Foreclosure filings fell in March to their lowest level in four years, according to real estate data provider Realty Trac. For the first time since July 2007, the nationwide number of filings fell under 200,000 — a 4% drop from …
Foreclosures
Housing Prices Fall to 2003 Levels, But Demand May Be Building
It’s now officially a lost decade for home prices. With the release of the January data for the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes, prices in a national composite dropped 3.8% from a year before, rolling back to …
Reverse Mortgages More Popular With Younger Homeowners
Once widely seen as money of last resort, reverse mortgages are fast entering the mainstream of retirement income. Boomers are turning to reverse mortgages earlier to pay off debt or improve their lifestyle, according to a report …
Housing Bail-Out Arrives for One Group of Americans: Soldiers and Vets
Call it a war on foreclosure wrongs. The $25 billion foreclosure abuse settlement announced last month between a group of state governments and the largest mortgage banks in the country is meant to help homeowners everywhere who …
Mortgage-Skipping Masters: Couple Lives in $1.29 Million Home Without Making Payments for 5 Years
Guess what happens when you stop paying the mortgage? For quite some time, the answer is: Nothing much. In many states, while the foreclosure process drags on for years, homeowners who have stopped paying their bills can live in …
Housing Recovery at Last? Evidence Mounts
While experts continue to warn that housing has not yet hit bottom, a slew of indicators suggest otherwise. The latest is a stellar quarterly earnings report from Home Depot, which is benefitting from hopeful owners sprucing up …
Who Qualifies for the $26 Billion Foreclosure Settlement?
It took over a year for lawmakers and state AGs to agree to the terms of the $26 billion foreclosure settlement announced this week, and it could take up to another three years for eligible homeowners to see a share of that …
Crowd Favorite on American Idol Calls Tent ‘Home’
On the most recent season debut of American Idol, viewers watched as a 24-year-old from Tennessee named Amy Brumfield won a golden ticket to Hollywood. Besides her soulful rendition of an Alicia Keys song, what made Brumfield …
Fixing the Housing Market: What to Expect from Obama’s SOTU Speech
What’s President Obama’s plan for getting the housing market back on track? Look for proposals—but not necessarily solutions—in tonight’s State of the Union address.
Does the Decrease in Defaults Mean Homeowners Are Getting Their Financial Houses In Order?
The social stigma of going into foreclosure seems to have decreased in the last few years as almost three-quarters of U.S. households found themselves underwater with their mortgages, and “walking away” from a home became …
The Real Estate Market that Defies the Trends
The real estate market continues to flatline throughout most of the country. But in Washington, D.C., housing prices are up a smidgen (0.3%) from the previous month. More importantly, year-over-year prices have risen by 1.3%, a …
5 Events that Really Mattered for Housing in 2011 – and Beyond
Government, the mortgage industry and forces of nature all shook the housing market in 2011. They had both an immediate impact and slow-burning effects, setting the stage for a bumpy 2012 with more foreclosures, political battles …