Overall Housing Market Continues to Improve

August 29, 2009 by Scott Smolen · Leave a Comment
Filed under: ScottSays 

Since March, things have improved in the housing market. There are signs that the housing market is getting back on its feet — or at least, declining less slowly. Existing home sales recently registered their biggest gain in more than a decade. Seasonally-adjusted single-family building permits are up 27% since bottoming in March, while single-family housing starts have increased five straight months and are up 36% since March.

Interest rates have remained low as well. Freddie Mac said that the 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 5.12% last week, and the 15-year rate is now down to just 4.56%. With lower prices and very low mortgage rates, housing affordability hasn’t looked so good in many years.

This combination of improved sales and low interest rates should continue to eliminate the inventory supply. This will happen with more sales of homes and Realtors and loan officer’s alike need to be positioned to capture as much of that business as possible moving forward.

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  • Scott Says...

    Where FHA backed less than 3 percent of all new mortgages in 2006, its share of the business has ballooned to nearly one-quarter of the mortgage market. In August, mortgages from the FHA and the Veterans Administration (for qualified veterans) backed 40 percent of loans for all home sales.

    • Ed Says...

      In only two years, the iPhone has dramatically transformed the mobile web. There's a tendency toward touchscreen devices for mobile web browsing; the iPhone has already claimed 50% of mobile web traffic. Google's Android OS was the only other platform gaining with 5%.Sadly, Palm continues its downward spiral. Scott needs something more modern and respectable - a BlackBerry, perhaps. Someone please pick him up off the floor![AdMob via mocoNews.net]