The Mortgage Insurance Companies of America reported that its members issued 6 percent more policies in September than in August. At the same time, endorsements fell 6 percent at the Federal Housing Administration. MICA also reported that new mortgage insurance applications were virtually unchanged.
View full post on Mortgage Stories
Unemployment rate holds steady as 95,000 payroll positions — most of them government — are lost.
View full post on Finance Stories
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The last labor report before the mid-term elections showed that the United States economy lost 95,000 jobs in September. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.6 percent.
Job losses were higher than economists expected. However, most of the job losses came as government entities shed employees, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics issued Friday.
Government employment declined by 159,000 jobs as the federal government shed 77,000 of the remaining temporary Census workers and cash-strapped local governments around the country shed 76,000 permanent employees. Some of those job losses were offset by an increase of 64,000 private sector jobs, which meant the economy only lost 95,000 jobs net.
The labor force participation rate of working-age Americans remained unchanged at 64.7 percent of the total labor force. In normal times, about 89 percent of the labor force has employment.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also revealed that:
View full post on Economy, Business And Finance Stories
New York, NY, United States (AHN) – U.S. markets finished higher Friday amidst mixed economic data. The move came a day after stocks closed out the strongest September dating back to the 1930′s.
The Dow Jones Industrial average rose 41 points or 0.4 percent, trading in positive territory the majority of the session as 22 of 30 Dow issues finished Friday’s session higher. The move puts the blue-chip index in the green to start the month following the 8 percent rise in September.
The S&P 500 added 5 points or 0.4 percent as nine of 10 major economic sectors finished higher Friday. Energy names led the way, adding 1.3 percent, while tech was the lone laggard, down 0.1 percent.
The Nasdaq Composite added 2 points or 0.1 percent as semiconductors weighed on its advance. The Philadelphia Semiconductor index shed 0.3 percent on Friday.
On the economic front, the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment survey posted a reading of 68.2 for September, above estimates for 67. Shortly after, the Commerce Department said construction spending in August rose 0.4 percent, which was better than the 0.5 percent decline expected.
However, the Institute for Supply Management said its index for September dipped to 54.4 from 56.3 in the prior month.
Earlier in the week, the Commerce Department released its final estimate on third quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP), reporting 1.7 percent growth in the economy, topping estimates for 1.6 percent.
Crude oil finished the week strong, adding 2.2 percent to $81.58 a barrel. The commodity rallied 7.5 percent on the week, its best performance since mid-February.
Next week’s market will see a slew of headline economic data beginning with August pending home sales on Monday and concluding with the September unemployment rate on Friday.
View full post on Economy, Business And Finance Stories
Los Angeles, CA, United States (AHN) – Meebo celebrated its fifth anniversary on September 21, and actress Sarah Hyland of ABC’s new smash comedy “Modern Family” was in attendance. Coincidentally, the premiere of “Modern Family” was the next day, September 22.
Hyland took a break from her comedic acting on ABC and went to the party and played Twister, pictured here.
In addition to celebrating its fifth birthday, Meebo released its new social messaging app to the BlackBerry world. The Blackberry app works on all BlackBerry platforms, including the Torch 9800.
Meebo is a company that integrates all social networks and communication channels into a simple, single solution. Founded in 2005, the company allows its users to share content easily while communicating in real time with a Meebo Bar, a toolbar that can be installed on users’ computers. Meebo also allows users to communicate through Meebo Messenger, much like AOL Instant Messenger, and mobile devices.
View full post on Human Interest Stories
Marshall, Michigan, United States (AHN) – Enbridge Energy Partners said it remained highly committed to complete clean-up efforts near Marshall, Michigan in the aftermath of July 26 oil spill that has stricken Kalamazoo River by the September 27th deadline.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set the two-month deadline for Enbridge to clean up after the oil spill caused by the firm’s leaking pipeline.
This comes as the company works to clean up another recent oil spill in Romeoville, Illinois.
“We continue to treat the Michigan spill as a top priority. While we moved some equipment we had demobilized to Illinois to assist with the response, we continue to provide ample resources to clean up the Michigan spill,” Enbridge said in a statement.
“Our response efforts continue to be focused on meeting our EPA-enforced Sept. 27 clean-up deadline safely and efficiently. Clean-up teams have implemented a five-step approval process for evaluating and inspecting clean-up sites to meet EPA criteria. Many areas in Divisions D and E have reached the fourth and in some cases, fifth phases of the process,” the company stressed.
