Foreclosures | Mortgages | Financing
With supply shortages being blamed, the annual rate of existing home sales declined last month. The Northeast was out front of the drop.
Homebuyers completed the purchase of 315,000 existing single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-operatives in February.
The sale of pre-owned residential properties slipped from the previous month, when a downwardly revised 319,000 home sales closed.
From:: Financing
Last year, the share of homes bought with cash fell to the lowest level since 2007, a new report from CoreLogic showed. But that’s not the only data point that fell to a nine-year low last year. For the full-year 2016, the distressed sales share was also the lowest annual distressed sales share since 2007. …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire
The Scottish parliament’s debate related to a new independence referendum was suspended on Wednesday, according to a Reuters report citing the lawmaking body’s speaker. The halt came after shots were fired near the U.K.’s Houses of Parliament in London, in an apparently concerted attack including the stabbing of a policeman and a car driving at people outside the building. Authorities said they were treating the attack as a terrorist incident. Scotland has appeared headed for a second independence referendum, sparked by the U.K.’s planned exit from the European Union.
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From:: Stock Market News
As weekly mortgage applications dropped off, the share of activity that was represented by government insured loans thinned for the third consecutive week.
The Market Composite Index for the week that ended on March 17, 2017, moved lower by a seasonally adjusted 3 percent compared to one week earlier.
Foregoing seasonal adjustments, the index, a representation of retail residential loan application volume, retreated 2 percent from the week ended March 10.
From:: Financing
Existing home sales slipped down off last month’s decade-high, but remained above last year’s levels. But considering January’s drop in pending home sales to the lowest level in a year, this decrease comes as no surprise. …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire
Two people have been shot outside U.K.’s parliament, according to a Sky News report Wednesday, and Westminster is on lockdown. An alleged assailant has been shot at the parliament by armed police, according to a Reuters report.
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From:: Stock Market News
Home prices halted their monthly growth in January for only the second month since 2012. In fact, home prices experienced consecutive month-over-month growth since November 2013. However, prices are still up annually in all nine census divisions. …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire
The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday reported that domestic crude-oil supplies rose by 5 million barrels for the week ended March 17. That marked the tenth increase in 11 weeks. The American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported a 4.5 million-barrel climb, according to sources, while analysts polled by S&P Global Platts forecast a rise of 2 million barrels. Gasoline supplies fell by 2.8 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles declined by 1.9 million barrels last week, according to the EIA. May crude lost 95 cents, or 2%, to $47.29 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was trading at $47.69 before the supply data.
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From:: Stock Market News
Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures is nearing a deal with industry veteran Jim Gianopulos to serve as the studio’s chairman and chief executive, according to Variety. Gianopulos is currently on his way out as chairman and chief executive at 20th Century Fox , which announced last summer that he would step down once his contract expires on June 30, 2017. If Viacom and Gianopulos agree to terms, he will take the helm following Brad Grey’s exit earlier this year. Grey led the studio for 12 years. Viacom is looking to turn its fortune around under new Chief Executive Officer Bob Bakish after a tumultuous year rife with management infighting. The company has designated its floundering Paramount Pictures film division as key to its strategy. Viacom’s publicly-owned class B shares have gained just 3% in the trailing 12-month period, while the S&P 500 index is up more than 14% during the same time frame.
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From:: Stock Market News
U.S. stocks opened lower on Wednesday, a day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index posted their largest one-day losses since September. The S&P 500 index shed 1 point, or 0.1%, to 2,342, while the Dow slipped 36 points, or 0.2%, to 20,628. The Nasdaq fell 3 points, or 0.1%, to 5,790. Market strategists attributed the drop to signs that President Donald Trump and his allies in Congress might take longer to implement a slate of promised fiscal-stimulus measures than previously believed. The Republican plan for repealing and replacing Obamacare has been met with resistance from some conservative lawmakers, raising concerns that the House bill might not pass when it comes up for a vote on Thursday. In individual stock trading, Sears Holdings Corp. shares plummeted after the struggling retailer warned that the company could cease operations if its turnaround plan fails. Bank stocks struggled, with shares of Bank of America Corp. , Wells Fargo & Co. , Citigroup Inc. , J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. all moving lower.
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From:: Stock Market News