The Seattle Times: Real Estate

Rate on 30-year fixed mortgage rises to 4.81 pct.

Fixed mortgage rates edged up this week, but even 30-year rates below 5 percent have done little to boost home sales.

The Seattle Times: Real Estate

New-home sales plunged in February to record low

Sales of new homes plunged in February to The slowest pace on records dating back nearly half a century, a dismal sign for an already-weak housing market.

The Seattle Times: Real Estate

Zillow joins tenant list at Russell Center
Zillow, The Seattle-based online Real-Estate marketplace and database, has leased 66,000 square feet in The Russell Investments Center, a spokeswoman for The building's owner said Tuesday.

The Seattle Times: Real Estate

Zillow joins tenant list at Russell Center
Zillow, The Seattle-based online Real-Estate marketplace and database, has leased 66,000 square feet in The Russell Investments Center, a spokeswoman for The building's owner said Tuesday.

The Seattle Times: Real Estate

Australian builder plans 500 houses in Seattle market
One of Australia's largest homebuilders is entering The U.S. market with a bet on King, Snohomish and Pierce counties.

The Seattle Times: Real Estate

Australian builder plans 500 houses in Seattle market
One of Australia's largest homebuilders is entering The U.S. market with a bet on King, Snohomish and Pierce counties.

The Seattle Times: Real Estate

Home sales fall 9.6 pct in February

Fewer Americans bought previously occupied homes in February, pushing The median home price down to its lowest level in nearly 9 years.

The Seattle Times: Real Estate

Tiny 'pod' rooming houses spreading
The Seattle developers who built a 21st-century version of The old rooming house have several more in The pipeline.

The Seattle Times: Real Estate

Tiny 'pod' rooming houses spreading
The Seattle developers who built a 21st-century version of The old rooming house have several more in The pipeline.

The Seattle Times: Real Estate

An old Seattle garden comes to life with new color
There's nothing stodgy about this midcentury garden; pathways are lined with inspired combinations like black mondo grass and white-blooming, ground-hugging dogwood. The dinner-plate-sized brunette leaves of Ligularia 'Britt Marie Crawford' create drama around The backyard pond.

The Seattle Times: Real Estate

Dim homebuilder outlook improves slightly
Homebuilders' pessimistic outlook improved slightly this month, but it remains dim amid falling home prices and a weak pace of construction...

The Seattle Times: Real Estate

Average rate on 15-year mortgage dips below 4 pct.

Fixed mortgage rates tumbled this week and The 15-year loan dipped below 4 percent for The first time in three months. Rates followed The yield on U.S. Treasury bonds, which fell on worries that The crisis in Japan could slow economic growth.

New-home construction plunges in February

By The Associated Press

The Associated Press

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WASHINGTON — 

 

Builders broke ground last month on the fewest homes in nearly two years and cut their requests for permits to start new projects to a five-decade low. The decline in construction activity is the latest evidence that the housing industry is years away from a recovery.
Home construction plunged 22.5 percent in February from January to a seasonally adjusted 479,000 homes, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. It was the lowest level since April 2009 and the second-lowest on records dating back more than a half-century.
The decline followed a surge in highly volatile apartment construction in January, which pushed the overall construction rate up to more than 600,000 units - the fastest rate in 20 months. Still, the building pace has been far below the 1.2 million units a year that economists consider healthy.
Single-family homes, which make up roughly 80 percent of home construction, fell 11.8 percent in February. Apartment and condominium construction dropped 47 percent, reversing much of January's gains.
Building permits, an indicator of future construction, fell 8.1 percent last month to the lowest level on records dating back to 1960. Permit requests for single-family homes saw the biggest decline. Apartments and condos remained flat.
Falling prices, sluggish sales and the weak construction rate all point to a housing market that is "stuck at a bottom of a steep hill," according to Moody's Analytics Economic Research.
"There are really large structural problems with the housing market," said Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist with Miller Tabak + Co. "This is not a run-up in oil prices. This is a multiyear build up in the housing market that is going to take more than several months or several quarters to get through."
For a housing recovery to take hold, the job market needs to improve and builders need to gain access to hard-to-get credit.
"Credit is flowing freely to large companies but not so much to the small builders," said Patrick Newport, U.S. economist for IHS Global Insight. "If builders cannot get financing to build new homes, housing will remain in the dumps."
Analysts said year-end building code changes in California, Pennsylvania and New York caused an artificial spike for permit requests in December and housing starts in January. Builders in those states rushed to file new permits before those changes went into effect.
Even with those gains, the housing market has struggled. Millions of foreclosures have forced home prices down and more are expected this year. Tight credit has made mortgage loans tough to come by. And some potential buyers who could qualify for loans are hesitant to enter the market, worried that prices will fall further.
The drop in home construction activity was felt coast to coast. It fell 48.6 percent in the Midwest, 37.5 percent in the Northeast, 28 percent in the West and 6.3 percent in the South.
The volatile housing market is weighing on the overall economic recovery. Each new home built creates, on average, the equivalent of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in taxes, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
The trade group said Tuesday that its index of industry sentiment for March improved slightly to 17. That was the first gain in five months after four straight readings of 16. Still, any reading below 50 indicates negative sentiment about the housing market's future. The index hasn't been above that level since April 2006.

