American homeowners are finally digging out of the financial crater formed by the mid-2000's real estate crash. Single-family house prices in nearly 40% of 401 metro areas were at or above their pre-recession peak in the third quarter, according to an analysis of CoreLogic Case-Shiller home-price data by Moody's Analytics. That's up from 30% of metro areas...
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Mortgage rates increased, following a rise in Treasury yields. Prices on the 10-year Treasury note fell this week in response to an uptick in oil prices, pushing yields higher as a result. The 10-year yield rose from around 2.22% Monday to 2.32% Wednesday. Mortgage rates usually follow the direction of yields on long-term government bonds. Home prices creep...
Read MoreContracts to purchase previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly fell in November, confirming earlier figures that showed the industry lost momentum toward the end of the year. The index of pending home sales dropped 0.9 percent after a revised 0.4 percent gain the prior month, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed Wednesday in Washington. The median...
Read More[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="553"] Oil and economic forecasting did not mix well in 2015. David McNew/Getty Images[/caption] It’s clear what threw prognosticators and policy makers for the biggest loop with their economic forecasts for 2015: oil. Crude oil prices stayed unexpectedly low this year and those low prices didn’t prove as beneficial as many had hoped. A year ago,...
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