More generations are living under the same roof and the trend will deepen as U.S. families grappling with near double-digit unemployment share expenses, a study showed Monday. Demand is escalating for multi-generational housing as buyers scale down during the deepest housing crisis since the Great Depression, according to a survey by Coldwell Banker Real Estate [...]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Changes to the way U.S. homes are financed are not likely to take place until next year at the earliest, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday.
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EVEN a cursory glance at recent events in commercial real estate would make you think the next big collapse is upon us. First, there was the default last month by Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock Realty on billions of dollars in loans on Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, the huge apartment complexes in Manhattan. When the deal [...]
Mortgage rates, which many feared would rise sharply when the Federal Reserve stops propping up the market at the end of March, may actually not budge much at all, analysts say. But the longer-term impact of the Fed’s pullback from the mortage market is less certain, they add.
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Simon Property, the largest U.S. real estate investment trust, made Tuesday what it called a $10 billion offer for the bankrupt General Growth Properties that would pay creditors back in full and end one of the largest U.S. bankruptcies on record.
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U.S. mortgage applications fell for a third straight week, with demand for home purchase loans sinking to the lowest level in 13 years as inclement weather weighed, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday. A continued drop in demand for purchase loans, a tentative early indicator of home sales, would not bode well for [...]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sales of newly built U.S. single-family homes unexpectedly fell to a record low in January, while mortgage demand for purchases hit a 13-year low last week, fanning fears of renewed housing market weakness.
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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Under pressure to do more for troubled homeowners, President Obama is expected to announce on Friday a $1.5 billion program to help borrowers in the five states hit hardest by the housing crisis. The initiative calls for pumping money into state housing agencies in California, Arizona, Nevada, Florida and Michigan to [...]
If lenders deny loan-modification applications for homeowners with negative cash flow, how is it possible for anyone to get approved? Lew Sichelman details the five criteria lenders use in deciding on a loan modification.
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U.S. home prices unexpectedly slipped in December but the annual rate of decline slowed, reinforcing the housing market’s rocky road to recovery, Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller indexes showed on Tuesday. The S&P composite index of home prices in 20 metropolitan areas declined 0.2 percent in December, matching the dip in November, for a 3.1 percent annual [...]
U.S. mortgage rates dropped for a second consecutive week, remaining below 5.0 percent, a key level that may boost home loan demand, a closely watched mortgage survey showed on Thursday. The lowest mortgage rates in decades and high affordability helped the hard-hit housing market find some footing last year after a three-year slump.
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HENDERSON, Nevada (Reuters) – President Barack Obama used a campaign push for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Friday to announce a new fund to support homeowners in five states hit hardest by the U.S. housing crisis. Housing was at the center of the financial crisis that threw the U.S. economy into [...]
The central bank is helping to keep rates low and fund loans for home buyers and refinancers, but in March it plans to end its support.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Housing starts showed signs of life in January, rising to their highest level in seven months, according to Commerce Department data released Wednesday. Starts rose 2.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 591,000, the highest level since July. Starts were in line with the forecasts of economists surveyed by MarketWatch. Housing [...]
It should come as no surprise to anyone following the housing crash that the government’s $75 billion Making Home Affordable program, a.k.a. mortgage bailout, is not all things to all borrowers.
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Applications for U.S. home mortgages fell slightly last week even as interest rates held near record low levels below 5 percent, an industry group said on Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity decreased 2.1 percent to 600.5 in the week ended Feb. 12.
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Bank of America tripled its number of permanent loan modifications in just one month, from 3,183 in mid January to 12,760 today. It also has 221,395 “active trial modifications,” up from 200,287 in the January report.
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BREAKING NEWS!
The Federal Reserve said on Thursday it was raising the interest rate it charges banks for emergency loans, citing improvement in financial market conditions. The Fed said the discount rate would be increased to 0.75 percent from 0.50 percent, effective Friday.
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If you’re among the many looking to buy foreclosures at auction, don’t have any fear the decline in filings over the past several months will rob you of your chance at a fabulous buy.
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ServiceMagic.com, a site that connects homeowners with home-service professionals, said the number of remodeling service requests at the Web site rose by 37% in the fourth quarter of 2009, compared with the fourth quarter of 2008. There were large spikes in requests in areas that had some of the country’s highest foreclosure rates.
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