Testimonials for Blog

The harder they fall, the higher they bounce. Local real estate markets in California were among those hit hardest by the national housing crisis and recession. Entire neighborhoods were emptied by foreclosure. House values dropped like a rock. Would-be home buyers retreated back to renting, sending the entire real estate market to a screeching halt. But that was then, and this is now. In 2015, California housing markets could experience some of the biggest price gains in the country. This is according to an analysis and forecast by the economists at Zillow. Earlier this year, the real estate information service

Mortgage rates hovered at their lowest levels of the year for the third straight week this week, according to a survey published Thursday by Freddie Mac FMCC +1.14%. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage stood at 4.1% for the week ending Wednesday, according to Freddie’s survey. To get that rate, borrowers had to pay fees equal to around 0.5% of the loan amount. Mortgage rates have drifted down in recent weeks as bond yields on 10-year Treasury notes have fallen. Investors have bought government debt amid rising concerns over geopolitical instability. Few expected rates would be this low at the beginning

Home-price appreciation is slowing, a welcome trend for potential buyers but a troubling one for homeowners still looking for relief from underwater mortgages. Single-family housing prices rose 4.4% in the year that ended in the second quarter, the slowest annual pace since 2012, according to a report released Tuesday by National Association of Realtors. The association found that median prices for existing single-family homes grew year-over-year in 122 of 173 metropolitan areas it tracked, while prices declined in 47 metro areas. Only 19 areas showed double-digit year-over-year price increases, a substantial drop from the 37 cities that showed such increases

Reflecting the proliferating use of social media in today’s society, more home buyers are turning to social media in the home-buying process than ever, according to the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®’ (C.A.R.) “2014 Survey of California Home Buyers.” More than three-fourths of home buyers used social media in their home search, up from 52 percent who used it in 2011.  Buyers said they primarily used social media to obtain buying tips and suggestions from friends (44 percent), neighborhood information (44 percent), and to view their agents’ Facebook pages (42 percent). Mobile technology and the Internet continued to be important tools

Rising home prices have hiked more California homes into positive equity and increased the percentage of home owners making a profit from home sales, according to California Association of Realtors’ data. The association reported 88.4% of home sellers left closing tables with money in their pockets in April. This is the highest percentage of money making sales on a monthly basis since 2007, CAR added. The April percentage was slightly higher than the 87.4% of California real estate sales that made money in March and 13 points higher than April of last year, the association said. April was the tenth

Nearly 10 million U.S. households remain stuck in homes worth less than their mortgage and a similar number have so little equity they can’t meet the expenses of selling a home, trends that help explain recent sluggishness in the housing recovery. At the end of the first quarter, some 18.8% of U.S. homeowners with a mortgage—9.7 million households—were “underwater” on their mortgage, according to a report scheduled for release Tuesday by real-estate information site Zillow. While that is an improvement from 19.4% at the end of last year and a peak of 31.4% 2012, those figures understate the problem. In addition

Late yesterday China released its April economic data and here’s the tale it tells of the property sector is of concern. New starts contracted 15% year on year (vs. -21.9% in March), property sales fell 14.3% year on year (vs. -7.5% in March); and land sales (by area) fell 20.5% year on year (vs. -16.9% in March). This chart is from Society Generale: The greater risk to China lies in the pervasive consequences of any property bust. Property investment has grown to account for about 13 per cent of gross domestic product, roughly double the US share at the height of

One in three buyers of U.S. homes is paying cash, a record high number, according to data made available to McClatchy. The trend is being driven by retiring baby boomers and rich investors, who unlike most first-time buyers can bypass tighter lending requirements to pay cash. They now rule the roost, composing record percentages of residential home sales. It’s meant the field is closed off for conventional purchasers in some hot markets, but in others it’s meant forward momentum for the struggling housing sector. All-cash sales as a percentage of residential real estate sales stood at 33 percent from January