Real Estate Blog

The home buying season shifted into high gear last month as inventory and home list prices on realtor.com® increased by 4.12 percent and 2.63 percent, month over month, respectively. As of April, homes are on the market nationwide approximately 81 days—a decrease of nearly 11 percent since April 2012—highlighting that while new homes are entering the market they are not available for long.

Despite the increase in inventory month over month, nationwide inventory declined year over year in all but 11 of the 146 markets realtor.com® monitors. Approximately 36 markets registered a decrease of listings by 20 percent or more, still highlighting near records lows of available homes.

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U.S. mortgage rates rose, pushing borrowing costs for a 30-year loan to the highest in six weeks.

The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage climbed to 3.51 percent in the week ended today, up from 3.42 percent and the highest since early April, McLean, Virginia-based Freddie Mac (FMCC) said in a statement. The average 15-year rate increased to 2.69 percent from 2.61 percent.

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nbcnews.com - U.S. home-builder confidence in the market for single family homes rose in May amid rising home prices despite increasing building materials costs, an index showed on Wednesday.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market index edged up three points to 44, from a downwardly revised 41 in April. Economists in a Reuters survey were expecting a reading of 43. Any number over 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as good than poor.

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After nearing historic or near-historic lows over the past month, key fixed-rate and adjustable-rate loans rose across the board this week.

The average rate of a 30-year fixed mortgage ticked slightly upward to 3.42% up from 3.35% last week according to the latest survey by mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. Previously, the average rate on a 30-year fixed loan had come within 0.04% of the historic low, 3.31%, achieved in November.

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The first thing Niamh Cahill did after she signed a contract to buy her new home in New Jersey was to map out a moving checklist.

"I had to break it down, to think small at first," she said. "If I thought about the whole move, I would have been completely overwhelmed." So she called the movers, set a date, and then started planning.

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for counting down to moving day. The important thing is to make a plan, says Audrey Dickson, quotation analyst with U-Pack, a national moving company based in Fort Smith, Ark.

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It’s a seller’s market in many parts of the country right now. That’s a big change from the past six or seven years. With buyers competing for the same property, home prices are going up. It’s a good thing mortgage interest rates are at historic lows.

“If you want to get the home of your dreams, you need to be really serious,” advises real estate expert Ilyce Glink,author of the book Buy, Close, Move In. “You've got to get pre-approved, not pre-qualified for your purchase. You have to know what you want and how much you feel comfortable spending (it may be less than what the bank suggests). If you know what you want and how much you want to spend, and you've spent a lot of time in your neighborhood of choice, when the right property…

A monthly survey by mortgage finance firm Fannie Mae found 51% of those questioned in April believe prices will rise in the next 12 months, while only 35% are projecting a drop in prices. It is the first time in the three-year history of the survey that a majority said they expect prices to increase.

A year ago, 49% were expecting further price declines while only 32% said they though prices were on their way up.

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The April edition of Fannie Mae's National Housing Survey revealed increasing optimism in American attitudes toward both housing and the overall economy.  Virtually every positive indicator in the survey ticked upward.

More than half of survey respondents now expect home prices to climb within the next 12 months.  Fifty-one percent said they expected such improvement, up 3 percentage points from March and 19 points higher than in April 2012.   Expectations of how large that increase will be remained at an average of 2.7 percent for the second month in a row.

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If recent trends are any indication, it’s going to be a big summer for the mortgage and real estate industries. The U.S. housing market continues to improve in many areas. Demand is rising while inventories are shrinking. Low mortgage rates are hovering at or near record lows, enticing home buyers into the market.

Here’s a rundown of the recent trends we are following: More Homes Being Built, Mortgage Rates Near Historic Lows, Home Sale Returning To Normal, and Home Prices Are Rising.

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 Rising home prices are helping pull more distressed borrowers from out of the water, according to the March Mortgage Monitor Report from Lender Processing Services(LPS).

The number of underwater borrowers -- those who owed more than their homes were worth -- fell 41% from a year earlier. In total, 9 million borrowers or 18% of active mortgages were underwater at the end of March.

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