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February 24, 2012
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Daily News Articles

  • Could Rising Rents Bump Up Home Sales?
    02/24/2012

    Home sales may get a boost from the rising prices occurring in the rental market, which is making it cheaper to own rather than rent in a growing number of cities. 

    “We might see a spring season better than the numbers are predicting," Jay Brinkmann, the Mortgage Bankers Association's chief economist, said during the an MBA conference in Florida this week. 

  • Mortgage Rates Inch Up After Record Lows
    02/24/2012

    For the first time in three weeks, fixed mortgages rate moved up from their all-time lows, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey.

  • BofA Cuts Ties With Fannie Mae
    02/24/2012

    Bank of America announced on Thursday that it will no longer sell some of its mortgages to Fannie Mae. 

    Effective this month, the nation’s second-largest bank says it will no longer permit mortgages for home purchases, as well as certain refinanced mortgages, to be packaged into Fannie Mae loan securitizations. 

  • Study: Number of Kids Living in Poverty Rises
    02/24/2012

    The number of children living in high-poverty areas jumped 25 percent from 2000 to 2010, an alarming finding, according to a new study by the nonprofit group, the Annie E. Casey Foundation.  

    In 2010, nearly 8 million children lived in high-poverty areas, which is considered areas in which 30 percent or more of the households earn an annual income of less than $22,314 for a family of four. The study found that three-quarters of the children are living in poverty-stricken areas despite having at least one parent working too. 

  • Commercial Real Estate Vacancy Rates Improve
    02/24/2012

    According to the National Association of REALTORS®’ quarterly commercial real estate forecast, all of the major commercial real estate sectors are seeing improved fundamentals, but multifamily housing is becoming a landlord’s market, commanding bigger rent increases. These trends also are confirmed in NAR’s recent quarterly Commercial Real Estate Market Survey.

  • Search for Greenhouse Gas Emitters in Your Market
    02/24/2012

    The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released its greenhouse gas (GHG) data report in the form of a new online tool — an interactive map that lets members of the public see what facilities are the largest suppliers of fossil fuels and highest direct emitters of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

    Users can easily search for emitters by region, down to the street level, to see what type of greenhouse gases have been released as of 2010, at what quantities, and by whom.

  • Home Sales on the Rise: Ready for Spring Buying Season?
    02/23/2012

    Existing-home sales rose 4.3 percent in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.57 million, marking the third gain for home sales in the last four months, the National Association of REALTORS® reports.  

    “The uptrend in home sales is in line with all of the underlying fundamentals – pent-up household formation, record-low mortgage interest rates, bargain home prices, sustained job creation and rising rents,” NAR’s Chief Economist Lawrence Yun says.

  • Former Home Owners Wait for Second Chance
    02/23/2012

    More than 4 million homes have been lost to foreclosure in the last six years, and many of those former home owners are now starting to ask: When can we buy again? 

  • Deadline Extended for Foreclosure Reviews
    02/23/2012

    Home owners who’ve undergone a foreclosure and want a review of their case now have a longer time to submit their request. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve announced the deadline has been extended to July 31, which provides an extra three more months to spread the word about the review program. 

  • Smartphones May Increase Your Identity Theft Risk
    02/23/2012

    Your smartphone may be putting you at increased risk for identity fraud, according to a new report issued by Javelin Strategy & Research. 

    According to the report, nearly 12 million Americans last year became victims of identity theft, an alarming 13 percent increase over 2010 numbers. Seven percent of those victims came from using the smartphone, the report says.