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Commerce Department: Housing starts rose 3.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 560,000 units.

April’s starts were revised up to a 541,000 unit pace, which was previously reported as a 523,000 unit rate. Compared to May last year, residential construction was down 3.4 percent.

Mortgage rates fall for 8th week in a row

The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell 6 basis points this week, to 4.69 percent. The benchmark 15-year fixed-rate mortgage fell 5 basis points, to 3.88 percent. The benchmark 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage fell 6 basis points, to 3.39 percent, and the benchmark 30-year, fixed-rate jumbo mortgage fell 5 basis points, to 5.16 percent.

New home sales climbed 7.3 percent to a 323,000 annual pace last month

The median sales price increased 4.6 percent from the same month last year, to $217,900, today’s report showed.

Home-Purchase Index in U.S. Plunges to Lowest Level Since 2000

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s index of applications to buy a house dropped 12 percent in the week ended Nov. 6 to 220.9, the lowest level since Dec. 2000. The group’s refinancing gauge rose 11 percent as interest rates decreased, pushing the overall index up 3.2 percent.

» TradeBlog [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

How To Move Your House In A Tough Market

If you’re planning to put your home on the market, it’s not your manners that need polishing. Try your silver, among other improvements. Now, more than ever, getting a signed contract in hand is all about price and quality.

Here's a few tips to selling your house in a tough market.

• Price Is A Science
• Condition, Not Conditions
• Less is More
• “Wow” House Priced to Sell

» CNBC - Slideshow [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

U.S. Housing Hasn't Bottomed, Prices May Fall 10%

U.S. housing prices may still fall more than 10 per cent, killing an incipient recovery, as demand from first-time home buyers fades, leading economist Nouriel Roubini said Thursday.

Mr. Roubini, one of the few economists who accurately predicted the magnitude of the financial crisis, said massive losses in commercial real estate loans will add to the problem, forcing banks to raise more capital. “The stress is moving from residential mortgages that are still in deep trouble, to commercial real estate, where they are just starting to recognize that they're going to have massive, massive losses,” Mr. Roubini of RGE Global Monitor told reporters after a presentation for a World Economic Forum report on the global financial system.

» The Globe And Mail [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

U.S. Jobless Rate May Exceed 6% Until 2013, Poll Shows

The worst recession since the Great Depression has left a scorched landscape that will weigh on the labor market and the broader economy for years to come, according to economists in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey.

The 48 surveyed economists expect the economy to bounce back from four quarters of contraction with 3.1% growth in gross domestic product at a seasonally adjusted annual rate in the just-ended third quarter. Expansion is seen continuing through the first half of 2010, though at a slower rate. But the massive downturn means the labor market will take years to heal. On average, the economists don't expect unemployment to fall below 6% until 2013; unemployment hit 9.8% in September.

» WSJ [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Thirty-Year Mortgage Rates Drop to Near-Record 4.87%

Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed U.S. home loans fell for the second consecutive week, pushing borrowing costs to near record lows.

The average U.S. 30-year rate dropped to 4.87 percent from 4.94 percent last week. The 15-year rate was 4.33 percent, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac of McLean, Virginia, said today in a statement.

Falling rates helped boost home-loan applications last week to the highest level since May. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s index of applications to purchase a home or refinance rose 16 percent. Rates around 5 percent, slumping home prices and a government tax credit for first-time homebuyers are bolstering demand for housing.

» Bloomberg [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Manhattan Apartment Prices Drop for Second Quarter

Manhattan apartment prices fell for a second consecutive quarter, helping drive the biggest gain in sales in more than 13 years as buyers seized on discounts.

The median price slid 8.4 percent to $850,000 in the third quarter from a year earlier. The number of sales jumped 46 percent from the second quarter. Values fell for cooperatives and condominiums of every size and price as New York City’s unemployment rate jumped to 10.3 percent in August.

» Bloomberg [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

U.S. mortgage delinquencies set record

Among U.S. homeowners with mortgages, a record 7.58 percent were at least 30 days late on payments in August, up from 7.32 percent in July, according to the data obtained exclusively by Reuters.

