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Mortgage Interest Rates Inch Back up Slightly

Home Loan Applications Increase 5.7 Percent Last Week – second consecutive week of increased home buyer activity

Dennis Norman

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending March 5, 2010. The report showed the MBA Purchase Index (a measure of the volume of loan applications related to a home [...]

Florida Real Estate - Sellers Still Slashing Prices

Dennis Norman

According to a report issued today by Zip Realty, sellers in Florida are slashing prices by more than 10 percent

South Florida has deals on homes! According to Zip Realty, sellers in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale have reduced their list price by an average of nearly 15 percent, or $36,000 in February 2010. In [...]

Pending Home Sales Drop In January; Weather Named as Cause

Dennis Norman

 Today the National Association of REALTORS released it’s January Pending Home Sales Index showing a decrease of 7.6 percent in the index from December, 2009 to January 2010 (seasonally adjusted) and a 12.3 percent increase from last year.

Here are highlights from the report:

January’’s pending home sales index (seasonally adjusted) was 90.4 (the index is based [...]

Mortgage Interest Rates Drop Back Below 5 Percent

Home Loan Applications Jump 11.7 Percent Last Week after decreasing two prior weeks

Dennis Norman

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending February 26, 2010. The report showed the MBA Purchase Index (a measure of the volume of loan applications related to a home purchase) increased 11.7 percent [...]

Rental Housing Market Holding Up Well - At Least In the Lower Rent Ranges

Dennis Norman

Recently HUD published a report, “U.S. Rental Housing Characteristics: Supply, Vacancy, and Affordability“, which was packed with data about the rental housing market. The data in the report clearly illustrates that the rental market is holding up pretty well, at least in the lower rent price-ranges, while the for-sale housing market has been [...]

Florida home and condo markets heat up

Dennis Norman

The sunshine state’s real estate market is heating up according to the latest report from the Florida REALTORS(R). Existing home sales rose in January, marking 17 months that sales activity has increased in the year-to-year comparions.

Existing home sales in Florida increased 24 percent in January with a total of 10,465 homes sold statewide [...]

Appeals Court Rules Builder Incentive did not violate RESPA

Dennis Norman

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently consdered an appeal by the plaintiffs of a class action lawsuit again D.R. Horton, Inc. and DHI Mortgage, Co brought by John R. Yeatman and Eleanor E. Yeatman on behalf of themselves and all similarly situated individuals. 

The lawsuit stems from the Yeatman’s purchase of [...]

Existing home sales drops in January

Dennis Norman

According to the latest report from the National Association of REALTORS(R), existing home sales in January decreased 7.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 5.05 million units in January from a level of 5.44 million units in December, however this does represent an increase over a year ago when the rate was [...]

New Home Sales Plummet In January

Dennis Norman

The U.S. Department of Commerce released a report showing the sale of New Homes in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 309,000, an 11.2 percent decrease from the revised December rate of 348,000 and is 6.1 percent below a year ago.
The inventory of new homes (seasonally adjsuted) at the [...]

Mortgage Rates Inch Up - Homebuyer Applications Decreased Again Last Week

Home Loan Applications Drop 7.3 Percent Last Week after decreasing 4.0 percent the week before.

Dennis Norman

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending February 19, 2010. The report showed the MBA Purchase Index (a measure of the volume of loan applications related to a home purchase) decreased [...]

Almost one-in-four borrowers underwater on home mortgage

Seventy Percent of all mortgaged properties in Nevada are underwater

Dennis Norman

According to a report released today by First American CoreLogic more than 11.3 million U.S. mortgages, or 24 percent of all mortgaged properties, are in a negative equity position meaning the borrowers owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth as of [...]

Housing Market Shows Narrowing Decline, Slowed Recovery

Dennis Norman

Home Prices Exhibit “Improving Declines” (sounds rather oxymoronic, huh?)

In a report issued by First American CoreLogic national home prices continue to decline with their HPI (Loan Performance Home Price Index) declining by 3.7 percent in December 2009 compared with the year before. If you take the distressed sales out (foreclosures, short sales, etc) [...]

Mortgage Loan Rates Remain Low - Fewer Home Buyers Taking Advantage

Home Loan Applications Drop 4.0 Percent Last Week.

Dennis Norman

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending February 12, 2010. The report showed the MBA Purchase Index (a measure of the volume of loan applications related to a home purchase) decreased 4.0 percent from the week before and [...]

Fannie Mae offering buyers incentives on HomePath Properties

Dennis Norman

Fannie Mae is offering 3.5 percent in closing cost assistance or an equivalaent amount in appliances for people purchasing a Fannie Mae-owned HomePath® property.

Fannie Mae is trying to entice buyers to buy one of their HomePath® homes by offering to pay up to 3.5 percent in closing cost assistance or an equal amount [...]

The Number of "For Sale" Homes Increased 2.9 Percent in January According to ZipRealty Housing Report

More Than 15,000 Additional Homes Were Listed for Sale in January Within 27 Major U.S. Housing Markets

Dennis Norman

January marked the first time in 18 months that more homes were listed “for sale” compared to the previous month, with an additional 15,000 homes, or a 2.9 percent increase, listed for sale compared to December according [...]

