News

A new report from the Center for Responsible Lending asserts that the mortgage industry still has a long way to go before it's out of the woods.

In its latest research brief, Zillow analyzes data on actual sales prices compared to asking prices, the number of days listings spent on Zillow, and the percentage of homes on the market with a price cut. With the exception of Seattle and Washington, D.C., the top sellers' markets are all in the West, with six of the top eight located in California. Besides their geographic location, the top sellers' markets have one huge commonality: They were some of the worst-hit markets in the crash.

Despite recent improvements in the unemployment rate and housing, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted Wednesday to continue its program of purchasing $40 million a month of mortgage backed securities and to maintain the target Fed Funds rate at 0 to 0.25 percent. The FOMC vote was 11-1 with only Richmond Fed President Jeffery M. Lacker dissenting.

Most famous for her real-life role as Charlie Sheen's third ex-wife, actress Brooke Mueller has put her home in Tarzana, California, on the market for $3.55 million, attempting to flip the property one year after purchasing the 0.62-acre estate. According to RealEstalker, Mueller bought the posh pad from former Spice Girl member Mel B for $3 million, which was $159,000 less than the singer and her husband paid for the abode in 2009.

Urban Lending Solutions (ULS) is among the nations top job creators, according to Inc. magazine, which recognized the company with its Hire Power Awards. Boulder Daily Camera also ranked ULS No. 14 on its list of the largest full-time employers in the private sector in Broomfield/Boulder counties.

A plunge in mortgage interest rates gave lift to applications for the first week of December, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

A recently released Home Value Forecast from Pro Teck and Collateral Analytics posits that consumer expectations of price trends can actually keep them going and even add to their momentum. Pro Teck CEO Tom O'Grady says that as home buyers perceive prices are rising or falling, they behave in a way that actually encourages the trend. For example, rising prices "also increase net worth and encourage those buyers who have been sitting on the fence to purchase," increasing turnover rates and reinforcing more price gains.

This year has been good to California's LRES, a national provider of commercial and residential valuations and asset management.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has issued a request for housing research proposals as part of its How Housing Matters to Families and Communities program. The program is a five-year, $25 million research initiative designed to deepen the literature on the effect that investments in housing have on social and economic outcomes.

Asking prices on homes improved on a yearly basis for the seventh straight month in November, according to the latest report from FNC, Inc. The report also shows a steady improvement in liquidity conditions throughout 2012--meaning the gap between asking prices and selling prices is closing, even as prices rise. The average home sale in October closed at 6.6 percent below the asking price, a year-over-year improvement from 9.7 percent.