News

VARbuzz: Housing policy forum finds similar tales across Virginia
Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Banks can’t seem to get their acts together. Appraisers still don’t know the areas they’re working in. Government is doing too little. Government is doing too much. Consumers are clueless about what the market really means.

Sound familiar? At VAR’s first Housing Policy Forum, hundreds of Realtors from around the state got together, split up by region, and talked about what ails the market.

Across the board (except for Northern Virginia’s complaint of lack of inventory), the issues were the same.

As the six regions each read through their lists of issues, the echoes were clear. “I could probably say ‘ditto’ and sit down,” said Kemper Funkhouser, spokesman for Realtors from the Shenandoah Valley area, the fifth to present a list.

Legal Hotline FAQs Guest Video -- Settlement
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
VARbuzz: FHFA head has his own plan for the secondary mortgage market
Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Federal Housing Finance Agency acting director Edward DeMarco has consistently blocked efforts to offer principal writedowns for holders of federally backed mortgages. Now he’s offering his own plan for fixing the mortgage finance market.

FHFA's DeMarcoThe basic idea: Make Fannie/Freddie/FHA mortgages more expensive for borrowers by increasing fees, thus encouraging them to either go to private lenders or, if the private market won’t offer an affordable mortgage, not buy a home at all.

VARbuzz: Home builders: New homes are larger, fancier
Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Looking at data from the Census Bureau, the National Association of Home Builders finds that the trend in 2011 was toward larger homes with more amenities.

  • Average size: 6% from 2010 (from 2,381 to 2,522 sq. ft.)
  • Four-bedroom homes: 42% of the construction (up from 36%)
  • Finished basement: 30% of construction (up from 25%)
  • Average sales price of a newly constructed home: $274,400 (up from $264,900)

NAHB asks the obvious question: How can the average home be getting bigger, more expensive, and have more amenities when the housing market remains weak and the overall economy is yet to see a robust recovery? 

VARbuzz: Fannie Mae: Housing will add to GDP for the first time since ’05
Wednesday, February 22, 2012

 

According to Fannie Mae’s Economic & Strategic Research Group, in 2012 the U.S. housing market will add to the nation’s gross domestic product for the first time in seven years.

Quoth:

Housing also showed signs of improvement late last year with existing home sales rising in December for the third consecutive month. Indicators point to some good pickup in construction of apartment buildings and modest pickup in single-family construction in some locations.

Overall, housing is expected to add to gross domestic product (GDP) for the first time in seven years, albeit by a very modest amount.

VARbuzz: Tech note: Blackberry continues its fall, Android continues to dominate
Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Blackberry’s market share dropped 59% from a year ago, according to the latest figures from NPD.

Android phones now account for about 53% of the smartphone market, with iOS (iPhone and iPad) taking 29% and Blackberry accounting for 10%. The remainder is made up of Windows phones (5%), Nokia, and old HP devices.

Click to enlarge

VARbuzz: More borrowers look to 15-year fixed mortgages
Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Only about 60 percent of homebuyers in Q4 2011 took out 30-year, fixed-rate loans; three years imageago, the figure was closer to 90 percent. Instead, they’re opting more and more for 15- or 20-year loans instead. (A quarter of people refinancing from 30-year loans are opting for 15-year ones instead.)

VARbuzz: Settlement money to fill budget gaps
Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Virginia’s General Assembly plans to use the state’s $69 million portion of the foreclosure fraud settlement to plug various holes in the budget. The money will help pay for a variety of initiatives including funding community health centers and free clinics, increasing Medicaid reimbursements for hospitals and nursing homes, paying for school maintenance, and reducing K-3 class size.

VARbuzz: Existing-home sales up, inventory down
Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Existing-home sales rose in January, marking three gains in the past four months, while inventories continued to improve, according to NAR.

Read all about it at Realtor.org.

VARbuzz: REOs to rent: Morgan Stanley’s rose-colored outlook
Friday, February 17, 2012

File under "Read the fine print": According to Housing Wire, "Morgan Stanley predicts REO rental program will create 1.8 million jobs." That’s referring to the government program to sell Fannie/Freddie/FHA repos to investors, who will turn those properties into rental units.

Sounds good, that 1.8 million jobs. But read a bit further.