Student Debt Impacting US Economy
JupiterImages/Comstock Images(NEW YORK) — According to a recent study, students should consider the statistics before taking out a loan to help pay for college.Two-thirds of students take out loans to pay for college, and their combined debt could hav…
Lumber Prices Jump with Housing Market Recovery
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — With lumber prices on the rise, analysts are watching whether the commodity could cause a logjam in the recovery of the housing market.Housing prices have risen for six months in a row, according to the latest data f…
Shortage of Construction Workers as Housing Market Improves
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Construction jobs are coming back, but where are the workers? The revival of the housing market and commercial real estate has many contractors scrambling to find qualified workers. “The crunch is a…
Man Buys 650 Foreclosures: How Much Did He Pay?
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(MACOMB COUNTY, Mich.) — Until a year ago, Bill McMachen, 71, had never bought or sold a foreclosed home. Then in 2011 he bought one for $12,000 and flipped it a week later for $18,000. “That went pretty good,” he say…
Existing Home Sales Declined in June
Phillip Spears/Digital Vision(WASHINGTON) — The housing market lost some steam in June as existing home prices fell by 5.4 percent from the prior month, although prices continued to rise.According to the National Association of Realtors, existing home…
Mortgage Rates Hit Another Record Low
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — The average fixed mortgage rates reached all-time record lows again following June’s poor unemployment report.
Freddie Mac reported the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 3.56 percent for the week ending Jul…
Housing Revival: Fewer Homes Underwater
Creatas/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — For the first time since the deep slump began more than five years ago, a new report from the business information and analytics firm Core Logic says fewer Americans have negative equity in their homes.In the first three…
Foreclosure Crisis Remains Despite Housing Market Gains
Stockbyte/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — In what may be the closest thing yet to an official pronouncement that the housing market has finally started to get better, economists are increasingly saying that despite a slow down in the foreclosure recovery, the …
Mega-Rich Foreigners Heat Up Miami’s Luxury Condo Market
George Doyle/Stockbyte/Thinkstock(MIAMI) — Miami’s luxury real estate market is a crystal-chandeliered world of multi-million-dollar condo deals, where prospective buyers roll up to open houses in Lamborghinis or on 70-foot-long yachts. It’s not…
Mortgage Rates Boast Six Week Streak of Record Lows
Zoonar/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — The average rate on a 30-year mortgage dropped to a record-low of 3.67 percent, while the 15-year rate is down to 2.94 percent. This is the sixth straight week of record lows for fixed rate mortgages.Homeowners are not …
Many Americans with Mortgages Still Underwater
Hemera/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Nearly a third of homeowners with a mortgage are underwater, according to a new report, owing more on their loans than their properties are worth.”It’s been a very wrenching housing recession so it’s not something that …
Mortgage Rates Fall Again
Zoonar/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Right now could be the best time to buy a home – if you qualify. Prices are close to 10-year lows in most markets, and rates for 30-year fixed mortgages are at their cheapest ever.Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac says t…
Home Sales Jump 3.4% in April
Stockbyte/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — The long-suffering housing market is showing new signs of life, with Americans buying more previously owned homes in April. The report is another hopeful sign the housing market is at long last improving.&ldquo…
Housing: Builder Sentiment Improves, but Still Fairly Low
Brand X Pictures/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — A new report from the National Association of Home Builders is the latest sign the worst of the housing slump may be over.Builder confidence is at a five-year high; the best it’s been since May 2007, acc…
Obama Heads to Nevada to Claim Progress on Housing
Creatas/Thinkstock(LOS ANGELES) – President Obama on Friday will visit a Reno, Nev., neighborhood hit hard by the housing crisis to hail a success story in his efforts to turn things around. Six months ago, from the porch of a Las Vegas home 400 …
Mortgage Rates Fall to Another Record Low
Digital Vision/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Another week and another record low for mortgage rates. The average rate for a 30-year fixed loan fell to 3.83 percent in the week ended Thursday, Freddie Mac said in a statement.The average 15-year rate fell to…
Foreclosure Activity Rose in Major US Cities During First Quarter
iStockPhoto/Thinkstock(IRVINE, Calif.) — Foreclosure activity rose during the first quarter of this year in more than half of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, RealtyTrac reported on Thursday.”Some of those included Pittsburgh, which was up 49 …
Housing Market to Hit Bottom by Late 2012, Report Suggests
Phillip Spears/Digital Vision(SEATTLE) — Online real estate marketplace Zillow said home values rose 0.5 percent in March from February, the largest monthly increase since May 2006 when the housing recession began.Zillow’s report describing the …