Pending home sales are dropping, despite mortgage interest rates being at near-record lows, the National Association of Realtors reported. Those mortgage rates have finally started a slow upward trek after many weeks of declining. In December, pending home sales nationally ...

Tagged with: Jim Woodard

This year is shaping up to be the year of the first-time homebuyer. Millennials may be suburbanites, after all. In recent years, economists and demographers have argued that members of Generation Y will have a longer love for city living ...

Tagged with: Jim Woodard

Falling gas prices is welcome news for most families. It not only generates more spending money, but also has a positive effect on our housing recovery. At this writing, crude oil prices are trading at below $50/barrel, resulting in steep ...

Tagged with: Jim Woodard

FHA financing of home purchases has provided the key to home ownership for many consumers over the years, particularly for first-time buyers – that is, until FHA started a series of cost increases. Today, responding to pressure from housing groups, ...

Tagged with: Jim Woodard

This year a new trend will be launched in the design of homes, other buildings and communities. The objective will be to design and build better and healthier structures. On average, we spend around 90 percent of our time indoors, ...

Tagged with: Jim Woodard

A potential problem facing homeowners who have signed up for a reverse mortgage has still not been corrected. Congressional leaders are now trying to solve the problem. A group of 17 members of Congress sent a letter to Department of ...

Tagged with: Jim Woodard

Our demographics are changing – both in size and location. The U.S. population is growing by one person every 15 seconds, according to the Census Bureau’s population clock, it was reported by the National Association of Realtors. This will increasingly ...

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Many potential homebuyers are now making sacrifices to save for that all-important down payment. Sometimes it’s really tough to maintain that saving program. That’s especially true for young first-time buyers and seniors. A study of these buyer groups was completed ...

Tagged with: Jim Woodard

Most housing analysts are predicting substantial growth in housing activity in 2015 – much more than has been experienced during the past year. For example, the Wells Fargo Economics Group’s “2015 Economic Outlook,” subtitled “A whole new ball game,” predicts ...

Tagged with: Jim Woodard

With interest rates remaining at near record lows, you would think there would be a boom in mortgage applications. Not so. Mortgage lending has also reached a low point — slipping to the lowest level since the turn of the ...

Tagged with: Jim Woodard