By Mike Colpitts Bolstered by a jump in home refinances, home mortgage applications surged higher last week on to nearly a record breaking pace. The Mortgage Bankers Association Refinance Index increased 9.4% from the prior week. The average contracted mortgage rate on a fixed 30-year loan dropped to 4.05%, the lowest in the history of… Continue reading Refinances Surge on Record Low Mortgage Rates
2012 North Dakota Housing Market
Driven by growing energy markets in natural gas and oil exploration, North Dakota was virtually immune from the Great Recession. The state is also seeing its biggest boom in history as thousands of newcomers flock to the region, but that doesn’t leave North Dakota in perfect shape either. The same booming scenario is forcing some… Continue reading 2012 North Dakota Housing Market
Pressures Heighten on Underwater Principal Reductions
By Mike Colpitts The U.S. secretary of housing is stepping up pressure on the nation’s giant mortgage lenders to provide principal reductions on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae mortgages in a move supported by the Obama administration. The effort would supply a much needed fix to the housing market. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan made the… Continue reading Pressures Heighten on Underwater Principal Reductions
2012 Indiana Housing Market
Higher prices paid for corn and soy beans to farmers are having a major impact on the Indiana economy as it makes strides to improve from its housing downturn. Lower home prices combined with close to record low mortgage rates are driving a reemergence of home buyers in some areas of the state. The decline… Continue reading 2012 Indiana Housing Market
2012 Montana Housing Market
Despite being one of the strongest areas in U.S. home value stability, Montana saw home prices decline during the real estate collapse, but record low mortgage rates are driving the state that claims the title as Big Sky Country to recover from the downturn and is forecast to see additional gains the remainder of the… Continue reading 2012 Montana Housing Market
2012 Kentucky Housing Market
The bloated inventory of homes listed for sale in Kentucky is showing some evidence of shrinking as more first time buyers purchase homes with historically low mortgage rates. But in most areas of the state home prices are still falling at nearly unprecedented rates as high joblessness unsettles the region. In Louisville home sales are… Continue reading 2012 Kentucky Housing Market
Home Prices Fall Almost 5% in 2011
By Mike Colpitts Home prices fell nearly an average of 5% last year as a result of a troubled U.S. economy, decaying consumer sentiment, high unemployment and a foreclosure crisis that is running out of control, according to real estate research firm Core Logic. The company’s December Home Price Index showed an average 4.7% decline… Continue reading Home Prices Fall Almost 5% in 2011
Feds Reach Mortgage Deal with 49 States
By Mike Colpitts The U.S. government and 49 states attorneys general have reached a landmark $25-billion agreement over the robo-signing scandal with the country’s largest five banks. The unprecedented deal closes a chapter in the nation’s foreclosure crisis, which has cost millions of homeowners their homes. The agreement offers financial relief to some homeowners caught… Continue reading Feds Reach Mortgage Deal with 49 States
2012 Delaware Housing Market
Occupy Wall Street protestors in one Delaware community are so upset with the massive foreclosure crisis that they are disrupting sheriff foreclosure auction sales. The Occupy Delaware protestors stood as the sale was about to start at a New Castle County sheriff’s sale and read a prepared statement demanding a halt to the home sales… Continue reading 2012 Delaware Housing Market
2012 Virginia Housing Market
What seemed like rock bottom home prices Virginia homes were getting are projected to slip further as the region encounters greater economic turmoil recovering from the real estate collapse. The housing market in most of Virginia seemed as though it was on the mend, but an uptick in foreclosures is troubling the region and sending… Continue reading 2012 Virginia Housing Market