A2S Talk

A poll of 23 economists and analysts found a consensus for no change in the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index in 2012, compared with a median 0.3% decline that was forecast in the last poll in November. Many say that a recovery in the housing market is a key requirement for any vigorous rebound in the world's largest economy. The spectacular collapse in US housing, which sent average prices...

Real estate website Zillow.com on Tuesday released a report that shows South Florida home values were flat in November. Zillow’s Home Value Index for Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties was $137,000 – up 0.1% from October. Values here have been flat or positive for seven of the past nine months. Prior to that, though, values had declined in 66 of the previous 67 months. Zillow said home...

Mortgage rates should remain low in 2012, especially in the first half of the year, according to the predictions of several industry watchers.

“We may spend the entire year below 5%,” said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst for Bankrate.com, referring to the average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage.

Rates may even fall to new lows early this year,...

Mortgage rates will likely remain very low, at least through mid-2012, according to Freddie Mac. Rates on 30-year conforming mortgages have hovered around 4.0% or lower for the past quarter. The GSEsays that in large part due to the Federal Reserve’s program for extending the maturity date for mortgage securities it holds. This program is expected to continue through the middle of next year. ...

Just how many homes are out there in "shadow inventory?" Shadow inventory homes are homes that banks and loan servicing companies have already foreclosed on, but have yet to be put on the market officially. Below is a map with shadow inventory homes by state.

More than five years after the housing bubble burst, analysts are predicting that the real estate market will finally start to stabilize by mid 2012. The plunging home prices that many sellers have come to dread -- and buyers have taken advantage of -- over the past few years are nearing an end.

If you’re on the fence about whether buying a home is a smart move, consider this: Home...

Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS) today announced that its LPS Applied Analytics division updated its home price index (LPS HPI) with residential sales concluded during September 2011. The LPS HPI summarizes home price trends nationwide by tracking sales each month in more than 13,500 ZIP codes. Within each ZIP code, the LPS HPI tracks five price levels from low to high. “Home prices in...

New home sales rose in October, but are still trending to a low annual rate, according to data released Monday by the US Commerce Department. Sales of new single-family homes last month were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 307,000. That's up slightly more than 1% from the revised September rate and nearly 9% above the October 2010 rate. The median sales price of new homes sold in October...

The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities dropped 3.6% in September from the same month in 2010 after decreasing 3.8% in the year ended August, the group said today in New York. The median forecast of 32 economists in a Bloomberg News survey projected a 3% decrease. “We continue to expect home prices to fall through mid- 2012,” said Anika Khan, an economist at Wells Fargo...