Purchase

As expected, 2019 was another banner year for the Austin-area housing market.

The U.K. housing market perked up in December as Boris Johnson's commanding election win helped push up sales and expectations for price gains.

Canadian real estate is increasingly becoming a seller's market as supply shrinks to decade lows, raising the prospect of rising prices and the re-emergence of froth in some major cities.

Home sales in metro Baton Rouge, La., were 2.2% higher in 2019 than the year before, thanks to a year-end push.

Homebuilder sentiment posted the highest back-to-back readings since 1999, as developers saw a surge in prospective buyers and a bump in the sales outlook.

Loan applications to purchase newly constructed homes rose over one-third annually during December as new residential construction recovered, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Mortgage rates for the most part were stable this past week as the markets looked warily at economic and geopolitical events, according to Freddie Mac.

With home price appreciation decelerating, the top end of the marketplace appears to be taking the biggest hit, according to Zillow.

December home prices in Cuyahoga County were up over December a year ago in both the Cuyahoga County suburbs and the city of Cleveland.

The Acadiana, La., area had a second straight record year in home sales in 2019 in terms of homes sold and total dollar volume thanks in part to a busy December.

Mortgage application activity increased 30.2% from one week earlier as purchases were at their highest level in over a decade along with substantial growth in refinancings, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Homebuyers across most of Colorado, not just those in metro Denver, are faced with much slimmer pickings heading into 2020, according to December market reports from the Colorado Association of Realtors.

From 2015-18, the time a home spent on the multiple listing service in metro Denver averaged a consistently short 26 days, but last year that average jumped to 31 days.

Bolstered by a high demand by both lenders and borrowers, 2020's commercial and multifamily loan volume is anticipated to shoot well past last year's record total but adapting to the LIBOR and CECL shifts will provide challenges, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

California homeowners with big home loans and vacation properties would owe higher taxes under new legislation to raise money for programs to get the state's homelessness crisis under control.

Connecticut's housing market saw mixed performance in November, with solid gains in year-over-year median sale prices and total sales, but showing some overall weakness in year-to-date data released by the Massachusetts-based Warren Group.

Massachusetts cities and towns would have new options for funding local affordable housing under a proposal rolled out on Jan. 8: a fee of up to 2% on real estate sales above the statewide median sales price, and a higher fee on certain "speculative" property sales.

Home sellers in the suburbs north of New York City discounted their way to a strong fourth quarter, whittling pricing to levels that even luxury buyers found appealing

Mortgage rates fell to their lowest level since October as the financial markets reacted to rising tensions caused by the U.S. government's killing of an Iranian general, Freddie Mac said.

While the refinancing boom took a step back, millennials purchasing power grows in the low mortgage rate environment, according to Ellie Mae.