New Study Finds Consumer Confusion Leads To Higher Closing Costs
Many American consumers overpay by thousands of dollars in total closing costs when they purchase their homes, according to a new nationwide report from the Urban Institute. The study found that there are significant and unsupported variations in loan charges, title fees and other closing costs charged to homebuyers, and that minority borrowers pay hundreds of dollars more in total loan origination fees than do non-minority homebuyers.
U.S. New Home Sales Rose 3.3 Percent In April
Sales of newly built, single-family homes rose 3.3 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 526,000 units, the U.S. Commerce Department reported today. However, this gain reflected downward revisions to sales numbers reported for each of the previous three months, including a particularly large revision for March.
“The fact that new-home sales are up slightly from a dismal beginning to the spring home buying season in March isn’t much to celebrate,” said Sandy Dunn, president of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Point Pleasant, W. Va. “We still need a great deal of help from the Administration and Capitol Hill to halt the downward trends in home sales and house prices that are producing such a drag on our nation’s economy and disrupting financial markets.”
Home Prices Tumbled 14.4% During The First Quarter
Data through March 2008, released today by Standard & Poor’s for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, shows continued broad based declines in the prices of existing single family homes across the United States, a trend that prevailed throughout 2007 and has continued into the first quarter of 2008.
Memorial Day : A National Moment Of Remembrance
It is the soldier, not the reporter,
who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet,
who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, who salutes the flag,
who serves beneath the flag, and
whose coffin is draped by the flag,
who allows the protester to burn the flag.
- Charles M. Province -
Existing-Home Sales And National Median Home Price Decline
Existing-home sales slowed in April, partly because restrictive lending practices hampered home buyers. At the same time, a greater number of areas are showing sales gains from a year ago and a recent reversal in mortgage policy means the market is better positioned for a turnaround, according to the National Association of Realtors®.
Existing-home sales including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops declined 1.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million units in April from an upwardly revised pace of 4.94 million in March, and are 17.5 percent below the 5.93 million-unit level in April 2007.
Nation’s Most Affordable Housing Market: Indianapolis
Indianapolis, Indiana maintained its standing as the most affordable major U.S. housing market for the 11th consecutive time in the first quarter of 2008, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI), released today.
Nationwide, homes became more affordable for the third consecutive quarter, with the HOI rising to the highest level since the second quarter of 2004.