August marked the fourth consecutive monthly increase in delinquencies, and the report showed an accelerating pace. By comparison, 4.89 percent of mortgages were 30 days past due in August 2008, while in August 2007, the rate was 3.44 percent, Equifax data showed.

The rate of subprime mortgage delinquencies now tops 41 percent, up from about 39 percent in each of the prior five months.

» Reuters [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Warren Buffett to CNBC: No "Bounce" For Economy, But Residential Real Estate Has Improved

Warren Buffett tells CNBC that while the economy "hasn't gotten worse" but also hasn't "gotten much better" over the past three months, he doesn't expect a 'double-dip' recession and sees significant improvement in residential real estate.

He also sees "important" signs of life for housing: "I think we're certainly—we’re through the worst of it in residential real estate in all probability. And-- and-- and the reason is we're building a lot fewer houses and we're-- and we're forming households, so that solves itself over time. Doesn't do it in a day or a week, but it solves itself. So we're further on that."

» CNBC [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Seven New Rules for the First-Time Home Buyer

START WITH THE BASICS Let’s begin with some other standards, tried and true advice that served banks and borrowers well for years, until they forgot all about them in the race to write more loans and buy bigger houses. Put 20 percent down, so you have less of a chance of owing more than your home is worth if prices fall again. Get a fixed-rate mortgage, so the biggest part of your monthly housing bill remains stable.

If you’re determined to be truly conservative, don’t spend more than about 35 percent of your pretax income on mortgage, property tax and home insurance payments. Bank of America, which adheres to the guidelines that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac set, will let your total debt (including student and other loans) hit 45 percent of your pretax income, but no more.

CONSIDER YOUR INCOME
BOW TO UNKNOWNS
MAP OUT EXPENSES
BUY BEST (OR CHEAPEST)
STRETCH THE HOUSE
THE EIGHT-HOUR RULE

» NY Times [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

White House Econ Advisor: High Unemployment For Years To Come

The president’s chief economic adviser warned Friday that the nation’s unemployment rate could stay “unacceptably high” for years to come — a situation that would seriously complicate Barack Obama’s ability to convince Americans that he’s beating back the recession.

“The level of unemployment is unacceptably high,” National Economic Council Director Larry Summers said Friday. “And will, by all forecasts, remain unacceptably high for a number of years.”

Summers’ comments came in a briefing with reporters ahead of Obama’s speech in New York City on Monday, marking the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, an event widely regarded as having created a panic that caused the global economic meltdown.

» Politco [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

U.S. Foreclosure Filings Top 300,000 for Sixth Straight Month

Foreclosure filings in the U.S. exceeded 300,000 for the sixth straight month as job losses that boosted the unemployment rate to a 26-year high left many homeowners unable to keep up with their mortgage payments.

A total of 358,471 properties received a default or auction notice or were seized last month, according to data provider RealtyTrac Inc. That’s up 18 percent from a year earlier, and down 0.5 percent from July, the Irvine, California-based company said in a statement. One in 357 households received a filing.

» Bloomberg [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Dow Soars Over 100 Points After July Home Sales Numbers

Existing-home sales surged 7.2 percent to a 5.24 million annual pace, the highest jump since August 2007. Economists had expected a rise of just 2.2 percent. Home sales were up 5 percent year over year. It was the fourth straight month sales have risen.

» CNBC [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Mounting joblessness fuels US housing crisis

More than one in every eight homeowners with a mortgage was behind on home loan payments or in some stage of foreclosure at the end of the second quarter, as mounting unemployment aggravated the housing crisis, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Thursday.

The percentage of loans that were in foreclosure or at least one payment past due rose to 13.16 per cent, the highest increase since the MBA began keeping records in 1972 and a jump of more than a percentage point since the first quarter.

» FT [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Foreclosure Plague "Continued To Devastate" In July

There were more than 360,000 properties with foreclosure filings -- including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions -- an increase of 7% from June and 32% from July 2008, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed homes. In fact, one in every 355 U.S. homes had at least one filing during July.

"July marks the third time in the last five months where we've seen a new record set for foreclosure activity."

