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U.S. housing data is making the economy look better, even as other parts lag. And it’s true, the housing market, as we’ve covered for the last several quarters, is doing really well — and the recent Fed rate hike appears to have had little, if any, effect on that. However, as we’ve also pointed out before,…

We’ve already covered the fact that last quarter’s rate hike from the Fed shouldn’t have had any meaningful impact on long-term, fixed-rate mortgages. But everyone expected them to have an impact on short-term, adjustable rate mortgages. Contrary to prevailing wisdom, so far in January, refinancing is up significantly (12% week-over-week) and within those loans, the share of…

That’s the average mortgage balance across the U.S.: $157,154. Of course, whether you’re over or under that number doesn’t really say anything useful at all — it depends on so many factors, from where your home is, to whether it’s a first or second home, to how long you’ve owned the home, and so on…

That’s the average mortgage balance across the U.S.: $157,154. Of course, whether you’re over or under that number doesn’t really say anything useful at all — it depends on so many factors, from where your home is, to whether it’s a first or second home, to how long you’ve owned the home, and so on…

The Huffington Post, Canada, put out a piece last week about why Canadians should no longer be looking to buy property south of the border. And they’re dead-on with most of their reasoning, from the change in exchange rates between U.S. and Canadian dollars, to the recovery of housing prices in most, interesting U.S. markets. But…

OK. We hate making predictions about mortgages or the housing market, and we don’t think you should do so, either. But that doesn’t stop plenty of professionals. Here are five predictions for the 2016 U.S. Housing Market from TheStreet.com: prime mortgage rates will rise; both prices and sales will grow, but sales more slowly; cities will…

PropertyWire put out an interesting article last week. They don’t really make any claims in it, and quite frankly, I can’t really draw any conclusions from it. To make matters worse, the title is confusing: “Value of US housing stock in 2015 down from overall growth the previous year”. What they really mean is that…

PropertyWire put out an interesting article last week. They don’t really make any claims in it, and quite frankly, I can’t really draw any conclusions from it. To make matters worse, the title is confusing: “Value of US housing stock in 2015 down from overall growth the previous year”. What they really mean is that…

I really like the way this guy thinks. I’ve written many times before about the futility of making predictions in general, and the weird state of the housing market in particular. Business Insider wrote a very good article for The Real Deal, that asks the simple question “are we in a bubble”. The truth of the matter…

For most people who aren’t economists, we tend to think of markets as singular, localized things (e.g., we think of “the” housing market). But the truth is, markets tend to vary quite a bit regionally, and as this blog has pointed out before, seemingly unrelated markets (e.g., China’s stock market) can have large impacts. CNN…