Data

​Interest rates on conventional purchase-money mortgages decreased from March to April, according to several Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) indices of new mortgage contracts. The FHFA conducted a Monthly Interest Rate Survey (MIRS) to find interest rate data, which provides monthly information on interest rates, loan terms, and house prices by property type, loan type, and by lender type, as well as information on 15-year and​​​ 30-year fixed-rate loans.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) recently reported in their Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) that, pending home sales increased in April for the fourth consecutive month and reached their highest peak in nine years. All four major regions saw growth in April, led by the Northeast and Midwest.

In the National Association of Home Builder’s (NAHB) Eye on Housing blog, Robert Dietz, VP for tax and market analysis, found that the volume of residential AD&C loans outstanding expanded 4.8 percent during the first quarter of 2015. This will mark the 8th consecutive quarter of growth.

Individuals' optimism regarding future financial prospects increased substantially from 2013 to 2014, while perceptions of current financial well-being improved only modestly, according to a survey conducted by the Federal Reserve released Wednesday. The Fed's 2014 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking, which was completed by about 5,800 individuals last fall to provide insight into various aspects of Americans' personal finances such as economic security, banking, credit access and usage, housing, household debt (including education and student loan debt), savings, and preparedness for retirement.

According to a recent survey from Experian Consumer Services, 95 percent of homebuyers are aware that credit scores play a significant role when purchasing a home, and those who know their credit scores feel more prepared to buy. In addition, 45 percent of future homebuyers say they put off buying a home in order to work on their credit so that they can qualify for better interest rates.

The Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi) released monthly by Freddie Mac, revealed today that the housing market is continuing to stabilize with the most improving metro markets seeing stronger demand for home sales for the spring homebuying season.

The salary consumers need to purchase a home varies from city-to-city across the country, but San Francisco remains the most unaffordable city all consumers except those with high salaries, according to a recent HSH.com survey.

The April 2015 First-Time Buyer Mortgage Risk Index (FBMRI) for Agency loans increased by nearly a full percentage point year-over-year up to 15.28 percent, indicating that those mortgage loans are moving deeper into the high-risk category, according to data released this week by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI)'s International Center on Housing Risk.

According to jointly released estimates by HUD and the U.S. Census Bureau, sales of new single-family houses in April 2015 increased 6.8 percent from last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 517,000 units. The March rate was 484,000 units and is 26.1 percent above the estimate of 410,000 for April 2014.

According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) quarterly House Price Index (HPI), U.S. house prices increased 1.3 percent in Q1 2015. The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices also indicated in their monthly report that home prices continued rise for March 2015.