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 [...]
July 29, 2007
- Interest Rates Level Off
Interest Rates Level Off
For nearly 10 months interest rates moved up a little, then down a little, but the average cost for most types of mortgages remained below 6.5%. Then rates unexpectedly took off in late May, making home loans more expensive than they’ve been since, well, this time last year.
A recent survey of major [...]
July 27, 2007
- June Housing Starts up 2.3 Percent
June Housing Starts up 2.3 Percent
The pace of home construction rose 2.3 percent in June but building permit activity, a sign of future construction plans, sank to its lowest rate in 10 years, signaling further weakness in the listless housing market.
Housing starts set an annual rate of 1.467 million units in June compared with a [...]
July 24, 2007
- Housing Slump Could Last Til Year's End
Housing Slump Could Last Til Year's End
The U.S. housing market will continue to slump for the remainder of 2007, with home sales falling further and price growth continuing to slow. This word from a leading industry economist, David Berson, vice-president and chief economist at Fannie Mae, said 2006 and 2007 combined will show the biggest [...]
July 23, 2007
- Housing Slump Gets Longer and Longer
Housing Slump Gets Longer and Longer
The slump in home sales and prices will be deeper and last longer than previously expected, according to the latest forecast by the National Association of Realtors.
The trade group is now looking for flat prices for existing homes in the first quarter of 2008 compared to the first quarter of 2007, [...]
July 17, 2007
- New Scheme Preys on Desperate Homeowners
New Scheme Preys on Desperate Homeowners
With the housing market in decline, financial predators are finding yet another way to take advantage of people who fall behind on their payments.
The schemes take various forms and often involve promises to distressed homeowners of cash upfront, free monthly rent and a chance to retain their houses in [...]
July 16, 2007
- Homeowners Moving Regularly
Homeowners Moving Regularly
More than a quarter of homeowners seem to be willing to move every four to seven years in a bid to climb further up the property ladder.
One report suggests that just 7% of people expect to be living in their next property for more than 25 years.
Around 26% of homebuyers intend to keep [...]
July 6, 2007
- Credit Cards Before the Mortgage?
Credit Cards Before the Mortgage?
In another symptom of the subprime mortgage meltdown, stressed-out borrowers may be taking care of their credit card bills before making their mortgage payments.
According to a report from consumer credit reporting agency Experian, borrowers with credit scores of 620 or below are 30 days late more often with mortgage payments than [...]
July 5, 2007
- Existing Home Sales Down Slightly
Existing Home Sales Down Slightly
According to the National Association of Realtors, the pace of existing home sales in the United States was off slightly in May to a 5.99 million-unit annual rate.
The inventory of homes for sale rose 5.0 percent to 4.43 million units at the end of May which represents 8.9 months' supply at [...]
July 2, 2007
- Housing Slump Could Linger
Housing Slump Could Linger
Economists are giving up on the idea that the U.S. housing slump will be quick and relatively painless.
Instead, more are concluding, the downturn that began nearly two years ago will last at least through the end of 2007, remaining a major drag on the U.S. economy. The culprits: a glut of homes [...]
June 30, 2007
- Housing Starts: Is the Worst Behind Us?
Housing Starts: Is the Worst Behind Us?
After boosting construction in February, March, and April, in May homebuilders saw housing starts drop to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.474 million units, according to a Census Bureau report released recently.
The housing market isn't as bad today as it was in the early 1990s or early 1980s, [...]
June 27, 2007
- Buyer Beware: Skeletons in the Closet
Buyer Beware: Skeletons in the Closet
The National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (NAEBA) recently conducted an online survey of their members to rate the items they found most annoying when searching for a new home with buyers. Since these real estate companies are always looking out for the buyer's best interest they don't pull any [...]
June 22, 2007
- 100 Years
100 Years
The year is 1907.
One hundred years ago.
What a difference a century makes!
Here are some of the U.S. Statistics for the Year 1907:
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The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years old.
Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
A three-minute call from [...]
June 19, 2007
- Mortgage Reform Unlikely in 2007
Mortgage Reform Unlikely in 2007
Homeowners unable to pay monthly mortgage bills and facing foreclosure shouldn't count on help from Washington this year. Regulators and lawmakers seem to be taking a wait-and-see approach as they confront the fallout from several years of lenders making too many home loans to people with inadequate credit.
The foreclosure rate nationwide [...]
June 17, 2007
- Has the Real Estate Market Hit Bottom Yet?
Has the Real Estate Market Hit Bottom Yet?
Numbers suggest that things are likely to get worse before they get better. After a sluggish start to the spring selling season, the National Association of Realtors reported that pending sales dropped 3.2 percent in April, the most recent data available, while mortgage applications fell about 2 percent [...]
June 16, 2007
- Lower Home Sales and Prices Predicted
Lower Home Sales and Prices Predicted
A real estate industry trade group said Wednesday it expects sales of existing homes to drop 4.6% this year to 6.2 million. Two months ago, the group had predicted a 2.2% decline for the year.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is now forecasting sales of new homes to drop 18.2% [...]
June 15, 2007
- Pending Home Sales Fall - Lowest Level Since '03
Pending Home Sales Fall - Lowest Level Since '03
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said its Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in April, fell 3.2 percent to 101.4 from an upwardly revised level of 104.8 in March. The index registered 99.3 in February 2003.
Wall Street analysts polled ahead of the report were [...]
June 14, 2007
- Big Drop in Home Prices Predicted
Big Drop in Home Prices Predicted
Many industry watchers agree that home prices will continue to slide before they recover, but now some economists say they've got a long way to fall before bouncing back.
David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poors, has forecast a price drop of about 8 percent for the 24-month period through [...]
June 11, 2007
- Study Says Home Prices NOT Falling
Study Says Home Prices NOT Falling
Most studies say U.S. home prices are on the decline, but a new report from the federal government says just the opposite.
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), which has tracked prices for more than 30 years, said recently that its housing price index grew 4.3 percent in the first [...]
