPF.com
Owning your own home may still be the great American dream, but, the influx of foreclosures in recent years has made it a nightmare for millions. If you are considering purchasing a home, I challenge you to at least think through the advantages of renting before you buy. Here are a few.
1. Less risk
Strangely, risk seems to be the factor least considered
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