If you’re watching the real estate markets, the good news is that the Federal Reserve has pledged to keep interest rates low through 2014. The bad news is that the market is going to need it. The November Case-Shiller housing numbers, released this morning, indicate that prices tumbled 3.7% from the year before. That’s below expectations of a 3.2% drop.
What’s President Obama’s plan for getting the housing market back on track? Look for proposals—but not necessarily solutions—in tonight’s State of the Union address.
Is the real estate market better yet? Seeking a way to aggregate local data, the National Association of Home Builders and First American Title Insurance constructed an “Improving Markets Index” in an effort to track metro area markets as they came off their housing lows. The good news is that the index leapt last month, with [...]
Here are five consumer items that will get cheaper and five that will get more expensive as the new year wears on
Government, the mortgage industry and forces of nature all shook the housing market in 2011. They had both an immediate impact and slow-burning effects, setting the stage for a bumpy 2012 with more foreclosures, political battles and local market risks.
When the housing bubble popped — in 2006, 2007, or 2008, depending on where you were — chances are that the value of your home took a nose dive. But who got hit worse, the top of the market or the bottom?
WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission has brought civil fraud charges against six former top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying they misled the government and taxpayers about risky subprime mortgages the mortgage giants held during the housing bust.
If you are interested in buying a home, chances are you need a mortgage — and the first step toward a mortgage is a prequalification (or its cousin, pre-approval) letter. You provide your lender with basic financial information, and in return you receive a written offer to provide you with financial backing for a home [...]
Increasingly in some states, foreclosure is like a Roach Motel: Houses come in, but they don’t get out. This has led to an egregious statistic in the new issue of Mortgage Monitor, a report from data-tracker LPS Applied Analytics, which shows that the average loan in foreclosure has been delinquent for 631 days. That’s nearly 21 months, a [...]
It’s easy to drown in real estate statistics, but looking at “affordability” — the homes that someone on a median income could buy — is a fascinating gauge of housing markets. (Plus, it’s a statistic that can be fine-tuned to the local level). The recent release of the Housing Opportunity Index from the National Association [...]
Is the Federal Reserve going to start buying bonds again to stimulate the economy? Some 69% of economists polled in a Bloomberg News survey think so, with 36% of those tagging the first quarter of 2012 as the time for such action.
