- The National Association of Realtors (NAR)’s Existing Home Sales (EHS) (completed transactions). EHS fell 10.5% from October and 3.8% from last November. NAR believes this precipitous decline is not due to any decrease in demand but, rather, tight inventory and the Industry’s having to adjust to new “Know Before You Owe” mortgage disclosure rules.
- Seeking Alpha blog’s about the evolving receivership of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Tag Archives: existing home sales
Thursday’s Advocacy & Think TankRound-Up
- Enterprise Community Partners reports that recent Amendments to the Bipartisan Budget Act underfund critical affordable housing and community development programs.
- National Association of Realtor’s Existing Home Sales reflects price gains in Metro Areas for the third quarter of 2015, NAR also says there are at least 6 Reasons why there will not be another Housing Crisis.
- NYU’s Furman Center releases a Data-Update indicating growth in the income-housing gap for New Yorkers – the data indicates that while median rental prices have increased 14.7% over the last decade income has only increased 2.3%.
- The Pew Research Center reports that despite gains in energy efficiency, American’s are using more energy because their homes are bigger – thus any effort to fight global climate change will require major changes and 2/3rds of Americans apparently agree.
- The Terwilliger Foundation for Housing America’s Families argues that the rental crisis needs to be addressed in order for the economy to grow, therefore the Low Income Housing Credit should be a top priority.
Thursday’s Advocacy & Think Tank Round-Up
- The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Staff Report, Determinants of Mortgage Default and Consumer Credit Use: The Effects of Foreclosure Laws and Foreclosure Delays, examines the interconnectedness of debt repayment decisions – specifically finding that mortgage default is negatively correlated with credit card and car loan defaults, unless foreclosure is delayed, in which case default rates increase across the board.
- Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies’ Remodeling Futures Program recently released its Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) index which predicts annual spending growth for home improvements will accelerate to 4.0% by the first quarter of 2016.
- According to the National Association of Realtor’s recently released June Existing Home Sales data, sales are now at their highest pace since February 2007 (5.79 million), have increased year-over-year for nine consecutive months and are 9.6 percent above a year ago (5.01 million).
- The National Low Income Housing Coalition has compiled a helpful overview of the new Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) Rule, which was released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on July 8th. This document compares the old AFFH rule to the new AFFH rule and finds it makes modest yet positive steps toward encouraging more integrated communities.
- The Urban Institute’s Are You Rent Burdened? Is an interactive calculator the allows one to imput address, income and rental amount to determine whether one is rent burdened.
Thursday’s Advocacy & Think Tank Round-Up
- Capital New York reports another study which finds that non-whites are at a disadvantage when it comes to securing a home loan, this is more pronounced in the conventional loan market (less so for FHA loans). Includes an interactive chart which breaks down the stats by borough.
- Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies’ Annual State of the Nation’s Housing 2015 reveals historic lows in homeownership rates, and a corresponding “rental boom,” a shortage in supply for single family dwellings, and an increasingly severe rental affordability problem.
- National Association of Realtors’ release of Existing Home Sales statistics for May reveal a strong rebound over April, in fact sales are strongest they have been in 6 years, with first time homebuyers making up the biggest portion of buyers.
- NYU Furman Center’s new working paper – Utility Allowances in Federally Subsidized Multifamily Housing – advocates four policy changes which would help HUD increase energy efficiency in the properties it subsidizes. These include, 1. Incentivizing owners to switch to individually metered units; 2. Incentivizing owners to make energy saving upgrades; 3. Provision of utility allowances that are affordable but make recipients bear the cost of consumption; 4. Provide information about relative utility costs to increase tenant purchasing power.
