Congress has indicated that all the write-offs homeowners enjoyed in the past are set to expire at the end of the year and see no further relief any time soon. Last year, Congress decided at the last minute to extend assistance for mortgage debt and deductions for mortgage insurance payments. Currently, The House and Senate […]
RealtyTrac recently reported that a total of 14% of residential sales in the last year derived from people or institutions buying 10 or more residential properties. This is the highest level since RealtyTrac began tracking home purchases two years ago. Forty-nine percent of last month’s home sales were all-cash, up from 40% in August and […]
Citing a shrinking number of homes available on the market, the National Association of REALTORs announced recently that existing home sales fell last month. The lack of availability has also resulted in higher home sales prices. The NAR reported that existing home sales declined 0.6% from a downwardly revised 4.95 million units in February to […]
This year has seen a stronger housing market. Most of the recovery can be attributed to record-low interest rates but one of the reasons for this improvement is the number of distressed homes being bought. Homeowners, who saw rising home prices as more houses were coming off the market, turned to foreclosure and short sales […]
RealtyTrac recently reported that short sales outpaced foreclosure sales in 2012 by a 3-to-1 margin. While foreclosure sales accounted for 11% of all sales — a 13% drop from 2011 — short sales made up 32% of all sales last year, a 5% year-over-year gain. In the fourth quarter of 2012, foreclosures sold at a […]
Hope Now, a consortium of mortgage servicers, investors, insurers and housing non-profits, recently released a report showing that 850,034 mortgages were modified in 2012 as the number of foreclosures and delinquencies declined. That is a decrease from 2011, when there were 1.05 million loan mods. Of the modifications that were completed last year, 661,362 were […]
What seems to be lost in the news about the housing market — between the talk about rising home sales and record-low mortgage rates — is the question as to whether Congress will extend 2007 Mortgage Relief Act. In 2007, then-U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law this act in order to boost short […]