The number of homes nationwide losing value on a monthly basis has more than tripled over the past year while the number of appreciating homes has fallen more than 12 percent, Allan Weiss, CEO of Weiss Residential Research reported today.

Depreciating homes increased from 7.60 percent to 23.40 percent while the number of appreciating homes has fallen from 65.20 to 56.80 percent, according to an analysis of July data from “canary homes” that are indicators of price trends in Weiss Residential Research’s databases of nearly 100 million homes.

“While a majority of homes nationwide is still gaining value, the national trend is clearly downward.  With the decline in year over year prices in the existing home sales report released today by the National Association of Realtors, even the national median price reports are picking up on the trend, reflecting the growing of numbers homes that are changing from appreciation to depreciation.  In this environment buyers and investors should be careful to avoid buying properties that are losing value by reviewing metro and Zip code maps on Owners.com that show hyper-local trends in changing value,” Weiss said.

Even seven of the top ten Metro markets with the highest levels of appreciation in July saw a year over year decline in the percentage of homes gaining more than 1.5 percent. Reno, Nevada leads the nation in appreciating properties in July, with more than 91.4 percent gaining value on a monthly bases, though 93.7 percent were appreciating a year ago. Western and West Coast markets dominate the list of markets with the highest percentages of appreciating properties.

Fayetteville, NC tops the list of the nation’s ten worst metros in terms of the percentage of properties gaining value on a monthly basis in July.  Its percentage of appreciating homes fell from 22.9 percent in July 2014 to 18 percent in July 2015.

Consumer seeking information about their homes and neighborhoods can see how values have changed and are forecasted to change in the next 12 months within 5500 Zip codes and 100 metros on Owners.com http://www.owners.com/  or http://www.weissindex.com/.

read more…

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2015/09/more-homes-are-losing-value/

Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing average fixed mortgage rates moving down with the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate ducking just under four percent.

News Facts

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.98 percent with an average 0.6 point for the week ending July 30, 2015, down from last week when it averaged 4.04 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.12 percent.

• 15-year FRM this week averaged 3.17 percent with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.21 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 3.23 percent.

• 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 2.95 percent this week with an average 0.4 point, down from last week when it averaged 2.97 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 3.01 percent.

• 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.52 percent this week with an average 0.3 point, down from last week when it averaged 2.54 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 2.38 percent.

Average commitment rates should be reported along with average fees and points to reflect the total upfront cost of obtaining the mortgage. Visit the following links for theRegional and National Mortgage Rate Details and Definitions. Borrowers may still pay closing costs which are not included in the survey.

Quote
Attributed to Sean Becketti, chief economist, Freddie Mac.

“Monday’s 8 percent decline in Chinese stock prices triggered similar — though smaller — sell-offs in global equity markets. The associated flight to quality drove U.S. Treasury yields down nearly 5 basis points. Accordingly, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell 6 basis points to 3.98 percent. The mortgage rate has bounced between 3.98 and 4.09 percent since the first full week of June, falling a bit when events overseas take a turn for the worse and rising when the clouds appear ready to part. With no clear direction coming from the Fed this afternoon, we expect more of the same in coming weeks.

“Recent housing data exhibited the same good news/bad news pattern as overseas developments. Coming into this week, existing home sales for June and the latest FHFA house price measures both suggested a stronger tone in the housing market. However this week brought nothing but bad — or at least weaker-than-expected — news. New homes salesand pending home sales both weakened and the Case-Shiller house price indices, while positive, fell below the lower end of expectations. Finally, the inadvertent release of Fedstaff projections increased uncertainty over the timing of future Fed rate moves.”