Data

Out of all the investors surveyed by Auction.com in November, 50.5 percent said they're going to rent out their properties, while 46.6 percent plan to flip them to another buyer. The preference toward renting was more evident among one-time purchasers, 72.2 percent of whom said they plan to rent out the auctioned home.

Looking at the past year of growth, Zillow estimates U.S. homes will be worth a combined $27.5 trillion by the end of 2014, a 6.7 percent increase over 2013. Last year, the company valued the country's housing stock at roughly $25.7 trillion, an improvement of 7.9 percent from the year prior.

Economists at Fannie Mae are forecasting full-year growth of 2.1 percent for 2014, a full point below 2013's rate of growth, due to the reverse in the final quarter of some unsustainable forces that boosted the economy in the third quarter. However, the group is predicting economic growth of 2.7 percent for 2015.

According to figures released Thursday by Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate averaged 3.80 percent (0.6 point) for the week ending December 18, down 13 basis points from last week's survey. Last year, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.47 percent.

The possibility of a high return on investment has given institutional investors the opportunity and motivation to cash out, RealtyTrac says in a new report. To examine the return on investment institutional investors could receive by selling off now, the company analyzed more than 200,000 purchases made by institutional investors made in the last few years.

In its last outlook of the year, Freddie Mac looked back at five key consensus predictions for 2014, how they fared, and how they will affect housing and the economy next year. In addition to home sales, the four other areas examined were mortgage originations, home values, rental market, and mortgage rates.

In a report released this week, property data company Zillow estimated that 8.7 million homeowners living in the nation's top housing markets were underwater on their mortgage as of the end of the third quarter, putting the country's negative equity rate at 16.9 percent. The U.S. underwater rate peaked at 31.4 percent in 2012's first quarter.

Out of a sample of closed loans drawn from Ellie Mae's origination platform last month, 45 percent were refinances, the company reported Wednesday. November's refinance share marked a 5 percentage point increase from October and was the same as a year ago. "Winter is normally a slow time for housing sales, yet the increase in refinancing volume is protecting many lenders from the cold," said Jonathan Corr, president and COO of Ellie Mae.

Home prices nationally fell slightly in October, marking the second consecutive month of declines after a long period of growth, according to the latest FNC Residential Price Index. Overall prices in the 100 largest U.S. metro areas were down 0.1 percent between September and October, and the annual rate of appreciation nationwide was down to 5.7 percent in October, the report stated.

In a poll of senior mortgage officers conducted in November, Fannie Mae found consumer demand was down across all categories of home purchase loans, with only 42 percent of respondents reporting increases in demand for GSE-eligible loans, 43 percent for non-GSE loans, and 29 percent for government loans. Those shares compare to 53 percent, 65 percent, and 43 percent, respectively, in the third quarter.