» CNN [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Las Vegas, Fort Myers, Florida Lead U.S. Cities in Foreclosures

Las Vegas and Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida led U.S. metropolitan areas in foreclosures in the first half of the year as unemployment and falling home prices forced home-loan defaults,

The Las Vegas area had the highest rate of foreclosure filings, with 7.5 percent of households receiving a default or auction notice or being seized by a lender. That rate was six times the national average. The Cape Coral-Fort Myers region, on Florida’s Gulf Coast, was second, with a rate of 7.2 percent.

“Foreclosure activity continued its upward trajectory nationwide and in the majority of metro areas in the first half of the year,” James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, said in a statement. “While some of the markets that had the highest saturation of foreclosures over the past few years have seen declining rates, new markets like Provo, Utah, and Boise, Idaho, have seen large increases.”

Home prices in 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas dropped 17.1 percent in May from a year earlier, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index. Nationwide, home prices have fallen 21 percent since peaking in July of 2006, according to the National Association of Realtors in Chicago. The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent in June, the highest in almost 26 years, the U.S. Labor Department said on July 2.

» RealtyTrac [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Housing Market Shows Some Signs Of Recovery

"This is the first time in almost three years that we've seen price increases," says Yale University professor Robert Shiller, who helped design the home price index. "So when we see a break in the downward trend that's definitely encouraging news."

"Well, I think the worst is probably behind us — the worst pace of decline," he says. "We were going down at 2 percent a month for a number of months in a row nationally. That was really something. Now home prices relative to rents or construction costs are back at normal levels."

So have we finally hit bottom for the housing market?

"Well, I think it very much depends on what city you're in," says William Wheaton, a housing economist at MIT. "There are really two types of markets right now."

Wheaton says on the one hand, there are markets like Arizona, California and Florida, which have seen huge price corrections — down 30-50 percent — driven by a flood of foreclosure sales. Then there are other parts of the U.S. that haven't seen such big price drops.

In some places where prices have corrected sharply, a lot of people are able to get very good deals on houses.

"If you're in a market like California, where prices have fallen 50 percent and transactions have picked up and you ask your friendly professor 'Is this the bottom?' I would say pretty much so," Wheaton says." If you could buy a house [for] 50 percent of what you could a few years ago, I'd say go ahead and buy it."

Wheaton says there are many other markets where prices haven't fallen that much, and he thinks some could still drift lower. The local employment picture is also a significant factor.

[ PDF ] Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Home Price Index, July 28, 2009

New US home sales up 11% in June

New house sales in the US jumped by 11 per cent in June, providing some of the strongest evidence yet that the market has bottomed out after being savaged for three years.

Greater demand is also chipping away at the housing glut. Last month the supply of new homes fell by 4.1 per cent to 281,000. That was the lowest level since 1998 and represented an 8.8 months supply of new homes, down from 10.2 in May.

» FT [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Recessionomics: Tim Geithner Can't Sell House, Either

After a Price Drop ($1.635 million), the Treasury Secretary Decides to Rent His House ($7,500 a month) and He's Not Alone.

» ABC [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Buyers Flee, Signals Fleeting Builder Rally

The largest homebuilders are mothballing communities across the U.S., signaling they have little confidence that a market rebound is imminent. Builder shares have rallied 76 percent from the lows in November. They may fall more than 20 percent in the next four months unless home prices and property writedowns stabilize

“Until we see job losses abate and foreclosures begin to decline, rather than increase as we expect, there is unlikely to be a catalyst for the builders,” Torma said. “It’s going to continue to be a challenging environment.” The Standard & Poor’s index of home construction companies rose less than 1 percent today, after falling earlier as much 3.2 percent.

The number of vacant properties, including foreclosures, residences for sale and vacation homes, was little changed from 18.6 million a year earlier, the U.S. Census Bureau said in a report today. The quarterly homeownership rate was 67.3 percent, seasonally adjusted

» Bloomberg [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Mortgage rates down for 4th week

July 22, 2009 -- The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell 3 basis points, to 5.55 percent. One year ago, the mortgage index was 6.77 percent; four weeks ago, it was 5.8 percent. The Fed "believes that a highly accommodative stance of monetary policy will be appropriate for an extended period." (The Fed will keep short-term rates low for a long time)

» Markets [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Podcast: Should you invest in coastal property?

