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Homes sold faster last month than in any February since 2007 as eager buyers met a tight supply of homes for sale, industry figures show.

Homes were on the market for a median of 98 days last month, down from 123 days in February 2011, according to Realtor.com. That means half the homes listed for sale in February were on the market for less than 98 days and half for more than that.

Even 98 days is long for many markets.

In Oakland, homes spent just 14 days on the market last month before they went under contract or were pulled off for other reasons, Realtor.com data show. In Sacramento — just 21 days.

“Things are flying off the market,” says Barbara Hendrickson, of Red Oak Realty in Berkeley, Calif., near Oakland.

Read full article at http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/03/17/homes-selling-faster/1988379/

By:  Tara-Nicholle Nelson 

It is a rare occurrence these days to have a home’s buyer and seller sit down around the kitchen table to make a deal. In some areas, they do still sit around the attorney’s boardroom table to close the deal, but by that time, the deal is done and the ship has already sailed on any avoidable mistakes.
So in the vast majority of home sales, buyer and seller never connect in person, never talk, and never exchange insights or information except in the most formal, written formats – despite  being effective business colleagues in one of the single most important transactions of their lives. And here’s the rub: buyers sit on a wealth of knowledge that sellers crave to know, most of which could be filed under how to attract buyers and make them want to buy a home (or at least, not turn them off).  So, since buyers and sellers can’t get together, allow me to reveal a handful of helpful insider insights that the buyers I’ve worked with and connected with over the years would reveal to sellers, if they could.
Read Full Article at:  http://www.businessinsider.com/help-a-seller-out-5-tips-buyers-would-give-sellers-if-they-could-2013-2

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Home prices rose 8.3% in December from a year earlier, the biggest gain since May 2006, according to CoreLogic.
More on XHB

All but four states — Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois and Delaware — posted increases.

Prices rose 0.4% in December from November, the 10th consecutive monthly advance.

See if (XHB) is in our portfolio

Excluding foreclosures and short sales, which sell at deep discounts to the market price, home prices were up 7.5% on a year-on-year basis and 0.9% month-on-month.

The states with the highest home-price appreciation in December were Arizona (20%), Nevada (15.3%), Idaho (14.6%), California (12.6%) and Hawaii (12.5%).

“We are heading into 2013 with home prices on the rebound,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “All signals point to a continued improvement in the fundamentals underpinning the U.S. housing market recovery.”

Read full article at:  http://www.thestreet.com/story/11832409/1/home-prices-post-biggest-gain-in-six-years.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&goback=.gde_3036914_member_213022793

Investors are betting big on the housing recovery.

Hedge funds and private equity firms have been rushing in to buy up companies and assets in every part of the housing supply chain, including undeveloped land, homebuilders, foreclosed homes, and building parts manufacturers.

One of the most notable moves is coming from hedge fund manager John Paulson, best known for his big (and lucrative) bets against subprime mortgages in 2006 and 2007.

Now, he’s turned his attention to snapping up undeveloped land in areas hardest hit by the housing crisis. “Land is the accordion in the home building equation,” said Michael Barr, who runs Paulson’s real estate investments. “It falls the most in a downturn, but also rises the most in an upturn.”

Over the past two years, Paulson & Co has bought up enough land in California, Arizona and Nevada to build up to 25,000 homes and is aggressively scouting for more, according to Barr.

Read on for: Home prices biggest jump in 6 years.

See Full Article at: http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/04/investing/housing-market/index.html

According to Realty Trac foreclosures fell nearly two-thirds in some of the largest metropolitan areas during the third quarter. The US is  starting to see some signs of stability, with 62% of the nations 212 largest markets seeing foreclosure activity shrink during the  third quarter.

Daren Blomquist, Realty Trac’s Vice President believes the numbers indicate that ” Most of the nation’s housing markets are past the worst of the foreclosure problem.”

California saw declines in some of the biggest cities such as Sacramento , Modesto, Merced, and Bakerfield saw declines between 22 and 34%.

Miami had the 10th highest foreclosure rate, filings rose 11%. 32% in Palm Bay, and 43% in Tampa. Blomquist attributed Florida’s foreclosure crisis to the after effects of a Robo signing scandal, as well as the fact that Florida is a judicial state which processes foreclosures through the court. Lenders were hesitant to take cases to before a judge until they were confident they had paperwork that would stand up to the scrutiny that followed the scandal. As of now new rules have been implemented through a $25 billion mortgage settlement, with hopes of getting caught up.

