Economists say housing market cooling, not crashing

Housing sales and starts are down from last year's peaks, and will continue to decline in 2007 and perhaps into 2008, economists at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the National Association of Home Builders predicted today.

Although the housing market is slowing down with the economy, there are no signs of recession or a bursting bubble. A slowdown in the economy could cushion the decline in the housing market by bringing an end to a series of 17 quarter-point, short-term interest-rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, the economists said.  more...

Bill would prohibit Wal-Mart, Home Depot banks

A bill introduced yesterday in Congress that would close a loophole in the separation of banking and commerce has the support of a banking industry trade group.

Reps.  more...

National City moves from mortgage to retail banking

The nation's eighth-largest bank, National City Corp., is looking to sell some of its mortgage lending units as it moves into retail banking in Florida.

Cleveland, Ohio-based National City announced Monday that it may sell its First Franklin Financial subprime residential mortgage unit and its National City Home Loan Services processing unit as rising in  more...

Homeowner satisfaction grows despite crime

Despite a rise in reported crime from 2003, American homeowners are very satisfied with their neighborhoods, thanks in part to improving home values, according to 2005 American Housing Survey microdata released Monday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

On a scale of 1 (worse) to 10 (best), the percentage of householders who rated their neighborhood an 8 or above (70.4 percent) was up about 1 percentage point from 2003, the last time these data were collected.  more...

HomePages to provide real estate content to local TV stations

HouseValues' HomePages.com real estate service will provide exclusive real estate content to WorldNow's national network of local television Web sites, the companies announced today.

WorldNow and HouseValues inked a partnership to provide users of local news Web sites across the country with access to home listings, neighborhood real estate information and a home-valuation service.

HomePages.com will provide content and listings to more than 80 local television Web sites  more...

Home sales stabilizing

Home sales are expected to decline modestly throughout the rest of the year as the market continues to show signs of stabilizing, the National Association of Realtors said today.

Existing-home sales are expected to decline 6.7 percent to 6.6 million in 2006 from 7.08 million last year, and new-home sales should fall 12.8 percent this year to 1.12 million from 1.28 million in 2005. Housing starts are forecast to decline 6.8 percent to 1.93 million this year from 2.07 million in 2005.

David Lereah, NAR's chief economist, said the market is showing signs of stabilizing.  more...

Nashville smashes home sales record

Home sales in the Greater Nashville, Tenn., area hit a record high in June, as prices continued to rise in the face of surging inventory, the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors reported Monday.

There were 4,060 home sales in June, up 6 percent from the 3,845 closings reported for June 2005.  more...

Overnight real estate rates down

Long-term mortgage interest rates were lower Monday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield held at 5.13 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average dropped to 6.36 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate slipped to 6.06 percent. The 1-year adjustable was up at 5.51 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield stayed at 5.17 percent.

Rates are current as of 7:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Mortgage rate figures are according to Bankrate.com, which publishes nightly averages based on its survey of 4,000 banks in 50 states.  more...