Antonio Atoche

Signed contracts to buy existing homes increased 8.1% month to month in August, according to the National Association of Realtors. Buyers encountered higher inventory and slightly more favorable prices. Analysts were expecting a 1% monthly rise. Signings were still down 8.3% compared with August 2020. View this email in your browser... Pending home sales surged more than expected in August after two months of declines Signed contracts to buy existing homes increased 8.1% month to month in August, according to the National Association of Realtors, as buyers encountered higher inventory and slightly more favorable prices. Analysts were expecting a 1% monthly rise. Signings were still down 8.3% compared with August 2020. August’s increase followed two months of declines, according to the NAR. These so-called pending home sales are a future indicator of signed contracts in one to two months. Rising inventory and moderating price conditions are bringing buyers back to the market, said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. Affordability, however, remains challenging as home price gains are roughly three times wage growth. Home prices in July were up nearly 20% nationally year over a year, according to the latest S&P Case-Shiller home price index, but that is a three-month average going back to May. The increase in supply has lowered the number of bidding wars, according to real estate agents. https://www.cnbc.com//pending-home-sales-surged-in-august-

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 3.10% from 3.03% in the past week. Applications to refinance a home loan decreased 1% last week from the previous week. The average loan size for a purchase application reached $410,000, its highest level since May. Higher interest rates took some recent wind out of the sails in the mortgage market.... After gains the previous week, total mortgage application volume fell 1.1% last week from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances of up to $548,250 increased to 3.10% from 3.03%. Points, including origination fee, rose to 0.34 from 0.30 for loans with a 20% down payment. Increased optimism about the strength of the economy pushed Treasury yields higher following last week’s FOMC meeting. Mortgage rates in response rose across all loan types, with the benchmark 30-year fixed rate reaching its highest level since early July 2021, said Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting. https://www.cnbc.com//mortgage-demand-falls-as-rates-rise-

Mortgage rates jumped higher this week. It could be just the beginning of an upward trend. The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed mortgage just crossed back over 3% early this week and then jumped 9 basis points Thursday to 3.10%, according to Mortgage News Daily. The rate was 2.93% a week ago. The move is both a reaction to the latest commentary from the Federal Reserve on when it will raise rates and when it will begin to taper its purchases of mortgage-backed bonds.... Fed Chairman Jerome Powell indicated both would happen sooner than was widely expected. While mortgage rates do not follow the Federal Funds Rate, they do loosely follow the yield on the 10-year Treasury, which just hit the highest level since July 2nd. In addition to the Fed, rates are also reacting to general news on the economy and Covid-19. If we consider why mortgage rates ended up crushing previous all-time lows in 2020, the answer was clearly Covid, said Matthew Graham, chief operating officer at Mortgage News Daily. He noted that vaccines and plummeting case counts pushed rates higher in early 2021 and then the Delta surge brought them lower again in July. https://www.cnbc.com//mortgage-rates-rise-and-more-increas

Fall is usually the start of the slower season for the housing market, but nothing is usual in today’s pandemic-driven housing market. Potential homebuyers are seeing a slight rise in inventory and consequently rushing back into the fray. Mortgage applications to purchase a home jumped 7% last week from the previous week, seasonally adjusted, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. An additional adjustment was made to account for the Labor Day holiday. That is the high...est level since April of this year. These applications were still 11% lower than the same week one year ago, but that was the smallest annual decline in 14 weeks. Buyers have been hamstrung by the meager supply of homes for sale, but that supply has been rising lately, albeit slowly. The number of new listings rose for nine straight weeks during the summer, but finally fell again last week, according to a Realtor.com report. Even with the recent new listings slip, the gap with pre-COVID levels has shrunk significantly as more new sellers have entered the market so far in 2021 than last year, according to the report. Home prices continue to gain at a record pace, and that was also reflected in the purchase mortgage applications. https://www.cnbc.com//mortgage-demand-from-homebuyers-jump

There are still 1.618 million borrowers in forbearance programs, or 3.1% of all outstanding mortgages Some 98% of those troubled borrowers have at least 10% equity in their homes, not counting their missed payments. Fast-rising home prices have pushed the level of home equity up from a little over $6 trillion at the start of the pandemic to just over $9 trillion. View this email in your browser... Covid mortgage bailouts are expiring fast, but here’s why a foreclosure crisis is unlikely The number of borrowers in both government and private sector Covid mortgage bailout programs is falling fast, but for those still in trouble, the future is not as bleak as originally thought. Extraordinarily high levels of home equity, thanks to the recent runup in home prices, has struggling borrowers in a far better position now than they were at the start of the pandemic. The number of active mortgage forbearance plans, in which borrowers were allowed to delay their monthly payments, fell by more than 5% from the previous week, according to a new report from Black Knight, a mortgage data and analytics firm. The drop was driven by August expirations. Borrowers were allowed up to 18 months of forbearance from entry into the programs, so expirations are now rolling. September is expected to see an outsized group of 400,000 expirations because the wave of borrowers enrolling was highest in March and April 2020. There are still 1.618 million borrowers in forbearance programs (down from roughly 5 million at the peak in May 2020), or 3.1% of all outstanding mortgages, representing an unpaid balance of $313 billion. But 98% of those troubled borrowers now have at least 10% equity in their homes, not counting their missed payments. Including those payments, 93% still have more than 10% equity. Given today’s tight housing market, the majority could easily sell and still pocket some profit. https://www.cnbc.com//why-foreclosure-crisis-unlikely-as-c

