With the housing market sustaining its recovery throughout Q1, the economic rebound produced an abundance of positive consequences. As I noted in a recent article for Mortgage Professional America, one of the most pronounced was the continued drop in home loan defaults nationwide. Mortgage default rates seem to have hit the lowest point in five [...]
A Downside to Rising Property Values?
One of the primary motivators in the housing market turnaround has been the steady elevation in nationwide property values. The steady increase in real estate prices has lifted large swaths of homeowners from toxic equity, and have enabled those with previous underwater mortgages to sell their properties. In addition, this appreciate in real estate values [...]
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Diminishing Mortgage Rates Doing Well for Housing
Courtesy of deliberate Federal policy, mortgage rates have remained suppressed since not long after the 2008 market crash. Summary analysis of the housing sector’s last three quarters validate that low mortgage rates have helped nurture the property market back to health, as they seem to have encouraged new purchase through ensuring minimized debt accumulation. As [...]
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Overseas Real Estate Investment Growing Popular
As I noted in a recent post for The Niche Report, it appears that funds containing major stake in BRIC real estate are gaining a groundswell of new investment. The overwhelming amount of these property investments are allocated in high-demand property zones throughout emerging markets. Major fund managers such as BlackRock are seeing a surge [...]
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What Homeowners Regret About Their Purchases
With many Americans moving en masse towards settling on their first home, it’s always interesting to see exactly what long-term homeowners wish they’d done differently when closing on their property. As I noted in a recent post for the BiggerPockets real estate news blog, there are some definitive trends among property holders who wish they’d [...]
Potential Roadblocks for the Housing Recovery?
Despite the increasing stability the housing market has attained in the past two quarters, the sustainability of growth momentum in the property sector remains uncertain. As we’ve seen since the latter half of 2012, the combination of escalating real estate values and shrinking sales inventory have propelled much of the positive gains across the housing [...]
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Are There Benefits to Expanded Credit?
It seems that much of the ongoing housing recovery has resulted from the combination of elevated home values and rising sales volume. Ultimately, the two have worked in tandem to motivate persistent gains for individual home builders as well as the housing market as whole. That being said, this particular combination will likely not been [...]
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Defunct Real Estate Brokerage Hit Hard by Justice Department
With both shortsighted investing and financial malfeasance having appeared in abundance before the 2008 market crash, there’s plenty of blame to go around for the economy going south. However, we’ve been harder pressed to find particular culprits for the widespread financial loss. That being said, the U.S. Justice Department recently honed in on one particularly egregious act [...]
Fannie Mae Quarterly Earnings Rebound
Despite nearly going under once the housing market crashed over four years ago, Fannie Mae has managed to return to exceptional profitability over the past year. The lending body has received exceptional journalistic and financial scrutiny since the recession broke, much of it motivated by the fact that Fannie Mae effectively became a public entity [...]
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Housing Gains Doing Little for Local Municipalities?
As I noted in a recent post for the BiggerPockets real estate news blog, while the property values in America’s urban markets are picking up in value, this economic upturn is doing comparatively little for their local economies. Overall, the rise in home values has done well for particular homeowners, and likely for private enterprise [...]
Houston Real Estate Gaining Traction
While certain urban markets have shown exceptional gains in property values throughout the past year, well-recognized areas seem to be located outside of the greater South. However, in surveying regional growth metrics over the past year, it’s become clear that Houston’s real estate market has sustained exceptional growth up to the point of attracting foreign [...]
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Housing Rebound Keeping Steam
As I noted in a new report for the Bigger Pockets real estate news blog, recent analysis validates that the housing recovery will likely sustain momentum throughout the foreseeable future. Much of this seems tied to the fact that nationwide property values are evening out, with comparatively unaffected metros like Washington, DC making gradual value [...]
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Hooray for High Mortgage Rates?
As I’d noted in a recent post for The Niche Report, there’s been recent analysis questioning whether or elevated mortgage rates could actually benefit the market. While the reasoning around this is somewhat complex, the benefits to a seemingly unappealing situation could be argued around the following points: An increase in loan rates are often a [...]
Homebuilder Earnings Have Much to Say About Housing
As I noted in a recent post for the BiggerPockets real estate news blog, major American homebuilder Lennar Corp. (NYSE:LEN) reported exceptional earnings this past quarter. Their net earnings far outstripped analyst consensus, and were so exceptional that they returned at 26 cents a share against the projected 16 cents a share, near doubling earlier [...]
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DC Housing Market Running Strong
To follow up my recent post about the public sector mortgage ownership, the nation’s seat of government has actually become an outstanding housing market. Many of Washington, DC’s most sought-after neighborhoods are demonstrating exceptional gain in values and buyer interest. As I noted in a recent post for The Niche Report, these areas are most densely [...]