As of Sept. 9, some 2,055 people are working on the Michigan site where they deployed a total of 124,982 feet of boom in 25 locations.
“Work on backfilling along Talmadge Creek is ramping up through the weekend. Division A at the release site is now complete and initial restoration is well underway. The hydroseeding completed in the area has resulted in sprouting and new grass is visible in places,” Enbridge reported.
A total of 1,247 animals have been cared for with some 866 animals rehabilitated and released while 294 animals are currently in care at Wildlife Response Center.
The media and general public are invited to tour the Wildlife Response Center located at 14998 Old U.S. 27 N. in Marshall, Michigan, on Sept. 14 at 2:00 p.m. ET. Tours have limited availability and those interested should make reservations by calling public information hotline at 1-800-306-6837.
View full post on Economy, Business And Finance Stories
Value of new residential loans granted nearing positive year-on-year growth
After a lengthy spell of non-stop year-on-year decline spanning beck to June 2007, the =month that the National Credit Act was implemented, the value of new residential mortgage loans granted is steadily nearing a return to positive year-on-year growth. In September 2009, the rate of year-on-year decline had been reduced to -13.8%, and while this still appears to be significant decline, it is significantly better than the -27.5% just one month before, and hugely better than the -62.2% rate of decline as recently as April. On a month-on-month basis, broad growth has been in progress since early-2009.
For the 3rd quarter as a whole, the year-on-year decline was -22.2%, which had more than halved on the -49.6% of the previous quarter, while the quarter-on-quarter growth rate had grown at an impressive rate of +30.3%.
The SARB numbers are beginning to show more concrete confirmation of the increased volumes that we have been feeling since earlier in the year, with September’s R18,8 bn being the highest value of residential grants this year, and more than double that of January. While improving, though, the value remains less than half of the all-time high of R39.5bn reached in May 2007.
The noticeable improvement in value of loans granted since the beginning of the year reflects the positive impact of 5 percentage points’ worth of interest rate cuts since late-2008, banks responding to better environment with some relaxation in lending criteria, and a mildly improving economic growth performance.
Commercial mortgages following a similar trend to residential
In recent years, the trend in commercial property loans granted has also taken on a similar shape over the past two years or so, having shown negative growth since earlier back in 2006, reaching an extreme rate of year-on-year of -86.9% in December 2008.
Much of this weakness may reflect residential development finance, but the commercial property sector has probably also played a major role, with the returns of the major 3 sub-sectors of commercial property, namely retail, industrial and office space all showing significant deteriorations in performance from 2008, as the recession started to bite.
Since the beginning of 2009, however, the year-on-year rate of decline for commercial loans granted has diminished steadily to a mere -11.6% in September, while over the third quarter its quarter-on-quarter growth rate had turned slightly positive to the tune of +5.4%.
The focus of growth has been mainly on loans on existing properties, with the numbers still reflecting tough times for new developments
Breaking new loans granted up in a different fashion, the severe weakness in the new development market, compared to the existing property market, is apparent.
The breakdown of new mortgages by loans on existing buildings, on construction of buildings, and on vacant land, lumps residential and commercial property together. (although residential property is the dominant segment in the mortgage market). Whereas the year-on-year decline in the value of mortgage loans granted on existing buildings has diminished steadily from a low of -56.9% in February 2009 to -17.2% as at September, loans granted for construction of new buildings showed a more extreme -43.4% decline as at September, while vacant land mortgage grants were -71.3% down year-on-year. The weaker state of loans on construction and vacant land confirms the lagging status of the new building market, versus that of the existing market. On the residential side at least, this has much to do with a combination of a weak “existing property” market and a surge in input cost inflation for builders in 2007 and 2008, which opened up a wider gap between new and existing home prices, making it difficult to bring competitively priced new stock to the market.
Capital repayments growth has overtaken payouts growth, which could send total Mortgage loans outstanding into negative growth soon
A noticeable feature of the mortgage market as of late has been the steady recovery in capital repayments, which showed positive year-on-year growth in value in September to the tune of 17.9%, possibly a partial reflection of a more cautious household sector determined to reduce its level of indebtedness in many instances (given that household borrowing for residential purposes is the dominant force in the mortgage market). This is in sharp contrast to mortgage payout value growth, which was still in sharp year-on-year decline at -44.2% as at September (although starting to turn for the better slowly).
