Tag Archives: Home Prices

Homes with mortgages owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac gained in prices both monthly and yearly in July, according to the FHFA monthly House Price Index (HPI). In July, prices rose 0.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from June and rose 3.7 percent from July 2011. The index currently sits 16.4 below its April 2007 peak.

Major metro areas such as Phoenix and Atlanta aren't the only places where investment opportunities abound. Small towns with populations between 200,000 and 500,000 have plenty to offer investors despite their smaller size, according to a quarterly report from Local Market Monitor (LMM) and HomeVestors of America, Inc.

U.S. home prices continued to increase in July, according to Case-Shiller, with its 20-city index up 1.6 percent from June and the 10-city index up 1.5 percent. The 10- city index rose to its highest level since November 2010 and the 20-city index to the highest level since October 2010. Price rose month-month in all of the 20 cities. Year-year, the 10-city index was up 0.6 percent and the 20-city index rose 1.2 percent. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected the 20 city index to increase 1.7 percent from June and 1.2 percent from July 2011.

The company released an examination of the Badger State’s economy as part of its ongoing series on swing states in the 2012 election. Whereas states like Colorado and New Hampshire have fair-to-middling economic pictures, IHS called Wisconsin’s employment situation in 2012 ""grim.""

The popularity of FHA mortgages is slowing down, while the use of mortgage financing is growing overall, according to the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. FHA-backed transactions accounted for 25.9 percent of home purchase transactions in August, a decrease from 27.3 percent in January. Overall, mortgages were used to finance 68.9 percent of home purchase transactions in August, an increase from 67.5 percent in July.

The picture gets rosier for housing as home prices continue their climb back to the top. One recent price index puts the July increase for prices at 0.9 percent, with prices achieving their first sustained recovery on a year-over-year basis since the market went bust in 2007.

IHS Global Insight's examination of presidential swing states continued Thursday with a look at New Hampshire's relatively shaky economy. Growth performance in the Granite State has been mostly unimpressive. The state's 0.4 percent average job gain for the first two quarters of the year included payroll shrinkage across a number of sectors, including manufacturing, retail trade, finance, administrative support, and healthcare.

A strengthening housing market in the past few months has economists making more bullish predictions about the recovery, Zillow revealed Thursday. The company released the results of its most recent Home Price Expectations Survey, showing that economists surveyed expect home prices to rise by a total of 2.3 percent during 2012. This change in sentiment is a major turnaround from June, when respondents predicted home prices would experience a net decline this year.

Foreclosure inventory is shrinking. Prices are rising. But, despite these changes in the investor landscape, it will be business as usual for real estate investors, according to a survey jointly released by BiggerPockets.com and Memphis Invest. The survey found that 65 percent of active real estate investors plan to buy as many or more residential properties in the next 12 months as they did in the past.

Lately, the expectation has been for home prices to continue rising, but a recent report from Zillow put a damper on this view. Home prices dropped in August month-over-month after rising for nine consecutive months. However, the drop was mere a 0.1 percent. At an average of $152,100, prices were still up on a yearly basis, showing an increase of 1.7 percent.