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Author Archives: Esther Cho

Asking Prices Up 10.7% in June

The newest Price Monitor report from Trulia shows asking prices are heating up along with the weather. The company reported a 10.7 percent year-over-year increase and a 1.5 percent month-over-month improvement. Trulia also tracked the 100 largest metro areas and revealed 99 markets experienced an increase in asking prices over the last year. According to Trulia's chief economist Jed Kolko, the increase in home prices and mortgage rates has added a significant cost to homeownership.

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60% of Homeowners Planning for Home Improvements

A recent survey by Zillow Digs found 60 percent of respondents have some kind of plan in the works for a home improvement project this summer. The median budget for homeowners who are planning projects was $1,200, though owners with children and those 54 years of age and younger plan to spend a bit more, with a median of $1,500. To get ideas for projects, online sources were the most frequently utilized, with 37 percent turning to the web for inspiration.

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Fannie, Freddie Rated as ‘Critical Concerns’ for FHFA

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) labeled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as "critical concerns" in the composite rating category for 2012. FHFA noted the GSEs generated positive annual income in 2012, a first since 2006, with Fannie Mae bringing in more than $17 billion in earnings and Freddie Mac reporting net income of $11 billion in 2012. Credit risk, though, remained a critical concern for the GSEs, unchanged from 2011. The report also noted that troubled assets are still at high levels.

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First Quarter Sees Significant Decline in Underwater Borrowers

Underwater

Significant improvements in home values helped lift 850,000 borrowers out of negative equity in the first quarter, CoreLogic reported. Overall, 9.7 million borrowers, or 19.8 percent of all residential mortgages, were underwater in the first quarter of 2013, down from 10.5 million, or 21.7 percent of all mortgages, according to the data provider's estimate.

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