Market Studies

Clear signs of recovery have been recorded in the housing market, but minority borrowers do not seem to be linked to this recovery.

Although millennials are less likely than baby boomers to identify milestone life events that could affect their credit, over half them are checking their credit when taking out a mortgage loan.

Housing trends are constantly fluctuating, but aside from some of the obvious factors that affect the housing market, oil prices appear to be having a negative impact on markets that are dependent upon this energy.

Residential market values are projected to continue to increases over the next 12 months, with overall annual appreciation reaching 3.6 percent, up from its second quarter forecast of 3.1 percent.

Rental rates and income yields continue to rise in the single-family rental market, affecting how real estate investors target purchase opportunities and how much landlords make from these properties.

Home prices and risk are being driven up quicker than income by low mortgage rates, an improving labor market, and loose credit standards, but some believe this is not a sustainable approach to homeownership. The American Enterprise Institute's First-Time Buyer Mortgage Share Index found that first-time buyers accounted for 56.4 percent of primary owner-occupied home purchase mortgages with a government guarantee in September 2015, up from last years' total of 54.4 percent.

Homebuilders' confidence in the market for newly constructed single-family homes rose in October, returning to a level not seen since the end of the housing boom in 2005.

Homeownership is on the minds of most Americans and despite rising prices, they still believe that purchasing a home is a good financial decision.

Home sales in the fall season have cooled down 8.6 percent in September compared to August, but remain 6.8 percent above last years' levels.

As interest rates continue to lower and home values rise, mortgage fraud application risk has fallen 8.9 percent from the second quarter of 2014 to the second quarter of 2015, according to CoreLogic's October 2015 Mortgage Fraud Report. The Mortgage Application Fraud Risk Index showed that approximately 12,814 of mortgage applications, or 0.67 percent, contained fraud in the second quarter of 2015.