A new survey of housing attitudes released by the MacArthur Foundation found that a majority of Americans believe the country is still not past the housing crisis that began seven years ago. The 2015 How Housing Matters Survey found that three in five Americans believe we are “still in the middle” of the housing crisis or “the worst part is yet to come” of the crisis.
Read More »Home Value Opinion Gap Widens Between Appraisers and Homeowners, According to Index
Quicken Loans, a Detroit-based mortgage lender reported today that the difference between appraiser and homeowner perceptions of home values continued to increase for the fourth consecutive month in May. For the first time in 22 months, appraiser opinions of home values were 1.15 percent lower than homeowner estimates, according to Quicken Loans’ national Home Price Perception Index (HPPI).
Read More »Research Identifies Arizona as the Best Area to Retire; New York Deemed the Worst
With National Homeownership Month well underway, new research from Bankrate.com found that Arizona hosts three metro areas in the top ten cities for senior citizens to retire, while New York hosts some of the worst areas to retire. Phoenix, Arizona was named as the best place to retire, while New York City was named the worst city to retire.
Read More »Ernst Publishing Company Welcomes New Director of Product Development
Ernst Publishing Company, the leading provider of technology and closing cost data for the real estate and home finance industries for the past 25 years, recently announced that Chris Dufault, an industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience, will join the company as director of product management. In his new role, Dufault will lead a team that will direct the company’s future product development as well as the enhancement of the company’s industry leading offerings.
Read More »Survey: Optimism Up Among Consumers; Supports Housing Forecast Increase
Amidst the positive May job reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), consumer attitudes concerning the housing market showed vast improvement for the month of May, according to results from Fannie Mae's May 2015 National Housing Survey. These positive changes also support the case for an increase in housing activity this year.
Read More »Mortgage Monitor finds that Refinance Makes Up Half of Originations Market
Black Knight Financial Services recently released their April 2015 Mortgage Monitor finding that the refinance share of the mortgage origination market was over 50 percent in the first quarter of 2015, a first since the third quarter of 2013. Black Knight reviewed refinance originations as a share of the total market in the report. Black Knight reviewed refinance originations as a share of the total market in the report. They also examined the tightening of current credit score requirements when dealing with both refinance and purchase originations.
Read More »MBS Bank Demand is Unfocused; SFR Rent Values Surpass Home Values, says Report
Deutsche Bank recently released research titled “The Outlook in MBS and Securitized Products” finding that although a large piece of the market focuses on bank demand for mortgage-backed securities (MBS), not much focus has been placed on the shape of that demand. The report also noted that banks are adding longer lengths on MBS that would drop in value as rates go up.
Read More »Cleveland Fed Finds Demographic Differences in Downtown Areas
Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland economist Daniel Hartley and Nathaniel Baum-Snow, a professor at Brown University found that for over four decades, the demographic compositions in and near the downtown areas in medium and large U.S. cities have shifted. The residents in these areas make more money, receive better educations, and are not likely to be minorities.
Read More »Index says Mortgage Credit Availability Increased for May
For May, mortgage credit availability experienced an increase, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI), a report that analyzes data from Ellie Mae's AllRegs Market Clarity business information tool. According to the index, the MCAI increased 0.5 percent to 122.6 in May.
Read More »Economists Say Housing Market Expected to Grow From Increased Job Gains
While the nation's unemployment rate (5.5 percent) and the number of unemployed persons (8.7 million) for May 2015 remained virtually unchanged from the previous month, the number of jobs added in May increased substantially from April up to 280,000, according to the May 2015 Employment Summary released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Friday.
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