Speech at the Society of Government Economists and the National Economists Club, Washington, D.C.

Growth in home sales and prices is contributing to a broader improvement in the overall economy, aided in part by current homeownership tax treatment, according to presentations at a residential real estate forum during the Realtors® Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo . Lawrence Yun , NAR chief economist, said a multiyear housing recovery is likely. “Steady job creation and household formation have been helping to unleash a pent-up demand in the housing market... Read More

Republicans should pay close attention to what’s happening in Japan, where the Bank of Japan’s new bond-buying program is already bearing fruit. As the Financial Times reports, ”Japan's economy grew at the fastest pace among Group of Seven countries last quarter, … read more >

"Things are better enough for the Fed to slow the pace of purchasing," Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser says.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Jason Lobo Phone: 703.652.1660 Email: jasonl@mersinc.org Reston, Virginia, May 16, 2013 - MERSCORP Holdings, Inc. today announced that a five-justice panel of the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed a lower court's decision which in part validated MERS' ability to assign mortgages as the nominee for the original lender and its successors and assigns. In Federal National Mortgage Association v. Steele , Chief Justice Roy S. Moore, and Associate Justices Glen Murdock, Michael F. Bolin, James Allen Main and Tommy Bryan unanimously ruled without opinion that the lower court properly upheld Fannie Mae's ejectment action judgment against the borrowers. MERS was not a party to the lawsuit. The borrowers defaulted on their loan and after a completed non-judicial foreclosure and sale the foreclosing servicer conveyed title to the property to Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae received a judgment in its favor in the subsequent ejectment action and the borrowers sought to set aside the judgment. The borrowers claimed that the underlying foreclosure was invalid because Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS) was not authorized to assign the mortgage to the servicer who conveyed title to the property to Fannie Mae after the foreclosure sale. The trial court denied the borrowers' request; affirmed Fannie Mae's standing to bring the ejectment action and the judgment in favor of Fannie Mae. The trial court found that the borrowers' claim regarding MERS' lack of authority to assign the mortgage as "being contrary to Alabama law" because "[t]he ability of MERS to assign a mortgage or take other actions as the nominee for a lender and that lender's assigns in a mortgage has been affirmed in Alabama." "The fact that MERS was named as the original mortgage and subsequently executed an assignment of mortgage to Everhome Mortgage Company does not cause the judgment in favor of FNMA to be void," Circuit Court Judge...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher said Thursday that the central bank should dial back purchases of mortgage-backed securities, with the goal of eliminating them entirely as the year wears on. "In my view, the housing market is on a self-sustaining path and does not need the same impetus we have been giving it," said Fisher, who did vote for the first tranche of MBS purchases. Fisher, who's not a voting member this year, added the Fed could soon be buying 100% of MBS issuance if the current program continues and if refinancing activity shifts down.

Billionaire Paulson bet on mortgage insurers, which suggests that his hedge fund expects the housing recovery to grow stronger.

Remarks at The Global Interdependence Center Central Banking Conference

We explore several different explanations of the effect of foreclosures on neighboring properties using a dataset of transactions in Boston, for which we have rich data on the size and location of condominium associations. There is compelling evidence against a supply effect-nearby condo foreclosures in different associations, and even those within the same association but at different physical addresses, have little impact on condo sale prices. However, condos transact at average discounts of 2.4 percent when a foreclosure shares the same physical address. We view the results as indicating that investment externalities drive foreclosures' impacts on neighboring house prices.

HUD Secretary Donovan HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan lauded the work of his agency in promoting housing policies and programs that specifically acknowledge the equal rights of gay and *** Americans. He said the agency makes clear that sexual orientation is no barrier to accessing any HUD programs. “We have a broad requirement that housing opportunities [...]

