Financial markets remain extremely volatile, a trend that is expected to continue. Last week mortgage rates were significantly higher than those the at the close of the week prior. The most meaningful economic reports of the week will be on the last two days of the week with Jobless Claims on...
The past week was active for economic news and mortgage rates. After a rising significantly earlier in the week mortgage interest rates ended the week almost unchanged from the close of the prior week. Here's the scoop on last week's activity affecting real estate markets: Tuesday's Case...
The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Indices for April indicate that the housing recovery gained ground.
In April 2013 average home prices tracked in the Case-Shiller 10 and 20-city Composites increased by 11.60 and 12.10 percent year-over-year. On a month-to-month basis, the Composites increased by 2...
Mortgage rates continued their upward trend last week. Comments by Fed chairman Ben Bernanke after Wednesday’s FOMC meeting caused havoc in financial markets as investors anticipated the potential effects of any rollback of the Fed’s policy of quantitative easing (QE). Chairman Bernanke said ...
U.S. housing markets are gaining as demand for homes exceeds available supplies in many areas. The National Association of Home Builders/ Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) for June increased by eight points over May's reading to achieve a positive reading of 52. This last happened in August-Sep...
Foreclosure actions increased by 2.0 percent in May from April's 75 month low point for foreclosure activity according to RealtyTrac's U.S. Foreclosure Market Report released June 11. However, the good news is that May 2013 foreclosure filings were still 28 percent below May 2012 filings.
RealtyTrac ...
Last week's news was relatively quiet with no data significant to the mortgage lending released until Wednesday, when the federal government announced a $138 billion budget deficit for May. According to the U.S. Treasury this figure is 11 percent higher than for May of 2012, but the federal budget i...
Last week's economic reports provided a mixed bag of results. On Monday, the Department of Commerce reported that construction spending increased by 0.40 percent in April and fell shy of the expected reading of 1.0 percent, but exceeded the March reading of -0.80 percent. Home Prices Increase Fastes...
Volatility in the financial markets continued last week. Tuesday turned out to be one of the worst days for mortgage rates in history. Consumer confidence was strong, year-over-year home prices rose sharply and the stock market continued to rise. Mortgage rates ended the week about...
The most recent S&P/Case-Shiller Index showed all three composites posting double-digit increases over the last four quarters. The national composite, which is the broadest based index, showed an increase of 10.2% annually. The 20-City composite posted even stronger annual growth at 10.9%.
The National Association of REALTORS reported that sales of existing homes in April reached 4.97 million on a seasonally-adjusted annual basis.
Although this reading fell short of Wall Street's expectations of 5.00 million existing homes sold, it surpassed the March 2013 upwardly revised reading of 4...
Home builders are gaining confidence in current and future market conditions for new homes, but continue to see below-average foot traffic in new homes.
The reading for May's National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) /Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) increased by three points to a reading of...
RealtyTrac recently reported that national foreclosure filings are down while foreclosure filings are seeing marked increases in some states.
There are two systems for foreclosing residential real estate in the United States; judicial and non-judicial foreclosure. The states individually decide which...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly Non-farm Payrolls and National Unemployment Rate for April last Friday. These two reports are collectively called the Jobs Report.
165,000 jobs were added in April, while the unemployment rate dropped from 7.60 percent in March to 7.50 percent in Ap...
Housing markets continue to improve according to the S&P Case Shiller Home Price Indices released April 30 for February's data.
The Indices consist of a 10-City Composite Index and a 20-City Composite Index with housing markets for each city reported based on a three-month rolling average of home...
The National Association of REALTORS® released its Existing Home Sales report for March on Monday.
Sales dipped from February's seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.95 million to 4.92 million existing homes sold in March, a decrease of 0.6 percent month-to-month.
This reading was lower than Wall...
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) report for April shows that builder confidence slipped by two points to a rating of 42 from the March reading of 44.
The Housing Market Index (HMI) measures home builder confidence in market conditions for newly b...
Last week, the S&P/Case-Shiller Index showed home prices gaining 8.1 percent during the 12-month period ending January 2013, marking the largest year-over-year increases since the summer of 2006.
The Case-Shiller Index measures changes in home prices by tracking same-home sales throughout 20 hous...
The National Association of REALTORS® released its monthly Existing Home Sales report on March 21 and gave investors and home sellers something to cheer about.
While February sales of existing homes didn't meet investor forecasts of 5.00 million homes sold on a seasonally adjusted annual basis,...
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) released its NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index for March on Monday.
The HMI measures builder confidence in the market for newly constructed single family homes.
A reading of 50 for the NAHB Housing Market Index (HMI) indicates that more builders are...
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