Daily Dose

RealtyTrac released on Thursday its Year-End and Q4 2013 Home Flipping Report, which shows single-family home flips—in which a home is purchase and sold again within six months—totaled 156,862 last year, up 16 percent from 2012 and 114 percent from 2011.

Pending home sales fell in December to their lowest level since October 2011, according to numbers tracked by the National Association of Realtors. NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said there were several factors at play in last month’s falloff in contracts—not the least of which was onset of harsh winter storms.

Fixed mortgage rates this week moved down to their lowest levels so far in 2014, according to surveys from Freddie Mac and finance site Bankrate.com. Frank Nothaft, VP and chief economist for Freddie Mac, pointed to weaker housing data as the driving force behind this week’s rate movements.

Massachusetts home sales came down for the second month in December, while prices continued to increase at a steady clip, the Warren Group reported Wednesday. Single-family home sales in the Bay State dropped less than a percent last month to 3,712 from December 2012’s 3,725. According to the company, it was the lowest number of sales recorded in one month since April. “Sales and prices set a torrid pace in the third quarter of 2013 and through October. Now the market is taking a breather,” said Timothy M. Warren Jr., CEO of the Warren Group.

December's bitterly cold weather kept home shoppers away from the market in December, driving competition down further across most markets. Redfin's most recent Real-Time Bidding Wars report shows 52.0 percent of offers made by the company's agents faced competition last month, down from 52.8 percent in November and 62.4 percent a year earlier.

Last night, in President Obama's State of the Union address to Congress, the President said the American people were “tired of stale political arguments.” I agree, Mr. President, we are tired. We are tired of the divisive language from our President. Instead of bringing America together and setting us forth on the path towards economic growth and prosperity, what I heard in his address was more of the same misguided, go-it-alone ideas we’ve heard before, as opposed to real job creation and economic growth.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted on Wednesday to scale back the Federal Reserve's bond-buying program. The cut—the second one in as many months—will see total monthly asset purchases coming down to $65 billion. While December's weak employment report led some to believe there might be a pause in the taper, the committee waved it off in light of other, more positive indicators.

National foreclosure inventory fell 31 percent year-over-year in December, with 2.1 percent of all homes with a mortgage in some stage of foreclosure, according to CoreLogic's December National Foreclosure Report. Completed foreclosures also declined year-over-year in December, though at a somewhat lower rate of 14 percent. "Clearly, 2013 was a transitional year for residential property in the United States," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic.

Anyone combing through President Obama's State of the Union address hoping for a hint on housing policy in the year ahead surely came away disappointed. Instead, much of Obama's focus went toward addressing wages, which have been slow to move as home prices continue to climb higher. Also on Obama's mind Tuesday was the country's unemployment situation, which looked grim as of the end of December.

As the Super Bowl approaches, the sports world is abuzz with comparisons of the two teams facing off Sunday as analysts compare everything from the number of veteran players to yards gained during the season. At the same time, ZipRealty, a national online real estate brokerage based in Emeryville, California, looked at the stats to compare the two teams’ home housing markets. Denver’s market pulls ahead of Seattle at least marginally in four out of five categories.