Fixed mortgage rates drop for 7th straight week – San Jose Mercury News

WASHINGTON — Home prices rose in August in half of major cities measured by a private survey, a sign that prices are stabilizing in some hard-hit portions of the country.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index showed Tuesday that prices increased in August from July in 10 of the 20 cities tracked. That marked the fifth straight month that at least half of the cities in the survey showed monthly gains.

The biggest price increases were in Washington, Chicago and Detroit. The greatest declines were in Atlanta and Los Angeles.

The August data provides a “modest glimmer of hope” that some areas may have bottomed out and could be turning around, said David M. Blitzer, chairman of S&P’s index committee. He noted that cities in the Midwest — Chicago, Detroit and Minneapolis — have shown some strength since May.

Still, Robert Shiller, the co-founder of the index and a Yale economics professor, said in an interview on CNBC that overall home prices were “flat” and a recovery in the struggling housing market was not on the horizon.

Over the past 12 months, prices have fallen in all but two cities. Detroit and Washington were the only two cities to show year-over-year gains.

The index, which covers half of all U.S. homes, measures prices compared with those in January 2000 and creates a three-month moving average. The August data are the latest available.

“We certainly believe the bulk of the decline in

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housing is behind us and indeed, one might even say that ‘housing’ is more likely to improve from here,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist for BTIG. “But given the overwhelming level of inventory that remains on the market … further price declines seem almost assured to help clear the market.”

Prices are certain to fall again once banks resume millions of foreclosures that have been delayed because of a yearlong government investigation into mortgage lending practices.

Those homes at risk of foreclosure promise “to keep pressure on prices for some time,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR Inc.

Home prices have stabilized in coastal cities over the past six months, helped by a rush of spring buyers and investors. But this year, home prices in many cities, including Cleveland, Detroit, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Tampa, have reached their lowest points since the housing bust more than four years ago.

Many people are reluctant to purchase a home more than two years after the recession officially ended. Even the lowest mortgage rates in history haven’t been enough to lift sales.

Some can’t qualify for loans or meet higher down payment requirements. Many with good credit and stable jobs are holding off because they fear that home prices will keep falling.

Sales of previously occupied home sales are on pace to match last year’s dismal figures — the worst in 13 years. Sales of new homes fell to a six-month low in August and this year could be the worst since the government began keeping records a half century ago.

Foreclosures and short sales — when a lender accepts less for a home than what is owed on a mortgage — makes up about 30 percent of all home sales last month, up from about 10 percent in past years. The large number of unsold homes and foreclosures are sending prices lower and hurting sales.

Okay buyers, you know the prices are stable to rising, you have interest rates at an all time low, and rents are rising. The home affordability factor is the best it’s been in years. It doesn’t get any better for buying a home. Time to get of the sidelines and into the game!

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• Hot Property: Tony Gonzalez sells Manhattan Beach home
• Short sales getting faster
• Fixed mortgage rates drop for 7th straight week
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• Home-price index at lowest point since 2006
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South Bay homebuyers returned to the sidelines in April after a brief sales boomlet in March, but there were some encouraging signs that the housing market was stabilizing, according to a report released Monday.

Right now, “buyers are absolutely in no hurry to buy,” said Cathy Warshawsky of mortgage broker Bay Area Loan, who is also treasurer of the California Association of Mortgage Professionals.

Still, there were some hints of a housing market returning to stability: Sales in each of the past three months have topped the previous month. Adjustable-rate mortgages and jumbo loans, which are key in the region’s high-priced home market, are used in an increasing percentage of home sales. And sales of bank-owned homes, a sign of a distressed housing market, are down.

But while the most expensive homes in the South Bay are drawing multiple offers, a broader market recovery awaits a revival of hiring.

“If people felt secure in their jobs, they’d be out there buying in a hearty fashion,” said Warshawsky.

Job growth and low mortgage rates could yet push sales up this year, said DataQuick President John Walsh, but that will be tempered by buyers waiting for “rock bottom” prices, he said.

Microclimates

Sales in Santa Clara County were down 2.1 percent in April from a year ago, real estate information service DataQuick reported, while the median price of a single-family resale home fell 4.5

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percent to $525,000. Sales were unchanged from a year ago in San Mateo County, as prices dipped 2.8 percent to $620,000.

That was a contrast to March, when sales rose 4 percent in Santa Clara County and 5 percent in San Mateo County compared with March 2010.

But monthly figures for the past few months suggest that home prices may be leveling off. The valley is doing a better job maintaining home prices than most other parts of the state, DataQuick’s Andrew LePage said.

“We’ve got microclimates,” said Eric Sjoberg of Century 21 Alpha in San Jose. Midprice homes are languishing as buyers wait for prices to fall further, he said, while “the cheapest houses are going like hot cakes.” Houses near good schools — in Cupertino, Mountain View and Sunnyvale — are also getting full-price bids and multiple offers, he said.

Investors paying cash — including some from the Pacific Rim — continue to outbid the more traditional homebuyers with mortgages on the Peninsula, while expensive homes in some areas are fetching multiple offers, real estate professionals reported.

In Santa Clara County, 22.7 percent of homes were sold to cash buyers, DataQuick reported, down a bit from March but well above the 10-year average of 13 percent.

“Most remarkable are the all-cash buyers coming in from the rest of the world,” said Sue Walsh, with Coldwell Banker in Burlingame. “Most of them I would say are investing. It is definitely making an impact.”

Absentee buyers

Walsh said she listed a house in Foster City for $795,000 on Friday, got one offer just above asking price and then got a higher, all-cash offer from a buyer from China. When the seller proceeded with the first offer, the second bidder threw in another $20,000.

“That’s a huge jump,” said Walsh. “The normal person looking to buy with a loan can’t compete with that.”

The cash deals involve a mix of investors snapping up less expensive homes and buyers of high-end homes paying cash if they can’t get a jumbo loan, said LePage of DataQuick.

Resales of bank-owned homes were almost 19 percent of home sales in Santa Clara County, down from 22.5 percent in March and 19.7 percent a year ago. Investors — absentee buyers — were 16.4 percent of buyers, down from March but up from a year ago. The average since 2000 is 9.7 percent.

There were no comparable figures for San Mateo County.

One reason for the year-over-year declines is a federal tax credit that was in place a year ago, boosting sales at that time. The credit has since expired, along with a state homebuyer’s credit, depressing sales.

In a separate report, the California Association of Realtors said that sales were up nearly 3 percent from March but down 5 percent from a year ago.

“An improving economy, coupled with the steady pace of distressed sales in the market and the typical seasonal pattern in the median home price, suggests the statewide median price has reached its low point for this year and is unlikely to hit the bottom reached in February 2009,” association President Beth L. Peerce said in a news release.

Contact Pete Carey at 408-920-5419.

$525,000

Median price of a single-family resale home in April in Santa Clara County, down 4.5% from a year ago

Prices are stable, interest rates are low and there is finally more inventory. I guess this is why I have so many buyer clients right now!

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WASHINGTON — Fixed mortgage rates slid for the seventh consecutive week, but the lowest rates of the year have done little to lift the struggling housing market.

Freddie Mac says the average rate on the 30-year loan fell to 4.55 percent from 4.60 percent. The average rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage, a popular refinance option, slipped to 3.74 percent from 3.78 percent. Both are lows for the year.

Rates tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which has dropped over fears that higher energy prices could slow economic growth this year.

Most people are unable to take advantage of the lowest mortgage rates because they can’t meet tougher lending requirements. And those who could afford to refinance likely did so last year, when rates fell to the lowest levels in decades.

Sales of new and previously occupied homes rose in April. But sales for well below healthy levels. Waves of foreclosures have pushed prices down. Many would-be buyers are holding off, worried that home prices have yet to hit bottom.

Home prices fell in the first three months of this year to the lowest levels since before the housing bust. Prices are expected to keep falling until the glut of foreclosures for sale is reduced, companies start hiring in greater force, banks ease lending rules and more people think it makes sense again to buy a house. In some markets, that could take years.

To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac

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collects rates from lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday of each week. Rates often fluctuate significantly, even within a single day.

The average rate on a five-year adjustable-rate mortgage stayed flat at 3.41 percent. The five-year adjustable rate loan hit 3.25 percent in April, the lowest rate on records dating back to 2005.

The average rate on a one-year adjustable-rate loan rose slightly to 3.13 percent.

The rates do not include add-on fees, known as points. One point is equal to 1 percent of the total loan amount. The average fee for the 30-year fixed loan in Freddie Mac’s survey was 0.6 and it was 0.7 for the 15-year fixed loan. The average fee for the five-year ARM and the 1-year ARM was 0.6 point.

If you are thinking of buying or refinancing, now is the time. Rates are great right now.