Can auctioning your cash to the highest bidder earn you a better deal? Is it worth paying more for a coastal property? Plus - could you get a better mortgage deal from China?

[ MP3 ] Should you invest in coastal property?

Georgia Economy Facing Risks from Housing Market

Dr. Rajeev Dhawan, director of the Economic Forecasting Center at… Georgia State University: "The state's default rate on home loans, especially in the subprime market, is below the national average, [but] we've seen a steady rise in foreclosures… The damage has begun and only time will tell… how much of an impact it will be on the region. This is undoubtedly the biggest risk factor for the local and state forecast…" Atlanta's total housing permits fell 5.2% in 2006. Permits will drop 21.3% in 2007, but will rise 3.1% in 2008 and increase 6.1% in 2009.

» washington.bizjournals.com [ Contribute: submit link / submit article / submit company ]

NY probe into alleged attempts to inflate property values

As part of a New York state investigation into whether mortgage brokers pressure appraisers to inflate property values, First American Corp. (FAF)… A borrower who gets a home loan based on an inflated appraisal and falls behind on payments would have difficulty selling or refinancing for enough to pay off the mortgage… EAppraiseIT, which values up to 15,000 homes a year in NY… appraiser Mitchell, Maxwell & Jackson and broker Manhattan Mortgage Co… were subpoenaed for information about NY appraisals… In a study last year by October Research Corp. of Richfield, Ohio, 90% of appraisers said they felt influenced to write bogus appraisals. Four years ago, that number was 55%. Seventy-one percent said mortgage brokers asked them to do it.

» latimes.com [ Contribute: submit link / submit article / submit company ]

Manhattan Condos Tighten the Rules

Historically, condos have cost more, partly because they had looser rules, and partly because of their scarcity. Although both are changing, the price differential between condos and co-ops has remained roughly the same. Nor has the shift toward co-op-style behavior so far seemed to affect condo prices. The average sales price for Manhattan condos in the first quarter of this year was $1.45 million, 28% more than the average sales price for co-ops, which was $1.13m, according to sales data from Prudential Douglas Elliman.

» nytimes.com [ Contribute: submit link / submit article / submit company ]

Silver lining in the housing bubble

Bubbles have silver linings because the infrastructure built during bubbles — the physical infrastructure and the cultural infrastructure — doesn't get torn down after they pop… All that new construction and renovation (fueled by home equity lines of credit) has upgraded the nation's housing supply… Towers of unsold condos in Miami won't be torn down. They'll be turned into hotels or office buildings… New services… like mortgage websites where lenders compete for the business of individuals, or Zillow.com, the wildly popular service that uses public data and sophisticated algorithms to appraise home values… empower consumers and contribute to greater transparency in the housing market.

» latimes.com [ Contribute: submit link / submit article / submit company ]

California: Marin is 1st County With Million-Dollar Median Homes

Marin County's median for resale houses reached $1,010,000 last month, the first time any California county passed the million-dollar mark… The median price paid for a Bay Area home increased last month to $659,000, a new peak. That was up 3.1% from $639,000 for March, and up 3.8% from $635,000 for April 2006… Prices have increased the last three months. DataQuick: "With sales this slow, prices would decline if there were a huge number of motivated sellers listing their homes. That doesn't appear to be the case. It's likely that potential buyers are biding their time, as are sellers.

» ocregister.com [ Contribute: submit link / submit article / submit company ]

Housing Permits Tumble, Starts Improve

The Department of Commerce said Wednesday morning construction permits fell to a ten-year low of 1.429 million. The 8.9% drop was the most severe in 17 years, and was well below the seasonally adjusted rate of 1.51 million forecasted by economists. Conversely, housing starts were unexpectedly up 2.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.528 million, ahead the 1.48 million pace forecasted.

[ PDF ] view document » census.gov [ Contribute: submit link / submit article / submit company ]