Earlier this week, the private-sector Case-Shiller Index showed home prices slightly lower between November and December. Thursday, the public-sector Home Price Index showed the same. Publishing on a 2-month lag, the Federal Home Finance Agency said home prices fell by 1.6 percent nationally in December. And that’s an average, of course. Some regions performed well [...]

The housing recovery showed particular weakness in the New Homes Sales category last month — good news for homebuyers around the country. A “new home” is a home for which there’s no previous owner. New Home Sales fell 11 percent from the month prior and posted the fewest units sold in a month since 1963 [...]

Using data compiled in December, Standard & Poors released its Case-Shiller Index Tuesday. The report shows home prices down just 2.5% on an annual basis, a figure much lower than the 8.7% annual drop reported after Q3. According to Case-Shiller representatives, the housing market is “in better shape than it was this time last year”, [...]

You can’t get your mortgage rates from the newspaper. Last week proved it. Again. Friday morning, headlines and around the country read that mortgage rates were down 0.04 percent, on average, since the week prior. A sampling of said headlines includes: US Mortgage Rates Drop For 2nd Straight Week (Reuters) Mortgage Rates On 30-year US [...]

Mortgage markets had a terrible, holiday-shortened week last week as Wall Street responded to worse-than-expected inflation data and action from the Federal Reserve. Mortgage bonds sold off with force, causing mortgage rates to rise for the second week in a row. Last week was a bad week to float a mortgage, to say the least. [...]

Sometimes, headlines for housing can be misleading and this week gave us a terrific example. On Wednesday, the Commerce Department released its Housing Starts data for January 2010. The data showed starts at a 6-month high. A “Housing Start” is a privately-owned home on which construction has started. Headlines on the Housing Starts story included: [...]

Mortgage markets reeled Wednesday after the Federal Reserve released the minutes from its January 26-27, 2010 meeting. Mortgage rates are now at their highest levels since the start of the year. The Fed Minutes is a follow-up document, delivered 3 weeks after an official FOMC meeting. It’s a companion piece to the post-meeting press release, [...]

According to the Census Bureau, 2.8 million people commute to work 90 minutes or more each day, in each direction. Now, your daily commute may not be as long, but time spent in cars, trains and buses is time away from work and from family. Drive-time can affect a person’s Quality of Life and it’s [...]

Mortgage markets worsened last week on general profit-taking in the U.S. bond market, combined with talk of a coordinated rescue effort for Greece and its debt burden. Mortgage-backed bonds sold off, causing conventional and FHA mortgage rates to rise. There wasn’t much hard data on which to trade last week, either, so momentum took markets [...]

Consumer Sentiment has been on the rise since last February and it’s something to which home buyers should pay attention. The affordability of your next home may hinge on consumer confidence. As the economy recovers from a near-the-brink recession, many of the elements of a full recovery are in place. Business investment is returning, household [...]