July 26th, 2010
The following is a list of real estate-related apps that are optimized for the iPad, with their rankings as reported by TopAppCharts.com.
There is no specific “real estate” category in the Apple App Store, so apps are listed according to their rank in categories like lifestyle, business, news, finance, and productivity. These rankings were sampled on Thursday, July 22, 2010 — TopAppCharts’ rankings can change daily. All listed apps are free.
1. Zillow Real Estate (No. 3 in Lifestyle section): Search for homes for sale and rent on a large-screen map using landscape or portrait mode; filter searches by price, size or housing type; flick through photos of one or more homes alongside the map; compare photos for different listings side by side; save favorite homes and sync them with Zillow.com and Zillow’s iPhone app.
July 22nd, 2010
The number of California homes that entered the foreclosure process during the second quarter fell for the fifth straight quarter, to the lowest level since second-quarter 2007, research company MDA DataQuick reported today.
The company reported that 70,051 notices of default were filed at county recorder offices in California during the second quarter, down 13.6 percent from the first quarter and down 43.8 percent compared to second-quarter 2009.
July 12th, 2010
Last week brought a gale of game-changing news, contradicting recovery — and a whiff of panic. This holiday-short week was news-thin, and mid-July marks the beginning of an often sleepy season for markets and the economy.
Panic is sometimes an excellent investment strategy, but it is a difficult frame of mind to maintain. Thus stocks soared 450 points in three days this week, shorts covering, but bond and mortgage yields held extraordinary lows, underlying worry entrenched.
The 10-year T-note rose to 3.05 percent from 2.95 percent (mostly pricing down in advance of next week’s $69 billion Treasury bond sale), but mortgages stayed put in the mid-4s.
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April 13th, 2010
While there is no need to panic, mortgage rates do not appear to be taking a dive anytime soon. In fact, the trend is looking upward now that the Federal Reserve has pulled itself out of the mortgage-buying market. Since the end of March, mortgage rates have been steadily creeping higher, past the all-important psychological benchmark, 5 percent.
For would-be homeowners, this means a higher mortgage loan rate when purchasing a new house. For homeowners, this means, higher interest rates when refinancing. Couple higher interest rates with the expiration of the government tax credit worth $8,000 to new home owners, as well as higher treasury yields, and conditions are ripe for higher mortgages – and less impetus to purchase
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April 13th, 2010
Signs of recovery in the housing market and the national economy keep popping up – and are even beginning to surprise veteran analysts on Wall Street and elsewhere.
Though economists had expected the latest pending home sales index to be down – after all, February saw the worst weather in decades in large parts of the U.S. – the numbers actually took a big bounce.
The National Association of Realtors reported that pending sales jumped 8.2 percent for the month and were 17 percent higher than they were at the same time last year.
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March 20th, 2010
National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) released record-high levels of housing affordability, the highest level since first being compiled 18 years ago. Oddly, the latest housing news is usually about the nation’s high foreclosure rates, but the combination of the sliding house prices and favorable mortgage rates are apparently creating a more stable housing market.
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March 20th, 2010
Consumers may believe that with the recession, the bursting of the real estate housing bubble, and the mortgage crisis, zero down mortgage loans are thing of the past. They are not, but these mortgage loans come from a place you wouldn’t think of: the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
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March 20th, 2010
Nadya Suleman, also known as “Octomom,” after her highly criticized octuplet birth as a result of in vitro fertilization, is facing foreclosure. That’s something that many homeowners without 14 kids have faced, in this recession.
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March 20th, 2010
Home foreclosures and the resulting banking mess it can lead to has money homeowners facing what is known as mortgage debt forgiveness. While it may sound like a good thing, many homeowners do not realize that mortgages debts, which are forgiven or cancelled may be counted as income and subject to taxation. This is especially true in California where a battle between the Governor and state lawmakers is heating up.
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March 20th, 2010
Home prices rose nationally for the seventh straight month in December as the U.S. housing market continues its bumpy road to recovery.
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 0.3 percent from November to December, to a seasonally adjusted reading of 145.87. The index was off 3.1 percent from December last year, nearly matching analysts’ estimates that it would fall by 3.2 percent.
Only five of 20 cities in the index showed declines from November to December. The index is now up more than 3 percent from its bottom in May, but still 30 percent below its May 2006 peak.
On a quarterly basis, U.S. home prices fell 2.5 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 2008.
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