Fewer Dallas-area homeowners are seriously behind in their mortgage payments. In June, 5.41 percent of area residents with a home loan were 90 days or more late in payments, researchers at CoreLogic said Wednesday. That’s down from a peak 6.09 percent serious loan delinquency rate in February. But it’s still higher than the 4.59 percent rate a year earlier. Dallas-area mortgage delinquencies are well below the nationwide 8.05 percent average. Borrowers who haven’t paid their home loan in 90 days or more are considered most likely to lose the property. The percentage of local homeowners in foreclosure at 1.43 percent is less than half the nationwide average in June, CoreLogic found.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Report: Fewer Dallas-area homeowners behind on mortgages
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
US home prices pick up in May
Home prices in the US climbed higher than expected in May as the housing market benefited from the last drops of federal stimulus ahead of summer, but tumbling consumer confidence showed growing fears about the economic recovery. The closely watched S&P/Case-Shiller index showed house prices in the biggest US cities had risen 4.6 per cent in May from the same month a year earlier. That was stronger than economists had predicted and marked the biggest year-on-year increase since 2006. “While May’s report on its own looks somewhat positive, a broader look at home price levels over the past year still does not indicate that the housing market is in any form of sustained recovery,” said David Blitzer, chairman of S&P’s index committee. “Since reaching its recent trough in April 2009, the housing market has really only stabilised at this lower level.” From April to May, prices rose consistently across the 20 key markets that Case-Shiller tracks. May is traditionally one of the busiest months for buying homes, and only Las Vegas, where prices have fallen by 6.5 per cent in the past year, registered a monthly decline. Mr Blitzer cautioned that home prices could “bounce along the bottom for the foreseeable future” and that the expiration of stimuli such as the first-time homebuyer tax credit, which affected house purchases that closed before the start of July, could weigh on the sector. Home sales and housing starts have both been weak in recent months and high rates of foreclosure and distressed sales are depressing prices.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Bargains, low mortgage rates boost Dallas-area home sales in 2010
Home sales and prices were up in the first half of the year in most Dallas-area residential districts. The big question is: Will it last? Some real estate agents who pound the streets representing buyers and sellers say business is still pretty good – even without the federal tax credits that fueled so much homebuying earlier this year. "I'm written a ton of contracts in the past 2 ½ weeks," said Scott Schueler of Keller Williams Realty. "The bulk of my business right now is first-time buyers." The tax credits, which ran out at the end of April, were especially appealing to those first-time buyers. But finance rates at near-record lows are keeping them interested. "The low interest rates are appealing to everybody," said Lydia Player of Virginia Cook Realtors. Player said worries about the economy are being trumped by bargains in many neighborhoods. "People are still feeling a little uncertain about the economy," she said. "But there are so many good deals out there, they can't pass them up. "The prices of the properties right now are as good as we are going to see," Player said. "The general feeling is we have hit rock bottom." Prices are starting to rebound. Median home sales prices were up in the first half of 2010 from a year ago in all but a dozen Dallas-area residential districts tracked by The Dallas Morning News. Overall prices in the area were up an average 7 percent from a year earlier.
It's Great Time for Housing Deals
Paying off an underwater mortgage and buying a better home could be the best tactic in this troubled market.
"If you are trading up, what better time than when interest rates are at record lows and the cost of the trade-up is much less than it used to be?" says Christopher J. Mayer, a Columbia Business School economist.
With 15-year fixed-rate mortgages at about 4.5 percent, it also makes sense to pay off the mortgage and keep the house. "At this point," says Jay Brinkmann, chief economist of the Mortgage Bankers Association in Washington, D.C., "if they don't have anything else that is bringing a tremendous return, then they are buying themselves an annuity by paying their house off sooner than they needed to."
Source: The Wall Street Journal, M.P. McQueen (07/24/2010)/Realtor magazine
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Sales Slow But Remain Above Last Year
With the scheduled closing deadline for the home buyer tax credits, existing-home sales slowed in June but remained at relatively elevated levels, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.
Existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, fell 5.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.37 million units in June from 5.66 million in May, but are 9.8 percent higher than the 4.89 million-unit pace in June 2009.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the market shows uncharacteristic yet understandable swings as buyers responded to the tax credits. “June home sales still reflect a tax credit impact with some sales not closed due to delays, which will show up in the next two months,” he said. “Broadly speaking, sales closed after the home buyer tax credit will be significantly lower compared to the credit-induced spring surge. Only when jobs are created at a sufficient pace will home sales return to sustainable healthy levels.”
According to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage fell to a record low 4.74 percent in June from 4.89 percent in May; the rate was 5.42 percent in June 2009.
The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $183,700 in June, which is 1.0 percent higher than a year ago. Distressed homes were at 32 percent of sales last month, compared with 31 percent in May; it was also 31 percent in June 2009.
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Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Pricing your home to sell in today's market
That means pricing aggressively -- low enough to compete with foreclosures in some markets. It's a conversation that stings, said Summer Greene, a real-estate agent for a Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate brokerage office in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
"It's like telling them that their children are ugly," she said.
Many people with homes on the market already are slashing prices to catch buyers' attention. Twenty-four percent of listings on the market as of July 1 had gone through at least one price reduction -- that's a 9% increase from the previous month, according to the most recent data from Trulia.com, a real-estate listings site.
Price cuts are more prevalent in some markets than others, and the average size of the cut varies, too. In Minneapolis, for example, 40% of the listings had at least one reduction and the average reduction was 9% of the listing price. In Las Vegas, 12% of the homes had price cuts, but the reductions averaged 15% off the listing price.
Reducing their price is one way sellers are trying to weather the "tax-credit hangover" that the country is currently in, said Tara Nelson, consumer educator for Trulia.com. Slashing the price is the one thing a seller can do these days to attract attention.
"There's just not a whole lot of incentive right now for buyers to urgently buy," Nelson said. Mortgage rates have been relatively low for a while so buyers aren't concerned they'll miss that window, and inventory has been creeping up since April, she said. To be eligible for the home-buyer tax credit, buyers needed to have a contract on a house by April 30.
The Mortgage Bankers Association said the volume of mortgage applications to purchase a home during the week ending July 9 was its lowest since December 1996 -- despite mortgage rates that are near record lows. See story about mortgage applications hitting a 14-year low.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Dallas-area home foreclosure postings fall 3%
The latest Dallas-Fort Worth area home foreclosure data shows a fourth month of annual declines.
Lenders posted 4,671 homes for auction at next month’s foreclosure sales, Foreclosure Listing Service said Friday. That’s 3 percent fewer foreclosure filings than a year ago.
And the current postings are 17 percent lower than last month’s total – another good sign.
But analysts remain cautious and point out that home loan defaults in North Texas are still near record levels.
Texas home sale prices rise, but not as fast as in rest of U.S.
When it comes to home price gains, Texas is no longer outpacing the rest of the nation.
Instead, Texas home prices rose at about half the national rate in May, according to the latest estimate by CoreLogic Inc.
May home prices in Texas were 1.5 percent higher than a year earlier, while the nationwide average was 2.9 percent, the California-based research firm said Tuesday.
Dallas-area prices rose by the same amount – 1.5 percent.
While Texas housing inched up, the prices in some costal markets jumped: 7.9 percent in California, 6.8 percent in Virginia and 5.7 percent in Massachusetts.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Record-low mortgage rates: Who cares?
Mortgage rates recently hit record lows, boosting affordability for homes. If you even care.
And some existing homeowners can't benefit because their lack of home equity prevents them from refinancing.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.58% for the week ending July 1, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey of conforming mortgage rates -- the lowest since Freddie started keeping track in 1971. See Mortgages. Also, see story on lawmakers extend home-buyer tax credit deadline for some home buyers.
