Tag Archives: Home Sales

The housing market is healing, a Capital Economics report stated, but the road to recovery will be a long and gradual one. The research firm expects to see home sales and homebuilding continue with increases, while house prices are expected to finally stop falling later this year. While certain areas of the housing market appear to be moving in a positive direction, Capital Economics still points out that with the growth come constraints, such as Eurozone issues and tightened lending standards.

Last month, year-over-year home price declines were at their lowest level since April 2011, but REO saturation levels rose in three of four regions, according to Clear Capital's latest Home Data Index. Whether this REO increase is an anomaly or the beginning of a new wave of REOs as banks pick up the pace now that they've reached a settlement with the state attorneys general is yet to be determined. Nationally, home prices fell 1.9 percent year-over-year, according to Clear Capital. The West and Midwest experienced the greatest declines, 3.2 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively.

Pre-foreclosure short sales and sales of foreclosed REOs totaled 907,138 in 2011, RealtyTrac reported Thursday. These foreclosure-related transactions made up 23 percent of all residential sales in the U.S. last year, with short sales accounting for 9 percent and REOs accounting for 14 percent. Short sales increased more than 40 percent on a year-over-year basis in several states, including Michigan, Georgia, and Arizona. RealtyTrac expects short sales to continue to gain momentum in 2012 as lenders become more aggressive disposing of distressed assets.

Overall economic activity continued to increase at a modest to moderate pace in January and early February, the Federal Reserve said in its periodic Beige Book, an anecdotal report of conditions in each of the 12 Federal Reserve districts. The report showed economic improvement varying across the country -- economic activity rose at a somewhat faster pace in the Philadelphia and Atlanta districts but growth was slower in New York. Minneapolis characterized the pace of growth as firm.

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley signed a bill to ban Wall Street Resale Fees, which require a percentage of the sale of a home to go to a third party. Carolina is the 38th state to sign the bill banning these fees, also known as Private Transfer Fees. The fees are added to home sale contracts by private third parties and typically require that over the next 99 years, a percentage, usually 1 percent of the sale of a home, be paid to the third party.

Fannie Mae has put a block of 2,490 REOs up for sale. It's the first pilot transaction of the federal government's Real-Estate Owned (REO) Initiative announced in August 2011, which aims to sell homes repossessed by government agencies to private investors for the purpose of turning the properties into rental units. The homes up for grabs are concentrated in the hard-hit metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and parts of Florida, and 85 percent of them are already occupied by tenants.

After more than a year of intense negotiations, 49 state attorneys general and the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers reached a $25 billion settlement on February 9. While the agreement allotted specific amounts to go towards certain areas of relief, many are wondering how the settlement will affect those represented. Moody's Analytics has released a report offering up an analysis of the settlement's expected impact on both banks and borrowers.

Freddie Mac sees cautious signs of improvement in the housing market and overall economy and expects more warmth in 2013, according to its latest monthly outlook. ""The US economy continues to build on the momentum from the end of last year,"" said Freddie Mac VP and chief economist, Frank Nothaft. Positive signs Freddie cites include job gains, declining unemployment, and high affordability.

HomeValueForecast.com released a report on housing market trends, which highlighted two main findings: most Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) are in the weak or soft category, but the majority of CBSAs had more positive than negative market trends. The ranking was developed based on single family home markets in the top 200 CBSA. Market indicators include average active market time, average listing price, and number of foreclosure sales. The market trend indicators are forward-looking, and so having more positive indicators forecasts improving conditions in a high percentage of the CBSAs.

In response to data released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) on Wednesday, experts overall agreed market is heading towards recovery but advised certain factors need to be taken into consideration when analyzing the data. In response to the 4.3 percent month-over-month increase in January for existing-home sales, Capital Economics stated that it is not quite as encouraging as it first appears given that it comes at the expense of a 5 percent downward revision to the previous month's figures.