Look Out for Government Mortgage
As I noted in a recent post for the BiggerPockets real estate news blog, while the housing market has clearly paced a quick recovery, some areas of the fiscal landscape remain serious areas of concern. Purchase rates and property values have rebounded fast since the 2008 crash, but one area remains fixed where it was [...]
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Urban Markets Improving
As I’ve noted before, commercial real estate seemed to be the property frontrunner in terms of value outlook. However, according to retrospective analysis of the first two months of this year, urban residential property has shown particular potential as of late. In a recent post on the Niche Report website, I discussed how the Federal Reserve’s February [...]
Students Loans Spell Housing Trouble
While we’ve seen astounding turnaround in the housing market within the last year, it remains a concern that the real estate sector is still balancing on uneven feet. As I notedin a recent post for the BiggerPockets real estate news blog, America’s colossal student loan debt could spell trouble for the property market. While much [...]
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Bernanke’s Remarks on Housing – What’s the Takeaway?
At the close of last month, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke made some uncharacteristically positive (and blunt) remarks about the state of the housing market. As I noted in a post for the BiggerPockets news blog, Bernanke’s statements amounted to an outright endorsement. Typically understated in his economic pronouncement, Bernanke stated outright before the House Financial Services Committee [...]
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Home Prices Show Biggest Gains Since 2006
Much has been said about 2012 as a year for the housing market- and almost all of it positive. However, one of the most outstanding facts has only recently become clear. As I noted in a recent article for The Niche Report, America’s housing prices gained the greatest yearly value since 2006. Taking this into consideration, [...]
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What to Make of January’s Dip in Home Starts
As I noted in a recent post for the BiggerPockets real estate news blog, recently corroborated economic data prove that housing starts dipped notably in January. This came as somewhat of a surprise to market observers, as 2012 saw a unbroken upward trend in month-over-month growth in housing starts. That being said, a recently disclosed Commerce [...]
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Americans Happy with Housing
Judging by recent public polling, the American consumer seems to finally feel more optimistic about the housing market. According to a Bloomberg National Poll, Americans are expressing a much sunnier opinion of our nation’s housing market. Among the points about which Americans feel most confident: The value outlook of real estate The health of the [...]
Norway Investing in US Real Estate
Following much open discussion about the Norges Investment Bank speculating high-value American real estate, it seems that the sovereign wealth fund has made good on its transaction. As I noted in a recent article for The Niche Report, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund just settled on a $600 million investment in commercial real estate throughout Boston, New [...]
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Freddie Mac’s February Housing Report – The Takeaway
Freddie Mac has recently compiled and released a comprehensive February 2013 housing report that gives, more or less, the lay of the housing land for 2013. While considered in its predictions, the data release both outlines housing’s economic trajectory as well as validating some apparent trends. As I noted in a recent post for the [...]
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Housing May Kick-Start Job Market
With the regional demand for new property on the rise, certain regions are witnessing a rise in construction permits and new development. Considering these market trends portend manpower need, the newfound demand for human capital could yield job creation. As I noted in a new post for the Bigger Pockets real estate blog, new reports [...]
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Signs of a New Bubble?
With new reports coming together that outline exactly what parties have been such avid purchasers of new property in key ‘recovery metros’ like Phoenix and Las Vegas, there seems to be some serious fine print. While rates of purchase have rise, and the nationwide value of real estate has as well, it seems that much [...]
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Homes Values Rising Sharply
One of the most persistent worries among both private owners and property investors was the sharp downturn in real estate values after the 2008 crash. However, according to analyst returns from the close of 2012, it seems that the nationwide average in housing prices is climbing at the greatest rate since approximately two years before [...]
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Sales Competition Injecting New Life Into Housing Market
As I noted in a recent post for The Niche Report, a coming together of various market factors have worked to actively decrease the number of homes lingering in the nationwide sales inventory. This sudden decrease in buyer-ready homes has had the unforeseen impact of sharply increasing the value of residential property. The diminished volume of [...]
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Nationwide Shadow Inventory Decreasing Fast
In a new post for the Bigger Pockets main news blog, I noted that the housing market’s shadow inventory has dropped notably over the course of last year. This will naturally come as a relief to property investors in particular, as the shadow inventory was always perceived as a looming threat to the potential asking price [...]
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Housing Market Reaching Closer to Pre-Crash Stability
Now that all the financial metrics from the close of 2012 have been compiled, major analysts and economic data firms have gained bandwidth to make comprehensive deductions about the trajectory of the 2013 housing market. According to a new release from Trulia, it appears that various market health metrics have recuperated half their standing when [...]
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