The large difference in growth rates between capital repayments and payouts has meant that the value of capital repayments has been catching up to that of payouts. The bygone years of booming growth in new lending had seen the value of capital repayments as a percentage of payouts declining from a 99.7% in March 1999 all the way to 37.9% by November 2008 (although by 2008 the low percentage was more a reflection of financial stress than booming new lending)
This percentage has rebounded sharply in 2009 to record 92.4% at September 2009. The combination of negative growth in payout value and positive growth in capital repayments translates into ongoing decline in year-on-year growth in the value of total mortgage advances outstanding, registering a meagre 3.6% in October and looking increasingly likely to head into negative territory within the next few months. Such is the typical lag between new lending turnarounds and trend changes in growth in the value of outstanding mortgages, the latter being dependent on the relative performances of payouts vs capital repayments.
Outlook
The steady rise in new residential mortgage loans granted is expected to continue until at least mid-2010, where-after one may see some flattening out in the level as the positive impact of the 2009 interest rate cuts wears off. This rise in grants is starting to spill over into an improving payouts situation with something of a lag. Noticeable increase in building loans is only anticipated in the second half of 2010, once the decline in oversupply of existing properties on the market makes new developments viable on a larger scale.
However, in a generally more conservative environment compared with a few years ago, capital repayments growth looks set to outstrip new loan growth for a while, and this is expected to translate into a decline in total value of outstanding mortgage loans over the year of 2010, to the tune of around -5% year-on-year at next year’s end.
Here it is! The Charlotte real estate housing update*…whew!
We’re not reeling, but we’re not moving upwards, like we had been for the past four months.
September closings (1,945) were down by 12.4% over the month of August (2,221). Even our average sales price dipped down by 6%. September sales averaged $196,760 whereas August sales averaged $209, 245.
Sales are down, but not down and out.
This is not a unique performance for the housing market this time of year. The fall is a traditional season with a traditional decline in home sales and real estate activity.
For the Charlotte market, we fared no differently. Contracts (2,199) for September 2009 have declined by 9.7% over the fine month of August where home contracts totaled 2,434.
The average time a home spent on the market was only three days less than last month…which was 115.7 days…this from its “active” status until the time it went “pending (under contract)”.
In the national scheme of things, that is overall pretty darn good! Still, we have a lot of Charlotte homes coming on the market. In September alone, 4,701 new residential real estate listings came aboard! The market changes daily.
Charlotte sellers listed pricing has come down a bit as well. In the month of August, the average list price of a “sold” property was $234,504…and in September this price had dropped down 6.2% to $219,925. Quite a dip in just one month!
The first time home buyer tax credit, has helped stimulate not just one, but two levels of housing: The first time home buyer, and the first time home seller (who then became a second time home buyer).
As seen by our dip in pending residential real estate contract numbers, the surge that took place, has pretty much run its course.
For first time home buyers that procrastinated, you may have just lost out on one of the best deals going. (Unless, of course, it comes back again.)
Why? The ability to get a loan processed to close by November 30, 2009, has just about come to an end. The loan processors typically need a good solid 45 days to make it happen!
Was the tax credit a success? You be the judge. The National Association of Realtors®, states as many as 350,000 home sales this year can be directly attributed to the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit.
That’s a lot of first time home buyers, who may never have even contemplating owning a home before.
The big question? “Will there be a tax credit extension?”housing tax credit
The big answer, “Maybe, maybe not.”
If you were one of the many first time home buyers that did not have your 3.5% saved up for a down payment, hopefully, the stimulus package has motivated you to get that savings put together (just in case).
And, those that were locked in to leases, perhaps your lease is coming up for renewal. Go month to month (just in case).
Buyer beware…if the $8,000 tax credit comes back again…hopefully, you, too, will then take part in the American dream, your own home.
Until then, it is something wonderful to dream about and plan for!
*The numbers used in this September 2009 residential realty report became available on October 8, 2009, courtesy of the Charlotte Regional Realtor® Association based on Carolina Multiple Listing Services, Inc. (CMLS) data covering the Charlotte region.
Claude Cross is Broker/Owner of Homes By Cross. Specializing in Charlotte NC Real Estate and Relocation since 1994. Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/real-estate-articles/charlotte-residential-real-estate-housing-market-fall-09-1376561.html
Private Hard Money Finance Hard Money Financing Hard Money LoansPowered by Yahoo! Answers
