Many regions including Cambridge, MA and Denton, TX have almost fully recovered from the housing recession.  Although strong employment in such areas is a factor, the biggest reason most areas listed in this article have survived the downturn is because they never experienced the huge price runups that Florida, Nevada or California did in the […]

The housing bust has been kinder to higher-priced homes than to lower-priced ones.  Zillow.com finds that since prices peaked in 2006, top tier homes have lost 38% of their value while prices for bottom-tier homes have dropped 63% since peaking in 2007. USA Today  June 8, 2011

Despite numerous policy gimmicks from Washington to artificially prop up the market, the affordability of housing has improved significantly since 2006.  In 200, nearly 63% of homes were affordable by median earners; by 2006, at the height of the mania, that number had dropped to only 40.4%.  Today median earners can afford nearly 75% of all […]

Fixed mortgage rates hit the lowest level of the year for the third straight week. Freddie Mac said that the average rate on a 30 year loan fell to 4.6 % from 4.61%.  Rates have fallen for six weeks in a row. They tend to track the yield on the 10 year Treasury note which […]

 Banks and mortgage lenders have steadily amassed large holdings of foreclosed homes. In total they own more than 872,000 homes as a result of the rise in foreclosures. This is almost twice the level before the financial crisis. In addition, they are in the process of foreclosing an additional one million homes and will likely […]