Consistent boost to California's median home price

California home sales and prices both posted gains in December, with the median price posting strong double-digit gains for six straight months, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) reported.

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New home sales rise year over year in December

Sales of new single-family houses rose 8.8 percent in December compared with the previous year to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 369,000, according to estimates released jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. Compared with the previous month, new home sales declined 7.3 percent.

Housing a sweet spot for economy as rebound extends to 2013

U.S. home sales and prices are poised to rise in 2013, solidifying a recovery that began last year after a half-decade slump, according to analysts and economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

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Home prices poised for growth in 2013

Home-listing prices were up 5.1 percent nationally in December on a year-over-year basis, according to Trulia.

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CA Tax Exemption to Match Federal Extension

In an effort to conform state law to a federal law passed last week that extended mortgage debt forgiveness, C.A.R. is sponsoring Senate Bill 30, so that California homeowners on the brink of foreclosure can get much-needed debt relief.

SB 30 (Calderon, D-Montebello) will for one more year exempt the taxation of mortgage debt that is forgiven when homeowners and their mortgage lenders negotiate a short sale or loan modification (including any principal reduction).

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Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Extended

Late Tuesday night, Congress reached a settlement in the “fiscal cliff” negotiations. As a result, the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act has been extended for another year. The measure will continue to exempt from taxation mortgage debt that is forgiven when homeowners and their mortgage lenders negotiate a short sale, loan modification (including any principal reduction), or foreclosure.

Fiscal Cliff Negotiations Could Hurt Underwater Homeowners

The fiscal cliff draws closer by the day, and federal lawmakers are now trying desperately to reach an agreement that is at least somewhat palatable to both parties. Now, those negotiations might include a number of costly tax breaks designed to help consumers who owe more on their home loans than their properties are worth.

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Housing is adding more vigor to the recovery, report says

The U.S. housing market is becoming the leading source of strength for the long-sluggish American economic recovery, outpacing both business investment and exports. But even with the return of that crucial linchpin, job growth is expected to remain weak next year, a new report by UCLA says.


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“Boomerang” home buyers bounce back from foreclosure

The number of boomerang buyers – locals who lost their home to foreclosure or short sale, but are jumping back into the market just two to three years after default – are small now, but real estate agents and home builders say that while these buyers don't currently make up a big share of their clients, there's evidence that their ranks are set to rise noticeably, and that could have implications for local home sales and neighborhood vitality.


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Should you buy a home during the holidays?

Once Thanksgiving is over, the real estate world typically starts to wind down for the holidays and doesn’t usually reawaken until after New Year’s.  But potential home buyers who are prepared to close in today’s competitive market may want to keep house hunting while everyone else is waiting for spring.
Making sense of the story

• REALTORS® especially recommend that serious home buyers continue shopping if they have repeatedly lost out on deals because of a limited and continually decreasing supply of homes.  Buying intensity typically cools down at the start of fall through early January, which could increase the odds for those with more patience.

• Would-be buyers historically have bowed out during the winter season because they are overwhelmed by holiday spending and commitments.  There’s also the aversion of moving in the middle of a school year.  Consumer interest typically picks back up again in the New Year and peaks in the spring.

• Certain buyers may be well-served to buy during the winter because of sellers who must move for various reasons including a job change or transfer or the possible sunsetting of the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, which lets certain home sellers get tax relief on mortgage debt forgiven by lenders.  The possible expiration has pushed home sellers to list and short sell their homes before year’s end.

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Home prices show biggest jump in 6 years in October

Home prices increased 6.3 percent in October from a year earlier, the biggest year-over-year gain since 2006, according to CoreLogic.


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FHA is tweaking programs to improve revenue and cut losses

There is a strong possibility that the FHA will not require any money transfer from the Treasury, which in any event would not occur until September. Meanwhile, the FHA is making tweaks to its program rules that could affect some loan applicants in the months ahead, and which are designed to improve revenue flows to the agency and cut back on losses.

Among the most immediate changes, new borrowers early next year are likely to be charged slightly higher annual mortgage insurance premiums — 1.35% of the loan balance rather than 1.25% at present.

To increase revenue streams long term, the FHA also is abandoning its practice of allowing borrowers to cancel their annual mortgage insurance premium payments when their loan balance drops to 78% of the property value. In effect, this will mean that borrowers who obtain 30-year FHA loans could be paying premiums for decades.


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Home prices rise 1.1 percent in Q3

U.S. house prices rose 1.1 percent in the third quarter compared with the second quarter, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) seasonally adjusted purchase-only house price index (HPI).   Full Story: http://www2.realtoractioncenter.com/site/R?i=pQYxzL7BWu8xknC8ZCiYlQ

Deals on foreclosed homes dwindling

A new look at foreclosure discounts by Zillow found that the price difference between a foreclosed house and one sold outside of foreclosure was 7.7 percent nationally in September.

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Higher home prices reduce California housing affordability.

Rising home prices offset lower interest rates, reducing housing affordability in California during the third quarter of 2012, C.A.R. reported Monday.

The percentage of home buyers who could afford to purchase a median-priced, existing single-family home in California fell to 49 percent in the third quarter of 2012, down from 51 percent in second-quarter 2012 and from 51 percent in third-quarter 2011, according to C.A.R.’s Traditional Housing Affordability Index (HAI).

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