Housing markets are complex and varied, and a government pilot program to turn bank-owned properties into rentals could be disruptive and counterproductive in some markets, according to the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR).
NAR urged the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to proceed cautiously with its Real Estate-Owned (REO) …
The Mortgage Forgiveness Relief Act of 2007 was passed by Congress to avoid additional financial hardship that some homeowners might experience due to a foreclosure or short sale. The law affects mortgage relief that occurs from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2012
Normally, IRS considers partial or …
Q: What is a lease option?
A: It is an agreement between a renter and a landlord in which the renter signs a lease with an option to purchase the property. The option only binds the seller; the tenant has a choice to make a purchase or not.
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CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX), a leading provider of information, analytics and business services, today released its National Foreclosure Report for January, which provides monthly data on completed foreclosures, foreclosure inventory and 90+ delinquency rates. There were 69,000 completed foreclosures in January 2012, compared to 80,000 in January 2011, and 65,000 in …
For the first time in six years, sellers’ asking prices tracked by the Department of Numbers Website have gone positive on a year-to-year basis, another sign that the housing economy is slowly healing itself.
Sellers’ asking prices nationally first showed a positive year over year gain in December, …
The Housing Affordability Index was developed over thirty years ago to help consumers determine when it is a good time to buy a home. It's considered advantageous to the buyer when the index is over 100 because a median income family can qualify for a median price home.
View MoreFreddie Mac (OTC: FMCC) recently released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing fixed-rate mortgages at or near their 60-year lows helping to drive record high homebuyer affordability. The 15-year fixed, a popular choice among refinance borrowers, averaged a new all-time record low of 3.13 percent.
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Housing affordability conditions have reached the highest level since recordkeeping began in 1970, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.
NAR's Housing Affordability Index rose to a record high 206.1 in January, based on the relationship between median home price, median family income and average mortgage interest rate. The …
Q: Can I contest my property taxes?
A: Many people do, mainly because determining value can often be tricky. This is especially true in a changing market when local prices either take off dramatically or plunge precipitously, like during the Texas oil bust of the 1980s.
While it …
Low mortgage rates and monetary policy lowered the UFA Default Risk Index for the first quarter of 2012, which has now reached its lowest level since 2005, before the housing bust.
Now at 128, the index fell from last quarter’s revised 129. Under current economic conditions, investors in mortgage …