The Five Star Institute National Appraisal Congress recently hosted a webinar titled "Appraisal Theory: Back to Fundamentals,” presented by Ed Pinto, Codirector and Chief Risk Officer for the International Center on Housing Risk at the American Enterprise Institute.

Largely due to a combination of increasing home prices and a lack of suitable inventory, flipping edged out renting as the preferred strategy in Q3 2015 for the fourth consecutive quarter, since Auction.com began tracking investor intent data. Overall in Q3, 53.7 percent of investors said they preferred flipping, while 45.1 percent said they intended to rent the properties they purchased.

The good news for Ocwen is that the company ended Q3 with more than $731 million in available liquidity, including $459 million of cash on hand, and brought the amount of reduced corporate debt by 47 percent, or $812 million, year-to-date in 2015 by the end of the third quarter.

But the success of programs like the Connecticut Avenue Securities (CAS) Series by Fannie Mae and Structured Agency Credit Risk (STACR) debt note offerings by Freddie Mac have ensured that credit risk transfer is not simply a passing trend, but the way of the future for the GSEs look to transfer more credit risk to private investors.

Ask the Economist is an ongoing series in which DS News talks with an economist about the most pressing issues facing the nation's housing industry and the economy. This installment features Mark Fleming, Chief Economist with First American Financial Corporation.

Sustainable homeownership is the “gateway to the middle class” for many Americans and is the primary source of wealth creation for many, which is why increasing the homeownership rate is so critical to a healthy economy, according to a panel at a housing forum in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.

Vacancy rates in rental housing were highest outside of Metropolitan Statistical Areas at 9.2 percent and were lower in principal cities at 7.7 percent and suburbs at 6.2 percent. The homeowner vacancy rate was also highest outside MSAs at 2.5 percent and was slightly lower inside principal cities at 1.9 percent and in the suburbs at 1.7 percent.

In New Jersey, 16.2 percent of consumers have seriously delinquent debt (90 days or more overdue) or debt that was in third-party collections, compared with the national rate of 20 percent for the reporting period. New York and Connecticut also reported overall consumer distress rates (14.8 percent and 14.9 percent respectively) lower than the national rate.

Robinson contends that despite posting record losses for 2007 and the first half of 2008, shortly before the government seized control of them, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were always capable of paying their debts and were never in danger of insolvency. The complaint contends that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac took a relatively conservative approach to investing in mortgages during the years 2004 to 2007, the so-called “housing bubble,” during which many institutions were not conservative where the mortgage market was concerned.

The predicted moderate economic expansion does not change the Conference Board’s outlook for housing, which is largely positive. Ozyildirim told DS News earlier in the week that, “The single family housing market seems to be heating up, despite some potential volatility. Construction companies and workers are busy while home prices and mortgage rates remain favorable.”