According to data going back even farther, the 20th century low was right after World War II, when the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged about 4.7%, said Michael Larson, real-estate analyst with Weiss Research, citing the book "A History of Interest Rates," by Sidney Homer and Richard Sylla.
If the economy continues to flounder, 4% rates might not be out of the question, he said.
Lower mortgage rates improve affordability: The difference between a 6% and a 5% mortgage rate on a $300,000 mortgage, for example, is about $188 a month, said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst for Bankrate.com.
Still, no matter how low rates go, it's possible the economy's weak state will hinder potential home-buyers.
Fewer Dallas-area homeowners are far behind on mortgage payments
The number of Dallas-area homeowners who are extremely late with their loan payments has dropped to its lowest level since last October. In May, 5.67 percent of Dallas-area home-mortgage holders were 90 days or more behind on their loan payments, according to a report by researchers at CoreLogic Inc. That's down from a peak of 6.09 percent of homes with severe mortgage delinquency in January. It also marks the fourth consecutive month of improvement, according to data released Wednesday. May's local late loan payment rate is still higher than it was a year ago, when 4.44 percent of borrowers were late by three months or more. And the percentage of homes in the Dallas area that are falling into foreclosure is still growing. In May, 1.61 percent of Dallas-area residences with mortgages were in foreclosure, up from 1.13 percent in May 2009.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Recession stopped teardowns, but work's back on in Dallas
Dallas custom homebuilder Kelly Clark is finishing work on his latest project in Dallas' Forest Hills neighborhood. The $1.45 million house has five bedrooms and six baths and is within walking distance to White Rock Lake. "We've been working on that house 18 months," said Clark, who's about a month away from finishing. "I shut down construction after the crash and quit building while I waited for the economy to come back. "No one was going to buy that house in the depths of the downturn," he said. "I started the project back up six months ago." Since then, he's had more "tire kickers" looking at the 6,127-square-foot home, which replaced a much smaller 1950s home that was knocked down. Other speculative homes in the popular neighborhood off Garland Road are now sporting sold signs. And builders across Dallas are once again shopping for lots where they can build pricey, close-in homes. So-called teardown homebuilding almost shut down last year when the economy and housing market hit the wall. But as the economy has improved, the rumble of bulldozers knocking down old houses to make way for new construction is starting to be heard again. "While there are certainly some pockets in the teardown markets that continue to struggle, we have noticed that the East Dallas markets of Lakewood and the M Streets are seeing some increased activity," said housing analyst Ted Wilson of Residential Strategies Inc. "Likewise, the more moderate price points in the Park Cities and Preston Hollow – primarily under $2 million – are in better shape than they were a year ago." Residential Strategies estimates that in the first quarter, builders started more houses in close-in Dallas neighborhoods than they had since late 2008. Construction was up in Lakewood, parts of East Dallas, the Park Cities and North Dallas. At the same time, the number of finished, vacant houses in most of these areas went down. "The number of finished, vacant units has declined and the corresponding supply has now dropped to under a five-month supply," Wilson said. "That is a good sign indicating that excess inventory is getting mopped up." Starts of teardown houses are still less than a quarter of what they were in the Dallas area three years ago, Residential Strategies' numbers show. And sales of these houses in the first quarter were almost 70 percent below their peak in mid-2007. But builders who stuck with the market say it's turning the corner. Barclay Builders is finishing a $749,000 spec house in Oak Lawn, and owner Michael Lorra is starting work on two more. "I just poured a foundation for a house in Lake Highlands and am starting one in Lakewood next week," Lorra said. "There is a very limited supply of houses in the markets I work in and good demand." Lorra bought his Oak Lawn lot on Bradford Drive from another builder who tore down an old house but then dropped the deal. "It's getting harder to find lots in this neighborhood because most of the houses are in good shape," he said. "Over the past seven and eight years, all the junk houses were basically bought up."
