Loan Demand Falls As Rates Rise

According to The Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Applications Survey, the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 4.80 percent last week, up from 4.77 percent the week before. The Refinance Index, after three consecutive weeks of increases, fell 15.3 percent and total loan application volume dropped 12.9 percent. Still, the four-week moving average for the Market Composite Index, measuring all loan application activity, was down just 1.0 percent. More here and here.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Home Prices Down 1.6 Percent Year Over Year

The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices through November 2010, shows home prices down 1.6 percent from a year before and 1.0 percent month-over-month. Of the 20 major-metropolitan areas tracked, Washington D.C., San Diego, San Francisco, and Los Angeles were the only cities to post year-over-year price gains. Pat Newport of IHS Global Insight said, despite the decreases, there are reasons for optimism, including rising home sales numbers and the smaller declines calculated by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which tracks the entire market rather than the 20 cities surveyed by Case-Shiller. More here.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Distressed Property Sales, First-Time Buyer Activity Jump in December

According to a Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey, distressed property sales spiked in December after dipping last fall due to foreclosure moratoriums. The Housing Pulse Distressed Property Index, which measures the share of total home sales involving distressed properties, rose to 47.2 percent from 44.5 percent in November. The survey also shows an increase in first-time homebuyer activity. First-time buyers accounted for 37.7 percent of all transactions in December, up from 34.4 percent. Thomas Popik, research director for Campbell Surveys, said the combination of increased property supply and growing homebuyer demand caused a blow-out month for home sales. More here and here.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Sales of Existing Homes Surge in December

Existing-home sales rose 12.3 percent in December, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. The increase was the fifth in six months and put sales at their highest level since the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit. Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said the pattern over the past six months shows sales are on an uptrend and the market is reaching an adequate, sustainable level. Total housing inventory fell 4.2 percent at the end of December, which represents an 8.1-month supply at the current sales pace. More here and here.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Building Permits Up 16.7 Percent, Starts Down

The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s new residential construction report for December shows a 16.7 percent increase in building permits for privately-owned housing units. The rise, in part due to changes to building codes in California, New York, and Pennsylvania, included a 5.5 percent jump in single-family authorizations. Housing starts, however, were down in December, falling 4.3 percent from November’s estimate. More here and here.

Filed under: Uncategorized