ARCHIVED BLOG POSTS
2013
The National Association of REALTORS reported Wednesday that pending sales of existing homes fell by 1.30 percent in July. According to the organization's Pending Home Sales Index, this was the second straight month that pending home sales dropped. July's Pending Home Sales Index reading was 109....
08/28/2013
Home prices are still rising, but at a slower pace according to the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Indices for June. Home prices for the cities surveyed in the HPI rose by 12.10 percent on an annual basis as compared to May's reading of 12.20 percent. This is the highest rate of monthly growth for ...
08/28/2013
The National Association of REALTORS reported that existing home sales for July came in at 5.39 million on a seasonally adjusted annual basis. July's reading exceeded both expectations of 5.21 million existing homes sold and June's reading of 5.06 million homes sold. This suggests good news for h...
08/26/2013
Last week brought mixed economic news, but Leading Indicators released Thursday suggest that the U.S. economy is growing at a moderate rate. Mortgage rates for fixed rate loans were higher, but the average rate for a 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage was unchanged from the prior week. Weekly jobless c...
08/26/2013
The minutes of last month's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting show significant support for tapering the Fed's current amount of monthly securities purchases. These purchases, known as quantitative easing (QE), are an effort to maintain lower long-term interest rates including mortgage ...
08/22/2013
As lenders tighten mortgage guidelines for Minneapolis/St Paul home buyers, minimum down-payment requirements are increasing. Several years ago, you could finance a home with nothing down. Today, most conventional mortgages require at least 5 - 10 percent. Incidentally, these guideline changes ...
08/21/2013
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported Thursday that its Housing Market Index rose three points to a reading of 59 for August. Confidence among builders is likely growing in connection with stronger housing markets and high demand for homes. These conditions are being driven by...
08/20/2013
Highlights of economic news from last week, include a survey of senior loan officers from U.S. and foreign banks doing business in the U.S. They indicated that banks were gradually easing lending standards for business and consumer loans, but viewed lending criteria for home loans as more restric...
08/12/2013
U.S. housing markets continue to drive the economic recovery according to data released by RealtyTrac Inc. National home prices rose by 11.90 percent year-over-year for June. 48 states reported rising home prices with only Delaware and Mississippi reporting lower home prices. Nevada led the state...
08/08/2013
The past week brought encouraging economic news from several sources. The FOMC statement indicated that the Federal Reserve has not set a date for rolling back its quantitative easing program and ADP reported more private sector jobs added than expected. While weekly jobless claims were fewer tha...
08/05/2013
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