Marketing & Statistics

WASHINGTON, DC - August 20, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced today a major Recovery Act milestone: 100 affordable housing developments, including 8,112 homes, around the country have been awarded more than $100 million to complete energy efficient renovations with Recovery Act funds. These renovations will not only generate many necessary upgrades to thousands of affordable apartments, but they will also create jobs and save money for thousands of residents. A complete list of Recovery Act Green Retrofit Program awards being issued today can be viewed in full here.

WASHINGTON, DC - August 20, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced today a major Recovery Act milestone: 100 affordable housing developments, including 8,112 homes, around the country have been awarded more than $100 million to complete energy efficient renovations with Recovery Act funds. These renovations will not only generate many necessary upgrades to thousands of affordable apartments, but they will also create jobs and save money for thousands of residents. A complete list of Recovery Act Green Retrofit Program awards being issued today can be viewed in full here.

WASHINGTON, DC - August 20, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced today a major Recovery Act milestone: 100 affordable housing developments, including 8,112 homes, around the country have been awarded more than $100 million to complete energy efficient renovations with Recovery Act funds. These renovations will not only generate many necessary upgrades to thousands of affordable apartments, but they will also create jobs and save money for thousands of residents. A complete list of Recovery Act Green Retrofit Program awards being issued today can be viewed in full here.

WASHINGTON, DC - August 20, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced today a major Recovery Act milestone: 100 affordable housing developments, including 8,112 homes, around the country have been awarded more than $100 million to complete energy efficient renovations with Recovery Act funds. These renovations will not only generate many necessary upgrades to thousands of affordable apartments, but they will also create jobs and save money for thousands of residents. A complete list of Recovery Act Green Retrofit Program awards being issued today can be viewed in full here.

WASHINGTON, DC - August 20, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced today a major Recovery Act milestone: 100 affordable housing developments, including 8,112 homes, around the country have been awarded more than $100 million to complete energy efficient renovations with Recovery Act funds. These renovations will not only generate many necessary upgrades to thousands of affordable apartments, but they will also create jobs and save money for thousands of residents. A complete list of Recovery Act Green Retrofit Program awards being issued today can be viewed in full here.

WASHINGTON, DC - August 20, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced today a major Recovery Act milestone: 100 affordable housing developments, including 8,112 homes, around the country have been awarded more than $100 million to complete energy efficient renovations with Recovery Act funds. These renovations will not only generate many necessary upgrades to thousands of affordable apartments, but they will also create jobs and save money for thousands of residents. A complete list of Recovery Act Green Retrofit Program awards being issued today can be viewed in full here.

August 19, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA) is pleased to announce that 335 affordable housing units will be created and/or preserved thanks to awards being made through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. The 2010 LIHTC Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) included incentives for developers to construct fully accessible units, as well as a new category to encourage developers to build new units that will add 83 affordable apartments to the statewide inventory.

August 19, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA) is pleased to announce that 335 affordable housing units will be created and/or preserved thanks to awards being made through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. The 2010 LIHTC Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) included incentives for developers to construct fully accessible units, as well as a new category to encourage developers to build new units that will add 83 affordable apartments to the statewide inventory.

LOS ANGELES, CA - August 19, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- The percentage of households that could afford to buy an entry-level home in California stood at 64 percent in the second quarter of 2010, compared with 67 percent for the same period a year ago, according to a report released today by the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.)

LOS ANGELES, CA - August 19, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- The percentage of households that could afford to buy an entry-level home in California stood at 64 percent in the second quarter of 2010, compared with 67 percent for the same period a year ago, according to a report released today by the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.)

LOS ANGELES, CA - August 19, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- The percentage of households that could afford to buy an entry-level home in California stood at 64 percent in the second quarter of 2010, compared with 67 percent for the same period a year ago, according to a report released today by the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.)

SACRAMENTO, CA - August 19, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- After posting a slight increase last quarter, housing affordability in California decreased in the second quarter of 2010 with 15 of the state’s 28 metropolitan areas included in the report showing affordability levels creeping downward, the California Building Industry Association said today

August 19, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- The nation's homeowners paid a median of $1,000 in monthly housing costs in 2009, compared with $808 for renters, according to data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. However, renters usually paid a higher percentage of their household income on these costs than did owners (31 percent compared with 20 percent). These new figures come from the 2009 American Housing Survey, the definitive source of information on the quality of housing in the United States. Statistics are provided for apartments, single-family homes, manufactured housing, new construction and vacant housing units.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - August 19, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- Bolstered by favorable interest rates and low house prices, housing affordability remained near its highest level nationwide for the sixth consecutive month since the series was first compiled nearly two decades ago, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) released today.The HOI indicated that 72.3 percent of all new and existing homes sold in the second quarter of 2010 were affordable to families earning the national median income of $64,400. The index for the second quarter was slightly more affordable than the previous quarter and almost equaled the record-high 72.5 percent set during the first quarter of 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. - August 18, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 13, 2010. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 13.0 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 12.4 percent compared with the previous week

