Free Republic

US equities traded higher on Monday as investors blocked out rising coronavirus case counts and focused on positive housing-market data. Pending home sales shot 44.3% higher in May, the National Association of Realtors announced Monday. The reading trounced the median economist estimate of 19.3%, according to Bloomberg. The association's metric now sits at 99.6, slightly lower than its pre-virus high of 111.4 but hinting at a steady recovery for the critical sector. The leap "goes to show the resiliency of American consumers and their evergreen desire for homeownership," Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist, said. "This bounce back also speaks to...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Monday two notices of proposed rulemaking surrounding what’s commonly known as the QM Patch. One of those rulemakings would remove the debt-to-income requirement from qualified mortgages. Back in January, CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger sent a letter to several prominent members of Congress, saying the bureau has decided to propose an amendment to the QM Rule that would “move away” from DTI as a factor in mortgage underwriting. Specifically, Kraninger said at the time that the CFPB has decided to shift from the DTI standard and move to an “alternative, such as a pricing threshold...

WOODLAWN - Dozens of members of a coalition fighting for affordable housing protections in the neighborhoods surrounding the future Obama Presidential Center set up a “tent city” Thursday in a city-owned, vacant lot, warning that’s what the city could look like if people are displaced. Members of the Obama CBA Coalition set up for the day in Woodlawn to outline their demands. Their expansive community benefits agreement, drafted to prevent displacement in advance of the Obama Presidential Center’s planned construction in Jackson Park, has stalled in City Council for nearly a year. Organizers are demanding changes to the scaled-back protections...

What is really happening with real estate sales right now? Any stories out there? Seems to be one of the best kept secrets right now. Anyone have any truthful information?

BEXAR COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) — Bexar County is investigating after nearly 50 residents were locked out of their apartments at a San Antonio complex. They say they found their doorknobs bolted when they returned home on Monday. That’s despite a local moratorium on evictions that’s currently in effect due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “It is sad. It is sad when somebody put a key on the door, even though they don’t have money for two or three months. Right now, we don’t need that,” says Luis Falcon, who son was locked out of his apartment. “This is the first flagrant...

Houston State Senator Paul Bettencourt is calling on Mayor Sylvester Turner to halt controversial public housing projects until the coronavirus shutdown is over. The Houston Housing Authority claims it cannot provide public records on the planned 84-million-dollar land deals because it is closed for business, all while they’re moving ahead to close on the real estate deals. “It is anti-transparency,” says Sen. Bettencourt. “Just because you’ve got a COVID pandemic, there’s nothing that should suspend public knowledge of these projects and you shouldn’t use that as a reason not to provide the information. The mayor should not be proceeding.” The...

Rarely has a word been subject to so much misuse in recent years as “stimulus.” The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES), overwhelmingly passed by Congress and signed by President Trump on March 27, represents an apex of this language malpractice. The stated purpose of this $2.2 trillion “stimulus plan” is to boost our economy in the wake of virus-induced mass layoffs and business closings. But the implicit purpose is paying people not to work. Section 4022, a residential landlord bailout, effectively does that. And it may prove very expensive. Fear of COVID-19 has triggered an economic downturn...

(CNSNews.com) - West Virginia ranked No. 1 among the 50 states for its homeownership rate in 2018, which was 74.7 percent, according to new housing data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. New York and California ranked 50th and 49th with homeownership rates of 51.0 and 55.1, according to Table 15 in the Census Bureau’s Annual Statistics on Housing Vacancies and Homeownership. The Census Bureau calculates the homeownership rate by dividing the number of owner occupied housing units by the total number of occupied housing units.

From Tuesday, customers applying for a new mortgage will need a credit score of at least 700, and will be required to make a down payment equal to 20% of the home’s value.

The United States may be headed for an unprecedented housing crisis -- the result of potentially millions of evictions and foreclosures.The Wall Street Journal found that only 69 percent of apartment dwellers paid rent in the first part of April. That compares to more than 80 percent who paid rent during that time the previous month. Researchers at the City University of New York found that 44 percent of New Yorkers will have difficulty meeting their rent in April. Congress and most states have passed temporary bans on evictions and foreclosures for many, but unless something is done, the...

Modeling has shown that more than 60,000 homeless people could become ill with the coronavirus in California over the next eight weeks, badly straining the healthcare system, the state governor said on Wednesday.

