For Home Sales, It’s About Jobs, Not Fed MBS Purchases

By Robert Freedman, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

Watch our videos for economic research updates further down the post.

In the midst of the mortgage meltdown it was hard to keep track of everything the federal government was doing to keep the credit freeze from sinking the economy. There was the massive bank rescue, with the idea that an equity infusion from taxpayers would shore up banks so they could start financing mortgages again; there was the temporary increase in loan limits in high-cost areas for loans backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA; and there was the first-time home buyer tax credit, now expanded to include move-up buyers.

But one federal effort that never received quite the same attention as the others, probably because it doesn’t lend itself to a term that rolls off the tongue like “tax credit” or “bank bailout,” is the Federal Reserve’s massive intervention in the mortgage-backed securities market. Read more

Inman: “An Economy and a Country to Invest in”

By Katie Tarbox, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

The opening session of Inman Real Estate Connect 2010 in New York was markedly more optimistic than just a year ago where practitioners gathered at the Marriott Marquis for the three-day conference. While still cautious, Brad Inman, the founder of Inman News, said he was encouraged by the fact that the stock market has been so bullish since March of last year in his kickoff speech.

However, he also warns that some hesitation is in order, and recommended watching the following closely: Read more

Top 10 Real Estate Developments in the ’00s: #3

By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

We’ve cracked the top three! Here’s the next installment of our series on the top developments in real estate this past decade: Read more

Top 10 Real Estate Developments of the ’00s: #7

By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

Our countdown of the most significant developments in real estate during this decade continues with the seventh-ranked trend: Read more

An Under-the-Radar Win for Common Sense

By Robert Freedman, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

It’s a small thing, but it’s impact could have been big. Some new federal lending rules take effect tomorrow (under HOEPA—the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act) and among them is a restriction on prepayment penalties, something anyone who’s taken out a mortgage would certainly appreciate. No one likes to pay a prepayment penalty, and certainly not when they’re abusive.

But lenders were concerned that the rule, which imposes the prepayment restriction on higher-priced loans (those with an interest rate 1.5 percent above prime), would snag higher-priced FHA loans. FHA requires borrowers, when they pay off their loan, to pay the entire month’s interest, no matter when during the month the pay-off occurs.

Depending on how you look at it, that extra interest payment has the character of a prepayment penalty, and indeed, NAR has been trying to get FHA to change that policy. Read more

The Week in Quotes

By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

With the nation’s focus on rising unemployment, an uncertain economic recovery, and health care reform, here are some of the more salient quotes from leading figures this week:

“It is hard to escape the conclusion that the Fed may need to maintain fairly low interest rates over a period of many years … If you want to bring down leverage, you should keep monetary policy sufficiently accommodative to forestall a collapse in spending and a deflationary spiral.”

- Goldman Sachs economists Peter Berezin and Alex Kelston, commenting in a report released this week Read more

Real Estate Summit Highlights, Part II

By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, Realtor® Magazine

In an agricultural metaphor not unlike Ben Bernanke’s “green shoots” of economic recovery, Dr. Alan Greenspan said Americans are beginning to see the “seeds” of a bottom in the housing market in a keynote address at NAR’s 2009 Midyear Meetings. (Watch video highlights.) The former Federal Reserve Board Chairman kicked off the afternoon portion of the Real Estate Summit today. Read more