Mortgage Insurance Costs Negatively Impacts

Mortgage Insurance Costs Negatively Impacts

Homeowners: A new survey released Thursday reveals a growing number of homebuyers have to purchase mortgage insurance (MI) along with their home—and many aren't prepared 

for the additional cost. 37 percent of homeowners who purchased within the last decade required MI. Looking at just the last two years, that number is up to 43 percent, reflecting the troubles buyers are having meeting normal down payment minimums as home prices march up. While FHA loans may be available, #home buyers, especially first time buyers, may not realize the options available to them that don't require PMI insurance. Mortgage Rates Continue Month-Long Slide: #Mortgage rate declines have continued now for more than a month straight, bringing interest rates down once again to new 2014 lows. read more.

Will Spring Momentum Carry Into Summer

Will Spring Momentum Carry Into Summer

More buyers are saying that summer is the best time to purchase a home, as Inventory and price continued to rise for the month of April suggesting a healthier national housing market, according to the National Housing Trend Report .Consumers understand that home valuations remain attractive and mortgage rates are still near historic lows. The optimism and enthusiasm we're seeing in consumers' motivations and pent-up demand. As more homes come to market and lenders ease their stringent underwriting guidelines, we anticipate busy times ahead in real estate.Home Price Appreciation Accelerates; Foreclosure Sales Slow 

Expect 2014 Price Increases to Average 4.4

Expect 2014 Price Increases to Average 4.4

Experts: Home-Price Appreciation to Slow Down Through 2016: Home values are expected to appreciate by 4.4 percent on average through the end of the year, but that rate will slow to 3.8 percent in 2015 and 3.4 percent in 2016. We still have a quarter of homes that are under water that are in the low-affordable range and that low-affordable range is less affordable. Because of the lack of inventory and it's holding back the first time home buyer and it's that first time home buyer which actually adds considerable buying power at the purchase, read more

Townhouse Market Share Weakening

Townhouse Market Share Weakening

With Fewer First-Time Buyers, Townhouse construction continues to slow, which likely is due to weakening demand from first-time home buyers, a segment of buyers who are typically are drawn to such housing units, according to a new analysis by the National Association of Home Builders. "Despite the drop in market share for townhouse construction [will likely] increase in the coming years - with occasional ups and downs," Total townhouse construction declined on a year-over-year basis during the first quarter of 2014, read more.

Best Job in Utah for those Without College Degree

Best Job in Utah for those Without College Degree

SALT LAKE CITY – FOX 13 News took a look at the best employment opportunities in Utah for those without bachelor’s degrees and compiled a list of the top five jobs. And the best job in Utah for those without a college degree according to the figures from the Department of Workforce Services is: air traffic controller. No 1. In the past 12 months, more than 20 million passengers passed through Salt Lake International Airport, and they were shepherded through by a small army of air traffic controllers. See the videos for more in-depth look at the list. 

Lower Mortgage Insurance with Credit Counseling

Lower Mortgage Insurance with Credit Counseling

Credit Counseling to Lower FHA Borrowers’ Payments: Federal Housing Administration borrowers may be able to lower their mortgage insurance premiums if they agree to undergo housing counseling. FHA announced a new program –(HAWK)– earlier this month that would allow FHA borrowers who complete counseling before closing to receive a 0.5 percentage point reduction in their upfront insurance premium. Borrowers may also qualify for more savings too. Also Mortgage Rates Fall to 7-Month Low 

Drag on Housing Market Negative Equity really is.

Drag on Housing Market Negative Equity really is.

"It's hard to overstate just how much of a drag on the housing market negative equity really 

is, especially at the lower end of the market, which represents those homes typically most affordable for first-time buyers,'  While the continuing downward trend in underwater rates is a welcome sign of improvement in the housing sector, the company notes that the 'effective' negative equity rate, which includes homeowners with 20 percent or less equity in their homes, remains elevated at more than one in three. See How More Home Owners Remodel to Raise Home’s Value.

Home Inventory Down; Foreclosures Decline In April

Home Inventory Down; Foreclosures Decline In April

The report found that the foreclosure rate is at its lowest point since 2008, and the 

number of seriously delinquent loans not in foreclosure is down over 200,000 since last year. The company’s loan-level database represents approximately two-thirds of the overall market. The total U.S. foreclosure pre-sale inventory was 2.02 percent for April, down 5.0 percent from March.  Home Inventory Down In April: After rising slightly to close out 2013, home inventory has been steadily declining ever since, read more.

Renters are Facing even more Hurdles

Renters are Facing even more Hurdles

Housing starts are back on the rise, but the most recent surge is due to a growth in the multifamily market, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Census Bureau. Housing starts rose 13.2 percent in April over the previous month to a 1.07 million unit pace. Single-family housing starts held mostly flat during the month, rising a modest 0.8 percent. Rentals Drive Housing Starts to 1 Million Mark: First-time home buyers are facing tougher mortgage underwriting standards and tight inventories in the lower-priced home market.  In some markets, renters are facing even more hurdles to reaching home ownership, read more.

