The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently released a new working paper titled, “How Low Can House Prices Go? Estimating a Conservative Lower Bound,” identifying a conservative lower bound for home prices in relation to long-term trend.
Read More »National Home Cash Sales Cash Down for February 2015
CoreLogic released data on cash home sales today, finding that cash sales made up 37.9 percent of total home sales nationally in February 2015, down from last year's total of 40.6 percent. February 2015 will mark the 26th consecutive month that the share has dropped year-over-year since January 2013.
Read More »Student Loans Not Affecting Credit Access of Millennials
A TransUnion study discovered that in spite of the rises in student-loan balances for the past decade, younger consumers have not allowed loan obligations to hinder repayment of other credit-related items such as auto loans and mortgages when compared with peers with no student loans. These findings place a contradiction on the belief that student debt is preventing young adults from accessing credit.
Read More »All Federal Home Loan Banks Record Positive Net Income
At this year's Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBanks) directors' conference, speaker FHFA Director Melvin L. Watt, delivered a speech regarding the past year of positive developments that occurred in these 12 banks.
Read More »Renting vs. Buying: HOA Fees May Make Renting More Appealing than Buying
Recent results from Trulia’s Rent vs. Buy Report reveals that purchasing a home with a traditional 30-year mortgage and 20 percent down payment is cheaper than renting, but additional fees from the homeowner association (HOA) can make renting seem more appealing especially for New York and Honolulu residents whose HOA fees are considerably higher.
Read More »Quicken Study Shows Division Between Appraiser and Homeowner Estimates
A new Quicken Loans study reveals that appraiser home value opinions fell below homeowner estimates in April according to the company’s Home Price Perception Index (HPPI). Quicken Loans is the nation’s second largest retail mortgage lender.
Read More »Study Shows Millennials Pose Less Credit Risk than Gen Xers or Boomers
Millennials, which are viewed by many analysts as the key to driving the housing market recovery, are actively seeking credit but largely being denied, according to a white paper released Tuesday by ID Analytics titled "Millennials: High Risk or Untapped Opportunity?"
Read More »Metro Home Prices Increase for Q1 in NAR Report
According to the latest quarterly report by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), home prices have increased in the majority of metro areas included for Q1 2015. A high demand for housing along with low inventory levels caused prices to go up significantly and areas that experienced double-digit price appreciation doubled compared to last quarter.
Read More »Lack of Housing Affordability Impacts Economic Growth
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s (NBER’s) new working paper “Why Do Cities Matter? Local Growth and Aggregate Growth”, high-productivity markets are not the main contributors to economic growth due to limited housing affordability options.
Read More »Metro Areas Facing Growing Inequality
According to a National Association of Realtors (NAR) recent study, rising prices of homes have helped homeowners build housing wealth, but the research found a worsening inequality in homeownership gains in metro areas.
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