Revitalizing the Private Mortgage Market: ‘Skin in the Game’ and the Consequences for Future Homebuyers

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RISMEDIA, May 25, 2011—By mid-May, the spring home-selling season is usually in full swing. Homes look their best, and buyers rush to lock in deals so they can relocate in the summer. But this year, things are not so good. Despite low home prices, sales are sluggish as the market struggles to recover from the burst bubble of the past decade.

Many potential buyers are scared off by worries that a home bought this spring could be worth less a few months later, given that prices have fallen by more than 8 percent over the past 12 months, according to Zillow.com. Others are eager to buy at today’s low prices, but cannot get a mortgage because lenders have tightened standards to avoid a repeat of the default and foreclosure crisis.

Amid all the uncertainty, a number of regulators, lawmakers and market experts continue to wonder: What will the mortgage market, so essential to a healthy housing sector, look like in the future? Key to that is a rekindling of the private market for securitizations—the process of converting mortgages into bonds for sale to investors. Securitization provides the money lent to homeowners. In March, the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and four other agencies issued proposed new rules for the private securitization market—requirements likely to toughen standards for both borrowers and lenders. But many experts feel the proposals—still subject to comment before final implementation, possibly this summer—would not correct the mortgage market’s problems.

“I think it’s a missed opportunity,” says Susan M. Wachter, professor of real estate at The Wharton School and co-editor of a new book, The American Mortgage System: Crisis and Reform. “I think that we need obviously to envision a restructured housing finance system to replace the failed system that we have had, and this does not get us there. Quite the contrary, it raises more questions.”

Currently, more than 90 percent of new U.S. mortgages are backed by the government entities Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration, but almost no one wants the government to continue to be the prime source of mortgage securitization. After suffering huge losses from homeowners who failed to make payments, Fannie and Freddie were taken over by the federal government in 2008 and have so far required a taxpayer bailout exceeding $130 billion. The Obama administration has proposed phasing out the two firms over an unspecified number of years, but that cannot happen without a resurgence of the private securitization market.

The “private-label market,” which was all but nonexistent before the 1990s, skyrocketed from 2004 to 2008, when it accounted for more than $2 trillion in outstanding mortgages. Now it is barely breathing. Enormous losses have scared off the investors who buy private mortgage bonds, which do not carry the guarantees that make Fannie and Freddie bonds attractive.

The federal proposals issued in March, required under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law, are designed to discourage the issuance of risky mortgages and securities based on them. They would require that firms that issue mortgage-backed securities retain 5 percent of the investment risk contained in the bonds sold to investors. Having “skin in the game,” or a stake in the bonds’ investment prospects, should make the participants careful in approving mortgages and putting the bond packages together, the agencies say.

Quibbles with QRM

The proposal would allow participants to avoid the 5 percent requirement when they securitize “qualified residential mortgages (QRM),” deemed relatively safe from default by borrowers. To fit this category, a mortgage would require a borrower with a solid credit rating who will make a down payment of at least 20 percent. Studies have shown that borrowers are less likely to default if they have made large down payments, which represent equity that would be lost in a foreclosure. Many of the bad loans issued a few years ago required little or no down payment.

The 5 percent rule is meant to “reduce adverse selection,” or to get “loan originators to stop dumping just the bad stuff” into mortgage securities, says Kent Smetters, professor of insurance and risk management at Wharton. “A lot of originators didn’t like this approach since it would require them to raise capital, which is not part of their business model.” The QRM alternative effectively shifts risk, or the consequences of default, from the lenders to the homeowners, he notes.

“That approach might be reasonable because [borrowers] probably have the most information about their ability to pay,” he says. But a 20 percent down payment requirement would probably reduce the level of home ownership in the U.S., he adds, noting that “many homeowners should not buy anyway until they can afford a reasonable down payment.” A high down payment requirement, Smetters says, would probably have the biggest impact on first-time home buyers, who must draw on savings to put money down. People who trade up often have enough equity in the home they sell to make the down payment on the one they buy.

In announcing the proposals, FDIC Chairman Sheila C. Bair said she expected QRMs to be “a small slice” of the mortgage market, with the bulk of the market composed of a variety of mortgage types issued under the 5 percent risk-retention rule. But critics think lenders will be so averse to keeping money at risk that the QRM loans would become the industry standard. According to Wachter, a 20 percent requirement could bar 30 percent of borrowers from the market.

Jack M. Guttentag, an emeritus professor of finance [...]

