Housing markets

Industry watchers make their wildest guesses (more or less) about developments in real estate finance that could rock the industry in the upcoming months.

Falling interest rates more than canceled out median home listing prices, reaching an all-time time high during the month, Redfin said.

With coronavirus inoculations underway and government stimulus likely to come, the outlook for next year’s housing market and lending environment grew more optimistic in December.

The head of the Federal Housing Administration said Congress should consider whether to continue allowing the loan floor and ceiling to remain tied to changes in the conforming mortgage limit.

The price increase illustrates the extent to which federal rescue programs and a supply-demand imbalance have been counterweights to economic pressures from the pandemic.

The center’s annual study shows the extent to which larger multi-unit properties are insulated from distress.

Weaker consumer spending data coming into the holiday season, as well as a resurgence of the COVID-19 spread, pushed mortgage rates to a new low, Freddie Mac said.

Mortgage rates moved off of their all-time low this week as a result of reports that Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine was potentially 90% effective, according to Freddie Mac.

The overall mortgage delinquency rate improved in the third quarter as the economy got healthier while late-stage delinquencies hit a decade high, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Growing equity levels increased the share of equity-rich and pulled borrowers out from underwater in the third quarter, according to Attom Data Solutions.