Foreclosures | Mortgages | Financing
The significant uptick mortgage rates witnessed last week isn’t over. According to the latest Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey, the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages continued to rise from the previous mortgage application report, which set the record high for the year. …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire
Zayo Group Holdings Inc. said Wednesday it has agreed to acquire Electric Lightwave for $1.42 billion in cash. Electric Lightwave provides infrastructure and telecom services primarily in the Western United States, and has 8,100 route miles of long haul fiber and 4,000 miles of dense metro fiber in Portland, Seattle, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Spokane and Boise, Zayo said in a statement. Zayo, a provider of communications infrastructure services, said it expects to realize $40 million of annual cost synergies from the deal, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017. The company also expects to benefit from more than $400 million in net operating loss carryforwards it will take on as part of the deal. Shares were not yet active in premarket trade, but are up 30% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 has gained about 8%.
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From:: Stock Market News
Royal Bank of Scotland Group [rbs] has failed a tougher stress test of systemic banks in the U.K. and must come up with a revised plan to raise capital, the Bank of England said Wednesday. The process also revealed capital inadequacies at Standard Chartered PLC and Barclays PLC [bcs], but these lenders will not have to submit new capital plans as they have already undertaken capital strengthening measures, the BOE said in a statement. Four lenders — HSBC Holdings PLC , Lloyds Banking Group PLC , Nationwide Building Society and Santander UK — were found to be resilient in the stress-testing process. The test of the banks’ resilience imposed more severe stress than that used in tests in 2014 and 2015, and held them to “a higher standard reflecting the phasing-in of capital buffers for global systemically important banks,” the BOE said.
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From:: Stock Market News
Housing is expected to downshift next year as the post-election economy sets in, driven by a deceleration in home price growth, according to realtor.com®’s recently released 2017 housing forecast. The forecast projects home prices nationally growing at a rate of 3.9 percent, down from 2016’s 4.9 percent estimate, and an appreciation slowdown of 1 percent or more in nearly half of the U.S.’ top 100 metropolitan areas.
“Multiple factors are coming together,” says realtor.com Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke. “One is a continued trend toward moderation—basically the effect of seeing all of the rebounds coming off of the distress, the foreclosure years finally well behind us, so there’s no longer that dead cat bounce that was occurring in some markets. Second…we’re now in record price territory in many places in the country, so that’s starting to have its own moderating effect. We’re seeing that evident in the fact that more markets in our forecast represent a deceleration in price trend as opposed to an acceleration in price trend.”
The Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla. area tops the list of 46 markets projected to experience an appreciation slowdown in 2017, followed by Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C. and Jackson, Miss.
Mortgage rates, which last week treaded above 4 percent for the first time this year, are projected to reach 4.5 percent, according to the forecast. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise the key interest rate in December.
“A new wrinkle is the higher mortgage rates,” Smoke says. “They have an impact on the potential of the buying pool in high-cost areas in that they really start to challenge qualifications from an affordability perspective, so, as a result, they tend to have a dampening effect. Our forecast would imply that we’re expecting, in addition the December move, likely two to three more moves next year.”
Higher mortgage rates do, however, have the potential to result in less stringent enforcement action, which, coupled with changes per the Trump Administration, could open up credit opportunities closed off to otherwise qualified homebuyers.
“What I’m expecting is that those trends toward more conservatism will likely improve simply because mortgage rates are higher,” says Smoke. “An even more important factor is the fact that the refi market goes away when mortgage rates are above 4 percent; if [lenders] want to keep their lending operation performing similarly, then they have to turn to the purchase market more. I think the consumer’s going to win in that perspective.”
Leading positive price movement—though lessened compared to 2016—will be the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz. area, ranked the No. 1 housing market of 2017 in the forecast. The area is projected to see prices grow 5.94 percent and sales grow 7.24 percent. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, Calif., Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Mass.-N.H., Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade, Calif., and Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif. round out the top five of the forecast’s ranking.
Realtor.com’s 2017 Housing Forecast – Top 100 Metros
Twenty-six of the top 100 metropolitan areas, as well, are projected to experience appreciation of 1 percent or more, including the Greensboro-High Point, N.C., Akron, Ohio, and Baltimore-Columbia-Townson, Md. areas.
