There’s been a bit of talk in some circles about how new, lower “high balance conforming loan limits” that go into effect on October 1st going to somehow dramatically affect the local housing market (presumably in a bad way). In order to get a sense of scope on how many sales might be affected by…
Category: National
National News
The Problem with Real Estate Reporting
I was browsing Google News this morning and came across the headline combo you see below: What a perfect example of the problem with most real estate reporting. Same data, polar opposite headlines. Reporters telling the story they want to tell, regardless of what is actually going on in the market. So did pending sales…
Friday Flashback: “The era of record-low rates is over.”
Heh, remember this piece from April of last year? Homebuyers scramble as mortgage rates jump The era of record-low mortgage rates is over. The average rate on a 30-year loan has jumped from about 5 percent to more than 5.3 percent in just the past week. As mortgages get more expensive, more would-be homeowners are…
REO Roundup: The Long, Slow Path to Market Clearing
A handful of non-number-based stories about foreclosures have popped up lately that I thought might be interesting to highlight here for discussion. First up, Diana Olick with CNBC: Vacant Homes Will Drown Housing Recovery A real estate source I knew recently told me about a guy he knows in Atlanta who has been hired by…
Weekend Reads from Across the Spectrum
Here are a few recent articles of interest that I thought might be worth discussion. Calculated Risk: The upward slope of Real House Prices I don’t think we have to choose between real prices and price-to-rent graphs to ask “how far out of line are house prices?” I think they are both showing that prices…