Home prices in Dallas, Texas, have surged over the last year, with experts pointing to the “severe shortage of inventory” as the cause.
According to the MetroTex Association of Realtors, the media price of a home in Dallas was 12.3 percent higher in December 2014 than it was at the same time the year before.
“Buyers are seeing sticker shock, but they’re buying anyway,” said Laura Barnett of RE/MAX DFW Associates.
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The two most popular real estate search engines now reside under one roof, as Zillow has completed its acquisition of Trulia.
According to CNBC, shares of Zillow rose more than 10 percent on Wednesday, as a result of the news of potential cost-cutting.
“The synergy potential here is significant,” Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff told the news outlet. “There will be significant cost savings as a result of that.”
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United States Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Tuesday that he has given his fellow U.S. attorneys 90 days to determine whether they may be able to bring cases against any individuals for their roles in the 2008 financial crisis.
Federal prosecutors have already brought charges against several institutions and will now investigate individual employees for potential criminal or civil charges, Reuters explains.
Holder is set to leave office soon, so the decision whether the prosecute will ultimately be left up to Loretta Lynch, who is set to replace him.
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The Urban Institute reported on Monday that nearly one in three FHA borrowers could save a significant amount of money over the course of their home loans if they were to refinance today.
With President Barack Obama’s proposed 0.5 percentage point cut in the Federal Housing Administration’s annual Mortgage Insurance Premium, combined with today’s historically low mortgage interest rates, current borrowers could stand to save nearly 1 percent if they refinance now.
“In general, borrowers stand to save money by refinancing if the new mortgage rate and the new FHA premiums, combined, result in a 0.75 percent reduction or more in annual mortgage costs,” Metro Trends bloggers Karan Kaul and Laurie Goodman wrote. “Some borrowers are more conservative, of course, and might wait until their annual mortgage cost savings hits 1 percent to refinance, resulting in less refinance activity. Other borrowers are aggressive and might jump in when they stand to gain only 0.5 percent, which would result in more refinance activity.”
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Bank of America Corp., Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have begun accelerating the sales of $4.5 billion worth of home loans, Bloomberg Business is reporting.
According to Mission Capital Advisors, the loans are made up of various types of troubled debt, including nonperforming loans, home-equity lines of credit and some re-performing mortgages.
“We’re seeing a lot of regional banks pick up loan sales in response to Basel III regulations,” Mission Capital’s managing director Luis Vergara told Bloomberg.
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The overall housing market in Miami bounced back for a record year in 2014 – with the sales of single-family homes rising 7.7 percent in the fourth quarter from the same period in 2013.
But one area of the market that didn’t fare so well was the sale of condominiums, which fell 3.3 percent.
And, according to CNBC writer Diana Olick, what’s most troubling about the condo numbers is that there are more than 41,000 new Miami condo units either in the planning, approval and construction stages currently.
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In a new report out Thursday, the Urban Institute identified the top five forces that have contributed to the consistent downward trend of mortgage interest rates over the last year and a half.
According to Metro Trends writers Ellen Seidman and Wei Li, the five main factors are: slow growth and turmoil abroad; upheaval in the oil market; the steady improvement of the US economy; low Treasury rates; and reduced demand for mortgages.
“There certainly are forces pushing mortgage interest rates in the opposite direction, most notably the tapering of the Federal Reserve’s purchases of mortgage-backed securities (MBS),” Seidman and Li wrote. “But so far, these forces have not been sufficient to shop the downward trend in mortgage interest rates.”
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Julian Castro, the Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary, told the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday that he believes the Federal Housing Administrations (FHA) made the right decision last month when it announced it would be reducing its mortgage insurance premiums.
The half-point premium reduction is expected to save two million households more than $2 billion over the next three years, as well as attract more than 250,000 new borrowers to the housing market.
“With FHA firmly on the right track, our responsibility now is to provide responsible borrowers, who are ready to buy, with affordable options to purchase a home,” Castro said.
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Fannie Mae’s National Housing Survey shows increasing optimism in the market, as employment and economic conditions have improved.
29% of respondents stated that their income has increased significantly over the last 12 months.
48% of respondents said that they expect their financial position to improve in the next year.
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Home values are rising, and homeowners are becoming tempted to invest home-equity in the stock market.
Investors should know their risks, understand relationships with banks, and pay attention to differing fees.
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