Author: Brad Beckett

The Commerce Department reported this week that privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in September were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,225,000. This is 6.3% above the revised August rate of 1,152,000 and is 8.5% higher than September 2015.  Single-family authorizations in September were at a rate of 739k which is 0.4% higher than August.  Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 449,000 in September.  Privately-owned housing starts in September were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,047,000.  This is 9% lower than August’s estimate of 1,150,000 and…

Mortgage insurance leader Arch MI recently released their Fall 2016 Housing and Mortgage Market Review that says the likelihood of U.S. home price declines over the next two years remains low.  The report, which analyzes key economic data, provides housing sector forecasts and information on long-term trends, pegs the chance of price declines at 4%, down from 6% predicted one year ago.  Bottom line;  they say even strong dynamics are now in place that will continue pushing up home prices faster than the rate if inflation for the foreseeable future. Click here to download the full report at Arch MI.

According to data form the National Association of Realtors Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, the median seller tenure has steadily increased since 1985, where it was 5 years compared to 9 in 2015.  The highest value was in 2014 when it crept up to 10 years. “…market changes in the last decade have caused sellers to remain in their homes longer, increasing the median number of years in the home by 50 percent more than they did 20-30 years prior.” Click here to read the full story on the NAR’s Economist Outlook blog.

What style of home best defines an “American” home?  The folks over at Realtor.com took a look at the different architectural styles of homes all across the country as well as their median prices.  What style that is most prevalent?  The ranch home – which is the most popular style in 29 of 50 states and can be built quickly, inexpensively and easily customized.  That was followed by the Traditional, which, not surprisingly, tends to dominate the South. “Most regional architectural styles in the United States have their roots both in history and in the environment: They grew out of…

We’ve seen the data from Corelogic showing that foreclosures continue to drop nationwide.  Recently the folks over at Keeping Current Matters put it all into perspective with an infographic illustrating how foreclosure rates have dropped to pre-crisis lows.  Happy Friday!! Some key takeaways: Only 2.9% of homes are in serious delinquency, down 17.1% from July 2015. This is the 57th consecutive month with a year-over-year decline. The national foreclosure rate has returned to August 2007 levels, at only 0.9%. Hat tip to Keeping Current Matters.

The folks over at HomeUnion recently analyzed just how far a $100k down payment (25%) would go in the most sought-after investment housing markets.  Their new report analyzed what $400k would buy in Jacksonville, Dallas, Atlanta, Charlotte and Austin.  Then they compared their findings with what can be purchased for the same price in Denver, Washington, D.C., Seattle, New York and Oakland.  A good example was Jacksonville, Florida where investors who leveraged a $400k investment in rental properties get twice as much space, and collected 1.5 times the rent as those buying a similarly priced condo in New York City.…

This week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit struck down provisions of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) as being unconstitutional by saying that it gives too much power to the agency’s director.  The decision was in response to lawsuit filed by mortgage lender PHH which had been the recipient of a $109 million enforcement action from the CFPB – which had amended an administration judge’s penalty of $6.4 million.  Regarding constitutionality, the appeals court ruled that the law creating the CFPB violated the separation of powers clause and that the agency needs to be…

This week data powerhouse CoreLogic released their National Foreclosure Report showing that there were 37k completed foreclosures in August, down 42.4% from one year ago.  Nationwide there were approximately 351k homes in foreclosure (down 29.6% year over year) representing 0.9% of all homes with a mortgage – the lowest inventory rate since 2007.  The five states (representing 35% of all foreclosures) with the largest number of foreclosed homes were;  Florida (55k), Texas (27k), Ohio (23k), California (22k) and Georgia (21k). “Foreclosure inventory fell by 30 percent from the previous year, the largest year-over-year decline since January 2015,” said Dr. Frank…

The Scotsman Guide is reporting that resetting home equity lines of credit (HELOC’s) that originated during the housing bubble are no longer expected to negatively affect the housing market’s recovery as previous news stories indicated.  There were many stories (a few reported here) over the past year indicating a potential ticking time bomb from HELOC’s originated between 2005-2008 that were expected to reset between 2015 and 2018.   The Scotsman Guide says those fears “have proven to be overblown” because most borrowers have either paid off their loans or have been able to handle the extra payments. “I still hear from…

89 Percent Of Investors Want To Put Money In Real Estate A New Survey Shows By John Triplett, National REIA A new survey shows 89 percent of U.S. investors are interested in putting their money into real estate to benefit their family in some way and want to be geographically close to their investments, according to a release. The survey shows 80 percent of investors believe a real estate portfolio is one of the best financial legacies they could leave for their family. The new survey says that family is a driving motivation behind real estate investments, much more so…