Tag Archives: National Association of Realtors

According to a new index released Wednesday by the American Enterprise Institute's (AEI) International Center on Housing Risk, an estimated 46 percent of mortgages made from October 2013 through October 2014 were for first-time homebuyers. Looking only at government-guaranteed loans, that share is closer to 52 percent.

NAR reported Wednesday that contract signings nationally decreased 1.1 percent last month, though they were still up 2.2 percent compared to last October. Despite the monthly drop, Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist, said that contract signings have remained at a healthy pace now for six straight months.

The latest Nowcast report, powered by Google data and released Monday by Auction.com, projects existing-home sales for November will fall between seasonally adjusted annual rates of 5.05 million and 5.46 million units, with a targeted number of 5.25 million sales.

Total existing-home sales in October, including single-family houses, townhomes, condominiums, and co-ops, came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.26 million, up 1.5 percent from an upwardly revised estimate of 5.18 million in September, according to transaction data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

Following an independent review of its finances, FHA reported to Congress Monday that its Mutual Mortgage Insurance (MMI) Fund is valued at $4.8 billion for the fiscal year 2014, a step up from last year's shortfall of $1.3 billion.

In a panel at the 2014 Realtors Conference and Expo, experts discussed the changing face of American homebuyers and the potential effects of these changes on the housing market. One of the biggest topics for the panel was the state of millennial homeownership.

According to a report released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the median price for an existing single-family home rose annually last quarter in 73 percent of the 172 major metros surveyed. That share was up slightly from the second quarter, when 71 percent of metros posted year-over-year gains.

In its annual survey of homebuyers and sellers, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) found that only about 33 percent of home purchases in the last year were made by first-time buyers, down from 38 percent in last year's survey and the long-term average of 40 percent.

According to a report from the U.S. Census Bureau, the homeownership rate last quarter fell to 64.4 percent, down 0.3 percentage points from Q2 and nearly a full percentage point from the same quarter last year. The last time homeownership in the country was this low was in the first quarter of 1995.

The National Association of Realtors' (NAR) Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking gauge of home sales based on contract signings, ticked up 0.3 percent to 105 from August's 104.7, the group reported. Compared to a year ago, the index climbed 1 percent—the first yearly increase in 11 months.