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Pending Home Sales Fall to New Lows
Tweet Share on Facebook January 6, 2009 Comment (1)The National Association of Realtors' Pending Home Sales report for November--released Tuesday--was a real downer, even by housing crisis standards:
The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in November, fell 4.0 percent to 82.3 from a downwardly revised reading of 85.7 in October, and is 5.3 percent below November 2007 when it was 86.9. The current index is the lowest since the series began in 2001.
So why were the figures so low? Mike Larson, of Weiss Research, can think of a few reasons:
"If you think back to what was going on in October and November: we were dealing with an economic recession, rising unemployment, consumer confidence was falling, lending standards had gotten tighter, then of course, the worst financial market turmoil to date really was in the September-October-November time frame. I think that clearly when people read the headlines, they saw that companies were firing, they may have unfortunately been laid off at their own job, the drumbeat of news about house prices falling--not a lot that exactly instills confidence. So I think that's what these numbers are telling you."
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Realtors to Media: Get Your Down-Payment Facts Straight
Tweet Share on Facebook January 5, 2009 Comment (87)As banks jack up their lending standards in the face of higher delinquencies, there have been numerous stories in the press about what borrowers need to put down these days in order to get a mortgage. But according to the National Association of Realtors, some journalists are getting the facts wrong.
In an attempt to correct what it considers 'misinformation in the media,' NAR recently issued the following release:
There is some misinformation in the media lately about the required size of a down payment for a mortgage in today’s market, and the blog world is abuzz with misperceptions. Not all so-called experts are knowledgeable in this area, and some experts are being misunderstood.
The facts:
1. An individual may be required to put down 20 percent based on that person’s financial situation. But that is not an across-the-board requirement for all borrowers.
