All the Real Estate News That’s Fit to RE-Print™
Welcome to our weekly edition of Real Estate Investing News This Week. Highlights this week include:
- Housing Starts Up 2% in March
- Builder Confidence Up Four Points in April
- Foreclosures Down 67% from 2010 Peak
- And More…
Housing Starts Up 2 Percent in March
Nationwide housing starts rose 2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 926,000 units in March, according to newly released data from the U.S. Commerce Department.
Single-family housing production rose 4.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 618,000 in March while multifamily starts dropped 2.5 percent to 308,000 units.
“Today’s reading demonstrates that the housing industry continues to make gains at a gradual pace,” said NAHB Chairman Tom Woods, a home builder from Blue Springs, Mo. “There are still some price sensitive buyers who remain on the fence.”
“Builders are being careful not to add inventory beyond expected demand, especially as they struggle with increasing costs for lots, labor and materials,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “However, pent-up demand, low mortgage interest rates and a growing economy should keep the housing industry moving forward throughout the rest of the year.”
Builder Confidence Rises Four Points in April
Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes in April rose four points to a level of 56 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) released Wednesday.
“As the spring buying season gets underway, home builders are confident that current low interest rates and continued job growth will draw consumers to the market,” said NAHB Chairman Tom Woods, a home builder from Blue Springs, Mo.
“The HMI component index measuring future sales expectations rose five points in April to its highest level of the year,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “This uptick shows builders are feeling optimistic that the housing market will continue to strengthen throughout 2015.”
Foreclosures Down 67 Percent From 2010 Peak
—National Foreclosure Inventory Down 27 Percent Year Over Year—
On Tuesday, Corelogic released its February 2015 National Foreclosure Report which shows that the foreclosure inventory declined by 27.3 percent and completed foreclosures declined by 15.7 percent from February 2014.
According to CoreLogic data, there were 39,000 completed foreclosures nationwide in February 2015, down from 46,000 in February 2014 and representing a decrease of 67 percent from the peak of completed foreclosures in September 2010.
“The number of homes in foreclosure proceedings fell by 27 percent from a year ago and stands at about one-third of what it was at the trough of the housing cycle,” said Frank Nothaft, chief economist at CoreLogic.
“While the drop in the share of mortgages in foreclosure to 1.4 percent is a welcome sign of continued recovery in the housing market, the share remains more than double the 0.6 percent average foreclosure rate that we saw during 2000-2004.”
>>> Download CoreLogic Foreclosure Report February 2015
Foreclosure Activity Drops to Lowest Level in Eight Years
On Thursday, RealtyTrac® released its Q1 and March 2015 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 313,487 U.S. properties in the first quarter of 2015.
That’s down 7 percent from the previous quarter and down 8 percent from the first quarter of 2014 to the lowest quarterly total since the first quarter of 2007.
A total of 152,147 U.S. properties started the foreclosure process for the first time in the first quarter of 2015, down 11 percent from the previous quarter and down 8 percent from a year ago.