Sales of New Homes Rebounded in March...

WASHINGTON — More people bought new homes in March, giving the battered industry a small lift after the worst winter for sales in almost a half-century. New-home sales rose 11 percent last month from February to a seasonally adjusted rate of 300,000 homes, the Commerce Department said Monday. That follows three straight monthly declines. Still, the pace remains far below the 700,000 homes a year that economists view as...

Existing Home Sales Rise in the First Quarter...

RISMEDIA, May 12, 2011— Existing-home sales continued to recover in the first quarter with gains recorded in 49 states and the District of Columbia, while 22 percent of the available metropolitan areas saw prices rise from a year ago, according to the latest survey by the National Association of REALTORS®. Total state existing-home sales—including single-family and condo—rose 8.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual...

April Housing Numbers Show Hints of Progress...

RISMEDIA, May 10, 2011—The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury recently released the April edition of the Obama Administration’s Housing Scorecard—a comprehensive report on the nation’s housing market. Officials caution that the latest housing figures underscore fragility in the housing market and highlight the importance of the Administration’s...

Home Affordability Reaches Generational High...

If you have good credit and savings, now is a great time to buy. According to Zillow.com, “Homes are more affordable than they’ve been in the past 35 years.” Not only have home values fallen in many key markets, making homeownership more accessible to the average buyer, interest rates are at historic lows, meaning that once a home is purchased, monthly payments are smaller than in our recent past. Zillow...

10 Reasons You Should Buy a Home...

Enough with the doom and gloom about homeownership. Sure, maybe there’s more pain to come in the housing market. But when Time magazine starts running covers that declare “Owning a home may no longer make economic sense,” it’s time to say: Enough is enough. This is what “capitulation” looks like. Everyone has given up. After all, at the peak of the bubble five years ago, Time had a...

Slight Home Price Increase Seen for 2012...

Forecasters expect that home prices in the Dallas area will continue to fall through the third quarter of 2011 and then rebound slightly in 2012. Dallas-area prices will slide another 1.4 percent between the third quarter of 2010 and the third quarter of 2011, researchers at Fiserv Inc. said in a report released Tuesday. “Large supplies of foreclosed properties will continue to be the biggest downside risk for home prices...

Economic and Housing Outlooks Brighten According t...

RISMEDIA, December 28, 2010—Improvements in consumer spending and consumer confidence, increased demand for goods and services, and falling unemployment claims are all positive factors for a brighter outlook as we move into 2011, according to the December 2010 Economic Outlook released today by Fannie Mae’s (OTC Bulletin Board: FNMA) Economics & Mortgage Market Analysis Group. Downside risks still exist, however,...

Housing Outlook 2011...

The lowest mortgage interest rates in almost 60 years, plus affordable homes in cities where buyers had been priced out for years, should be turning the housing market around. But the market also labors under some heavy burdens: a glut of foreclosures that are dragging down home prices, high unemployment and tight credit. Sales fell off a cliff after the home-buyer tax credit expired. And “foreclosure-gate”...