From today’s Wall Street Journal article “Banks Push Home Buyers To Put Down More Cash”:
The median down payment in nine major U.S. cities rose to 22% last year on properties purchased through conventional mortgages, according to an analysis for the Wall Street Journal by real-estate portal Zillow.com. That percentage doubled in three years and represents [...]

The website Real Estate Channel has a concise piece on Quincy’s huge downtown renovation plan. The piece sheds a little more light on the financing of the plan, which calls for the city to overtake project debt only after revenue is generated from tenants, parking fees, etc. It’s probably not totally unique, but it is [...]

Rona has an interesting post on the crazy appraisal market out there. But there seems to be one missing component in the final analysis: Sellers who have overly high expectations about prices.
Whether as a buyer, seller or appraiser, what are you seeing out there in the appraisal market? It seems to be a little chaotic [...]

First the good news: Mortgage refinancing applications are up, thanks to low interest rates and improved fluidity in the markets. Now the bad news: New-purchase mortgage applications are down, despite low interest rates and improved fluidity in the markets.
File under: April’s showers bring May flowers drought

Mortgage rates continue to fall. Will they significantly boost home sales? Not likely, says this Barrons report.
In the past, current and potential homebuyers would have jumped at these rates, the piece says. But we’re now in a deflationary period, and people are reluctant to buy if they think the value of their underlying asset might [...]

The mortgage-delinquency rate may be easing across the country, but not in Massachusetts. It’s once again at a record high.
What gives? Isn’t the Massachusetts housing market supposed to be in better shape than the rest of the nation? There might be an explanation:
MBA researcher Mike Fratantoni blamed Bay State borrowers’ blues on everything from rising [...]

Scott unloads on the IRS for launching a crackdown on abuses of the new home tax-credit program.
It seems millions of dollars have been lost to scammers across the country who took the money and scrammed. So what does the IRS do? It cracks down on everyone else.
Some of its new filing procedures are understandable and [...]

Congressman Barney Frank of Newton wants to abolish Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
That’s not a big surprise. But it’s not clear how they might be replaced, if at all, and the impact on the entire housing industry.

Have you ever wondered why it’s been so hard and slow to sort out the mortgage foreclosure mess in the U.S.?
Part of the reason can be summed up in two words: missing documents.
Two European banks have sued Bank of America over their mortgage investments, claiming they at least want back some of the mortgages that [...]

Expect the mortgage delinquency rate to rise this quarter, then slowly ease up early next year in Massachusetts, according to a new report.
The prediction is in line with other positive economic and housing news, so it makes sense. But here’s where the prediction can go wrong: High unemployment sticks around longer than hoped, putting more [...]