Tag Archives: Home Sales

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.

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.

The Federal Reserve's announcement confirming a third round of quantitative easing sent long-term mortgage rates tumbling to all-new record lows this week. Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed a drop in both the 30-year and 15-year fixed. According to the survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.49 percent (0.6 point) for the week ending September 20, down from 3.55 percent the week before. The 15-year FRM also fell this week, averaging 2.77 percent (0.6 point). The previous survey showed an average of 2.85 percent.

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.

RealtyTrac hosted a webinar Wednesday to get advice from two pros in the world of property flipping. Hosted by Daren Blomquist, VP of RealtyTrac, the webinar featured reality TV show stars Doug Clark and Mike Baird to learn about their experiences as property flippers and holders. In real estate, location is known to be everything, but Mike said in flipping, its ""price, price, and price.""

Existing home sales rose 7.8 percent to 4.82 million in August the highest level since May 2010 the National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday. The median price of an existing single-family home in August was $187,400, down $400 from July but up $16,200 or 9.5 percent since August 2011.

Single family starts increased 28,000 in August to 535,000, the highest level since April 2010, the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development reported jointly Wednesday. Despite the increase total, housing starts improved just 17,000 as multi-family starts fell.

Home prices skimmed close to the bottom during July this year but climbed 6.3 percent year-over-year by August, according to RE/MAX. The real estate company revealed in its latest National Housing Report that median home prices ticked up from last year over the last seven straight months. Forty-six of the 53 metro areas covered by the RE/MAX report saw prices tick up from over last year, with 15 observing double-digit increases.