According to Realtor.com’s predictions for the national housing market in the new year, the market will see a rise in inventory to bring it in line with more normal levels. The beginning of 2013 was in many ways characterized as the “year...
Source: Wall Street Journal
The saving rate has been trending down among American consumers. Households saved just 4.2 percent of the after-tax income in November. The average was close to 6 percent from 2009 until 2011. Wealth gains from ex...
Source: Reuters
The Office of Financial Research at the U.S. Treasury, which was created to help the nation avoid the next financial crisis, is struggling to stay relevant after passage of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law. Other regulators are hesita...
Source: LA Times
Fully appointed homes are the latest fad in the ultra-luxury market, as high-end buyers look to purchase an instant lifestyle with designer furnishings, art, knickknacks, and linens included with the home.
Read the full s...
Source: Wall Street Journal
The incoming director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Rep. Mel Watt (D., N.C.), announced that he intends to delay an increase in mortgage fees charged by the housing-finance giants. These fee increases wou...
Source: HousingWire
Freddie Mac’s total mortgage portfolio fell at an annual rate of 2 percent in November, as its mortgage portfolio continues to shrink. Refis are still making up 53 percent of the GSE’s total single-family mortgage por...
Source: Bloomberg
With rental housing turning into an industry, big landlords are benefiting from access to financing at a time when banks remain reluctant to lend to home buyers. Investors from multibillion dollar hedge funds to individuals...
Source: New York Times
Experts predict that in 2014 mortgage rates will continue to increase, lenders will loosen up requirements
a little, adjustable-rate mortgages will make a comeback, and homeownership rates will flatten or fall.
Rea...
Source: LA Times
In what amounts to a record rebound for a 12-month period, homeowners’ net equity holdings soared $2.2
trillion from the third quarter of 2012 to the third quarter of this year. This turnaround has provided some
much-nee...
