Housing Inventory Data Points to Stabilization The U.S. housing market is showing signs of stabilization. Emeryville, California-based ZipRealty reported a drop in the number of Multiple Listing Service-listed homes for the 12th consecutive month in June. The number of single-family homes and condos listed for sale decreased in June from May by 2.1 percent, bringing […]

Mortgage Rates: You May Have Missed the Bottom For those waiting until interest rates bottomed out before they either purchased a home, or refinanced the one they’re in, it may be too late. We warned our readers a couple of months ago about the risk involved in trying to time the markets, both from a […]

Housing Starts Up in May The nation’s builders boosted their production in May, starting new housing units at an annualized rate of 532,000, up 17.2% from the revised estimate of 454,000 in April. The data release, a monthly report from the Census Bureau, also revealed that building permits jumped by 4% to a rate of […]

Foreclosures Drop in May The May foreclosure figures are just out, and the number of filings in the U.S. dropped 6%.  That means that 1 in every 398 homes received a foreclosure filing in May.  Once again, Nevada, California, Florida, and Arizona topped the list of states with the highest foreclosure rates — even though […]

Existing Home Sales Increase The National Association of Realtors announced recently that existing home sales in April increased 2.9 percent as compared to March 2009. While home sales were up, the inventory of unsold homes also rose 8.8 percent to 3.97 million units, representing a 10.2 month supply. April’s improvement in existing home sales would […]

President Obama Signs New Mortgage Law President Barack Obama signed a new mortgage bill into law on May 20th encouraging lenders to spare homeowners from foreclosure and take action on predatory lending practices. The new law is expanding on previous foreclosure prevention programs which were not living up to the numbers it had projected to […]

Homebuilder Confidence Up in May Homebuilders’ confidence rose in May for the second consecutive month, boosted by first-time homebuyer tax credits and a more affordable housing market. An earlier report from The National Association of Home Builders showed home prices fell 14% in the first quarter of 2009, but now, builders are responding to what […]

Renters Protected from Foreclosure Evictions Renters now have a little more protection from eviction if their landlord’s property is foreclosed on, thanks to the new housing law signed by President Obama. The law allows tenants to remain in their foreclosed rentals through the end of their lease and then 90 days after that before being […]

Foreclosures: April Was Bad Foreclosures in April exceeded even March’s blistering pace with a record 342,000 homes receiving notices of default, auction notices or undergoing bank repossessions. One of every 374 U.S. homes received a filing during the month, the highest monthly rate that RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed properties, has recorded in four-plus […]

Home Prices Slide 14% According to the National Association of Realtors, the steep slide in home price accelerated at a record pace during the first three months of 2009. The national median home price of single family homes sold during the first quarter fell 13.8% to $169,000 year over year, and 6.2% compared with the […]