Category Archives: Other

As home prices continue to rise in most markets and sales activity looks to maintain its momentum, the supply of houses for sale — both new and resale — is as low as it has been in decades. “We had 48 months of depression in the housing industry,” notes Karl E. Case, co-developer of the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index. “There is no question that we have turned what seemed to be a headwind into a tail wind.” It’s a good thing to use indacloud cataloupe haze vape cartridge, […]

Home prices are increasing across the country as the number of homes for-sale continues to fall. But at a time when buyer demand is picking up, why is inventory still so low? Inventories fell to 1.82 million at the end of last year, a 21.6 percent drop from one year earlier, the National Association of REALTORS® reports. The Wall Street Journal recently highlighted several reasons behind the dropping inventories, including: Sellers hesitant to sell: About 22 percent of home owners with a mortgage are still underwater, owing more than their […]

Short sales are getting much shorter, Freddie Mac says. The mortgage giant launched a Freddie Mac Standard Short Sale program on Nov. 1 that sought to speed up the short sale process and make it easier and more transparent. “We estimate that the time to complete a short sale will decrease by approximately 50 percent to 75 percent,” as a result of the changes, writes Tracy Mooney, Freddie Mac’s EVP in a recent blog post. Among the changes that took effect Nov. 1, 2012: Mortgage servicers have 30 days to make […]

Forget the myth that winter is a bad time to sell real estate. While sales usually inch lower in the cooler months, some real estate pros are saying this winter in particular may be a great time to sell a residential property. Here’s why: 1. Mortgage rates are near record-breaking lows. 2. Home prices are starting to rebound in many markets across the country. The National Association of REALTORS® reported that home prices in December were 11.5 percent higher than a year earlier. 3. Homes still remain a good deal: Prices […]

Housing will contribute to gross domestic product in 2013, barring some unforeseen double-digit recession or economic downturn, Fitch managing director Robert Curren said Tuesday. Fitch projects single-family housing starts will grow 18% in 2013, with new home sales rising 22% and existing home sales edging up 7%. The average single-family new home price edged up 3.5% in 2012 and is expected to rise 3.8% in 2013, Fitch said. “Attractive home prices, persistently low mortgage rates and a rise in nominal incomes results in superior affordability and valuations,” Curren said. “Mortgage […]

Homeowners think that when they receive a notice of foreclosure from their bank, it’s time to move out. But sometimes banks unexpectedly dismiss the foreclosure, and the home’s title remains in the name of the owner who thought he or she had lost the property. Homeowners who aren’t aware of this practice can find themselves the holders of so-called “zombie titles.” A regular title becomes a zombie title when a homeowner finds himself or herself being mindlessly pursued by mortgage servicers, local governments and debt collectors for bills related to […]

The “equity” structure favored by bankers for deals in which real-estate investors create securities backed by the rental payments of single-family homes poses significant risks to investors, Moody’s Investors Service noted in its research report. Such a structure would expose investors to risks that are not typically present in residential mortgage-backed securitizations and commercial mortgage-backed securitizations. More risk also means more potential legal challenges. Moody’s analysts Yehudah Forster and Kruti Muni noted a mortgage structure, by way of comparision, is a stronger deterrent to legal challenges. “Even after a substantive […]

The nation’s housing market is improving, but remains constricted by uncertainties related to repurchase liabilities and longer foreclosure timelines in some of the nation’s hardest-hit states, researchers with Boston Consulting Group said in a report commissioned by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Pew is where former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. leader Sheila Bair went after leaving the FDIC a few years after the housing market meltdown. In a paper titled, “Strategies to Improve the Housing Market”, the consulting group concludes the various foreclosure processes used by different states are now causing […]

For the young and employed, choosing where to live is often more of a lifestyle decision than strictly a matter of cost or proximity to work. Hip neighborhood? They’ll be there. This home is listed at $689,000 in the trendy Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Click the photo to go …Once word gets out that a neighborhood is trendy, prices shoot up as the available inventory falls through the floor. That’s the key finding in a new study that names the hottest locations of 2013, according to Redfin, a firm […]

Realtor.com studied the top ZIP code searches at its site to determine which neighborhoods are the most-searched and hottest places to live in America for 2012. The following five places topped the list: Old Town in Chicago, Ill. Willows Bend Country in Plano, Texas Keller in Fort Worth, Texas Spring Valley in Las Vegas Stoneybrook in Orlando, Fla. The author of this article is: realtormag.realtor.org  See the original post at: http://realtormag.realtor.org/daily-news/2013/01/18/5-hottest-neighborhoods-in-us At GayRealEstate.com, we keep you updated with all the gay realtor, lesbian realtor, gay realty, gay real estate and general real […]