Real Estate Blog LA

This morning's GDP revision for the 4th quarter came in a little higher or stronger than last month's previous estimate of 5.7%. Today's release showed a 5.9% rate of growth, meaning economic activity was stronger than many had thought. This headline number is bad news for bonds and mortgage rates because a strengthening economy ...

Market ReportClear Capital Reports 7.3% U.S. Home Price Gains, Softening REO InfluencesNational price gains continue positive climb; real estate owned (REO) saturation rates decline; Los Angeles and Fresno markets show positive quarterly price gains for the first time since 2006; and Chicago achieves its largest quarterly gain this decade.TRUCKEE, ...

Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, It's Off to Work We Go! If ever there was a week to sing that old Disney® song, it was last week when Americans received some good employment news. Despite a worse-than-expected ADP National Employment report - which isn't known for its accuracy - the Initial Jobless Claims report came in on Thursday with some good ...

Despite some volatile mid-week action, home loan rates closed out the week near the level where they had begun the week.   The supply of unsold homes on the market dropped from the prior reading of 9.8 months down to 9.4 months - which is the best level seen in over a year. With home loan rates still at low levels and homes priced to sell - ...

The benchmark 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage edged up 4 basis points, to 5.8 percent, according to a national survey of large lenders. A basis point is one-hundredth of 1 percentage point. The mortgages in this week's survey had an average total of 45 discount and origination points. One year ago, the mortgage index was 6.62 percent; four ...

In terms of economic reports, Thursday will be the big day this coming week. We'll learn more about the health of the retail sector via the Retail Sales Report for May. April's Retail Sales Report was worse than expected and marked the eighth decline in the past ten months for Retail Sales. While May's Report isn't expected to show ...

(Remember, inflation is the archenemy of Bonds and home loan rates, so I will be keeping a close eye on this in the coming months.) The Department of Housing and Urban Development's Federal Housing Administration making a very interesting announcement that ultimately appeared to be slightly premature. They announced a new plan to allow ...

Notices of Default, the first step in the foreclosure process, reached a record level – nearly 26 percent higher than the previous historic peak in April 2008. Notices of Trustee sale, which set the auction date and time, rose 82.3 percent from the prior month, though not yet reaching the prior record level set in July 2008. While ...

1. Affordability is better than everAccording to the National Association of Realtors' housing affordability index, homes were more affordable in December than at any other point since the group started the index in 1970. The affordability index is a measure of the relationship between home prices, mortgage interest rates and family income. ...

House prices in much of the U.S. will bottom out in this year's fourth quarter, Moody's Economy.com says in a new report. The report projects that peak-to-trough declines for metro areas will be 53% in Los Angeles. In some of the hardest hit markets, however, prices won't reach a bottom until 2010 or 2011, the research firm says in a ...