The forecast …read more
From:: Finance and Economy
Housing is expected to downshift next year as the post-election economy sets in, driven by a deceleration in home price growth, according to realtor.com®’s recently released 2017 housing forecast. The forecast projects home prices nationally growing at a rate of 3.9 percent, down from 2016’s 4.9 percent estimate, and an appreciation slowdown of 1 percent or more in nearly half of the U.S.’ top 100 metropolitan areas.
“Multiple factors are coming together,” says realtor.com Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke. “One is a continued trend toward moderation—basically the effect of seeing all of the rebounds coming off of the distress, the foreclosure years finally well behind us, so there’s no longer that dead cat bounce that was occurring in some markets. Second…we’re now in record price territory in many places in the country, so that’s starting to have its own moderating effect. We’re seeing that evident in the fact that more markets in our forecast represent a deceleration in price trend as opposed to an acceleration in price trend.”
The Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla. area tops the list of 46 markets projected to experience an appreciation slowdown in 2017, followed by Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C. and Jackson, Miss.
Mortgage rates, which last week treaded above 4 percent for the first time this year, are projected to reach 4.5 percent, according to the forecast. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise the key interest rate in December.
“A new wrinkle is the higher mortgage rates,” Smoke says. “They have an impact on the potential of the buying pool in high-cost areas in that they really start to challenge qualifications from an affordability perspective, so, as a result, they tend to have a dampening effect. Our forecast would imply that we’re expecting, in addition the December move, likely two to three more moves next year.”
Higher mortgage rates do, however, have the potential to result in less stringent enforcement action, which, coupled with changes per the Trump Administration, could open up credit opportunities closed off to otherwise qualified homebuyers.
“What I’m expecting is that those trends toward more conservatism will likely improve simply because mortgage rates are higher,” says Smoke. “An even more important factor is the fact that the refi market goes away when mortgage rates are above 4 percent; if [lenders] want to keep their lending operation performing similarly, then they have to turn to the purchase market more. I think the consumer’s going to win in that perspective.”
Leading positive price movement—though lessened compared to 2016—will be the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz. area, ranked the No. 1 housing market of 2017 in the forecast. The area is projected to see prices grow 5.94 percent and sales grow 7.24 percent. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, Calif., Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Mass.-N.H., Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade, Calif., and Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif. round out the top five of the forecast’s ranking.
Realtor.com’s 2017 Housing Forecast – Top 100 Metros
Twenty-six of the top 100 metropolitan areas, as well, are projected to experience appreciation of 1 percent or more, including the Greensboro-High Point, N.C., Akron, Ohio, and Baltimore-Columbia-Townson, Md. areas.
The forecast …read more
From:: Real Estate News
The housing market is on the edge of 2017. A quick look back on 2016 shows a year filled with thoughts on Millennial homeownership, low interest rates and drastically low inventory. What changes do you think next year will bring for housing? …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire
Millennials, which usually fall into the first-time homebuyer pool, are predicted to start moving into the housing market soon as they opt out of renting. Unfortunately, this new forecast report explained that the election changed a lot of the rosy picture original predicted for first-time homebuyers in 2017. …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire
Donald Trump and Mike Pence will travel to Indiana on Thursday to announce they have reached a deal with air-conditioner maker Carrier to keep roughly 1,000 jobs at a factory in Indianapolis, according to a report in the New York Times Tuesday evening. Carrier, whose parent company is United Technologies , had been planning to shift many of those jobs to Mexico over a three-year period, the report said. During the election campaign, Trump and Pence, Indiana’s governor and vice president-elect, had used Carrier as an example of the type of trade deals putting Americans out of work.
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From:: Stock Market News
Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc. and AmSurg Corp. will join the S&P 500 index , according to S&P Dow Jones Indices late Tuesday. The adds to the index will occur after the close of trading on Thursday, S&P said. On the large-cap index, Mid-America will replace Owens-Illinois Inc. and AmSurg, which is acquiring Envision Healthcare Holdings Inc. , will replace Legg Mason Inc. . Shares of Mid-America were up less than 0.1% at $93.83 while shares of AmSurg were up 0.3% at $67.60 after hours.
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From:: Stock Market News
In a move that the company is calling a first of its kind, United Wholesale Mortgage announced Tuesday that it is eliminating the 0.25% escrow waiver fee nationwide for all conforming conventional loans. …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire