The Home Front
-
The $8,000 First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Program Expands: 5 Things to Know
Continue reading… 111 CommentsAs the historic housing plunge rumbles on, Uncle Sam is offering a fresh incentive to get first-time home buyers off the sidelines. U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan on Friday unveiled a policy change that would provide home buyers with quicker access to a recently enacted first-time home buyer tax credit. Buyers would be free to put the funds toward closing costs and a portion of their down payment. The federal government hopes that the measure will stimulate housing demand, something desperately needed to help mop up the glut of unsold inventory.
[See New Home Buyer Tax Credit: 7 Things You Need to Know]
Here are five things you need to know about the policy change:
-
Recession Pushing Even Credit-Worthy Borrowers Over the Edge
Continue reading… 4 CommentsFor some time, bankers have been struggling with rising delinquencies on exotic mortgage products made to borrowers with checkered credit histories. But now—as the recession continues to erode the labor market—a growing number of borrowers with solid credit histories are falling behind on their mortgages as well, which is pushing foreclosure and delinquency rates to alarming levels.
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s most recent National Delinquency Survey, released Thursday, included sobering figures. The seasonally adjusted delinquency rate for mortgages was 9.12 percent of all loans at the end of the first quarter, an increase of 2.77 percentage points from a year earlier and an all-time high. At the same time, 3.85 percent of all mortgages were in the foreclosure process, which is a 1.38 percentage point jump from the same period in the previous year. “Both the foreclosure inventory percentage and the quarter- to- quarter increase are record highs,” according to the MBA report.
From the MBA:
-
Home Prices Fall Back to 2002 Levels
Continue reading… 1 CommentAmerican home prices continued their painful slide in March, as a key report on the housing market came in weaker than expected:
The S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index – which covers all nine U.S. census divisions – recorded a 19.1% decline in the 1st quarter of 2009 versus the 1st quarter of 2008, the largest decline in the serie’s 21-year history. The 10-City and 20-City Composites recorded annual declines of 18.6% and 18.7%, respectively. These are slight improvements from their returns reported for February...
(Via the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices)
The chart above shows the index levels for the U.S. National Home Price Index, as well as its annual returns. As of March 2009, average home prices across the United States are at similar levels to what they were in the fourth quarter of 2002. From the peak in the second quarter of 2006, average home prices are down 32.2%.
-
Pulte Homes CEO: We're Beginning to See the Bottom
Continue reading… 8 CommentsSix years into his tenure as chief executive of Pulte Homes, 44-year-old Richard Dugas faces the challenge of a lifetime: steering the Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based home builder through the worst housing slump since the Great Depression. In the face of an eroding labor market, tighter mortgage credit, and anemic consumer confidence, Pulte lost more than $500 million in the year's first quarter. But the downtrodden housing market hasn't rattled Dugas's resolve. In April, the company announced a $1.3 billion deal to acquire rival Centex, which, if approved, would create the largest home builder in the country. In a recent interview with U.S. News, Dugas discussed the challenges facing his industry, what he'd like to see from the government, and the reasons he pulled the trigger on the Centex deal.
Excerpts:
What are the most significant macroeconomic head winds that home builders like Pulte are facing today? We are well into the fourth year now of the housing downturn. There are supply problems, and there are demand problems. The supply problems right now are primarily foreclosures. On the demand side, I break it down into three problems: One is consumer confidence, two is the inability to sell your existing home, and three is mortgage availability. We are slowly working on all four of those issues.
-
Builders Want More Home Buyer Tax Incentives
Continue reading… 2 CommentsLooks like home builders are looking to beef up the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit that was passed with the stimulus package:
From Dow Jones:
Some of the nation's home builders aim to stretch the deadline - and possibly the amount - of a federal tax credit of up to $8,000 for first-time buyers closing before Dec. 1, according to Jeffrey T. Mezger, KB Home's president and chief executive…
-
Bank Demolishing New Homes Instead of Selling Them
Continue reading… 14 CommentsThe housing crash has hit Southern California so hard that one bank found it preferable to take the wrecking ball to 16 homes there rather than to attempt to sell them, The Wall Street Journal reports. The bank obtained the homes through foreclosure.
Guaranty Bank of Austin is wrecking the structures to provide a "safe environment" for neighbors of the abandoned housing tract in Victorville, a high-desert city about 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles, a bank spokesman said.
Victorville city officials said the bank told them the cost of finishing the development would exceed what they could sell the homes for.
-
America's Top 50 Destination Cities
Continue reading… 2 CommentsU-Haul International...released the results of the annual 2008 U-Haul National Migration Trend Report, titled "The 2008 Top 50 U.S. Destination Cities."
