Housing Recovery Accelerating, As List Price And Inventory Increase

Realtor.com released its April data showing that the U.S. housing market is on its way to a broad-based recovery, an accelerated trend since March.

Full Story: http://news.move.com/index.php?s=11609&item=137188

Building Permits Rise in April

Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,017,000. This is 14.3 percent (±1.0%) above the revised March rate of 890,000 and is 35.8 percent (±1.3%) above the April 2012 estimate of 749,000.
Full Report: http://www.census.gov/construction/nrc/pdf/newresconst.pdf

FHA Mortgage Premium Changes for April 2013

The short version of the announced changes includes a higher MIP, plus a policy change that will require mortgage insurance to be paid for the life of certain FHA home loans. (Some types of refinancing are excluded from the MIP increase.)

According to the FHA official site. “FHA will increase its annual mortgage insurance premium (MIP) for most new mortgages by 10 basis points or by 0.10 percent"

Full Story: http://www.fha.com/fha_article.cfm?id=414

Home prices gain again in February

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 American cities rose 0.3 percent in February and was up 9.3 percent compared with February 2012. All of the cities covered by the index have risen year-over-year for two consecutive months.

Full Story: http://www2.realtoractioncenter.com/site/R?i=KP7xsvX9HHSEQKYhZYAQxg