The MReport Webcast: Friday 9/5/2014

While the nation's supply of for-sale homes has seen some steady improvements over the year, a new concern has emerged: Most of the inventory now hitting the market is too overpriced for the average homebuyer. Looking at the stock of homes for sale in its network of markets, national brokerage Redfin reported that, among the middle range of home prices, available supply has actually fallen 17 percent over the last three years to a total of 668,000 as of July. On the other hand, the most expensive segment of the market has grown more than 16 percent over the past three years.

Redfin attributes the squeeze on the middle range to three factors: a lack of support from new construction, a still-high proportion of investor and all-cash sales outmuscling traditional buyers, and the number of homeowners still stuck in their homes and unable to list them due to low equity. For the rest of the year, the company says new home construction will be crucial in providing relief to homebuyers in that range, forecasting a pickup in new home growth as construction jobs and building permits strengthen.

After expanding for three months straight throughout the summer, mortgage credit access closed up slightly in August. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s Mortgage Credit Availability Index slipped to 116.1 last month from 116.4 in July, the group reported. Both the conventional lending and government-focused indices edged down as well, each declining less than a percentage point from July. The index has increased for most of 2014, rising in six of the year's eight months as lenders expand their jumbo loan offerings to meet elevated demand. Those gains have been tempered by tightening in other categories as a result of new regulations guiding lending criteria.