WASHINGTON, D.C. - August 17, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- Nationwide housing starts inched up 1.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 546,000 units in July from a downwardly revised figure in the previous month, according to U.S. Commerce Department figures released today. The gain occurred entirely on the multifamily side, with single-family housing production falling 4.2 percent to 432,000 units.“Builders are very reluctant to build more homes in view of the current state of the economy and weak buyer demand,” noted Bob Jones, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Bloomfield Hills, Mich

WASHINGTON, DC - August 16, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- Uncertainty in the economy confirms lower expectations for economic growth and a slower-than-normal recovery, according to the August 2010 Economic Outlook released today by Fannie Mae's (FNMA/OTC) Economics & Mortgage Market Analysis Group

SACRAMENTO, CA - August 16, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- An updated version of The Economic Benefits of Housing report released today by the California Homebuilding Foundation (CHF) in conjunction with the Center for Strategic Economic Research (CSER), confirms that the housing industry’s economic output has fallen approximately 80 percent since 2005, representing a loss of tens of billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs to the state’s economy.

5-Year Adjustable Also Sets New Low McLean, VA - August 13, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) — Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), and again, the fixed-rate mortgages reaching, along with the 5-year adjustable rate, set record lows for this survey. (The 30-year fixed-rate survey began [...]

Taos, NM, - August 12, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- Carpet RSS (www.carpetrss.com) announces the launch of a new website dedicated to serving the news and information needs of the cleaning and restoration industry in the United States and worldwide

IRVINE, CA - August 12, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- RealtyTrac, the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™ for July 2010, which shows that foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 325,229 properties in July, a nearly 4 percent increase from the previous month but a nearly 10 percent decrease from July 2009. One in every 397 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the month.

SPRINGFIELD, IL - August 11, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- Second quarter Illinois home sales figures reflect the continued positive impact of the tax credit and strong buyer market conditions while the statewide median price showed stability over the entire second quarter. According to the Illinois Association of REALTORS® (IAR) second quarter 2010 report, Illinois home sales (which include single-family homes and condominiums) totaled 35,628 in the second quarter, up 27.7 percent from 27,890 home sales in the same period a year ago. The last quarter when sales totals were higher than second quarter 2010 was third quarter 2007 when home sales reached 39,904

WASHINGTON, DC - August 11, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- Today, the Obama Administration announced a plan to expand its Housing Finance Agency (HFA) Innovation Fund for the Hardest-Hit Housing Markets (the Hardest-Hit Fund) by providing $2 billion to HFAs in 18 jurisdictions that have experienced sustained unemployment rates at or above the national average over the last 12 months, through June 2010. The HFAs receiving the new funding include nine of those already participating in the Hardest-Hit Fund (California, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, and South Carolina), as well as the HFAs of Alabama, DC, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Tennessee.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - August 11, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 6, 2010. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 0.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 0.4 percent compared with the previous week.

Washington, DC - August 11, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- The trend in firming home prices solidified in the second quarter with more metropolitan areas showing increases from a year ago, aided by a surge in home sales driven by the home buyer tax credit, according to the latest survey by the National Association of Realtors®.

BETHEL, CT - August 11, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- Countdown To Buy, a next generation online real estate marketplace that offers fair and effective solutions to buy and sell properties, today provided a progress update and strategic commentary on its online marketplace that removes uncertainty and restores confidence in the real estate transaction model for foreclosure and distressed properties.

WASHINGTON, DC - August 6, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- Across the U.S., thousands of children live in foster care or are at risk of being placed with other families simply because their parents cannot afford a home. Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced $20 million in funding to local housing authorities to help more than 2,500 families stay together. It’s estimated that the rental vouchers awarded today will reunite nearly 5,000 children with their parents or prevent them from entering foster care in the first place.

EMERYVILLE, CA - August 6, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- The number of price-reduced homes on the market increased 5.3 percent in July as compared to June, according to a monthly review of MLS-listed properties within 26 of the country’s largest housing markets conducted by the national online real estate brokerage ZipRealty (www.ziprealty.com; NASDAQ: ZIPR)

McLean, VA - August 5, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), with the 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages reaching record lows for this survey. (The 30-year fixed-rate survey began in 1971, and the 15-year began in 1991.) The 5-year adjustable rate mortgage also reached its lowest level since Freddie Mac began tracking it in 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. - August 4, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending July 30, 2010. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 1.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 1.4 percent compared with the previous week