This week in rental property, average 30-year fixed mortgage rate inched back to 3.95% from 3.97% a week earlier. Many analysts are expecting the era of under 4 percent mortgage rate to end soon. Rising home and rental prices are showing no sign of slowing down and pulling back sales of existing homes in October. UBS announced 12 most attractive housing markets around the globe. Lastly, Google is now a registered mortgage broker.
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Average rate on 30-year mortgage slides to 3.95%
Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates slipped this week after they climbed recently expectations that the Federal Reserve may soon raise its key short-term interest rate. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Wednesday the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage slipped to 3.95% from 3.97% a week earlier. The key 30-year rate was nearly unchanged from its level of a year ago, 3.97%. But the average has increased over the past months from 3.76 at the end of October. The average on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages was unchanged at 3.18% from 3.20.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mortgage-rates-20151125-story.html
Home buyers face a new threat: higher mortgage rates
Americans looking to buy a home are facing pressure to act as soon as possible, as the era of rock-bottom mortgage rates that have sustained the nation’s housing market since the recession could be coming to an end.
For years, many home buyers have enjoyed interest rates of under 4 percent, far lower than historic averages. But many analysts say that will change if the Federal Reserve begins pulling back its support for the American economy next month, as is widely expected. An increase in the central bank’s benchmark rate is likely to result in rate raises for all sorts of loans, particularly mortgages.
Housing Prices Inch Up, No Sign Of Peak
The U.S. housing market has not lost momentum. The S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index showed an increase of 4.9 percent in September, up from a 4.6 percent increase in August.
“Home prices and housing continue to show strength with home prices rising at more than double the rate of inflation,” says David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/betsyschiffman/2015/11/24/case-shiller-housing-peak/
Existing-Home Sales Fell 3.4% in October
Fewer Americans bought homes in October, a sign that rising home values may be pushing more would-be buyers to the real estate market’s sidelines. The National Association of Realtors said on Monday that sales of used homes fell 3.4 percent last month, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.36 million.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/24/business/existing-home-sales-fell-3-4-in-october.html
Single-Family Built-for-Rent Construction Grows
Single-family homes built-for-rent starts increased to approximately 9,000 for the third quarter of 2015, compared to about 7,000 for the same period of 2014. However, the single-family built-for-rent market is a small portion of the total market, so care must be taken when identifying trends.
According to data from the Census Bureau’s Quarterly Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design and NAHB analysis, the market share of single-family homes built-for-rent, as measured on a one-year moving average, stands at 3.9% of total single-family starts for the third quarter of 2015. Given the small size of the market segment, the quarter-to-quarter movements are typically not statistically significant.
http://eyeonhousing.org/2015/11/single-family-built-for-rent-construction-grows/
UBS: These 12 massive housing markets are too hot
Many of the most attractive housing markets in the world are vastly overpriced. That’s according to Mark Haefele, who overseas the investment policy and strategy for $2 trillion as UBS’s global chief investment officer. “Among the 15 international cities we analyzed, only Chicago appears undervalued,” he wrote. New York and Boston were considered fair-valued, leaving 12 of the 15 cities surveyed overvalued.
http://www.businessinsider.com/ubs-worldwide-housing-bubble-2015-11
Google could be your next mortgage broker
When looking to buy a home, experts recommend shopping around to find the best mortgage terms. With Google Compare, users will be able to enter personal information, including property value, down payment size and approximate credit score to get tailored results. The results will also show lenders’ ratings and reviews. Homeowners can also use the tool to refinance their mortgages. The product is currently only available in California, but the company plans to expand into other states.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/23/real_estate/google-compare-mortgage-rates/