Home values fell in the Bay Area and around the nation in the fourth quarter – that’s nothing new.

What’s different this time is that the accelerated declines are likely to bring the real estate market to a bottom later this year, according to real estate information service Zillow.com, which is releasing a report today on fourth-quarter values.

“This is the beginning of the end,” said Stan Humphries, Zillow chief economist. “We’re seeing more depreciation in most markets, which means the ultimate end (to the declines) will come sooner rather than later.”

For the nine-county Bay Area, Zillow shows a median home value in the fourth quarter of $463,246, down 3.6 percent compared with a year earlier, and down 31.8 percent from a peak of $679,159 in April 2006.

Humphries predicts that the Bay Area and many other markets should hit bottom this year – but that doesn’t mean values will start rising anytime soon.

“I expect a long, flat bottom,” he said. “Most markets will remain in malaise for an extended period of time. It will take at least three years to see more normal appreciation rates, i.e., in the 2 to 4 percent range.”

The reasons? The foreclosure pipeline is still clogged with properties, many homeowners are underwater and unemployment continues apace.

Home values in the Bay Area experienced a “double dip.” They had risen for five consecutive quarters under the influence of federal and state home-buying tax credits, only to fall again in both the third and fourth quarter of 2010. Elsewhere in the nation, double dips were less common because prices never rose, but in California, the state tax credit for home buyers helped juice sales.

Solano stands out among the nine Bay Area counties as the hardest-hit market – and also one that may be starting to stabilize. The low-priced exurban county had the biggest decline in the region, with values now around $209,000, less than half of their peak of $473,000. But in the fourth quarter, it was the only local county where median values did not fall compared with the prior year; instead they were flat.

“I think we’re bumping along the bottom right now,” said Realtor Douglas MacDonald of Coldwell Banker Solano Pacific in Vallejo.

The Vallejo market is very competitive now, he said, with multiple offers and about 450 homes for sale, which translates to four months’ worth of inventory. There appears to be a big backlog of shadow inventory – foreclosed homes that banks are withholding from the market, as well as homes where owners are far behind on payments or scheduled for a foreclosure auction.

“Six years ago in 2005, even in 2006, there was not one single-family home in Vallejo priced under $400,000,” he said. “Now it’s hard to find any type of home in Vallejo priced over $400,000.”

The upside of that is increased affordability. “It’s actually cheaper to own than to rent almost any house in Vallejo right now,” he said.

Zillow’s report also said:

– Of people (not banks) in the Bay Area who sold their homes in December, 36 percent had to swallow a loss, selling for less than their original purchase price. Another 26 percent of sales were bank-owned foreclosures, which also sell for less than their original value.

– About 23 percent of Bay Area homeowners with a mortgage are underwater, owing more than their house is worth. San Francisco has the fewest underwater homeowners at 7.6 percent; Solano County has the most at 51.6 percent.

– Nationally, 27 percent of homeowners with a mortgage are underwater; for California the figure is 30.5 percent.

An interactive version of the report is at www.zillow. com/local-info.

E-mail Carolyn Said at csaid@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page D – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

via sfgate.com

Based on the amount of buyer activity I’ve seen in the last couple of months, I’d say this is right.

Posted via email from chrisknox’s posterous

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California is rebounding, but Florida, not so.

Poor Florida. The state that is home to Disney World, key lime pie and the Daytona 500 hasn’t had much to crow about when it comes to real estate in recent years. Sorry to break it to Sunshine Staters, but they shouldn’t be expecting a rebound anytime soon either.

More from Forbes.com:

• Cities Where Home Values Will Rise in 2011 • Cities Where Home Values Will Fall in 2011

• America’s Most Affordable Cities

[Click here to check home equity rates in your area.]

That’s according to Local Market Monitor (LMM), a Cary, N.C.-based real estate research firm that crunched the numbers for our list of the best and worst cities for home values in 2011. One list includes the 10 cities where home values are expected to rise the most in 2011, and the other the 10 cities where they are expected to fall the most.

LMM tracks 315 American real estate markets, assessing values and applying Investment Suitability ratings based on multiple factors. For the Forbes lists, LMM President Ingo Winzer and his researchers started with a U.S. Census-defined list of Metropolitan Statistical Areas with populations of 500,000 residents or more. They then analyzed key economic factors that directly affect housing markets: unemployment and job growth rates, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. LMM tracks real estate markets’ valuations based on the theory that markets go through cycles.

