The National Association of Homebuilders reported this week that their “Housing Market Index”, a survey among its members to quantify builder sentiment about the housing market, rose three points in May to 22. While this is still well below the 50 mark which indicates builders feel optimistic about the housing market, it is the highest [...]

Last Friday, President Obama signed a bi-partisan extension to the first-time home buyer tax credit program last week giving prospective buyers through June 30th, 2010 to close on a home and receive the $8,000 credit. In addition, the law contained an expansion of the former program to include homeowners who have occupied their current residence [...]

Another mixed bag of housing data was released over the past week starting with last Thursday’s report from the National Association of Realtors that showed an unexpectedly drop in existing home sales. NAR reported that sales of existing homes in August fell by 2.7% form the prior month. This broke a four month trend of [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday that its index of pending home sales rose 3.2% in July from June marking the sixth consecutive month of increases. Though not quite as high as the 3.6% increase reported in June, July’s increase marks the first time the index has posted six months of increases since NAR [...]

We got a mixed bag of economic data on the housing front this week that, on one hand disappointed, but upon closer analysis showed yet another sign that the battered housing market is recovering. On Tuesday the Commerce Department said that initial construction of new homes fell in July after surging in June. Housing starts [...]

Mortgage rates rose another .25% over the last week and now stand at 5.75% for thirty-year fixed with no points. We are seeing some steadying, however, as the bond market appears to have stabilized and stocks have been flat for the last few days. With no large government bond auctions this week we should not [...]