Underwater mortgages rise as home prices fall

By DEREK KRAVITZ

AP Real Estate Writer

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WASHINGTON — 

The number of Americans who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth rose at the end of last year, preventing many people from selling their homes in an already weak housing market.
About 11.1 million households, or 23.1 percent of all mortgaged homes, were underwater in the October-December quarter, according to report released Tuesday by housing data firm CoreLogic. That's up from 22.5 percent, or 10.8 million households, in the July-September quarter.

The number of underwater mortgages had fallen in the previous three quarters. But that was mostly because more homes had fallen into foreclosure.  Underwater mortgages typically rise when home prices fall. Home prices in December hit their lowest point since the housing bust in 11 of 20 major U.S. metro areas. In a healthy housing market, about 5 percent of homeowners are underwater.

Roughly two-thirds of homeowners in Nevada with a mortgage had negative home equity, the worst in the country. Arizona, Florida, Michigan and California were next, with up to 50 percent of homeowners with mortgages in those states underwater.

Oklahoma had the smallest percentage of underwater homeowners in the October-December quarter, at 5.8 percent. Only nine states recorded percentages less than 10 percent.  In addition to the more than 11 million households that are underwater, another 2.4 million homeowners are nearing that point.

Reverse mortgages get more affordable, but be careful

By MARCIE GEFFNER

Bankrate.com

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Before you borrow

IF YOU'RE in the market for a reverse mortgage, seek independent counseling before you even talk to a lender to learn about loan alternatives or tips on negotiating with a lender. Find a government-approved counselor near you at www.hud.gov/.

CHECK OUT the National Council on Aging's BenefitsCheckUp.org for assistance programs that could make a reverse mortgage unnecessary.

TO FIND OUT how much you can potentially receive through a reverse mortgage, check online calculators at aarp.org or reversemortgage.org.

CONSUMERS UNION offers tips about reverse mortgages on its website, www.consumersunion.org. The site's offerings include information about applying for government benefits for seniors, getting advice from local Housing and Urban Development counselors and seeking a so-called private reverse mortgage — a loan from a family member using the senior's home equity as collateral.

These loans, which allow seniors to spend their home equity without selling their home, have historically been cumbersome and expensive. But new options empower seniors to tap smaller amounts of equity in a more affordable way, according to Peter Bell, president of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association, a group that represents lenders and investors.

The biggest change is the introduction of a new reverse mortgage, called the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage Saver option, or HECM Saver. It has a cheaper upfront mortgage insurance premium, or MIP, compared with the traditional HECM reverse mortgage, now known as the standard option.
Mortgage insurance protects lenders from loan losses, though borrowers pay the cost. Most reverse mortgages are insured through the Federal Housing Administration.

The trade-off, due to the lower MIP and other program changes, is a 10 percent to 18 percent reduction in the maximum loan amount allowed on the saver option, and 1 percent to 5 percent on the standard option, depending on the borrower's age and interest rate, Bell says. The lower loan amount allowed on the saver option means the FHA's risk exposure is lessened.