[See the Cities With the Best Long-Term Housing Gains]

“We see a predictable pathway that home prices follow,” explains Winzer. “If you know where in the cycle a market is, you can make some predictions about where it will go in the next one, two, three years.”

Assessing the progression of those market cycles means comparing average “actual” home prices to equilibrium home prices–meaning where prices should be in the absence of market distortions that result from speculation and mismatches between population growth and new home construction. Another tool is peak-to-trough analyses, which factors in the number of single-family and multi-family housing permits active in each city, as recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The result is a Top 10 list made up of cities boasting an outlook for job growth and rebounding economies in 2011. Not surprisingly then, Washington D.C. (No. 7), and its nearby hubs make this list, thanks to a steady supply of government jobs.

California touts the most metros on the Top 10 list. San Jose (No. 1), Santa Ana (No. 2) and San Diego (No. 5) offer housing markets where property prices are expected to rise steadily over the next three years. Los Angeles didn’t crack the top 10, but this sprawling metropolis does offer the prospect of appreciation, despite a building boom and bust that was similar to Florida’s.

[See the Best Places to Live in America, 2010 Edition]

“The big difference between Florida and Southern California … is people are moving into Southern California, but they’re not moving to Florida,” asserts Winzer. “It was speculative retirement and vacation condos–things that were bought by people not living there and now not moving there, wanting to sell their empty condos because they can’t rent them out.”

Unfortunately for these snowbirds, seven Florida cities land on the Bottom 10 list. Deltona-Daytona Beach, Lakeland and Orlando take the top three spots. Expect further home price drops in all of these markets over the next two years, leveling out by 2014.

A lack of jobs–the construction industry had a huge job market presence here–coupled with a deluge of homes on the market, both from owners and banks, means these markets will take a long time to recover.

Many Western states are in the same bind as Florida, thanks to building boom and busts centered around retirement and vacation home speculation. Arizona metros like Tucson (No.8) and Nevada’s Las Vegas (No.5) likely have a few years to go before prices stop dropping.

“In general they’re attractive markets for retirement, and eventually they’ll recover … but over the next five years or so they’re going to have a tough time filling all the empty pieces of real estate built there,” says the LMM president.

What does all of this news mean for you, the homeowner? If you are living in a market that’s still depreciating in value and intend to stay in that market, don’t panic and sell your home. Wait it out instead.

However, if you live in one of these depreciating markets and already plan on scramming in the next few years, do it now–it’s probably going to get worse before it gets better. Just don’t plan on your property selling quickly, since these markets are suffering from an abundance of inventory.

If you’ve had hopes of setting up new digs in one of these rebounding markets, do it now. Prices are only going to go up.

[See the Towns Where You Can Get Land for Free]

“There are going to be very few markets over the next five years that will be good investment markets, and few to no markets where prices will go up 10% per year,” stresses Winzer, emphasizing that no market has a shortage of real estate. “We are probably at a point now where we [LMM] are underestimating how well the Top 10 markets are going to do. … What you might see in some of these markets are fair, steady gains of 4% or 5% a year, the way they used to before there was a real estate boom. ”

Cities Where Home Values Will Rise in 2011

These are the Metropolitan Statistical Areas where home values are expected rebound the most this year, based on data compiled by Local Market Monitor.

San Jose, Calif.

Tony Casanova/iStockphoto

Average Home Price: $511,186

12-Month Forecast: 3% increase

Three-Year Annualized Forecast: 2% increase

Santa Ana, Calif.

For more information, contact: Walter Molony 202/383-1177 wmolony@realtors.org

Pending Home Sales Continue Recovery, Gradual Improvement Seen in 2011

Washington, DC, December 30, 2010

Pending home sales rose again in November, with the broad trend over the past five months indicating a gradual recovery into 2011, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.

The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator, rose 3.5 percent to 92.2 based on contracts signed in November from a downwardly revised 89.1 in October. The index is 5.0 percent below a reading of 97.0 in November 2009. The data reflects contracts and not closings, which normally occur with a lag time of one or two months.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said historically high housing affordability is boosting sales activity. “In addition to exceptional affordability conditions, steady improvements in the economy are helping bring buyers into the market,” he said. “But further gains are needed to reach normal levels of sales activity.”

The PHSI in the Northeast increased 1.8 percent to 72.6 in November but is 6.2 percent below November 2009. In the Midwest the index declined 4.2 percent in November to 78.3 and is 7.7 percent below a year ago. Pending home sales in the South slipped 1.8 percent to an index of 91.4 and are 7.2 percent below November 2009. In the West the index jumped 18.2 percent to 123.3 and is 0.4 percent above a year ago.

