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More Home Owners Are Remodeling Again

Checklist

A housing index that measures activity in the remodeling market reached a record-high in the final quarter of 2014, showing that home owners are once again sprucing up their homes following a large slowdown in remodeling activity in the years following the Great Recession.

The National Association of Home Builders’ Remodeling Market Index rose to 60 in the fourth quarter of 2014. Any reading above 50 indicates more remodelers are reporting higher market activity than those who say they are experiencing less activity.

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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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Lower Oil Prices Could Stall Home Appreciation

Oil prices are plummeting, which is great news for drivers at the pump, but could it negatively affect economies and housing markets that have been fueled by the energy boom?

Communities most impacted by the drop in oil prices may start to see a slow in home prices, according to a report by CoreLogic. Dropping energy prices could notably strike states such as Texas and North Dakota.

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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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Median home prices rose in 2014 amid tight supply of listings

Seattle

The gain in single-family home prices varied dramatically by area in the Puget Sound region, ranging from negative 3 percent to 15 percent compared to a year earlier. Read the article and click on an area in the map for details on sales activity by area.

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In Seattle, Zillow says more than 16% of homeowners still underwater on mortgage

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In the Seattle metro area, more than 16 percent of all homeowners — or 106,900 — remain underwater on their mortgages and owe more money than their house is worth.

That’s according to Seattle online real estate company Zillow Inc., which said that’s down from an underwater equity rate of 21.9 percent a year ago and down from the peak of 39.6 percent in the first quarter of 2012.

For 2015, Zillow estimates the negative equity rate in Seattle will drop to 13.3 percent, compared with the predicted national average next year of 15.2 percent.

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FHA to lower cost of Mortgage Insurance

In a move designed to bring more first-time homebuyers into the housing market, President Barack Obama said last week the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the government insurer of home loans, will lower its annual insurance premiums from 1.35 percent to 0.85 percent.

In a statement, the White House said the move was part of the president’s efforts “to expand responsible lending to creditworthy borrowers.” The president is scheduled to talk about improvements in the housing market at a speech on Thursday in Phoenix, one of the hardest-hit markets of the housing crash.

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Flurry of year-end home sales brings strong finish to 2014

Front Door 3

King County’s housing market ended 2014 with a flurry of sales, but with the lowest supply of active listings in any month going back more than a decade.

The median price of single-family homes sold in December was $440,000, up 4.8 percent over the year, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service reported last week.

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Buying Trumps Renting in Most Places

Buying is still more affordable than renting in the majority of U.S. housing markets, according to a new analysis. A study conducted by RealtyTrac factored in 2015 fair market rental data recently released by the U.S. Department for Housing and Urban Development for three-bedroom properties in 543 counties nationwide with populations of at least 100,000. Buying a median-priced home was found to be more affordable than renting a three-bedroom property in 68 percent of the counties tracked.

Overall, in 473 of the counties tracked, the fair market rent for a three-bedroom property in 2015 will require 27 percent of median household income, on average. For comparison, buying a median-priced home will require an average of 25 percent of median household income, based on median sales prices in November, the study found.

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Real Estate’s Most Loyal Age Group

Americans age 65 and over are holding onto home ownership instead of downsizing into rentals or moving to senior centers, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.

Indeed, the largest jump in buyers this year was among people between the ages of 65 and 74. This age segment increased to 13 percent of all buyers from 10 percent a year earlier, according to National Association of REALTORS® data.

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