News / Features
For the second month in a row, new home sales were down monthly but up yearly, increasing 11.4 percent from February 2011 but decreasing 1.6 percent from January 2012’s revised rate of 318,000, according to data just released today
The Architecture Billings Index (ABI), a leading economic indicator of future construction activity, reported positive numbers yet again in February, marking the fourth straight month that the index has been in such territory, according to the most recent press release from the American Institute of
Research firm CoreLogic released its latest residential shadow inventory study yesterday, reporting that the ever-nebulous sector of housing in January 2012 stood at 1.6 million units, or a six months’
The news cycles have been been abound with positive developments in construction the past couple weeks (and we’ll have a new issue on construction out on Monday), but the Wall Street Journal has just reported on perhaps the most encouraging detail of all
Two developments in the foreclosure market this week, one involving completions and the other construction, have shown that housing is slowly but surely working its way through the distressed inventories that have long plagued the
Existing-home sales continued their strong year-over-year increases with the latest data for February, as sales rose 8.8 percent from last year to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 4.59 million, according to the National Association of
Standard & Poor’s continued what has been an entire month of credit-friendly news with its reports on first-time default rates, which declined on consumer credit for the second straight month while nonpayments on second lien mortgages hit a new
Throughout most of 2011, the finances at the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) received considerable media attention, with analysts and politicians alike predicting the end of the agency. An recent infusion of funds was thought to have alleviated those concerns, but new
The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development released hugely promising data on February building permits earlier today, reporting a 5.1 percent increase from January and 34.3 percent increase from last year at an annual rate
The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) maintained its highest level since June 2007 in March, with the national measure holding steady at 28 and gaining two points in the Midwest to settle at
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced late last week that it has granted $42 million in restored housing counseling funds in the last three months, a reduction of the agency’s normal timeline by 70 percent. According
The U.S. Treasury Department says it has sold off the final portion of $225 billion in mortgage-backed securities it purchased during the height of the financial crisis, and in addition, the sales of securities issued, primarily by troubled mortgage
Overall home sale data for February is still a few days away, but economists surveyed by Bloomberg are already anticipating a decent uptick in sales for the month. According to the economists, sales – bolstered by gains in jobs
Real estate is an industry of hyper-local interests, and few sectors of the market better demonstrate that than construction. Though some builders are growing, and raising prices as a result, others are still pursuing incentives, such as price cuts,
The Bipartisan Policy Center made a splash earlier this month with a wide-ranging study of the Echo Boomer generation that highlighted many of the demographic, economic and sociological factors that would contribute to the generation’s economic impact, and it
A new survey by FreeScore.com has uncovered a most interesting anomaly in the housing landscape – although 22.1 percent of homeowners are underwater on their mortgages, according to CoreLogic, more than 70 percent are unaware of government programs created specifically to