California State Sen. Scott Wiener introduced legislation to increase affordable housing by easing zoning restrictions. Under Senate Bill 899, nonprofit hospitals and faith institutions like churches, synagogues and mosques, would be able to build up to 150 affordable housing units on their excess property, regardless of local zoning prohibits that type of housing. "Churches and other religious and charitable institutions often have land to spare, and they should be able to use that land to build affordable housing and thus further their mission. SB899 ensures that affordable housing can be built and removes local zoning and approval obstacles in order...

In recent years, discussion about homelessness has been circumscribed around a set of premises acceptable to progressive opinion. The homeless were thrown onto the streets, we’re told, because of rising rents, heartless landlords, and a lack of economic opportunity. Activists, journalists, and political leaders have perpetuated this line of reasoning and, following it to its conclusion, have proposed investing billions in subsidized housing to solve homelessness. But new data are undermining this narrative. As residents of West Coast cities witness the disorder associated with homeless encampments, they have found it harder to accept the progressive consensus—especially in the context of...

... You might have noticed California is enduring housing and homeless crises. The market solution to housing shortages is simple: Government should reduce regulations, slow-growth restrictions, rent controls and fees that limit supply and drive up prices. Let builders build. Homelessness is a more complicated problem because homeless people often have addiction and mental-health issues, but more housing would help. I can't say exactly how it will work, just as I can't say exactly how a molly bolt gets from the foundry in India to Home Depot in Sacramento. But I can tell you what won't work—namely the policies our...

Mortgage rates in the United States have fallen to the lowest level ever on the heels of concerns stemming from the coronavirus outbreak. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 3.29% during the week ending March 5, a major decrease of 16 basis points from the previous week, Freddie Mac FMCC, -2.40% reported Thursday. Previously, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hit an all-time low back in November 2012 in the wake of the recession, when the average rate fell to 3.31%.

The Democratic presidential candidate's plan includes six "Biden principles for housing": affordability, stability, safety and health, accessibility, energy efficiency and resilience, and closeness to good schools and jobs. . . . The plan would be paid for by raising taxes on corporations and large financial institutions, including a specific fee on "certain liabilities of firms with over $50 billion in assets."

Governor Gavin Newsom is pleading with his Legislature to fix California’s government-created housing shortage. As usual, Democrats are responding with a jack-hammer against business that will cause more problems. Berkeley state Senator Nancy Skinner last week introduced legislation that would let local governments fine developers that leave homes unoccupied for at least 90 days. Local governments would also be allowed to use eminent domain to acquire vacant properties and then rent them or sell them to a nonprofit. The bill targets so-called house flippers who buy and fix up homes—usually in foreclosure—and then resell them for a profit. But it...

Mark Zuckerberg Funds a Plan to Turn California Into a Silicon Valley Ghetto Facebook’s founder comes after California’s middle class. Thu Feb 20, 2020 Daniel Greenfield 52 Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism. Why do people live in California? The weather is nice and so are the property taxes. Unlike a lot of blue states where property taxes make home ownership all but impossible for working class and even middle class families, California has the 16th lowest property taxes in the country....

California's wildfires are getting deadlier and more destructive each year. Naturally then, state politicians want to make it easier to get insurance in fire-prone areas. On Tuesday, Assemblymembers Lorena Gonzalez (D–San Diego) and Monique Limon (D–Santa Barbara) introduced Assembly Bill (A.B.) 2367. Their "Renew California" bill would require that insurance companies write new policies or indefinitely renew current ones for existing homes provided they meet yet-to-be-determined state standards for fire-hardening. Roughly one million homes in wildfire-affected areas are already covered by a one-year moratorium on non-renewals issued by the state's elected insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, in December 2019. Lara has...

Progressives in the state Legislature aren’t done damaging the city’s housing market — indeed, they’re now aiming to slam the entire state. They’re looking to impose universal rent control — subjecting every Empire State apartment to rules that say that rent hikes are “unreasonable” if they exceed 3 percent, or one-and-a-half times the inflation rate. The “Good Cause Eviction” bill would prohibit landlords from evicting tenants in nearly every market-rate apartment without first showing “good cause.” Tenants could fight evictions if they say they can’t pay such an “unreasonable” rent. Right now, roughly a million apartments in the city, all...