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Author Archives: Scott_Morgan

Scott Morgan is a multi-award-winning journalist and editor based out of Texas. During his 11 years as a newspaper journalist, he wrote more than 4,000 published pieces. He's been recognized for his work since 2001, and his creative writing continues to win acclaim from readers and fellow writers alike. He is also a creative writing teacher and the author of several books, from short fiction to written works about writing.

Existing-Home Sales Ahead of Last Year’s Pace, But Still Down In All Major Regions

There’s good news and bad news for January’s existing-home sales, according to the National Association of Realtors. On the one hand, sales in January, for the fourth straight month, were ahead of the pace of sales a year ago. On the other hand, existing-home sales in all major regions declined last month to their lowest rate in nine months, with the West and Northeast getting the worst of it.

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Spring Kicks Off Early for Some Housing Markets

Trulia's latest look at the U.S. housing market shows homebuyer interest in January and February is up 2 percent from the annual average since 2011, a trend that has paved the way for robust March-to-July buying interest.

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Home Prices Flatten in Alternate November Index

National home prices remained largely unchanged in the fall, according to the latest FNC Residential Price Index report. After 30 months of growth in the national housing market, prices dropped off in October and stayed virtually the same in November.

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Economist: Falling Oil Prices Could Hit Housing

In a report released Thursday, Trluia's Jed Kolko warned that falling oil prices—which have since July dropped by half from $100 a barrel—threaten worldwide oil-producing economies. At home, this drop could foretell a drop in home sale prices in the country's most oil-producing states, chiefly Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.

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Housing Markets Stabilize in October

Freddie Mac's latest Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi) report finds the U.S. market weak but stabilizing at year's end. The index, released Tuesday, shows that 70 markets are inching upwards, including San Jose and Pittsburgh, which have finally joined the forward momentum.

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Survey: Credit Loosening Everywhere Except Mortgages

According to the OCC survey, 92 percent of surveyed banks originated residential real estate loans in 2014, and a full 20 percent reported tightening their standards regarding who can attain these loans. Seventy percent reported no changes in their standards, leaving a comparatively slight 10 percent of institutions claiming they eased their standards for residential mortgages.

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Forecast: Housing Stage Set for Millennials

Among its five largest predictions for next year, Realtor.com expects first-time buyers will return to the market in full force after years of retrenchment that has dampened the recovery of the housing market. This push will be led by millennials, now settling into their families, careers, and 30s, who are eager to buy into the American dream.

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FHFA: Home Prices Up for 13th Straight Quarter

FHFA reported Tuesday that U.S. house prices, based on home sales price information from mortgages sold to, or guaranteed by, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, rose 0.9 percent in the third quarter. While that does show a continuation of the growth the U.S. market has enjoyed for the past three years, the rate of growth is down from 4.5 percent compared to the third quarter of 2013.

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Mortgage Lending Suffers at Insured Banks

FDIC-insured institutions earned $38.7 billion in the third quarter of 2014, a 7.3 percent increase from a year ago, according to FDIC's latest Quarterly Banking Profile. Mortgage loans, still hampered by regulations designed to prevent a recession relapse, dropped by nearly $7 billion.

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