Outlook for a Housing Market Recovery

 Home prices may well find a bottom this year, and stronger sales should pave the way for a pickup in single-family construction over the course of 2012.

That’s the assessment made by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) in its recently released “State of the Nation’s Housing” report. The report - which has been released since 1988 - is an essential resource for both public policy makers and private decision makers in the housing industry.

The bottom line of the report is that - after several false starts - there is reason to believe that 2012 will mark the beginning of a true housing market recovery.

 

However, employment growth remains a key factor, providing the stimulus for stronger household growth and bringing relief to some distressed homeowners. And, if the broader economy weakens in the short-term, the housing rebound could again stall.

 

Here are just some of the findings in the report:

 

• The monthly mortgage payment for the typical home currently compares more favorably to rents than at any time since the early 1970s.
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• By the first quarter of 2012, existing home sales were 5.2 percent above year-earlier levels, with single-family sales up 6.3 percent.
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• Sales of newly constructed homes in the first quarter of 2012 stood 16.7 percent above year-earlier levels.
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• The inventory of existing homes for sale shrank by some 23 percent in 2011, reducing the supply in the first quarter of 2012 to its lowest level since 2006.
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• Single-family permitting, a leading indicator of starts, was also up 16.9 percent in the first quarter of 2012.

The complete report provides a current assessment of:

 

• The state of the housing market and the foreclosure crisis
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• The economic and demographic trends driving housing demand
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• The state of mortgage finance
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• Ongoing housing affordability challenges

 

You can download the full report from the JCHS’s website. You can also download a convenient handout of Key Housing Industry Facts from the website.

 

 

 

~~Mortgage Market Guide

 

 

 

New FHA Streamline Loans...worth the wait!

FHA has finally done something good. There are lots of folks that bought their homes in the 2000 to May 31, 2009 timeframe that have not been candidates for refinancing. The reasons are usually one of these.


1 The new FHA MIPs made the numbers much worse than they should have been.

2. They owed more than their home was worth

FHA addressed this by announcing that for any person who has an existing FHA loan that was endorsed before May 31, 2009, the streamline FHA MIP will be .55 monthly and .01 up front. This is much lower than people buying a new home today with current MIPS.

So the numbers are going to be drastically better. The catch is that if you want to add closing cost to the loan , the home has to appraise for enough to do that. But if it won’t, then we can build the cost into the rate and do lender paid closing cost with no appraisal.

It is a win win for everybody.

Basically the only qualifying factor is that you have income, a minimum 640 credit score and no mortgage payments over 30 days late in the last 12 months.

Give me a call, 615-777-4663, shoot me an email george.margrave@migonline.com or refer someone you know looking to refinance. Look at the numbers. It will be worth it.