BuyOwner.com CEO Hires a Realtor to Sell his Home

BuyOwner.com CEO Hires a Realtor to Sell his Home

The longtime chief executive of BuyOwner.com built a successful business in Florida 

and Georgia, helping people sell homes without a professional Realtor. But that has not stopped Al Bennati from hiring professional help in listing his own Florida mansion, now on the market. ForSalebyOwner.com Founder Uses Agent to Sell Home in 2011: a large website for owner sales, spent six months trying to sell his condominium himself through online listings and classified ads, before... Sold his two-bedroom apartment in Chelsea for $2.15 million—with the help of a real-estate broker and a standard 6% commission.  What you should look for in an agent is: 

Non-distressed sales Jump 9% Moderately,

Non-distressed sales Jump 9% "Moderately",

Home prices rose 9 percent year-over-year for the first quarter of this year, Residential Price Index, which measures sales activity for non-distressed homes in the 100 largest metros in the country. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.6 percent in March.On an annual basis, Western states continue to lead the nation with drastic price gains. This report shows 40 percent rise in prices in the sand states over the past two years. On the other hand, the Midwest has experienced very little price relief since the start of the recovery. Housing Market Projected to Grow in 2015.

Where Cash Deals Make Up 50% of Sales

Where Cash Deals Make Up 50% of Sales

Nationwide, cash sales are on the upswing, despite a slowdown in investor activity and a dwindling supply of foreclosures on the market. The state boasts the highest number of metros where cash deals comprise more than half of sales. All-cash purchases made up 33 percent of transactions in the first quarter, up from 31 percent a year ago.  “The good news is that as institutional investors pull back their purchasing in many markets across the country, there is still strong demand from other cash buyers — including individual investors, second-home buyers and even owner-occupant buyers — to fill the vacuum of demand left by institutional investors. 

Buying is Cheaper than Renting, As Rates Decline

Buying is Cheaper than Renting, As Rates Decline

Mortgage Rates Decline for Third Straight Week: Mortgage rates pulled back slightly again this week,  It was the third straight week of declines, Freddie Mac reported, bring the 30-year fixed average to a six-month low. As to Where Can the Middle Class Buy a Home? For the majority of homes, buying is cheaper than renting. But as home prices rise faster than incomes and mortgage rates slowly decline, the question of national affordability becomes ever more germane. Compared to the longer-term past, home ownership still looks relatively affordable as home prices remain undervalued and mortgage rates remain near historic lows see rates. 

New Plans to Make Mortgages Easier to Obtain

New Plans to Make Mortgages Easier to Obtain
Plan offers MI discounts for borrowers, provides clarity on FHA policies: 

Tight lending conditions have been blamed for hindering the housing recovery, but a series of announcements by the FHFA's on Tuesday could be the long-awaited easing that many sidelined borrowers had been hoping for. The FHFA's new director, Mel Watt, made several announcements Tuesday that departed from his predecessors and aim to maintain Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s role in the housing market as well as broaden home lending by the mortgage giants. FHA hopes that good quality assurance will help lenders know that their mortgages meet FHA standards, so the lenders can originate loans with confidence. It hopes these new practices will ease those fears. To accomplish this, the FHA will focus on four areas, see which areas.

The competition for homes just got tougher

The competition for homes just got tougher

Multiple Escalation Clauses Push Buyer Competition: With inventory low and multiple offers becoming more common, more real estate agents are employing escalation clauses to help their clients win bidding wars. More buyers are agreeing to escalation clauses because of the protections they offer, as they generally have an upper-limit cap and do not kick in unless there are other legitimate, confirmed offers. At the end of the first quarter, inventories of for-sale homes did show some growth. There were 1.99 million existing homes available for sale at the end of the first quarter -- 3.1 percent higher than year-ago levels. The average supply during the quarter was five months. A supply of six to seven months is considered a healthy balance for the market, learn more.

Yearly Asking Price Gains Slow

Yearly Asking Price Gains Slow

The Housing Recovery Needs More Than Just Rising Prices: In the boom-and-bust housing markets with the biggest price rebounds, construction activity is lagging. In contrast, the markets where construction has recovered include big-city metros with strong rental demand. Rents are up 4.5% year-over-year, and rental affordability is worst in Miami and New York. Despite Solid Monthly, Quarterly Gains: Nationally, asking prices rose 0.8 percent month-over-month in March and 2.8 percent quarter-over-quarter in April. With monthly and quarterly increases holding steady, why are yearly increases slipping? Learn more

Sellers Becoming Aggressive and 'More Cash Buyers'

Sellers Becoming Aggressive and 'More Cash Buyers'

In Pricing more home sellers want to get aggressive with the pricing of their home. 

"Buyers this year are far less tolerant of overpricing, and homes that aren't priced appropriately are likely to sit on the market until the seller is forced to reduce the price,” says Reid about the survey results. "Buyers often interpret a price drop as a sign there is something wrong with the home, leading some to negotiate even more aggressively or lose interest altogether. While more sellers say it's a good time to sell, they do have some concerns when finding their next house.  But the higher levels of cash sales may also come from the aging of the baby boom generation, read more.

