Real Estate Home Loans in Boise Idaho, Benchmark Mortgage - Prime Equity Group: September 2010

The constant "doom and gloom" news reports might make you feel as if everyone is in foreclosure and that no one is buying any homes.  Of course, that is the farthest thing from the truth.  In fact, there are some very bright spots in the housing market.

Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index released today increased 0.6 percent in July over June. The national gauge of home prices ticked up in July for the fourth straight month.

The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing (previously owned) homes shot up 7.6% in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.13 million units.  Another sign of strength is that the median sales prices actually increased, which shows that homes are not being moved due to lower prices.  The median sales price rose 0.8% to $178,600.

Sales grew in every region of the country.  They rose by 14% in the West, 8% in the Northeast and 5% in the Midwest and South.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported that Retail Sales (excluding food items) rose 0.6%.  This was a much larger increase than what traders expected and put Retail Sales at its highest level since emerging from the recession.

This is very important as home sales are largely based upon consumer confidence or their willingness to spend money.  While various consumer confidence surveys and gauges have had mixed results, it is clear that consumers are showing their true confidence levels by spending more. If this trend continues, it will be very favorable for housing demand.

Congressman Walt Minnick has invited me to be part of a roundtable discussion. The topic of conversation will be problems/delays in HUD closings as pertaining to GBS, the HUD contracted closing agent. The congressman is seeking input as regarding how his office can facilitate communication between HUD and the real estate community. If you or any of your colleagues have experiences you would like to share with the congressman, please send me an email dtucker@waterstonemortgage.com

Nothing impacts demand for housing more than employment levels.  Quite simply, if someone is out of work or is concerned that they could lose their job, they are not going to make a major purchase such as a home.  So, it is good news that for the second week in a row that the Initial Jobless Claims have decreased.

Initial Weekly Jobless claims dropped by 27,000 which was much larger than expectations.  Continuing Claims also dropped slightly.  The stock market rallied on this positive economic news.

Homebuyers using FHA financing are going to get a surprise on October 4th, their mortgages will cost them less than it does today to close on their loan.

That's because some creative bookkeeping at HUD has spread the scheduled increase in FHA's mandatory mortgage insurance premiums over the life of the loan, and will actually reduce the up-front payment at closing from the current 1.75 percent of the loan to 1.00 percent.

However, homebuyers monthly insurance payments will go up from 55 to 90 basis points.  For a $275,000 mortgage, the payment would go up about $70 a month, on a $125,000 mortgage, the payment would increase by about $27 a month.

The Government giveth, and the Government taketh away.

First-time home buyers should take note, the most recent quarterly index of national home prices showed improvement for both its first quarter and the year-ago figures. This is according to the latest Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller National Home Price Indices report that was released today.

The U.S National Home Price Index rose 3.6 percent year-over-year in the second quarter to 138.03, and rose 4.4 percent from the first quarter of this year.