In another sign that homebuilders are pulling back, spending on residential construction fell 1.9% in October to $597.1 billion -- marking the seventh consecutive monthly decline, according to the Census Bureau.Construction spending is off 9.4% since October 2005, and builders are dealing with a 558,000 inventory of unsold homes, which represents a seven-month supply. In addition, the inventory of existing homes rose to 3.8 million in October, which is a 7.4-month supply at the current sales pace. The National Association of Home Builders has voiced concern that the large inventory of homes will make it harder for builders to sell their inventory. These concerns are heightened by a 30% jump in the number of vacant homes on the market over the four quarters ended Sept. 30. The number of vacant homes for sale totaled 1.9 million in the third quarter. "Normally, one third of existing homes are vacant, but now it is closer to half," said NAHB economist Michael Carliner. He said he suspects that a lot of these vacant homes were rentals or second homes that owners now want to sell to pocket gains or cut their losses.
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Elevated delinquency levels have not affected expected losses, however, due to home price appreciation, Fitch Ratings said.
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Retail lenders, including Beeline, Tomo Mortgage and Rocket Mortgage, settled with the department over infractions like submitting a false certification to not having the proper liquidity to be in the program.
7h ago -
A pair of bills, one with bipartisan support, look to address the issues around heirs' property so these families can have clear title on their homes.
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The agreement, in which the real estate giant admits no wrongdoing, will cover around 70,000 agents.
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Doxo plans to fight the FTC complaint, which focuses broadly on consumer finance, but there are signs of confusion about the company's role in mortgages too.
April 25 -
Members of the LGBTQ community were most likely to have experienced housing bias, according to a Zillow survey, which also found many people don't recognize how fair lending laws could help.
April 25