Mortgage Rates Reaches New Low for the Year

Mortgage Rates Reaches New Low for the Year

Despite performing far better than anticipated, April jobs numbers weren't enough to prop up fixed mortgage rates this week, market reports show. In its Primary Mortgage Market Survey,

Freddie Mac clocked the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at an average 4.21 percent (0.6 point), down from 4.29 percent and the lowest level since late last year. A year ago, the 30-year averaged 3.42 percent. The 15-year also moved down. Q 1 Home Values Stagnant: Nationally, housing markets experienced a point-9 percent growth quarter over quarter. The largest gains of growth were out West, which experienced a 1-point 8 percent increase sequentially, learn more.

Spring Selling Season Gets Underway

Spring Selling Season Gets Underway

Fannie: More Americans Say Buy, Sell Now, Americans’ optimism about the housing market has grown as the spring selling season gets underway, with 42 percent saying now is a good time to sell a home, according to Fannie Mae’s April 2014.  National Housing Survey. Meanwhile, 69 percent of Americans say now is a good time to buy a home. Fifty percent of survey respondents say they believe home prices will go up in the next 12 months, with expectations averaging 2.9 percent.  As confidence continue to grow Mortgage rates continue the Downward Slide see what rates are today.

St. George, Utah Increases in Single-Family Homes

St. George, Utah Increases in Single-Family Homes

Some metros have been seeing a noticeable increase in their single-family inventories

 over the last seven years. In a new analysis by the National Association of Home Builders, researchers point to the following metros as having the largest percentage-point increase in single-family concentration from 2005 to 2012:

1. Fairbanks, Alaska
2. St. George, Utah

From 2005 to 2012, all the metros in the top 10 except for Yakima, Wash., saw a double-digit population growth. St. George is found in the southwest corner of the state.

Faster Sales, More Buyer Traffic

Faster Sales, More Buyer Traffic

Spring Fling? Properties sold faster in March - at a median of 55 days - due to low inventories of homes for sale nationwide, according to the latest REALTORS Confidence Index. The index is based on a survey of more than 3,800 REALTORS about their transactions in March. Short sales were on the market the longest, for 112 days in March compared to 98 days in February, according to the report. Foreclosed homes were on the market for 55 days. About 37% of real estate professionals report that properties sold in March had been on the market for less than a month. In February, 34 % of practitioners reported the same. Buyer traffic was also up in March, watch video to learn more.

Are Mortgages Becoming Easier?

Are Mortgages Becoming Easier?
Lenders are reportedly easing credit standards. Wells Fargo, the nation's largest mortgage lender,

recently announced it has cut its minimum credit score for borrowers of Fannie Mae and Freddie-backed loans from 660 to 620. Borrowers with lower credit scores must prove their ability to sustain home ownership, however, says Frank Codel, head of production for Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo is looking for "compensating factors" to close the loan, such as requesting an explanation of a credit history event, reviewing the strength of income and stability of employment. But some borrowers are also have an easier time including gifts from relatives as part of a down payment. And in January, the bank began accepting borrowers with credit scores of 600—down from 640—for FHA loans.

1 in 10 Borrowers Underwater as of March 2014

1 in 10 Borrowers Underwater as of March 2014

An improvement from 1 in 3 homeowners in 2010: Overall, the company’s look at March data reflected a shifting landscape. As home prices have risen over the past two years, many distressed loans have worked their way through the system and the percentage of Americans with negative equity has declined considerably. Two years of relatively consecutive home price increases and a general decline in the number of distressed loans have contributed to a decreasing number of underwater borrowers, learn more.

More Options for Low Down-Payment Loans

More Options for Low Down-Payment Loans

About 60 percent of first-time home buyers make a down payment of 6 percent or less for a home, according to the March REALTORS Confidence Index.

But with rising insurance premiums for loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration, traditionally a popular first-time buyer option, more first-timers are having to look elsewhere for financing their home purchase, The New York Times reports. First-time buyers are looking to special programs through banks, state and local down payment assistance programs, and their own families for assistance in purchasing a home. More lenders are offering low down payment programs. For example

Home Owners Think Twice About Short Sales

Home Owners Think Twice About Short Sales

Short Sales on the Decline: Since the expiration of the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, homeowners have been thinking twice about proceeding with a short sale. A sharp drop in short sales began at the start of this year, likely because of the increase in taxes borrowers will now have to pay on forgiven debt, Khater says. The MFDRA exempted borrowers from paying taxes on any mortgage debt forgiven by a lender in a short sale or loan modification. Since the act expired on Dec. 31, 2013, borrowers now will have to count forgiven mortgage debt as income on their federal tax returns. Congress has yet to renew the act, read more

U.S. Home Flipping Drops

U.S. Home Flipping Drops
Reporting that 3.7 percent of all U.S. single-family home sales were flips. Home flipping over 

all  is down, dropping 4.1 percent from the fourth quarter in 2013, as well as declining 6.5 percent from the previous year's first quarter. The company defines flips as homes purchased and sold again within six months. This is another good sign that this #housing recovery is behaving much more rationally than the last housing boom, learn more