1.Urban Real-Estate Prices Are Booming, but Most People Live in Suburbs
“Has there been a Renaissance in city living over the past year? That depends on how you look at it.”
2.Home Prices and Population Growth: Cities vs. Suburbs
“From some angles, it looks like the housing recovery has brought an urban resurgence: for instance, the most urban counties are growing faster now than during the housing bubble, and many dense cities are having a boom in apartment construction. However, the most recent data show that asking prices in urban neighborhoods are rising only slightly faster than in the suburbs, and the suburbs actually have higher population growth.”
3.Trailer Parks Lure Wall Street Investors Looking for Double-Wide Returns
“When Dan Weissman worked at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and, later, at a hedge fund, he didn’t have to worry about methamphetamine addicts chasing his employees with metal pipes. Or SWAT teams barging into his workplace looking for arsonists. “
4.Top secrets to sell your home this spring
“The spring real estate market is beginning to bloom. But it hasn’t quite shown its true colors yet.”
5.Average US 30-Year Mortgage Rate Down to 4.34 Pct.
“Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages declined this week, edging closer to historically low levels as the spring home-buying season begins.
6.IMF: World Economy Is Stronger but Faces Threats
“The global economy is strengthening but faces threats from super-low inflation and outflows of capital from emerging economies, the International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday.”
7.What a $200,000 mortgage will cost you
“Mortgages aren’t one-size-fits-all products. Loan types and lenders all have different requirements, benefits and drawbacks. “
8.US foreclosures fall to lowest quarterly level since mid-2007: RealtyTrac
“The U.S. housing market is back on its feet, aided by rising home prices, steady job growth and fewer troubled loans. “
9.What does $500,000 buy you in Southern California real estate? A look at Culver City, Pasadena, and Riverside.
“We have a large readership from California but also many others that simply enjoy peeking into the mania that is SoCal real estate. It must appear to an outsider that all Californians ever think about is buying, selling, and flipping real estate. During certain periods of time the mania gets out of hand and the delusion runs rampant across the L.A. River”
10.No improvement for Congress’ job approval rating
“Americans’ approval of the job performances of the men and women they hire to be members of Congress is down to 13 percent in the new Gallup Inc. survey released Thursday.”
11.More homeowners are becoming first-time landlords
“The real estate market has long worked on a simple system: If you want to buy a new house, sell the old one and use the equity for a down payment.”
12.Mortgage rates decline as spring buying season begins
“Fixed mortgage rates edged down as the spring homebuying season began to kick in this week, Freddie Mac reported.”
13.Banks turning attention to homes in ‘foreclosure limbo’
“Foreclosure activity in March remained well below year-ago levels, but ticked up on a monthly basis as some states began to push properties through the foreclosure pipeline that have long languished in delinquency, RealtyTrac reported. “
14.Foreclosures have Doubled in Some States Despite Overall Decline
“RealtyTrac reported today that an uptick in foreclosure starts last month drove an overall increase in the nation’s foreclosure activity. There was a 7 percent jump in the filings of initial public notice – Notice of Default (NOD) or Lis Pendens (LIS), part of a total of 117,485 foreclosure related filings during the month. March filings, which also included Notice of Scheduled Auctions and Bank Repossessions (REO) were up 4 percent from February but were 23 percent lower than in March 2013. Scheduled Auctions were also up, rising 6 percent from the previous month. “