President and CEO of Genworth Mortgage Insurance and Chair of U.S. Mortgage Insurers Rohit Gupta testified on behalf of the Mortgage Insurance Industry (MI) at the House Financial Services Committee Housing and Insurance Subcommittee today stressing the need for balance between the roles of the Federal Housing Administration and MI when to comes to taxpayers.
Read More »Mortgage Rates Rise for Third Straight Week, Still Down from December
Mortgage rates are up for the third straight week of February, according to a report released by Freddie Mac on Thursday. However, fixed mortgage rates still remain near late May 2013 lows and numbers released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency on Thursday show mortgage rates on a month-to-month basis are down in January. According to Freddie Mac, the 30-year FRM rate increased to 3.8 percent from last week’s rate of 3.76 percent.
Read More »FHFA House Price Index Shows 1.4 Percent Increase
U.S. home prices rose for the 14th consecutive quarter by 1.4 percent, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's House Price Index released Thursday. The price increase was seen in the purchase-only, seasonally adjusted index in the fourth quarter of 2014.
Read More »New Trulia Survey Shows Americans Dream of Bigger Homes
Bigger is better when it comes to dream homes, according to a report released Thursday by Trulia called “Dreaming Big: Americans Still Yearning for Larger Homes.” According to the report, dreaming of a bigger homes spans all generations with Baby Boomers, Millennials, and GenXers all surveying they want more space.
Read More »Fed Chair Cites Slow Productivity Growth in Reluctance to Raise Interest Rates
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen in her testimony to Congress on Wednesday said the Fed would be using "patience" on deciding when to increase interest rates. Yellen was cautious about citing any particular date for the increase, citing slow productivity growth as one of the reasons for the delay.
Read More »HUD Secretary Testifies Before House Committee About Department’s Budget Increase
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro addressed the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations Wednesday on the Fiscal Year 2016 budget proposal for HUD, where he emphasized ...
Read More »Zillow’s 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate Dips After Hitting 13-Week High
The current 30-year fixed mortgage rate on Zillow mortgages has taken a slight dip down to 3.76 percent after reaching a 13-week high of 3.85 percent on Tuesday.
Read More »Freddie Mac: Housing Market Weak But Continues to Stabilize
The latest Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi) from Freddie Mac, released Wednesday, showed that the U.S. housing market showed continued stabilization for the fourth straight month in December. According to the latest MiMi, 38 states plus the District of Columbia and 40 out of 50 metros showed an improving three-month trend in December. The metro areas of Buffalo, Boston, and Nashville, all entered their "benchmark stable" ranges of housing activity.
Read More »January’s New Home Sales Rate Changes Little From Revised December Estimate
January saw relatively little change in the number of new home sales from December, according to data released today from HUD and the U.S. Census Bureau on new residential home sales in January; however, sales are on the rise from last year.
Read More »Residential AD&C Loans Increase Slightly to End 2014
Data released from the FDIC and NAHB show the stock of 1-4 unit residential loans rose by $1.158 billion during the fourth quarter. That is an increase of 2.23 percent. While limited availability for construction loans has been preventing a rebound in home construction, residential loan stock has been rising for the past two years.
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