Data

Freddie Mac cited a number of positive opportunities for housing in 2015—but households and businesses should take advantage of them early, because some of them aren't expected to last.

Researchers at the American Enterprise Institute's (AEI) International Center on Housing Risk estimate that Americans buying their first home made up about 50 percent of December's purchase mortgage market, up slightly from November.

RE/MAX reported Monday that home sales activity jumped 14.4 percent nationally month-over-month December, a sharp reversal from November's 22.5 percent drop. Compared to the same month in 2013, December sales were up 3.9 percent, making it one of only a handful of months in 2014 to see transactions improve on a yearly basis.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index dropped to 57 in January, NAHB reported Tuesday morning. December's index was revised upward to 58, reflecting no change from the month before.

Monthly data released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) shows Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac together reported 134,582 refinances in November 2014, down from nearly 139,000 in October. As overall refinancing fell, so too did the number of mortgages refinanced under the Obama administration's Home Affordable Refinance Program.

New York-based investment bank Goldman Sachs reported a slight year-over-year decline in Q4 2014 net earnings, but for the whole year of 2014 the firm reported a slight uptick from 2013, according to the firm's Q4 and year-end earnings statement released on Friday.

A first-look reading of the University of Michigan/Thomson Reuters consumer confidence index shows the measure climbed to 98.2 as of mid-January, up nearly five points from a final December reading of 93.6 and from a consensus forecast of 94.1 among economists polled by Thomson Reuters.

Three of the five indicators in Trulia's quarterly housing barometer—existing-home sales, excluding distressed sales; home price level; and delinquency plus foreclosure rate—are all more than three-quarters of the way "back to normal" as of the end of 2014, according to the company.

California's housing market made more small strides toward stability over the last 12 months, though sales activity took a dip compared to the year before. For the entire year, C.A.R. estimates that 383,320 single-family homes closed escrow across the state, a 7.6 percent decline from 2013.

In a survey released Thursday, Freddie Mac reported that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged a rate of 3.66 percent (0.6 point) for the week ending January 2015, a decline of 7 basis points from last week. Last year around this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.41 percent.