Data

As the MReport reported last week, credit is still tight for most borrowers, according to an April Urban Institute report. The report studied loan trends between 2009 and 2013, and found that mortgage credit is tighter than it was at the peak of the housing bubble in 2005 and 2006, as well as pre-housing crisis in 2011.

Since the beginning of 2013, cash purchases have comprised a steadily eroding share of the market en route to pre-crash averages. Prior to 2008, cash sales on average made up a quarter of the sale market nationally. Cash sales reached their peak during the worst of the recession, topping out at 46.5 percent in January 2011.

Despite a brutal winter and a slowdown in economic activity in the first quarter, Freddie Mac is sticking to its previous prediction that 2015 will be the best year for home sales since 2007, according to Freddie Mac's U.S. Economic and Housing Report for April 2015 released Thursday.

According to the findings, construction of 100 single-family homes pumps an average of $28.7 million in income into a typical local economy in the first year. This, the NAHB says, adds $3.6 million to local tax rolls while providing 394 new jobs. Annually recurring benefits after construction is completed, on average, generate $4.1 million in local income, $1 million in taxes, and 69 local jobs

Smoke determined the 20 hottest housing markets in the nation based on the number of listing views relative to the number of listings when looking at March data and website traffic. Realtor.com said these markets should see plenty of activity in the next few months as homebuying season gets underway.

According to the report, home prices were up 5.6 percent nationwide compared to February 2014. Month-over-month, home prices nationwide increased by 1.1 percent, compared to January.

The optimism expressed by consumers toward the economy and the housing market at the beginning of the year has stalled as consumers' attitudes toward personal finances and wage growth have taken a step backward, according to Fannie Mae's March 2015 Housing Survey released Tuesday. Whereas February's survey showed that consumer optimism toward the economy was at an all-time high, March's survey painted a different picture.

Five Star President and CEO Ed Delgado, who initially proposed the idea for the report last year, stated that the purpose of the report was not to "dismiss or diminish" the validity of the inquiries by consumers, but rather to "position and better understand the data."

In their monthly Mortgage Monitor Report, Black Knight reports the number of potential refinance candidates currently sits at 7.1 million, a substantial increase form just 4.1 million potential borrowers in February 2014. However, Black Knight’s SVP of Loan Data Products, Trey Barnes, says that number is fragile. According to Barnes, any increases in mortgage rates could cause that number to drop, even marginally.

According to data they used from the American Housing Survey, over 14 million single-family homes in the U.S. were renter occupied in 2013. This represents 12 percent of the entire U.S. housing stock, or in other words, 1 in 8 U.S. households, and more than one-third of the rental housing stock.