Category Archives: Buyers

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Top Reasons People Want to Move

House with BHHS Sign

One in three U.S. households say they plan to move in the next five years, according to a survey conducted by the Demand Institute of 10,000 households’ current living situations. And it’s the location of the home that will be driving most of those moving decisions — more so than the physical home itself.

Seventy-five percent of the households surveyed cited one or more location-related reasons for why they were moving. The top reasons were the desire for a safer neighborhood (30%); being closer to family (27%); a change of climate (26%); being closer to work (25%), and moving for a new job (23%).

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Foreclosures on a Free Fall, 66% Below Peak

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Foreclosures are making up a much smaller share of many markets’ housing inventories and slowly falling back in line with historical norms. Completed foreclosures totaled about 39,000 nationwide in December 2014, a 13.7 percent year-over-year decrease and a 66 percent plunge from the peak in September 2010, according to CoreLogic’s December National Foreclosure Report.

What’s more, the 12-month sum of completed foreclosures for 2014 — 563,294 — is at its lowest point since November 2007, according to the report. Completed foreclosures have fallen every month for the past 34 consecutive months. Historically, prior to the housing crisis, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide.

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HUD: ‘2015 Is Year of Housing Opportunity’

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Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro sees big opportunity in the housing market this year, with the easing of credit opening the door to more buyers.

“I see 2015 as the year of housing opportunity, particularly home ownership,” Castro told CNN’s Christine Romans. “A good example of that is the reduction in the FHA mortgage premium.”

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Consumer Confidence at Highest Level in Over a Decade

Family

Two recently released reports reveal that the American public is starting to feel much better about the U.S. economy.

As all consumers are feeling more optimistic, more young adults are moving out of their parents’ basements and into a residence of their own. The recent Census report shows that new household formations skyrocketed in 2014.

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Boomerang home buyers are coming back

Home Tour

Millions of Americans who lost their homes during the foreclosure crisis are now poised to become homeowners again.

That’s according to a new report from RealtyTrac, which estimates that 7.3 million so-called “boomerang buyers” will return to the U.S. housing market over the next eight years.

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Inventory Problems Stall Home Sales

Pending home sales dropped in December, despite interest rates being at the lowest levels in more than a year, the National Association of REALTOR® reports. All regions across the country posted declines in December.

In December, pending home sales nationally fell 3.7 percent month-over-month. Still, NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, remained about 6 percent above year-over-year levels for the fourth consecutive month.

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Suburbs Draw Millennials Wanting More Space

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Millennials deep down may be suburbanites after all. In recent years, economists and demographers have argued that members of Generation Y will have a longer love for city living in smaller living quarter than their predecessors. But a newly released survey by the National Association of Home Builders discounts that, suggesting that what millennials really want is a single-family home outside of the urban center – just like other generations.

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Hot Trend Watch: Tiny Homes

Could you imagine living in 97 square feet? Tiny houses – some might even call them teeny-tiny – are growing in popularity among buyers in the second home market. Some are even making them their primary residence.

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Why Everyone Is Talking About Mortgage Rates

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Borrowing costs got even cheaper for home buyers and refinancers last week, as mortgage rates continued to descend.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.66 percent last week, the lowest weekly average since May 23, 2013, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey. What’s more, the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped below 3 percent, also for the first time since May 2013.

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Why Inventory Problems Aren’t Going Away

For Sale and Sold

Despite recent increases, new-home inventories remain near all-time lows and are unlikely to return to their highs any time soon, according to a new analysis by John Burns Real Estate Consulting.

The rise in single-family inventory levels over the last few months bring them back only to 2012 levels. What’s more, the supply of condos continues to be at record lows, with fewer new high-rise developments and condo conversions occurring now than in the mid-2000s, John Burns Consulting says.

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