Mortgage Newsletters Archive Description http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/reports/newsletter/archive Freddie Mac said today that its total mortgage portfolio i ncreased by $951 million in April to $1.949 trillion , an increase of 0.6 percent. This was the second straight month the portfolio has increased. Purchases totaled $47.3 billion compared to $52.0 billion in March, liquidations were ($45.7) compared to ($44.85) billion and sales were ($627) million, up from ($617) million. The year to date growth in that portfolio is (1.1) percent and the annualized liquidation rate is 29.2 percent. The Mortgage-Related Investments Portfolio declined from an unpaid principal balance of $534.2 billion in March to 528.3 billion in April, a change of 13.2 percent . Purchases totaled $15.0 billion compared to $13.57 billion in March. Liquidations increased from ($10.10) billion the month before to ($10 http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/reports/newsletter/2013/5/24/424 http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/reports/newsletter/2013/5/24/424 Fri, 24 May 2013 20:35:18 GMT New home sales rose 2.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in April to an annual rate of 454,000 units . The Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development also revised the March estimate of new home sales dramatically upward from 417,000 units to 444,000. The April rate of sales was 29.0 percent higher than the April 2012 rate of 352,000 units. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis there were 45,000 sales during the month compared to 42,000 in March. This brings the year-to-date total to 153,000 units. Sales fell in April in two of the four regions. In the Northeast the seasonally adjusted annual rate was 30,000 units, down 16.7 percent from March but up 3.4 percent from April 2012. Sales in the Midwest were down 4.8 percent to a rate of 59,000, an annual increase of 18 http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/reports/newsletter/2013/5/23/422 http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/reports/newsletter/2013/5/23/422 Thu, 23 May 2013 22:35:47 GMT Mortgage rates were utterly destroyed today. Not only did the average rate move above the highest seen in 2013, but rates haven't been this high since May 22nd of 2012! Of course, there's the "everything's relative" perspective, whereby we can attempt to appreciate the fact that best-execution is still around 3.75%, but the fact remains that the day over day movement was devastatingly swift, and on the the most aggressively negative end of the spectrum of possibilities heading into the day. We'll dig into some of the reasons for today's spike after the following housekeeping note. Mortgage News Daily's rate series is updated every day, once a day (usually near the end of the day to account for any intraday reprices from lenders). It's based on actual lender rate sheets and assuming you're viewing http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/reports/newsletter/2013/5/22/420 http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/reports/newsletter/2013/5/22/420 Wed, 22 May 2013 23:59:18 GMT Recognizing that real estate investors have played a key role in the state's housing market recovery, the California Association of Realtors® (C.A.R.) recently surveyed its members about their interactions with investor customers and have developed a profile of investors and their behavior. Two-third of investors are following a long term strategy in investing, buying and holding property although three-quarters of intend to hold the property for less than six years . About one-quarter (26 percent) of inventors buy property in order to flip it. Most investors, about 75 percent , are what C.A.R. termed small mom-and-pop type , owning between one and ten investment properties. Fifteen percent own one property, 46 percent own two to five, and 14 percent own six to 10. Owners manage more than http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/reports/newsletter/2013/5/21/418 http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/reports/newsletter/2013/5/21/418 Tue, 21 May 2013 20:39:51 GMT Fannie Mae's economic and strategic research team today called the housing recovery "undeterred" after it contributed 0.3 percentages points to economic growth in the first quarter. Doug Duncan, Orawin T. Velz, and Brian Hughes-Cromwick said this was the eighth consecutive quarter that housing has added to growth and the company's Economic Summary for May said recent housing indicators point to continued recovery. The annualized rate of housing starts in March was over one million units for the first time since 2008 , driven solely by a surge in multi-family building which more than offset a decline in single-family construction. Multi-family housing starts are now back to the levels of the early 2000s, benefitting the report says from a continuing decline in homeownership which fell again http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/reports/newsletter/2013/5/20/416 http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/reports/newsletter/2013/5/20/416 Mon, 20 May 2013 20:58:18 GMT