Market Studies

Freddie Mac's weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released Thursday, shows the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) falling to 4.14 percent (0.5 point) for the week ending June 26, a continued slide from 4.17 percent last week. A year ago, the 30-year fixed average was 4.46 percent, an increase of more than half a percentage point over the week prior.

As the United States economy continues to improve, the challenges facing the banking industry gradually shift from recovery to risk management in an effort to avoid the pitfalls that contributed to the financial crisis. In that spirit, the Office of the Comptroller of Currency released its Semiannual Risk Perspective of Spring 2014, offering an overview on the current health of the market and highlighting the significant risk related challenges that currently that face the banking industry.

While persistent price gains continue to dominate headlines, homes in a majority of major markets across the country remain slightly undervalued, quashing any concerns of a rising housing bubble, according to the latest data from Trulia. Nationally, homes remain undervalued by 3 percent compared with long-term fundamentals, according to Trulia's Bubble Watch.

Millennials are so hot right now. Advertisers spend sleepless nights wondering how to associate this “cool” generation with their products and services. In their annual “State of the Nation’s Housing” report, the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University suggested that participation in the housing market from the segment of the population age 18 to 34 is also the key to a robust housing recovery.

Higher home values have continued to fuel more equity home sales, making up more than 80 percent of all home sales for the past 11 consecutive months, according to the California Association of Realtors (CAR). The group noted that pending home sales receded slightly in May, as investors pulled out of the market due to higher home prices.

In its latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices report, S&P Dow Jones Indices recorded an annual price increase of 10.8 percent among both the 10- and 20-city composites. Those figures compare to year-over-year increases of 12.6 percent and 12.4 percent, respectively. A consensus of economists surveyed by Econoday called for a gain of 11.4 percent in the 20-city index.

Existing-home sales rose in May at their highest monthly growth rate in years as inventory continued to expand, the National Association of Realtors(NAR) reported. According to NAR, total existing-home sales—representing completed transactions of single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums, and co-ops—jumped 4.9 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million.

Florida's housing market had more new listings, an increase in median prices, and an uptick in inventory in May, according to Florida Realtors. Completed sales of single-family homes totaled 23,013 across the state, an increase of 3.6 percent over the May 2013 figure.

In its May 2014 Residential & Foreclosure Sales Report, RealtyTrac reported that U.S. properties sold at an estimated annual pace of 5.1 million in May. The pace of sold homes remained virtually unchanged from April, with a small increase of less than 1 percent from May 2013.

Home flippers reported more gains in 2013 than in any year on record, according to national real estate brokerage Redfin. The average home flipped last year was sold for $90,200 more than it was purchased, and in 11 of the 30 markets Redfin analyzed, flippers received gains of more than $100,000 per house.