California April Home Sales May 15, 2013 An estimated 39,051 new and resale houses and condos sold statewide last month. That was up 3.4 percent from 37,764 in March, and up 2.1 percent from 38,241 sales in April 2012, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. Last month's sales count was the strongest for an April since 48,894 homes were sold in April 2006. California April sales have varied from a low of 27,625 in 1995 to a high of 71,638 in 2004. Last month's sales were 11.1 percent below the average of 43,920 sales for all the months of April since 1988, when DataQuick's statistics begin. The median price paid for a home in California last month was $324,000, which is the highest for any month since the median was $328,000 in June 2008. Last month's median was up 3.5 percent from $313,000 in March and up 22.7 percent from $264,000 in April 2012. April was the 14th consecutive month in which the state's median sale price rose year-over-year. In March/April/May 2007 the median peaked at $484,000. The post-peak trough was $221,000 in April 2009. Of the existing homes sold last month, 13.5 percent were properties that had been foreclosed on during the past year - the lowest level since foreclosure resales were 12.6 percent of the resale market in September 2007. Last month's figure was down from a revised 15.0 percent in March and 30.3 percent a year earlier. Foreclosure resales peaked at 58.8 percent in February 2009. Short sales - transactions where the sale price fell short of what was owed on the property - made up an estimated 17.7 percent of the homes that resold last month. That was down from a revised estimate of 19.7 percent the month before and 23.9 percent a year earlier. The typical mortgage payment that home buyers committed themselves to paying last month was $1,157. That was up from $1,134 in March and up from $1,010 a year earlier. Adjusted for inflation, last month's typical payment was 49.8 percent below the 1989 peak of the...

U.S. Treasury Suspends Sales of SLGS to Stay Under Debt Ceiling Bloomberg The U.S. Treasury Department said it will suspend sales of State and Local Government Series non-marketable securities to help keep funding the government to stay within the statutory debt limit. The suspension of the sales until further notice will be effective ... and more »

Another stock market close, another new high for stocks. One observation: market distortions/contradictions are forming with the global zero-interest-rate policies and quantitative easing.

The Urban Land Institute says its new survey shows that members of Generation Y favor mixed-use developments and pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods.

Bay Area Median Sale Price Back Over $500,000; Sales Dip Below Year Ago May 15, 2013 La Jolla, CA.--The median price paid for a Bay Area home moved above the half-million-dollar mark for the first time in almost five years, pushed up by pent-up demand, an improving economy, investor activity, low mortgage interest rates and constrained supply, as well as a continued decline in distressed sales, a real estate information service reported. The median price paid in the nine-county Bay Area rose to $510,000 in April. That was up 17.0 percent from $436,000 in March, and up 30.8 percent from $390,000 in April a year ago, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. The 17.0 percent month-to-month increase is the highest in DataQuick's Bay Area statistics, which go back to 1988. "There's somewhat of a perfect storm here, statistically speaking. The pent-up demand, the economy, interest rates, investor buying. Everything is in alignment right now, but that won't always be the case. Also, it's easier to regain lost ground. A major element to watch for between now and fall is how many homes are put on the market at these higher price points," said John Walsh, DataQuick president. The Bay Area's median sale price first passed the $500,000 threshold in May 2004, when it rose to $501,000. It continued rising and held well above that level for four years, then dropped below $500,000 in June 2008 as home prices tumbled. From its $665,000 peak in June/July 2007 to its $290,000 trough in March 2009, the median plunged 56.4 percent, or $375,000. As of last month most of the Bay Area's peak-to-trough loss had been regained. The median was up $220,000 from its March 2009 trough, meaning it had made up about 59 percent of its loss. Much of the median's ups and downs the last five years can be attributed to shifts in the types of homes sold. When the recession hit, low-cost inland foreclosures dominated, while sales in mid- to high-end markets languished....

Many skeptics of the Fed’s bond buying policy point to the bond market shellacking of 1994 That year 10-year rates rose to 7.8% from 5.5% when Fed started cranking up rates. They worry about a repeat as Team Bernanke winds … read more >

WASHINGTON (May 15, 2013) – As the real estate market continues to show signs of improvement and consumers grow more optimistic, a young class of Realtors ® is ready to embark on a new era of real estate. This year’s Realtor ® Magazine “30 Under 30” honorees have not been deterred by a challenging and competitive market. Instead they have developed innovative and groundbreaking skills to create their own pathways to success.    “This new generation of Realtors ® represents the future of the... Read More

School’s coming to members of Congress over the next two days as thousands of REALTORS® meet with lawmakers to provide a refresher course on how critical the federal government’s historic support for home ownership is to the country’s future. “We have an unprecedented situation today, because so many members of Congress are new and really [...]

Fed's Gibson Says Regulators Need Consistent Laws to Close Banks Bloomberg The Federal Reserve's (FDTR) top bank supervisor said regulators around the world need to achieve consistency among laws governing the shut-down of a large, global bank. "We need to take additional actions to promote regulatory cooperation among ...

Home-builder confidence in the market for single family homes rose in May despite increasing building materials costs.