Soaring home prices shattered another record in June, S&P Case-Shiller says Home prices rose 18.6% annually in June, up from the 16.8% increase in May, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index. That is the largest annual gain in the history of the index dating back to 1987. Prices nationally are now 41% higher than their last peak during the housing boom in 2006.... Unlike other median price surveys, which can be skewed by the type of homes selling, this measures repeat sales of similar homes over time. The 10-City composite rose 18.5%, up from 16.6% in the previous month. The 20-City composite was up 19.1%, up from 17.1% in the previous month. hoenix, San Diego, and Seattle reported the strongest price increases of the 20 cities. Prices in Phoenix increased 29.3% year-over-year. In San Diego they rose 27.1%, and in Seattle they were up 25.0%. All 20 cities reported higher price increases in the year ending June 2021 versus the year ending May 2021. https://www.cnbc.com//home-prices-surged-in-june-shatterin

Before David Taylor, 38, could even finish touring homes he and his wife, Destiny, 37, were interested in buying, other buyers would offer $20,000 or $30,000 more than the listing price, in cash. After months of getting beaten out before they could even bid, their agent clued them in to a home in Christiansburg, Virginia, that had yet to be listed: It was about $20,000 above their price range, would need some serious renovation work and didn’t have a backyard like the Taylors... wanted for their children to have space to run around. But it had four bedrooms and was in a good school district. Best of all, the couple was the first to learn of it. The Taylors closed on their new home in early May for $242,000 and estimate they’ve put in around $15,000 to $20,000 on new flooring and ceilings and landscaping. Just a few years ago, the same house would have sold for around $200,000, David estimates. Their experience is more or less the norm for first-time homebuyers over the past year and a half, as mortgage interest rates plummeted, demand soared and prices skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic. If these houses were good, they were snatched up in 12 hours; if they were bad, they were snatched up in 36 hours, David says. You’re on your phone all day looking at Realtor.com, at Zillow, just waiting for something to pop up. https://www.cnbc.com//first-time-homebuyers-face-stiff-com

The fire-damaged Northern California home that was charred down to the bones sold for $1 million Thursday. The realtor Melinda Byrne said that while California home buying may be an anomaly comparably, the home sale wasn’t surprising. The home is in a popular city for suburban home buyers looking for less density and more space than in cities like San Francisco. A fire-damaged home in Walnut Creek, California, sold for precisely $1 million on Thursday.... The accepted offer came significantly over listing price. The two-story, four-bedroom initially listed for $850,000 and immediately incurred a bidding war as well as the attention of perplexed onlookers. The deal closed Thursday. The realtor who sold it, Melinda Byrne with the firm Key Realty, tells CNBC that while California may be an anomaly compared to the rest of the country’s real estate, this particular home sale was nothing out of the ordinary. I was really surprised at all the hoopla this has caused because to me, it’s a great listing, Byrne said, referring to local reports circulating the listing. We sell homes that are fixer-uppers, regularly. Byrne said nearly 100 interested parties contacted her in a three-day period. She received eight offers within those three days and by the time they landed on a buyer, five more made offers in case the selected ones didn’t work out. The sale comes amid a broader countrywide housing cool-off. Home sales in June dropped to their lowest level since April 2020, as construction costs have forced homebuilders to focus on the high end of the market, leaving much of the demand for cheaper homes unsatisfied. https://www.cnbc.com//this-fire-charred-silicon-valley-hom

After falling steadily for a month, demand for mortgages to purchase a home rose slightly last week. Coupled with a continued increase in refinancing, total mortgage application volume rose 2.8% for the week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. Mortgage applications to purchase a home rose 2% for the week but were still 18% lower than a year ago. Buyers are contending with high prices and limited supply, although more residences are slow...ly coming onto the market. The type of loan now seeing higher demand is telling. The higher level of purchase activity last week was driven by more government purchase applications, including a 3.3% increase in FHA loans, said Joel Kan, an MBA economist. With low for-sale inventory keeping home price appreciation in many markets at record highs, the jump in FHA purchase applications is potentially a sign that more first-time buyers are finding purchase options despite the high prices. A slight increase in mortgage rates did not deter borrowers, especially since rates are still historically low. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($548,250 or less) increased to 2.99% from 2.97%, with points decreasing to 0.30 from 0.33 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment. https://www.cnbc.com//weekly-mortgage-demand-hints-at-retu

New on the market, 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms in Los Angeles $ 480,000

With the national eviction ban expiring today, Leopold expects he and his wife, Vivia, and their six young children, will be forced out of their home in Deerfield Beach, Florida, where they’ve lived for the past three years. They’re one of millions of families in America that are still behind on rent, and could be at risk of homelessness when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s eviction moratorium lifts at midnight. I’m shaking just thinking about, Leopold, 50,... said. Leopold, who asked to use his first name only because of the stigma attached to evictions, said the pandemic set him back in more ways than he can count. More from Personal Finance: College plans rebound although cost is a top concern Hundreds of colleges say Covid vaccines will be mandatory Colleges and unvaccinated students are set for a standoff He lost his job as a bartender at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, and had to figure out how to help his children learn remotely. Soon, Vivia also lost her accounting job. Their rental debt has swollen to $20,000. https://www.cnbc.com//the-national-ban-on-evictions-expire

Open House this Saturday July 31, 2021 From 12 pm to 4 pm Wonderful duplex in a great neighborhood. Live in one rent the other. Front house 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, dining area, new hood in kitchen, porcelain tile floors in kitchen and laundry room, central heating, windows recently replaced, roof recently replaced, newer electrical wiring thru out the house and electrical panel mainline was recently replaced, newer ladder for attic has lots of storage, washer, dryer, refrige...rator, range, dishwasher are included. Rear unit has it's own entrance, 1 bedroom, living room, 1 bathroom, vinyl flooring, stove and refrigerator are included, wall heater, newer shower stall, Ready to rent out, 2 car garage, lemon tree, plum tree, passion fruit, both units will be delivered empty, sold As Is, Water shut off valve just installed, sprinkler system for front yard Asking $ 799,000