Daily Dose

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has heard arguments both for and against the controversial "disparate impact" rule in housing, stakeholders on both sides are awaiting the Court's decision as to whether or not disparate impact claims can be made under the Fair Housing Act.

December home sales topped the previous month by a double-digit percentage, defying the usual slowdown brought on by seasonal influences, according to a survey of metros nationwide.

In the wake of the National Association of Home Builders' (NAHB) latest confidence index, builders convened in Las Vegas this week to discuss housing trends over the last few months and what they expect to see in 2015. In a ...

Default rates are on the rise month-over-month for both first and second mortgages nationwide, according to the S&P Dow Jones Indices and S&P/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices for December 2014 released Wednesday. According to the data, the first mortgage default rate experienced its biggest monthly increase since September 2013, rising by five basis points from 0.97 percent in November up to 1.02 percent for December.

Castro based his optimism on what he called a "confluence of factors" he believes will encourage more potential homebuyers to take the plunge this year, including a leveling off in home prices, lower entry barriers to mortgage credit, and falling costs—helped by an imminent reduction in Federal Housing Administration (FHA) annual mortgage insurance premiums and the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) directive for Fannie and Freddie to accept mortgages with lower down payments.

Aside from a brief reference to his announcement two weeks ago that the Federal Housing Agency (FHA) would be lowering its mortgage insurance premiums, President Barack Obama did not mention housing policy Tuesday night during his hour-long State of the Union Address.

A nationwide survey of real estate investors bidding on properties offered for auction during the fourth quarter of 2014 revealed that flipping was the preferred investing strategy over renting, according to Auction.com's Q4 2014 Real Estate Investor Activity Report. Though various reports have suggested in the last year that flipping opportunities are dwindling, Auction.com's latest survey affirms that flipping is still going strong: 50 percent of investors said they intended to flip the homes they purchased, compared to 47.3 percent who said they intend to rent them out (2.7 percent were undecided).

"The shadow of crisis has passed, and the state of the union is strong," the president said early in his speech. The nation has experienced "the fastest economic growth in over a decade, our deficits cut by two-thirds, a stock market that has doubled, and health care inflation at its lowest rate in fifty years," Obama said. Obama touted the past year as "a breakthrough year for America" as job growth outpaced any year since 1999 and unemployment fell below pre-crisis levels.

HOPE NOW Non-foreclosure solutionsThe gap between non-foreclosure solutions and foreclosures widened even further in November 2014, according to data recently released by HOPE NOW, the voluntary private sector alliance of mortgage sevicers, investors, and non-profit counselors.

Freddie Mac cited a number of positive opportunities for housing to start 2015, but households and businesses should take advantage of them because those opportunities may be limited, according to the GSE's January 2015 U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook released on Tuesday.