The spring season typically runs March through June but may have started early this year because of unseasonably warm weather.

While last year was dismal for existing home sales, this year is looking better. Existing home sales in February were up 9% from the same time a year ago, as was the Pending Home Sale Index, which reflects signed contracts leading to sales, says the National Association of Realtors.

Meanwhile, Realtors’ confidence in the single-family home market is the highest in four years, according to a late February NAR survey of 4,300 agents. Coldwell Banker says its website’s traffic was up 47% in February from last year.

This spring season “will be the best in four or five years,” says economist Paul Dales of Capital Economics.

Source: USA Today “This springs home buying season could be best in years” April 02, 2012

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year loan dropped to 3.99% from 4.08% last week. Last month, the rate touched 3.87%, the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.

The average rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage also fell, to 3.23%. That’s down from 3.30% last week and above the record low of 3.13% hit earlier this month.

The low rates have made home-buying and refinancing more affordable at a time when the housing market is flashing small signs of improvement. Still, most economists say it will take years for the market to fully recover from the housing bust.

Source:  USA Today “Mortgage Rates Dip, Helping Homebuyers” March 30, 2012

Existing-home sales increased 4.3% in January from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.57 million, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. It was the third increase in the past four months and the highest level of sales since May 2010, when the housing market was lifted by federal tax credits. Compared with January a year ago, sales rose 0.7%.

The housing market has been one of the weakest parts of the U.S. economy, but there are signs it is starting to recover after a price collapse that began 5½ years ago. In 2011, about 4.26 million homes were sold, up 1.7% from 4.19 million in 2010.

Source: Wall Street Journal “Home resales climb higher” 2/23/12

One of the factors leading to higher fixed mortgage rates this week was signs of a gradually improving housing market, Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft says. For example, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported this week that seriously delinquent loans — those 90 days or more past due — and the inventory of foreclosures dropped 5.3 percent by the end of 2011, marking the lowest quarterly share since the beginning of 2009. Also, the National Association of REALTORS® reported this week that existing-home sales in January were at their strongest pace since May 2010.

Here’s a closer look at how rates fared for the week ending Feb. 23:

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.95 percent, with an average 0.8 point, up slightly from last week’s all-time low of 3.87 percent. A year ago, 30-year rates averaged 4.95 percent.
• 15-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.19 percent, with an average 0.8 point, inching up from last week’s 3.16 percent average. Last year, 15-year rates averaged 4.22 percent at this time.
• 5-year adjustable-rate mortgages: averaged 2.80 percent this week, with an average 0.7 point, dropping from last week’s 2.82 percent average. Last year, 5-year ARMs averaged 3.80 percent at this time.
• 1-year ARMs: averaged 2.73 percent, with an average 0.6 point, also dropping from last week’s 2.84 percent average. A year ago at this time, 1-year ARMs averaged 3.40 percent.

Source: Freddie Mac

The Commerce Department said Thursday that 302,000 new homes were sold in 2011, 6.2% below the 323,000 new homes sold the year before.

On a seasonally adjusted annual rate basis, the number of new homes sold in December was 307,000, a decline of 2.2% from the previous month and 7.3% below the number sold in December a year ago.

The median sales prices of new homes sold in December was $210,300; the average sales price was $266,000. And based on government estimates, there is a supply of 6.1 months worth of homes for sale at the current sales rate.

Source:  USA Today “December new home sales fall, 30 year mortgages rise” January 26, 2012

Foreclosures accounted for a smaller share of total sales as banks already glutted with properties slowed the pace of new seizures until they could unload the houses they already owned. The share of distressed sales also slowed last year following a slowdown in new foreclosures after consumer complaints and lawsuits challenging seizures that resulted from “robo-signing” and other questionable document practices.

Distressed sales fall into roughly two categories: properties already owned by banks and those at various stages of foreclosures, some of which may be sold in a “short sale” before the foreclosure is final. Once owners have moved out, bankers who own the property are much more willing to cut prices because they now bear the cost of maintaining it. Compared to a non-distressed sale, the average discount for a bank-owned property was nearly 42 percent in the third quarter of 2011, according to RealtyTrac. That compares with a discount of just 24 percent for properties earlier in the foreclosure pipeline.

Source: MSNBC “Foreclosures pushing home prices” January 26, 2012

1104 Mishawaka Avenue | South Bend, IN 46615

Recovery is expected to be slow, and home prices are widely expected to fall this year. But investors are betting on the start of an upturn, bidding up home builder stocks and causing them to outperform the broader stock market.

Market researcher RBC Capital Markets has also turned from a “bearish” view on housing to saying that 2012 “will mark a step in the right direction.”

USA Today “Optimism builds in housing market” January 16, 2012

Total filings, including default notices and bank repossessions were down 33% for the year to 2.7 million, according to RealtyTrac, the online marketer of foreclosed properties.

One in every 69 homes had at least one foreclosure filing during the year, while 804,000 homes were repossessed. That’s a significant improvement from the peaks reached in 2010 — when 1.05 million homes were repossessed — and the lowest levels seen since 2007.

More than 4 million homes have been lost to foreclosure over the past five years.

Source:  CNN Money “Foreclosure rates plunge in 2011” January 12, 2012

“The real test of the distress plateau is likely to be seen in 2012 and 2013, when about $300 billion in loans comes due each year,” according to a recent article in the Washington Post.

At $41.9 billion, the office sector continues to have the largest number of distressed commercial properties. But that number has been steadily declining — about 11.8 percent less than its peak reached in October 2010.

The apartment sector has the second-highest level of distressed commercial properties with $35.6 billion in troubled loans, according to the Washington Post article. Land and other property types have about $29.8 billion in distressed assets.

The metro areas with the largest number of commercial properties in distress is Manhattan, in which the total volume of distress properties stands at $11.8 billion, followed by L.A.-Orange County with $10 billion. Meanwhile, Houston has the lowest at $111 per capita.

Source:  Washington Post “Amount of Distressed Real Estate Could be on Way Down” 11/26/2011