“If we add 2 million jobs as expected in 2011, and mortgage rates rise only moderately, we should see existing-home sales rise to a higher, sustainable volume,” Yun said. “Credit remains tight, but if lenders return to more normal, safe underwriting standards for creditworthy buyers, there would be a bigger boost to the housing market and spillover benefits for the broader economy.”

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is forecast to rise gradually to 5.3 percent around the end of 2011; at the same time, unemployment should drop to 9.2 percent.

For perspective, Yun said that the U.S. has added 27 million people over the past 10 years. “However, the number of jobs is roughly the same as it was in 2000 when existing-home sales totaled 5.2 million, which appears to be a sustainable figure given the current level of employment,” he explained.

“All the indicator trends are pointing to a gradual housing recovery,” Yun said. “Home price prospects will vary depending largely upon local job market conditions. The national median home price, however, is expected to remain stable even with a continuing flow of distressed properties coming onto the market, as long as there is a steady demand of financially healthy home buyers.”

Existing-home sales are projected to rise about 8 percent to 5.2 million in 2011 from 4.8 million in 2010, with an additional gain of 4 percent in 2012. The median existing-home price could rise 0.6 percent to $173,700 in 2011 from $172,700 in 2010, which was essentially unchanged from 2009.

“As we gradually work off the excess housing inventory, supply levels will eventually come more in-line with historic averages, and could allow home prices to rise modestly in the range of 2 to 3 percent in 2012,” Yun said.

New-home sales are estimated to rise 24 percent to 392,000 in 2011, but would remain well below historic averages, while housing starts are forecast to rise 21 percent to 716,000.

Yun sees Gross Domestic Product growing 2.5 percent in 2011, and the Consumer Price Index rising 2.3 percent.

The National Association of REALTORS®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1.1 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

# # #

*The Pending Home Sales Index is a leading indicator for the housing sector, based on pending sales of existing homes. A sale is listed as pending when the contract has been signed but the transaction has not closed, though the sale usually is finalized within one or two months of signing.

The index is based on a large national sample, typically representing about 20 percent of transactions for existing-home sales. In developing the model for the index, it was demonstrated that the level of monthly sales-contract activity parallels the level of closed existing-home sales in the following two months. There is a closer relationship between annual index changes (from the same month a year earlier) and year-ago changes in sales performance than with month-to-month comparisons.

An index of 100 is equal to the average level of contract activity during 2001, which was the first year to be examined as well as the first of five consecutive record years for existing-home sales.

NOTE: The next Pending Home Sales Index will be released January 27, and existing-home sales for December will be reported January 20; release times are 10:00 a.m. EST.

REALTOR® is a registered collective membership mark which may be used only by real estate professionals who are members of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® and subscribe to its strict Code of Ethics. Not all real estate agents are REALTORS®. All REALTORS® are members of NAR.

Information about NAR is available at www.realtor.org. This and other news releases are posted in the News Media section. Statistical data, tables and surveys also may be found by clicking on Research.

via realtor.org

Added to this is the fact that interest rates have been rising and are expected to rise further. What it all means is that if you’ve been sitting on the sidelines thinking of buying or selling a home, it’s time to get off the fence and get into the market.

Posted via email from chrisknox’s posterous

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Alan Zibel, AP Real Estate Writer, On Wednesday September 22, 2010, 4:20 pm

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than half of homeowners who enrolled in the Obama administration’s flagship foreclosure-prevention effort have fallen out of the program, and fewer borrowers are enrolling.

The Treasury Department says about 680,000 homeowners who applied to get their mortgage payments lowered, or about 51 percent, have been disqualified through August. That’s up from about 48 percent in July.

The report gives ammunition to critics who say the program has failed to slow the tide of foreclosures, which have battered the housing market and drastically lowered home prices in parts of the country.

About 449,000 borrowers, or 34 percent of the 1.3 million who enrolled in the program, have received permanent loan modifications and are making their payments on time.

via finance.yahoo.com

Not really a shock. This is why people in distress need to talk to a CDPE(Certified Distressed Property Expert) like myself. They need to know all their options. I can’t tell you how many people I talk to who are totally counting on the government or bank helping them out of their jam. Sadly, it rarely happens.

Posted via email from chrisknox’s posterous

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