Tag Archives: First American

Home prices may be up across the nation—and setting record highs, at that—but affordability is actually up at the moment. What’s causing this increase in homebuying power? An Index released today may have the answers we’re looking for.

A potential sales report released Tuesday showed an increase in existing-home sales for the Month of May despite the many issues facing home inventory. Industry professionals predict with the growing age of millennials and eventual starting of families, demand for housing will remain healthy. Rising rates and financing costs could be leaving existing homeowners as prisoners to their own homes. Keeping in mind the state of the market when looking at home sales at a particular time will give incite on whether it is a good time to buy or sell.

Lot and labor shortages are causing home builder confidence to falter—particularly in the single-family market. Builder confidence dropped two points in June, while overall construction starts fell 5.5 percent across the nation. Single-family production fell 3.9 percent in May, and multifamily declined 9.7 percent—nearly three times as much.

New data shows defects on loan applications are up across the country—both for the month and over the year. The culprit? Riskier lending practices on both purchase loans and refinances. North Dakota, Montana, and Vermont had the highest defect frequency at the state level, while McAllen, Texas, and Knoxville, Tennessee, took the cake in terms of metro markets.

New data shows that real home prices have risen almost 12 percent over the year. Though wages have risen, increasing mortgage rates and tight supply continue to hurt overall affordability. Jacksonville, Florida, came in as the least affordable metro in the nation.

The rate of defects and fraud in mortgage applications is up. The Defect Index on purchase applications rose 2.4 percent over the month, and for refinance applications, it jumped 3.3 percent. Defects were worse in the Southern part of the U.S.

With real house prices on the rise and inventory low, spring is poised to be a seller’s market, according to First American. Real home prices rose more than 8 percent over the year, with Jacksonville, Florida, seeing the most growth annually. According to First American Chief Economist Mark Fleming, “on a year-over-year basis, real house prices increase in all the metropolitan areas tracked . . .”

The Valuation Visionary award recognizes a standout collateral valuation professional every year who has demonstrated outstanding leadership, innovation and professionalism. Winners are nominated by their peers within the Collateral Risk Network. The recipient will be awarded at the Valuation Expo East on March 20, 2017, in Orlando, Florida.

Economist says that decrease in loan applications for refinancing is partly responsible for the increase in loan application defects.

The integration gives lenders the assurance to originate compliant loans, which allows them to provide homebuyers with a faster loan approval and a better customer experience.