Mortgage Interest Rates Hold Steady-Loan Applications Jump Over 20 Percent

Home Loan Applications Jump 21.0 Percent Last Week.

Dennis Norman

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending January 29, 2010. The report showed the MBA Purchase Index (a measure of the volume of loan applications related to a home purchase) increased 21.0 percent from the week before and [...]

New Home Sales Fall again in December

Dennis Norman

The U.S. Department of Commerce released a report showing the sale of New Homes in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 342,000, a 7.6 percent decrease from the revised November rate of 370,000 and is 8.6 percent below a year ago.

My Mantra

As has been my long-running mantra, I don’t like [...]

Las Vegas, Cape Coral, Merced Foreclosure Rates Highest Among Major Metro Areas in 2009

Dennis Norman

Top 20 Cities Are From California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona; Utah, Illinois, Oregon, Idaho Cities Indicate Foreclosure Problem Is Spreading.

Today RealtyTrac® released its year-end 2009 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report which shows that cities in four Sun Belt states accounted for all top 20 foreclosure rates in 2009 among metro areas with a population [...]

Mortgage Loan Interest rates remain fairly steady

Fewer Home-buyers applying for loans in past week

Dennis Norman

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending January 22, 2010. The report showed the

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Some Housing Markets Getting Hot Again

Dennis Norman

Zip Realty’s “Home Hunter” Report for 4th quarter 2009 shows some housing markets heating up.

While some of the “hottest” real estate markets in the country — those where homes are selling most above their list prices — continue to be distressed areas dominated by heavily discounted prices, a report issued by ZipRealty [...]

December home sales plummet but 2009 finishes stronger than 2008

Dennis Norman

NAR’s “seasonally-adjusted” numbers show sales down 16.7 percent for the month…2009 finishes with 5,156,000 homes sold…My projection for the year was 5,143,000 homes….missed it by 13,000 (2/10 of 1 percent) hmm..not bad for a “non-economist”

According to the latest report from the National Association of REALTORS(R), existing home sales in December decreased [...]

U.S. Home prices continue to decline

Dennis Norman

Forecast is for further declines

In a report issued today by First American CoreLogic national home prices continue to decline with their HPI (Loan Performance Home Price Index) declining by 5.7 percent in November 2009 compared with the year before. If you take the distressed sales out (foreclosures, short sales, etc) the nation decline [...]

Home price reductions by sellers drop for second consecutive month

Dennis Norman

Average price cut for homes drops to 11 percent off original price…discount increases to 15 percent off original price for homes priced above $2,000,000.

According to a report released by Trulia.com, 21 percent of the homes for sale as of January 1, 2010 have experienced at least one price cut. This makes the second [...]

November Foreclosure Rate in U.S. Up 77 Percent from a year ago

Dennis Norman

The foreclosure rate in the U.S. for the month of November, 2009 was 3.09 percent, a 77.6 percent increase from November, 2008 when the rate was 1.74 percent according to a report by First American CoreLogic.

In addition, the report showed that the number of borrowers that are seriously delinquent on their

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FHA Waives Anti-Flipping Rule

Dennis Norman

In an effort to “stabilize home values and improve conditions in communities where foreclosure activity is high” FHA just announced a temporary waiver of requirements of 24 CFR 203.37a(b)(2). For those of you that don’t have your copy of the Code of Federal Regulations handy, this is referring to what is generally [...]

Foreclosures and Short Sales Dominated the U.S. Housing Market in 2009

It’s not surprising, that according to Zip Realty foreclosures and short sales dominated the U.S. housing market last year and were the driving force for the real estate roller coaster ride of 2009.

Zip Realty broke down what they considered were the nine major real estate stories for 2009 and they are:

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Which home improvements and remodeling projects pay off?

Dennis Norman

“The smartest home improvement investments may also be some of the least expensive”

Realtors® report that the smartest home improvement investments may also be some of the least expensive. Results from the “2009 Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report” show that small-scale exterior projects are the most profitable at resale, according to a report from [...]

What does 2010 hold in store for the Housing Market?

Dennis Norman

In a just a few days we will say goodbye to 2009; a year that has been brutal to the housing market. So as the new year comes in, what will 2010 hold in store for the housing market?

To answer this question I turned to the housing forecast just released by Fannie [...]

'Actual' Existing home sales drop 5.2 percent in November; Up 4.2 percent from a year ago

Dennis Norman

NAR’s “seasonally-adjusted” numbers show sales up 7.4 percent for the month…”actual” numbers show a 5.2 percent decrease….Sales up 44 percent from last year, lest we not forgot last year was the worst in over 10 years…

According to the latest report from the National Association of REALTORS(R), existing home sales in November increased 7.4 [...]

New home sales take a dive in November

Dennis Norman

New homes were started in November at an annual rate of 482,000 homes and I asked why in my post last week since new home construction was already outpacing sales….well, today the gap got worse..

This morning the U.S. Department of Commerce released a report showing the sale of New Homes in November were [...]