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Survey: Current Homeowners Increase Purchases, Investors Exit Market

Current homeowners are playing a bigger role as housing market participants amid a sharp slowdown in investor activity, according to data from the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. Last month, current homeowners represented 44.6 percent of the purchase market, up from 43.8 percent in May based on a three-month moving average. As rising home prices discourage investors, HousePulse found home purchases from investors slipped to 19.7 percent.

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New Delinquency Roll Rates Continue to Improve

The rate of performing borrowers who rolled into delinquency status decreased in the second quarter, Fitch Ratings reported Monday. New delinquency roll rates showed stronger performance across all categories (subprime, Alta-A, and prime), with non-agency roll rates hitting their lowest level since early 2007. Overall, Fitch's delinquency roll rate index fell to 2 percent in the second quarter of this year, down from 2.4 percent in the previous quarter and down from 2.2 percent a year ago.

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Home Price Boost Sends Sales Down in June

Existing-home sales fell 1.2 percent in June to an annual sales rate of 5.08 million as the price of a single-family home rose 13.5 percent from a year earlier--the strongest year-over-year gain since November 2005, the National Association of Realtors reported Monday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected existing-home sales to jump to 5.27 million from May's originally reported sales pace of 5.18 million. The median price of an existing home rose $11,100 or 5.5 percent for the month to $214,200, the highest price since June 2008.

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Commentary: Walking the Walk

The nation's home builders celebrated Tuesday with the release of July's Housing Market Index, which showed a six-point jump in the measure of builder confidence on the heels of a seven-point jump one month earlier. In the last three months, confidence--as measured by the index--is up 16 points, or almost 40 percent. With giddy numbers like these, one would think builders would rush to break ground--or at least file the paperwork to do so, but they're not.

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Survey: Appraisers Confident Demand for Their Services Will Grow

A large percentage of appraisers are confident their future is bound to look brighter, according to a recent survey from the Appraisal Institute. Among the residential appraisers surveyed, 80 percent said their business outlook is either ""somewhat"" or ""very"" positive for the next one or two years, while 78 percent of commercial appraisers said the same. Additionally, 86 percent of residential appraisers and 55 percent of commercial appraisers said demand for their services is strong.

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‘Government Intervention’ Drives Down Distressed Sales in California

Distressed property sales have declined drastically in California over the last year, according to a recent report from PropertyRadar. In June, sales for distressed homes and condominiums plunged 46.5 percent year-over-year in June. On the other hand, non-distressed property sales shot up by 31.3 percent during the same time period. Government intervention is the main driving force behind the declines in distressed property sales, according to the report authored by Madeline Schnapp, director of economics research at the firm.

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Report: Credit Quality Improves for Prospective Renters in Q1

The credit quality for potential renters has improved over the last year, according to CoreLogic's Renter Applicant Risk (RAR) index report. In the first quarter of this year, the index increased to 104 compared to 102 a year ago and 99 in 2011. ""It's encouraging to see better qualified applicants who are more likely to meet their lease obligations,"" said Jay Harris, senior director of CoreLogic SafeRent.

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Flipping on the Rise in Most Markets as Profits Skyrocket

Single-family home flipping is on the rise as flippers see growing profits from their endeavors in most markets, according to a report released by RealtyTrac. The volume of house flipping increased 19 percent from the first half of this year to the first half of last year, according to RealtyTrac. At the same time, profits from flipping increased 246 percent. Over the first half of this year, investors earned an average gross profit of $18,391 per home flipped, up from $5,321 in the first half of last year and a vast improvement from the first half of 2011 when flippers lost an average of $13,206 on flips.

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Customers Report Greater Satisfaction with Servicers

According to J.D. Power, overall satisfaction with servicers has increased to 733 (on a 1,000 point scale) from last year's value of 725. The market research firm attributes the increase to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's release of origination and servicing guidelines, most of which are scheduled to go into effect January 2014. Under the rules, servicers are required to have systems, policies, and procedures in place to ensure customers receive appropriate information and support.

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