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Tag Archives: Home Sales

Growth Estimates Point South for Fannie Mae

A weakened second quarter may indicate a slowdown in economic activity for the rest of the year, Fannie Mae reported Monday. According to a report from the GSE, its Economic & Strategic Research Group may have been too optimistic in its original 2012 GDP growth projection of 2.2 percent. Its revised growth rate estimate is 2.0 percent. Despite the downgrade in anticipated economic growth, Fannie Mae found a silver lining in the housing market. Year-over-year, home sales increased by 9 percent, and single-family housing starts are nearly 20 percent higher (although still below healthy norms).

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Economy Likely to Stay on Path of Recovery: Barclays

The housing recovery is strengthening and turning onto a sustainable path, Barclays said in a report Wednesday. According to the firm's U.S. Housing report, single-family housing starts are expected to trend upward, matching the strength of multi-family starts that has driven the housing recovery over the past year. Barclays also anticipates that home price indices will close out the year strong, suggesting a broadening and lasting recovery. The rising supply and steady sales pace of single-family starts apparently encouraged homebuilders.

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Beige Book Finds ‘Modest to Moderate’ Progress for Economy

Fed

The U.S. economy continued to expand at a modest to moderate pace in June and early July the Federal Reserve said Wednesday in its periodic Beige Book. The national summary, based on reports from each of the 12 Federal Reserve districts, noted "modest growth" in the Atlanta, St. Louis, and San Francisco districts, while the Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Kansas City, and Dallas districts said economic activity was "advancing moderately." All district housing market reports, the Beige Book said, were "largely positive."

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Median Prices for Existing Homes Reach Four-Year High

The median price of an existing single-family home rose in June to the highest level since 2008, marking a fifth straight month-over-month gain, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday. The trade group found the median price up 7.9 percent from June 2011. Existing-home sales dropped to 4.37 million in June, reaching the lowest level since last October, according to the group. It was the fourth drop in the last five months. Economists had expected the sales pace to increase to 4.65 million from 4.62 million in May.

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Construction Industry Wavers as Home Sales Lift Economy

Increased home sales continue to help the United States out of its Great Recession, but uneven job growth is stunting recovery, according to Freddie Mac├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook for July. The report, released Wednesday, showed that record-breaking low mortgage rates and refinances through HARP 2.0 drove up housing demand, leading to increases in housing starts, home sales, and prices in many markets. Housing starts for the first five months of the year averaged an annual rate of 719,000, a 26 percent increase from the same period in 2011.

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RE/MAX: Prices Show Housing Recovery Is ‘Real’

Rising home prices and sales signal that the housing recovery may finally be underway, according to RE/MAX. The real estate company released a housing report Tuesday that found closed transactions up 2.1 percent from May and 5 percent from June year-over-year. These figures made June the twelfth straight month for higher transactions. Of 53 metro areas surveyed by the company, 31 offered up increases for both sales and prices. Available homes for sale fell 5 percent from May and 27.4 percent from June last year.

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Will Underwater Homeowners Lead to Higher Prices?

Underwater homeowners are contributing to a lower inventory of houses for sale on the market, but according to Capital Economics negative equity will not have a major impact on housing prices. Regardless of the impact of negative equity, both Capital Economics and the National Association of Realtors foresee rising prices in the near future. The percentage of underwater homeowners is falling but remains elevated. CoreLogic said that 11.4 million homeowners were underwater in the first quarter.

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Refinance Surge Adds to Chase’s Strong Q2 Finish

Rallying investors by end of day Friday, JPMorgan Chase posted strong earnings from the second-quarter, with Home Affordable Refinance Program modifications helping boost income for the laggardly mortgage servicing unit year-over-year. For mortgage production and servicing, the financial institution fielded $604 million in net income over the second quarter, a figure that trumps a net loss of $649 million from the past year. Mortgage production rose to $931 million in pretax income for the lender.

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Recovery Builds Momentum with Regional Price Gains: Clear Capital

National home prices saw both quarterly and yearly gains in June, and all four regions across the U.S. posted quarterly increases, according to the Home Data Index (HDI) released by Clear Capital Tuesday. Home prices rose by 1.7 percent in June from the previous quarter and a year ago, and growth is expected to continue into the second half of the year at a rate of 2.5 percent, Clear Capital reported. Out of all four regions, the West saw the greatest quarterly increase at 3.5 percent, followed by the Midwest (1.2 percent), the South (1.5 percent), and the Northeast (0.8 percent).

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Pending-Home Sales Make Strong Debut in May: NAR

The Pending Home Sales Index rose a strong 5.9 percent in May to 101.1, returning to its level of March, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. The index had slipped in April to 95.5 after reaching its highest level since April 2010. The index is up a solid 13.3 percent since May 2011. The report is another in a string of positive signs for the housing sector. Pending home sales are counted when sales contracts are signed, and are viewed as a leading indicator of existing home sales, according to NAR.

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