What’s next for the housing market? According to Pete Flint, founder and CEO of real estate website Trulia, it’s poised for a comeback. In this video from CNBC, Flint said that traffic at his site over the last 10 days has been up 66 percent from the previous year, an indication that more browsers may be taking an interest in real estate. “We’ve seen some incredible growth over the last 12 months,” Flint said. “The overall market is coming back and looking to engage with real estate agents.” Real estate analyst Diana Olick concurred, noting that it “may be time to get back in” the real estate game.

CNBC’s Diana Olick talks about the best and worst local markets for 2011 in the video above. If investors want to buy, hold and rent out a home, the best places to buy, based on five metrics — price-income ratio, price-rent ratio, price declines, foreclosure rates, foreclosure resales include Poughkeepsie, NY, Harftord, Conn., and Pittsburgh, Penn. “Markets like Hartford and Pittsburgh are on that list because they’re about on par now so they’ve returned back down to their levels of affordability before the housing run-up,” said Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow. In Hartford, he added, “about 10 percent of monthly transactions are foreclosure resales.” The worst markets to invest include Atlantic City, Philadelphia and Baltimore. [more]

Does the U.S. housing market need more propping up with a second installment of the homebuyer tax credit? Shaun Donovan, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, isn’t saying yes, but he isn’t saying no, either. According to CNBC’s Diana Olick, there’s a push amongst politicians, particularly in Florida, where the housing market has really gotten pummeled, to recreate the spring’s surge in home sales that was largely attributed to the federal government-supplied boost. While some would argue that the housing market needs to correct itself without an artificial stimulus in order to recover in the long term, Olick says another homebuyer tax credit could clear out some excess inventory quickly. Still, the official word from HUD is that “there are no discussions underway to revive the credit.” [CNBC]

[more]

Does the U.S. housing market need more propping up with a second installment of the homebuyer tax credit? Shaun Donovan, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, isn’t saying yes, but he isn’t saying no, either. According to CNBC’s Diana Olick, there’s a push amongst politicians, particularly in Florida, where the housing market has really gotten pummeled, to recreate the spring’s surge in home sales that was largely attributed to the federal government-supplied boost. While some would argue that the housing market needs to correct itself without an artificial stimulus in order to recover in the long term, Olick says another homebuyer tax credit could clear out some excess inventory quickly. Still, the official word from HUD is that “there are no discussions underway to revive the credit.” [CNBC]

[more]

Does the U.S. housing market need more propping up with a second installment of the homebuyer tax credit? Shaun Donovan, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, isn’t saying yes, but he isn’t saying no, either. According to CNBC’s Diana Olick, there’s a push amongst politicians, particularly in Florida, where the housing market has really gotten pummeled, to recreate the spring’s surge in home sales that was largely attributed to the federal government-supplied boost. While some would argue that the housing market needs to correct itself without an artificial stimulus in order to recover in the long term, Olick says another homebuyer tax credit could clear out some excess inventory quickly. Still, the official word from HUD is that “there are no discussions underway to revive the credit.” [CNBC]

[more]

The summer’s downturn in U.S. home sales is often attributed to the expiration of the first-time homebuyer tax credit, which inflated demand prior to its deadline for signed contracts at the end of April. But according to CNBC’s Diana Olick, that’s not the whole story. She cites a sharp drop in home sales in San Francisco during the month of July — to their lowest level in 15 years — as evidence that the tax credit’s expiration could not possibly account for the lull altogether. The median price of a home in that region is $402,000, and most buyers in that price range wouldn’t even have qualified for the tax credit, she notes. The heart of the problem, she argues, is “a startling lack of confidence.” A recent report from Zillow.com said that one-third of all U.S. homeowners don’t believe the housing market has bottomed yet, and another from Trulia.com revealed that fewer renters than ever are planning to become homeowners. [CNBC] 

[more]

The summer’s downturn in U.S. home sales is often attributed to the expiration of the first-time homebuyer tax credit, which inflated demand prior to its deadline for signed contracts at the end of April. But according to CNBC’s Diana Olick, that’s not the whole story. She cites a sharp drop in home sales in San Francisco during the month of July — to their lowest level in 15 years — as evidence that the tax credit’s expiration could not possibly account for the lull altogether. The median price of a home in that region is $402,000, and most buyers in that price range wouldn’t even have qualified for the tax credit, she notes. The heart of the problem, she argues, is “a startling lack of confidence.” A recent report from Zillow.com said that one-third of all U.S. homeowners don’t believe the housing market has bottomed yet, and another from Trulia.com revealed that fewer renters than ever are planning to become homeowners. [CNBC] 

[more]

Today is the one-year anniversary of the Obama administration’s announcement of its Home Affordable Mortgage Program, and it comes with good news. The program, which aims to keep borrowers in their homes by modifying their mortgage payments, has crossed the 1 million mark in trial modifications granted and has seen permanent loan modifications double in January to over 116,000 from just over 66,000 in December, CNBC’s Diana Olick reported. However, critics say the improvements are too meager to make much of a difference, with 5.6 million borrowers delinquent on their mortgages and only two-thirds of HAMP participants current on their modified payments. Meanwhile, just 12 percent of participants have seen a permanent reduction in their mortgage payments since the program began. Roughly 51,000 trial modifications have been cancelled as a result of non-payment or lack of documentation, Olick said.

When Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan appeared before the House Financial Services Committee to propose risk-reducing changes at the Federal Housing Administration, he made sure to note that encouraging the return of private investment in the mortgage market was still a priority, CNBC’s Diana Olick reported. Donovan proposed raising the minimum Fair Isaac Corporation, or FICO, score for new FHA borrowers, as well as the upfront cash and annual insurance premiums that risky borrowers would need to pay. He also proposed protecting the FHA against lenders who commit fraud or misrepresent borrower qualifications.

Pending home sales rose to 3.7 percent during the month of October, up 32 percent year-over-year, according to Real Estate Econometrics. That’s the highest annual increase ever recorded by the research firm, bringing its index to its highest level since March 2006. Lief Thomsen, founder and CEO of Mortgage Master, said that while the residential market appears to be steadily improving, the big question in the industry is what will happen in April when the homebuyer tax credit expires. Meanwhile, commercial mortgage defaults set records of their own. In that metric’s largest quarterly increase ever, commercial defaults doubled to 3.4 percent in the third quarter, CNBC’s Diana Olick reported.