Mortgage Rates End the Year Near Record Lows
Home buyer affordability continues to be pushed higher due to mortgage rates remaining at record lows, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey.
Home buyer affordability continues to be pushed higher due to mortgage rates remaining at record lows, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey.
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The “government, the mortgage industry, and forces of nature all shook the housing market in 2011,” according to a recent Time magazine article, which highlights the key issues that had the greatest impact on the real estate market this year–and what’s expected to have a major impact in the new year as well.
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Housing analysts are expecting home prices to stabilize in 2012, but that doesn’t mean that buyers and sellers won’t continue to be at odds over home prices in the new year. While buyers are feeling good about the housing market and saying its a great time to buy, seller sentiment is falling to record low, a new report by the Mortgage Bankers Association shows. Sellers say they are unhappy because they’re unable to snag the prices for the home that they want.
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Good news spread Thursday for home builders, home improvement companies, and mortgage lenders, as stocks ticked up after the National Association of REALTORS® released a new report showing that pending home sales in November reached their highest level in a year-and-a-half.
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Lenders are increasingly becoming more accepting over short sales as they seek more solutions to help struggling home owners avoid foreclosure, according to a recent article at MSNBC.com. “Foreclosure sales are pretty devastating,” Faith Schwartz, executive director of Hope Now, a resource for cash-strapped home owners, told MSNBC.com. “We’d much prefer a [loan] modification, but if [home owners] don’t quality, then the next best alternative is deed-in-lieu or short sales.”
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