Home affordability took a slight hit this week after the Federal Reserve's release of its August 10 meeting minutes. The "Fed Minutes" is a lengthy, detailed recap of a Federal Open Market Committee meeting, not unlike the minutes published after a corporate conference, or condo association gathering. The Federal Reserve publishes its meeting minutes 3 weeks after a FOMC get-together. The minutes are lengthy, too. At 6,181 words, August's Fed Minutes is thick with data about the economy, its current threats, and its deeper strengths. The minutes also recount the conversations that, ...

According to the Standard & Poors Case-Shiller Index, home values rose 5 percent in June versus the month prior, and 4 percent from a year earlier.  It's the 16th consecutive month in which Case-Shiller reported an increase in home values and the third straight month of outstanding results. That said, homeowners and home buyers in Chicago would do well to temper Case-Shiller enthusiasm. The June figures are issued on 60-day delay and, over the last 60 days, housing data has been lackluster at best. Existing Home Sales are down 27 percent New Home Sales are down 12 percent ...

Mortgage rates are low right now but pinning them down this week could be a challenge. As Labor Day Weekend nears and Wall Streeters take their head-start on the holiday, trading volume will fall, which will cause mortgage rates in Illinois to get jumpy. As mortgage rates change, so does the long-term cost of owning a home. Every 1/8 percent adjustment changes a household budget. Meanwhile, the relationship between "vacation days" and mortgage rate volatility is an interesting one; based more in scarcity than market fundamentals. Rates tend to get volatile near holidays because of two ...

Mortgage markets improved last week despite a major mortgage bond sell-off Friday afternoon. Prior to the jump, conforming mortgage rates had cut new, all-time lows by Thursday, only to lose up to 0.250 percent on the last day of the week. Meanwhile, the same type of news that drove rates lower Monday through Thursday also contributed to rates rising Friday -- revised projections for the U.S. economy. Early in the week, "bad" news piled on which, in turn, lowered expectations for the economy and pushed mortgage rates down: Existing Home Sales dropped 27% from June Single-Family New Home ...

With home prices holding firm and mortgage rates still dropping, home affordability is reaching new heights. According to the quarterly Home Opportunity Index as published by the National Association of Home Builders, more than 72 percent of all new and existing homes sold between April-June 2010 were affordable to families earning the national median income. It's a slightly higher reading as compared to last quarter, and the second highest reading in the survey's history. As with all aspects of real estate, however, home affordability varies by locale.  For example, 97.2% of homes sold ...

One day after the National Association of Realtors released the softest Existing Home Sales report since 1995, the U.S. Census Bureau released a similarly-weak New Home Sales report. Americans bought just 276,000 newly-built homes in July. That marks the fewest units sold since the government started keeping records in 1963. In addition, although new home inventory actually dropped 2,000 units in July, the slowing sales pace still managed to push the national supply higher by 1.1 months.  At July's rate of sales, the nation's new home inventory would be exhausted in just about 9 months. ...

The number of home resales plunged by 1.4 million units in July, according to the National Association of Realtors®' Existing Home Sales report. It's a drop of 27 percent from June; single-family home resales are at the report's lowest levels since May 1999. Furthermore, because of the sharp drop in sales volume, home inventories are spiking. Homes for sale nationwide fell just short of 4 million units in July and, at the current sales paces, it would take 12.5 months for the existing inventory to be absorbed. Home supply was just 8.9 months in June. For home sellers in Chicago , the ...

The tightening in mortgage-lending policies that characterized the last 3 years appears to be slowing. According to the Federal Reserve's quarterly survey of senior bank loan officers, roughly 1 in 10 lenders added mortgage qualification hurdles between April and June. It's a huge departure from just 2 years ago when the mortgage industry was facing its first wave of challenges.  During that period, eight in 10 lenders added hurdles. For mortgage applicants in Chicago , this quarter's Fed survey results signals that mortgage lending may have reached its limits of restriction. Since 2007, ...