A Look At This Week’s Mortgage Rates : December 3, 2012

Dec 03

A Look At This Week’s Mortgage Rates : December 3, 2012

December 3, 2012 By Justin Paulhamus Leave a Comment

Low mortgage rates are pumping up home affordability. Average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rates made a new all-time low in November, continuing this year Refinance Boom and giving fuel to the budding housing market recovery. At month-end, Freddie Mac's survey of 125 banks nationwide put the benchmark product's rate at 3.32% for borrowers willing to pay 0.8 discount points. This is just 0.01 percentage point above the record-low rate establishing prior to Thanksgiving. The 15-year fixed … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buying Real Estate in Washington, DC Tagged With: Ben Bernanke, Case-Shiller Index, Consumer Confidence, Freddie Mac, Gross Domestic Product, Mortgage loan, Unemployment, United States Department of Commerce, Wall Street

Oct 31

19 of 20 Case-Shiller Index Markets Improve In August

October 31, 2012 By Claire Welsh Leave a Comment

Home value rose to close out the summer, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Index, a national home-valuation tracker. Nationwide, values rose 0.9% between July and August 2012 with 19 of 20 tracked markets showing improvement. Only one tracked city -- Seattle, Washington -- showed a decrease, falling just 0.1 percent. On an annual basis, 17 of the 20 Case-Shiller Index markets improved, led by Phoenix. Home values in the Arizona city are up 18.8 percent from August 2011. The next … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buying Real Estate in Washington, DC Tagged With: Case-Shiller Index, Home Values, Phoenix, real estate, Real estate pricing, United States, washington dc

Sep 06

Case-Shiller Index Shows Huge Home Price Gain

September 6, 2012 By Jessica Wilkie Leave a Comment

Home prices continue to rise nationwide. According to the Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Index, home prices rose 6.9% between the first and second quarter of 2012, the largest quarter-to-quarter gain since the home-value tracker's 1987 inception and another signal that the housing market is in recovery. The private-sector metric's results are similar to what the government's Home Price Index showed for June, too -- values rising quickly. In addition, for the second straight month, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buying Real Estate in Washington, DC Tagged With: Case-Shiller Index, dc, District of Columbia, Home Price Index, Home Values, National Association of Realtors, real estate, Real estate economics, Real estate pricing, Standard & Poor, washington dc

May 02

Home Values Start The Year Strong

May 2, 2012 By Jessica Wilkie Leave a Comment

Home prices started the year on an upswing. According to the Federal Home Finance Agency's Home Price Index, home prices rose by a seasonally-adjusted 0.3 percent between January and February 2012. The index is up 0.4% over the past year, offering a counter-story to the Case-Shiller Index's assertion that home values are sinking. Last week, Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Index said home values had dropped more than 3 percent in the prior 12 months. As a home buyer or seller in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buying Real Estate in Washington, DC, Selling Real Estate in Washington, DC Tagged With: Case-Shiller Index, Home Price Index, HPI, Price index, real estate, Real estate economics, Real estate pricing, Standard & Poor, washington dc

Apr 27

Pending Home Sales Index Crosses The 100 Barrier

April 27, 2012 By Joshua Oliver 1 Comment

After a series of worse-than-expected data last month, the housing market appears to be back on track. The Pending Home Sales Index posted 101.4 in March, a four percent gain from the month prior and the index's highest reading since April 2010 -- the last month of that year's federal home buyer tax credit. A "pending home" is a home under contract to sell, but not yet closed. The Pending Home Sales Index is tracked and published by the National Association of REALTORS® … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Selling Real Estate in Washington, DC Tagged With: Case-Shiller Index, Existing Home Sales, NAR, National Association of Realtors, New Home Sales, Pending Home Sales Index, Real estate economics, Real estate pricing, washington dc

Feb 01

Case-Shiller Index Says Washington DC And Detroit Lead The Market

February 1, 2012 By Jessica Wilkie 3 Comments

Standard & Poors released its November 2011 Case-Shiller Index this week. The index measures the change in home prices from month-to-month, and year-to-year, in select U.S. cities. According to the data, for the second straight month, home values fell in 19 of the Case-Shiller Index's 20 tracked markets. In addition, also for the second straight month, Phoenix, Arizona was the lone Case-Shiller-tracked city in which home values rose. Overall, November's Case-Shiller Index showed a 1 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buying Real Estate in Washington, DC, Selling Real Estate in Washington, DC Tagged With: Case-Shiller Index, Condominiums, Home Values, real estate, Real estate pricing, United States, washington dc

Dec 29

Nationally, Home Prices Off 18.3 Percent From April 2007 Peak

December 29, 2011 By Jessica Wilkie 2 Comments

The government confirms what the private-sector Case-Shiller Index reported yesterday. Nationwide, average home values slipped in October. The Federal Home Finance Agency's Home Price Index shows home values down 0.2% on a monthly, seasonally-adjusted basis. October marks just the second time since April that home values fell month-over-month. The Case-Shiller Index 20-City Composite showed values down 0.7 percent from September to October. As a home buyer in DC , it's easy to look at … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buying Real Estate in Washington, DC Tagged With: Case-Shiller Index, Fannie Mae, FHFA, Freddie Mac, Home Price Index, House price index, New Home Sales, October, Price index, Real estate broker/agent, Real estate economics

Oct 26

District of Columbia Posts One Year Gain in Home Values

October 26, 2011 By Justin Paulhamus 1 Comment

The August 2011 Case-Shiller Index was released this week. On an monthly basis, 10 of 20 tracked markets worsened. On an annual basis, valuation degradation was worse. Only Detroit and Washington, D.C. posted higher home values in August 2011 as compared to August 2010, rising 2.7% and 0.3%, respectively. However, the index has been moving in the right direction. Since bottoming out in March of this year, the Case-Shiller Index is up nearly 4 percent. As home buyers and sellers in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buying Real Estate in Washington, DC Tagged With: Case-Shiller Index, Case–Shiller index, Home Values, Real estate pricing, Standard & Poors, Washington D.C.

Sep 29

Case-Shiller Index : 85% Of Tracked Cities Showed Home Price Improvement In July

September 29, 2011 By Barbara Morrocco 4 Comments

Standard & Poors released its monthly Case-Shiller Index this week. The Case-Shiller Index measures home price changes from month-to-month, and year-to-year, in 20 select U.S. cities. It also reports a "national" index; a composite of the values in said cities. The most recent Case-Shiller Index shows a 0.9% rise in home values from June to July 2011. Home values were higher in 17 of the 20 tracked cities. Only Phoenix and Las Vegas fell. Denver was flat. Also noteworthy is that, of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buying Real Estate in Washington, DC Tagged With: Case-Shiller Index, Case–Shiller index, Home Values, real estate, Real estate economics, Real estate pricing, washington dc

Sep 02

Home Values Rose In June 2011

September 2, 2011 By Mark Mlakar Leave a Comment

Has housing turned the corner for good? The June 2011 Case-Shiller Index reading posted strong numbers across the board, with each of the index's 20 tracked markets showing home price improvement from May. Some markets -- Chicago and Minneapolis -- rose as much as 3.2 percent. The rise in values is nothing about which to get overly excited, however. The Case-Shiller Index is just re-reporting what multiple data sets have already shown about the summer housing market; that it was … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buying Real Estate in Washington, DC, Selling Real Estate in Washington, DC Tagged With: Case-Shiller Index, Case–Shiller index, Home Values, housing report, market statistics, Real estate economics, Real estate pricing, washington dc