October 26, 2007
- What's Causing This Slump?
What's Causing This Slump?
It's no secret that real estate is experiencing a market slump; in fact sales are lower than they've been in 16 years. Wall Street economists compile a seasonal market forecast; a rating higher than 50 indicate a positive market. The current forecast was only 30 and has remained below 50 since may [...]
October 22, 2007
- Home Builders vs Home Buyers in Myrtle Beach
Home Builders vs Home Buyers in Myrtle Beach
The National Association of Home Builders reports that the confidence of United States homebuilders in the market for new single-family homes fell in October to its lowest levels since the series began in Jan. 1985. The reason: continuing problems in the mortgage market, large inventories of unsold units, and [...]
October 21, 2007
- Home Heating Bills Will Increase
Home Heating Bills Will Increase
No matter how you heat your house, this year will cost you more than last, according to a government report issued recently.
Americans will spend $977 to heat their homes this year, averaging for all fuels across all sections of the country, according to the Energy Information Administration.
That's nearly 10 percent higher [...]
October 20, 2007
- Real Estate: No Light in Sight
Real Estate: No Light in Sight
For those in the real estate industry and for those looking to buy or sell a home, it could take until 2009 to catch a break.
That's the forecast from Doug Duncan, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Duncan expects national median home prices to fall between 2 [...]
October 19, 2007
- Will the Fed Cut Rates Again?
Will the Fed Cut Rates Again?
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank's rate cut in September has shown signs of success, but cautioned that lenders and investors must bear responsibility for financial decisions that caused the subprime mortgage meltdown.
The Fed slashed the federal funds rate, a key short-term interest rate that impacts rates [...]
October 15, 2007
- New Home Sales Hit Seven Year Low
New Home Sales Hit Seven Year Low
The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced recently that sales of new, single-family homes in August dipped 8.3 percent compared to July's numbers.
Despite favorable pricing and interest rates, many consumers remain sidelined as tighter credit and difficulty selling their current homes prohibit them [...]
October 5, 2007
- Housing Starts at 12-Year Low
Housing Starts at 12-Year Low
Housing starts and permits for new homes fell to their lowest level in 12 years in August, as the problems in the mortgage and real estate markets caused builders to slam the brakes on new construction. Permits, which are taken as a sign of builders' confidence in the market, fell to [...]
October 2, 2007
- Home Foreclosures Continue to Surge
Home Foreclosures Continue to Surge
New foreclosure activity continued to surge in August, rising 36% from July and more than doubling from a year earlier.
The jump in foreclosure filings [in August] might be the beginning of the next wave of increased foreclosure activity, as a large number of subprime adjustable rate loans are beginning to reset [...]
September 29, 2007
- Housing Costs Consuming More of Paychecks
Housing Costs Consuming More of Paychecks
Housing costs ate up more of the monthly paycheck for millions of Americans in 2006 than the year before, despite signs of a slowdown in the housing market, according to figures made public recently by the Census Bureau.
The housing data describe the buildup of economic pressures before the recent wave [...]
September 22, 2007
- Home Price Slump Through '08
Home Price Slump Through '08
Home values and housing sales will take an even bigger hit than previously forecast and will not recover to their earlier levels throughout all of 2008, at least, according to the latest economic outlook from the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
While the NAR sees gains in prices in 2008 from the [...]
September 13, 2007
- New Home Sales Bounce Back in July
New Home Sales Bounce Back in July
The pace at which newly constructed homes are selling remained unpredictable in July, beating forecasts by rising 2.8 percent over June's rate, according to a report issued today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Builders have reduced their asking prices and offered incentives [...]
September 8, 2007
- Home Buyers Gaining Edge From Credit Crisis
Home Buyers Gaining Edge From Credit Crisis
Home buyers with solid credit and money for a down payment are now better positioned than they were a few weeks ago.
The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate is at or near a three-month low. Home prices in many areas have fallen. Despite the meltdown in non-traditional mortgages, many community [...]
September 6, 2007
- Home Prices Still Going Up
Home Prices Still Going Up
Home prices increased during the three months ended June 30, albeit only slightly, according to the latest quarterly report from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO).
The OFHEO House Price Index (HPI) rose 0.1 percent compared with the first quarter of 2007 and 3.2 percent compared with the second quarter [...]
September 3, 2007
- Fed Move Eases Panic
Fed Move Eases Panic
The Federal Reserve's recent move to encourage bank lending has helped ease some of the panic in financial markets, but the underlying problems that led to the seizing up of credit are still there - and obviously won't disappear overnight.
The credit crisis escalated last week, forcing the Fed to cut its little [...]
August 31, 2007
- Latest Home Prices: More Up Than Down
Latest Home Prices: More Up Than Down
The median price for a single-family home sold during the three months ending June 30 fell to $223,800, 1.5 percent below the price a year ago.
Some of the results of the survey from the National Association of Realtors were more positive. More metro area markets - 97 of 149 [...]
August 18, 2007
- Housing Gets Mixed Outlook from NAR
Housing Gets Mixed Outlook from NAR
The National Association of Realtors predicts the pace of U.S. home sales will fall further this year than earlier expected, but prices will drop less sharply than previously thought.
NAR trimmed its sales forecast for the sixth straight month but pared back its predicted drop in existing home values.
Existing-home sales should [...]
August 8, 2007
- New Home Sales Skid 6.6%
New Home Sales Skid 6.6%
Real estate and home building markets took another major blow as a recently released government reading showed a bigger than expected drop in new home sales.
New homes sold at an annual pace of 834,000 in June, down 6.6 percent from the revised 893,000 rate in May. That left sales down 22.3 [...]
August 7, 2007
- Signs of a Housing Market Turnaround
Signs of a Housing Market Turnaround
Tighter credit is prolonging the seemingly everlasting slump in home sales, but a quarterly Wall Street Journal survey of 28 major metro areas shows that the surge in inventories of unsold homes is slowing.
The latest trends offer some hope for an eventual recovery in a U.S. housing market that generally [...]
August 6, 2007
- Subprime Loan Alternatives
Subprime Loan Alternatives
After the subprime mortgage market collapsed, many products that were widely available have now disappeared from the scene.
More than a score of subprime lending specialists have closed their doors, with many banks cutting back on or eliminating subprimes, leaving many credit-damaged home buyers scrambling to find a loan.
Now that the collapse has shaken [...]
July 30, 2007
- Homebuilder Confidence Slides to 16-Year Low
Homebuilder Confidence Slides to 16-Year Low
U.S. homebuilder sentiment slid in July to its lowest since January 1991 as fallout from the housing slump and subprime mortgage crisis caused a glut of new homes, the National Association of Home Builders said recently.
Homebuilders are struggling to unload excess inventories left to them as speculators abandon contracts [...]
