Originally published on March 10, 2022, by MBA NewsLink Staff for Mortgage Bankers Association.

CoreLogic, Irvine, Calif., said just 2.1% of U.S. homeowners with a mortgage were underwater as of the fourth quarter, the lowest level since 2010, as borrowers gained more than $3.2 trillion in equity in 2021.

Originally published on March 8, 2022, by Isabelle Novak for Redfin.

Nationwide, 5,897 homes sold for at least $100,000 over asking price at the beginning of this year, up from 2,241 during the same period last year, according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage.

Originally published on February 28, 2022, by Adam Russell for the FHFA.

 Today, FHFA Acting Director Sandra L. Thompson announced that the Housing Trust Fund and Capital Magnet Fund will receive a total of $1.138 billion for affordable housing initiatives from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises). This is the largest amount ever provided to these programs from the Enterprises.

Originally published on March 3, 2022, by Angela Waugaman for the Freddie Mac.

Freddie Mac today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS), showing that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.76 percent.

Originally published on February 24, 2022, by ATTOM Staff for ATTOM Data.

 ATTOM, a leading curator of real estate data nationwide for land and property data, today released its first-quarter 2022 Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report showing that 1.4 million (1,354,579) residential properties in the United States sit vacant. That represents 1.4 percent, or one in 73 homes, across the nation.

Originally published on February 17, 2022, by the Hazard HQ Team for CoreLogic.

Natural disasters are increasing in frequency and severity, impacting regions underprepared to handle an economic disruption, job displacement, and the destruction of real estate assets.

Originally published on February 17, 2022, by Angela Waugaman for Freddie Mac.

Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.92 percent.

Originally published on February 10, 2022 by the ATTOM Staff for ATTOM.

ATTOM, licensor of the nation’s most comprehensive foreclosure data and parent company to RealtyTrac (www.realtytrac.com), the largest online marketplace for foreclosure and distressed properties, today released its January 2022 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows there were a total of 23,204 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions — up 29 percent from a month ago and 139 percent from a year ago.

Originally published on February 9, 2022, Jiayi Xu for Realtor.com.

Highlights

Black homebuyers:

Originally published on February 8, 2022 by Rose Quint for NAHB.

Supply-chain bottlenecks that put upward pressure on home prices along with rising interest rates contributed to housing affordability falling to a 10-year low.  The likelihood of higher interest rates in the months ahead (as the Federal Reserve moves to tighten interest rates) along with ongoing production challenges threaten to drive housing affordability even lower in 2022.

Originally published on February 7, 2022, by Lester Davis for NFHA.

Today, the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) and 20 fair housing organizations throughout the country reached a landmark $53 million agreement with Fannie Mae (formally known as the Federal National Mortgage Association). The settlement resolves the groups’ claims that Fannie Mae treated homes it owned in majority-Black and Latino communities unfavorably. The settlement will help rebuild and strengthen communities of color in 39 metropolitan areas. In the case, the plaintiffs alleged that Fannie Mae maintained and marketed its foreclosed homes in predominantly White neighborhoods while allowing homes in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods to fall into disrepair and that this differential treatment exacerbated the damage caused by the 2008 mortgage crisis and impeded recovery from the crisis in neighborhoods of color. The case was the first time a federal court confirmed the nation’s fair housing laws cover the maintenance and marketing of Real Estate Owned (REO) properties.

Originally published by The Boulder Group on February 2, 2022.

Cap rates in the single-tenant net lease retail and industrial sectors increased to 5.88% and 6.77%, respectively, during the fourth quarter, a slight increase from the historically low rates reported during the previous quarter, The Boulder Group reported Feb. 3 in its Q4 2021 Net Lease Market Report. Cap rates for net lease office properties remained at 6.8%.

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Originally published on Janaury 6, 2022 for ATTOM.

ATTOM, curator of the nation’s premier property database, today released its 2022 Rental Affordability Report, which shows that owning a median-priced home is more affordable than the average rent on a three-bedroom property in 666, or 58 percent, of the 1,154 U.S. counties analyzed for the report. That means major home ownership expenses consume a smaller portion of average local wages than renting.

Originally published on January 13, 2022, by Angela Waugaman for Freddie Mac.

Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS), showing that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.45 percent.

Originally published on January 13, 2022, by Angela Waugaman for Freddie Mac.

Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS), showing that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.45 percent.

Originally published on January 11, 2022, by Michael Tucker for Mortgage Bankers Association.

Yardi Matrix, Santa Barbara, Calif., reported student housing sector fundamentals remain strong as pre-leasing for the 2022 fall semester ramps up.

Originally published on December 7, 2021, for the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Renters were three times more likely than homeowners to miss payments during September and October, according to updated research released Tuesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Research Institute for Housing America.

Originally published on December 9, 2021, by the National Association of Home Builders.

According to the latest Annual Builder Practices Survey (ABPS), one in four new single-family detached homes were built in established neighborhoods in 2020. Homes built on infill lots constituted 18.6% of new homes, while homes built after tearing down an existing building constituted 6.4% of new homes.

Originally published on November 22, 2021, by Jeff Andrews for Zumper.

Notable Trends

1. Rent has been rising at an alarming rate all over the country throughout 2021, but Zumper’s National Rent Index for November shows for the first time this year a slower pace of rent growth that more closely resembles historical norms. Is this a sign that the rental market is finally cooling off just a blip after months of unsustainable growth?
2. Large cities in Florida have experienced some of the most rapid rent growth in the country. In particular, rent in Tampa and St. Petersburg has grown so much since the pandemic that both cities have risen substantially on Zumper’s 100 most expensive markets in the United States.
3. Like a lot of places on the West Coast, the Seattle metropolitan area saw rent drop after the pandemic hit in March 2020. But now 18 months later, Seattle and its neighboring areas are posting sizable year-over-year gains in rent, and rent in Seattle itself is almost back to where it was prior to the pandemic.

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Originally published on November 24, 2021, for Realtor Magazine.

This winter is expected to be unseasonably hot for the housing market.