Articles About Foreclosures

There’s good news and bad news about foreclosures.  Although the number of foreclosures fell to their lowest rate in 4 ½ years in April, the reason is a delay in processing the orders, not because Americans are experiencing less trouble paying their mortgages.  “Foreclosure activity decreased on an annual basis for the seventh straight month […]

American renters who pay more than 50 percent of their income on housing has peaked at the highest level in 50 years, according to a report from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Approximately 26 percent of renters – that’s more than 10 million people – are spending more than 50 percent of their […]

New home sales rose in March, with the number of properties on the market at its lowest since the 1960s.  Additional gains will be stymied by competition from the market’s glut of previously owned houses.  Single-family home sales rose 11.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted 300,000 unit annual rate, according to the Department of Commerce, […]

Although analysts are sounding a cautionary note, the number of Americans applying for mortgages rose by 16.1 percent in the first week of March – the largest monthly increase since June of 2009. The activity could be due to investors with money to spend, and not the first-time homebuyers who will play a vital role […]

A top Treasury official defended the federal government’s $700 billion bank bailout financial crisis-response program at a hearing where the effort was criticized by members of a watchdog panel insisting that it did more for Wall Street than Main Street. “The cost of TARP is likely to be no greater than the amount spent on […]

Canada avoided the collapse in housing prices that devastated American homeowners and the U.S. economy, thanks to tighter financial regulations, the lack of subprime lending and securitized mortgages. Foreclosures are rare.  As a result, Canadian real estate steadily appreciated while property values in Florida, Arizona and other hard-hit American markets tanked. According to James MacGee […]

New-home construction fell 4.3 percent in December compared with November to its lowest level in more than a year to a seasonally adjusted rate of 529,000 starts for 2010.  December saw the lowest level of new home starts since October of 2009, according to Department of Commerce statistics.  Starts ended the year 8.2 percent below […]

Although the Washington, D.C., residential market has held up surprisingly well over the past few years in an environment hammered by unemployment and foreclosures,  there is a question of whether the nation’s capital will spur recovery or if the rest of the country will drag down the local market.  Washington’s relatively low unemployment rate and […]

Existing home sales in November rose at a slower pace than anticipated, spurred in part because of the end of a government tax credit aimed at encouraging first-time homeowners to buy.  According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), sales rose 5.6 percent over October to an annual rate of 4.68 million.  Economists had predicted […]

The Obama administration is leaning on mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to write down underwater loans and make life easier for homeowners who are at risk of default and may see their personal finances deteriorate.  The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) wants Fannie and Freddie to join a Federal Housing Authority (FHA) program […]