As potential homebuyers struggle to find affordable houses, new construction may not be a reliable fix. Prices for newly-constructed homes outpaced median income, pricing out most Americans, according to a study from real estate tech firm Knock. Knock reported that prices for newly-constructed homes are unseasonably high, with August’s median new home price staying the same from July at $390,900. That price outpaces the national median household income, which has dropped 2.9% to $67,521 from 2019 to 2020. It is the first decline since 2011, and early forecasts show only small rebounds in 2021. “To put things in perspective, the minimum total household income for a mortgage on a $390,900, with a 6% down payment, typically falls just under $80,000,”…
By Kimberly Haas For people who are interested in finding out if their home or future home is haunted, there is a website for that. Roy Condrey, who has experience as a project manager at a software company, lives in South Carolina and is the founder and president of DiedInHouse.com. On his social media pages, Condrey and his team post information about some of the more notable houses throughout the nation, including houses where there has been paranormal activity and/or violent deaths. “The Victorian” in Gardner, Mass., was featured on the Died In House Facebook page on Oct. 27. “The S.K. Pierce Mansion, a.k.a ‘The Victorian’ in Gardner, Mass. where a man was reported to have burned to death in…
After a “lull” last week hit the brakes on an early October tidal wave, forbearances held steady this week, according to Black Knight’s blog, Vision. Approximately 19,000 homeowners exited forbearance plans this week, slightly better than last week’s dismal 7,300. Black Knight characterized last week’s slowdown as usual for the middle of the month and anticipates exits will accelerate this week as we move closer to month-end deadlines. This includes 140,000 plans facing final expiration. The number of loans in forbearance fell across all categories, with a 3,300 drop in loans held by Portfolio and PSLs, 7,700 among FHA/Va loans, and 7,900 for GSE loans. Notably, forbearance plan starts rose slightly last week, though they are still 28% lower from…
The number of “zombie” foreclosures hardly budged this quarter, though increases are expected to come, according to a report from ATTOM Data Solutions. Properties that are both vacant and in the foreclosure process, known as “zombie” properties, make up 3.3% of foreclosures. Zombie properties are most common in the Northeast and Midwest. New York has the highest rate, followed by Ohio, Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. And 7,432 property owners vacated their homes in Q2, down from 7,538 in Q3 2021 and from 7,612 in Q4 2020. That number is down both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year (YOY) in 25 states. Georgia saw a 29% drop in zombies from Q3 to Q4, while Kentucky, Illinois, Connecticut, and Oklahoma all saw drops of over…
Mortgage rates rose again over the past week, reaching 3.14%, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. Freddie’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) found that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.14%, up from last week’s 3.09%. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 2.81% “The yield on the 10-year Treasury note has been trending up due to the decline in new COVID cases, increasing consumer optimism, as well as broadening inflation and persistent shortages,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist. “Mortgage rates are also rising, but purchase demand remains firm, showing that latent purchase demand exists among consumers.” Industry experts have noted minor decreases in home prices and other factors that would point to a cool-down, but the market remains hot. The…
Mortgage fraud rose 37.2% year-over-year (YOY) through Q2, reaching pre-pandemic levels, according to CoreLogic’s latest Mortgage Fraud Report. The increases are artificially high given the significant drop in fraud during 2020, which was driven by jumps in traditionally low-risk refinances. The current level mimics mid-2019. “Refinance opportunities that surged lending volumes during the pandemic may be winding down. The outlook is for fewer low-risk refinances compared to purchases and cash-out refinances, which translates to a higher-risk environment for fraud,” said Ann Regan, executive, product management at CoreLogic. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, increasing interest rates have hampered refinance activity, with applications spiraling to their lowest point since January 2020. Purchase applications have picked up slightly. About 0.83% of all…
Houses are going from listing to contract faster, at a time in the selling cycle when they are usually slowing down. According to Redfin’s newest Housing Market Update, one-third of homes that sold in the past four weeks went under contract within seven days of hitting the market. The time it takes for a home to go under contract has been dropping for the past six weeks, despite the fact that the market usually begins to slow in the fall. Thirty-three percent of homes sold had an accepted offer within one week of listing, a 30% increase year-over-year (YOY) and up 20% from 2019. Forty-five percent of homes sold had an accepted offer within two weeks, up 3% from the…
House prices rose 1% in August and are now 18.5% higher than a year ago, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s House Price Index (FHFA HPI). “Annual house price gains remained extremely high in August but the pace of month-over-month gains continues to decelerate,” said Dr. Lynn Fisher, FHFA’s Deputy Director of the Division of Research and Statistics. “This does not mean house prices are at risk of declining—far from it, they continue to climb at a double-digit pace in all regions—but it does suggest we may have seen the peak in annual gains for the time being.” At the same time, First American released its Real House Price Index (RHPI), which showed similar results: Real house prices rose…
Mortgage loan application volume rose by just 0.3% last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) weekly survey reports. The Market Composite Index, which measures application volume, rose 0.3% on an adjusted basis. The Refinance Index fell 2% and was 26% lower than a year ago. It’s the Refinance Index’s lowest level since January 2020. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index rose 4%, while the unadjusted Purchase Index rose 3% compared to the week before, down 9% from the previous year. “Mortgage rates increased again last week, as the 30-year fixed rate reached 3.30% and the 15-year fixed rate rose to 2.59%- the highest for both in eight months. The increase in rates triggered the fifth straight decrease in refinance activity to…
Forbearances continued to drop last week, though not as dramatically as the week before. The total number of loans in forbearance dropped to 2.21% of servicers’ portfolio volume, down from 2.28% the week before, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest survey. The estimated number of homeowners in forbearance plans remains around 1.1 million. This week’s drop of seven basis points is a significant cooling compared to the prior week’s drop of 34 basis points. Black Knight reported that forbearances have entered a mid-month slowdown which they said to be unremarkable, mimicking “the same mid-month lull in removal activity that we’ve been reporting on for many months now.” MBA Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Mike Fratantoni acknowledged the…
