Tag Archives: NAR

The index also broke down pending home sales by region. While the South and West saw an increase of 4 percent and 1.7 percent for March, respectively, the Northeast and Midwest saw drops, decreasing by 1.5 percent and 2.5 percent.

The thin shadow inventory compared with rising home values has caused the share of distressed home sales to drop to single digits. Since there will be fewer properties sold at deep discounts, this will cause home prices to strengthen, Yun said. "It also means that those practitioners who specialize in foreclosures or short-sales need to start thinking about a change in business models to normal home buyers and normal positive-equity home sellers," Yun wrote on the blog.

The NAR’s latest look at existing-home sales shows that while sales nationally were 3.2 percent higher this January than last, single-family transactions were down almost 5 percent to 4.82 million. This is the lowest since last April’s 4.75 million.

Brown's letter comes months after the bureau signaled it will be watching out for brokers trying to skirt its compensation rules by operating the same way under a different label. Those rules were put in place early this year as a way to remove financial incentives for brokers to direct borrowers toward riskier products.

Existing-home sales in June touched their highest level so far this year as the supply of available homes for sale continued to improve. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported a 2.6 percent month-over-month rise in existing-home sales last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million. May sales were revised slightly upward to a rate of 4.91 million.

The National Association of Realtors lent its support to the Homeowners Armed with Knowledge pilot program but has concerns that it will not do enough to lower insurance premiums for homebuyers. FHA announced the program in May as part of its "Blueprint for Access," outlining additional steps that the agency is taking to expand access to credit for underserved potential borrowers.

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.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) recorded a 0.4 percent gain in its Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) for April, bringing it up to 97.8. A measure of contract signings, the index serves as a forward-looking indicator for future sales activity.

Despite many beginning-of-the-year predictions about spring growth in the housing market falling flat, and despite a still chugging economy that changes its mind quarter-to-quarter, economists at the National Association of Realtors and other industry groups expect an uptick in the economy and housing market through next year.

The United States Senate passed the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014, a bill aimed at protecting millions of homeowners from being hit by huge flood insurance premium hikes. The bill, H.R. 3370, passed with a 72-22 vote in the Senate, after previously being passed in the House of Representatives on March 4.