This article was quite interesting and it’s great to see the larger cities working on being stabilized. The black hole of foreclosures that has swept the nation was very radical, so we will see what happens the next few years. Lets keep hoping for more positive feedback!

http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/25/real_estate/foreclosures-cities/index.html?source=linkedin

Mortgage rates today have moved lower everyday this week. Today’s decreased more predominately, carrying rates to new all time lows.  Secondary mortgage markets such as in Europe and Asia weren’t effected by such news considering there markets are seeing similar patterns. This caused the MBS  “mortgage -backed- securities” that most directly influence rates hold steady for the rest of the day, allowing lenders to pass on the improvements.

The consistent push for lower mortgage rates indicates that lenders are doing a fairly aggressive  job of trying to keep driving rates lower. To add to the aggressiveness is the fact that most lenders have priced in the recent increase to guarantee fees which equates roughly to .125% higher rates. Thirty year fixed conventional loans is 3.375% to a majority of lenders, and even lower rates are viable choices to a few lenders.

info from mortgagenewsdaily.com

According to housing predictor, US bargain hunters are finding some of the best deals in housing in a generation. Ten of the hottest summer real estate markets are experiencing better home sales and higher prices. Higher home and condo prices have developed over the last six months in miami Florida, causing miami to be number one hottest real estate market of the summer. Thanks to a diversified mix of international vacation home buyers and wealthy investors.

 Pheonix, Arizona which placed 2nd on housing predictors list of good summer picks. This sun soaked city is just a couple hours away from Kingman. Pheonix is  estimated to see higher prices through most of the year, with plenty of  foreclosures awaiting to be listed for bargain hunters to swipe them up.

Fort Myers had the highest volume of home sales in more than six years, bumping  it up to its third place spot. Prices hit double digit annual gains for the year in this region including Punta Gorda. Investors and bargain hunters have bought up the foreclosures that were at record highs in these areas just months ago. Inventory of homes for sale is now at an all time low engaging price pressure on the market.

San Jose is fifth on predictor’s list with home values that are starting to pull the state out of it’s rut. San Fransisco is 6th on the list, with home values expected to climb into 2013.

Seattle is 8th with higher wages paid to workers and a better than average appreciation for the nation. Home prices are climbing up in this rainy city with the help of big corporations such as boeing and microsoft helping to support jobs.

Santa Barbara is 9th with home prices out pacing last year by more then 35% . Home prices are predicted to pick up in California’s wealthiest area codes.

Lastly on thier list is las vegas, rebounding quite nicely from the real estate collapse with better home sales close to every month so far.

All information provided by:

http://www.housingpredictor.com/2012/hottest-summer-markets.html

Based on the last three years it’s comparable that home prices mainly increased in the spring and summer. More people were purchasing homes before giving back those gains in prices come fall and winter when activity decreases.

Because of the absence of any major stumbles for the economy, it’s starting to look like home prices may stay level this year. US home prices were up 3.8% in July from a year ago which is the largest year over year jump in six consecutive years. Prices shot up to 9.6% from February, which catalouged corelogics lowest levels of the  housing slump information released Tuesday.

This adds proof that home prices may have hit bottom earlier this year. Cheif economist at Corelogic, Mark Flemming said, “We have a much better supply and demand dynamic”, Then in previous years. wsj.com.

http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2012/09/04/heres-more-evidence-that-home-prices-have-hit-bottom/

Home prices rose more than expected in June, the fifth month in a row of gains in a fresh sign of improvement in the housing market, a closely watched survey showed on Tuesday. The S&P/ Case Shillercomposite indexof 20 metropolitan areas gained 0.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, topping sconomist’ forecasts for 0.5 percent, according to a Rueters poll.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, prices were even stronger, up 2.3 percent.

“We seem to be witnessing exactly what we needed for a  sustained recovery; monthly increases coupled with improving annual rates of change, David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at standard & poor’s, said in a statment.

“The market may have finally turned around.”

Prices in the 20 cities rose 0.5 percent compared to the year before. Atlanta fared the worst, tumbling 12.1 percent from a year ago. Pheonix continued to bounce back from poor conditions and was up nearly 14 percent.

Prices in June likely got a boost from the summer buying season, the gains on both a monthly and a yearly basis boded well for the housing market, said Blitzer.

The report affirmed “that the overall market is healing, albeit at a frustratingly slow pace, ” said Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow.

Humphries said he expects to see prices weaken in the latter half of the year, though the period of sustained declines are likely in the past.

For the second quarter, seasonally adjusted national prices jumped 2.2 percent compared to the 1.4 percent gain that was seen in the first quarter.

Read full article at msn.com/ money/