Tag Archives: Economic Recovery

The combination of a healthy economic recovery and continued low rates is forcing home buyers into limited options.

The housing industry started the current economic downturn on much better footing than the last. Click through to read more.

A recent report from the Urban Institute highlights the lesser-known role that adverse public records may play in holding back a robust economic recovery.

Wallison presented a chart that compared recovery from the financial crisis of 2008 with that of previous crises and noted that from 2009 until the passage of Dodd-Frank in July 2010, economic recovery was on the same pace as previous recoveries. He contended that recovery began to slow down when Dodd-Frank was signed into law.

Aside from a brief reference to his announcement two weeks ago that the Federal Housing Agency (FHA) would be lowering its mortgage insurance premiums, President Barack Obama did not mention housing policy Tuesday night during his hour-long State of the Union Address.

A major part of that decline comes from stagnating wages, which came to a median $29,000 in doubled-up households in 2012. On average, Zillow says doubled-up adults make about 76 percent of the median income of people living without roommates, making it more difficult for those Americans to save up money for initial housing costs.

Delinquency and foreclosure rates also were much improved. According to Trulia and Black Knight, the national delinquency and foreclosure rate was 74 percent back to normal in August—the same as one quarter ago and up from 56 percent one year ago. Trulia's chief economist, Jed Kolko, said that with the share of mortgage borrowers with negative or near-negative equity dropping, the default rate should continue to drop.

Wells Fargo reported strong financials for the second quarter, driven in part by an uptick in mortgage lending and ongoing improvements in credit quality.

Bank credit and money growth both exhibit typical patterns in the post-Great Recession era; however, the change over the time period is consistent with the pace of a subpar recovery. This revelation was reported by the Wells Fargo Economics Group in a release Monday, highlighting the two factors as reasons for caution among both businesses and bank lenders.