U.S. Housing Market Commentary

Posted by Megan Hopkins on 6/3/13 at 1:25pm

"It’s never been less important to be smart than it is today because every single piece of knowledge sits on your phone," Gary Vaynerchuk, founder & CEO of VaynerMedia, told his audience at HousingWire’s Real Estate Expo (REX Annual) on Monday. 

In an age where anyone can search via Google to find out who the 14th president of the United States was,...

Real Estate
Posted by Christina Mlynski on 5/31/13 at 10:31am

It seems like no matter what California Attorney General Kamala Harris does, she can't get everyone on the same page — to be bold, the same chapter.

Homeowner advocacy groups California, Occupy Fights Foreclosure sent a pretty aggressive open letter to Harris demanding to know why no prosecutions against banks were being taken, since — according to the local homeowners — the financial institutions are at the helm of creating the crisis of mortgage fraud.

"We do not understand...

Servicing
Posted by Brena Swanson on 5/31/13 at 9:54am

The mortgage business is a top source of revenue for banks, and mega bank Wells Fargo is no exception.

Wells Fargo ($40.84 0.23%) CEO and President John Stumpf presented at the Sanford C. Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference on Wednesday discussing the overall health of the bank.

Stumpf said the culture of our company and...

Lending
Posted by Christina Mlynski on 5/30/13 at 10:09am

Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, sure knows how to stir up some controversy.

After his speech last week about the eventual tapering of the open-ended third-round of quantitative easing program, and the Federal Open Market Committee meeting...

Investments
Posted by Jacob Gaffney on 5/30/13 at 9:13am

Word to the wise for entrepreneurs and innovators in the mortgage financing space: be prepared for interviews to turn bizarre.

Austin Allison, the founder of dotloop, raised $10 million for his amazingly useful startup. And so he goes on CNBC and what does he get asked about?

Ribs.

Here are some of the other gems the anchors at CNBC have to say about mortgages: "It's like the one industry where you still have a fax machine that's used constantly. Yeah...

Real Estate
Posted by Brena Swanson on 5/29/13 at 3:07pm

Wells Fargo customers have paid down $50 million in mortgage balances since the mega bank unleashed its Home Rebate Card in 2007, just one year before the housing market crash. 

Unlike a lot of other mortgage products that failed, the credit card managed to stay afloat and proved to be quite beneficial to homeowners.

The card is unique because every purchase...

Lending
Posted by Jacob Gaffney on 5/29/13 at 2:01pm

Here's comes the housing recovery, finally, and so here also come the critics.

Don't get me wrong, as far as economic recovery goes, this one's pretty weak.

Heidi Moore at the Guardian gives perhaps the best overview to the argument that the recovery is failing consumers in general:

"A recovery allows real estate agents and banks to tell Americans that...

Lending
Posted by Kerri Ann Panchuk on 5/29/13 at 12:05pm

Smart machines could eventually kill the mortgage finance and real estate space. At least, that's my opinion.

I know what you’re asking — how could technological innovation destroy two pillars of the U.S. economy?

In some ways, this is an accurate perception. Technology in the future will certainly help lenders and servicers detect risk early on.

In fact, many investors have spent the past four years figuring out how they can better use data and technology to prevent the...

Real Estate
Posted by Christina Mlynski on 5/28/13 at 11:12am

Wall Street is beautiful dynamic, especially when trading is working in one's favor. 

Tuesday just happens to be one of those days that investors and large banking institutions see a lot to rejoice about, considering the stock market is performing at an impressive pace. 

Why the sudden boost of confidence? We can all thank the market data, specifically the S&P/Case-Shiller.

Home prices...

Investments
Posted by Megan Hopkins on 5/23/13 at 4:27pm

Forty-one percent of buyers surveyed by Redfin said today's low inventory caused them to consider paying more for a home in the second quarter of 2013. This is up from 34% of survey respondents in the first quarter and 26% in the fourth quarter of 2012.

As someone who was looking to buy a home in this crazy North Texas market where prices continue to appreciate, I can attest to feeling the need to offer over list price. In fact, on the second home my husband and I put...

Real Estate