Chapel Hill Mortgage Lender | Robby's Blog about Mortgages in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, and Crystal Coast area of NC
The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Indices for April indicate that the housing recovery gained ground.
In April 2013 average home prices tracked in the Case-Shiller 10 and 20-city Composites increased by 11.60 and 12.10 percent year-over-year. On a month-to-month basis, the Composites increased by 2.60 and 2.50 percent respectively.
Comments by Fed chairman Ben Bernanke after Wednesday’s FOMC meeting caused havoc in financial markets as investors anticipated the potential effects of any rollback of the Fed’s policy of quantitative easing (QE). Chairman Bernanke said that the Fed may begin reducing its $85 billion monthly purchase of Treasury securities and MBS toward the end of this year.
U.S. housing markets are gaining as demand for homes exceeds available supplies in many areas. The National Association of Home Builders/ Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) for June increased by eight points over May’s reading to achieve a positive reading of 52. This last happened in August-September of 2002, when HMI monthly readings also jumped by eight points.
Foreclosure actions increased by 2.0 percent in May from April’s 75 month low point for foreclosure activity according to RealtyTrac’s U.S. Foreclosure Market Report released June 11.
However, the good news is that May 2013 foreclosure filings were still 28 percent below May 2012 filings.
Last week’s news was relatively quiet with no data significant to real estate and mortgage lending released until Wednesday, when the federal government announced a $138 billion budget deficit for May.
