Housing Starts, Home Prices, and Talk of an Impending Bubble?

In May, housing starts rose nationwide by 6.8 percent due to an increase in the production of multifamily homes. That equals roughly 914,000 units on a seasonally adjusted annual basis. Much of the country received wet weather in May which slowed the building of single-family homes, however despite the setback, there was an increase in permits issued for single-family units. This goes to show that housing is slowly but surely recovering.  Single-family housings starts remained at a steady pace of roughly 599,000 units in May. Builders across the country are able to respond to this demand for construction of new homes as well as rental apartments. The only problem that is keeping the new housing industry from booming is that lack of available building materials, lots and willing laborers. Despite...

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Home.com's Rebound Report for Top 100 Markets

We all know that the overall housing market is recovering well, but which markets are doing the best? Homes.com has released a "Rebound Report." It is a new housing study that details the recovery in the top 100 U.S. Markets. It provides a deeper analysis of data from their Local Market Index. It shows how far these markets have rebounded from its deepest decline in index value to its current status. According to the report, nine of the top 100 markets have completely rebounded back to the peak price levels that they were experiencing before the housing crisis. Some of the markets even increased as much as 200 percent of the decline amount! While every market was hurt during the recession, every one of those markets are now also seeing some kind of recovery. The report really highlights...

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Home Prices Continue to Increase!

We recently took at look at CoreLogic's HPI report for April. It showed that Home Prices nationwide, including distressed sales, have increased by 12.1 percent! This is on a year-over-year basis, comparing April 2013 to April 2012.  This is the biggest year-over-year increase since February 2006! April was the 14th consecutive month to see an increase in home prices.  Over the past few years, because of the recession, home prices have dropped significantly. This is one of the reasons why so many have faced foreclosure. Their homes were suddenly worth much less than they owed on them and they were unable to sell them. Once the unemployment rates went up as well, people struggled! We are thankful now that everything is stabilizing once again. We've helped so many people to refinance...

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Making Home Affordable Program is now Extended Through 2015!

Good news to start off your week: the Obama Administration's Making Home Affordable program has now been extended through December 31, 2015!  This was just announced by the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in association with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). The goal was to align the deadline with that of the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) as well as the Streamlined Modification Initiative for those with loans with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Obama Administration has been working hard to provide relief to families on the brink of foreclosure. The Making Home Affordable Program has been an integral part of the housing market recovery. This two year extension of the deadline should further aid those affected by...

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