Graham's Blog - Your Real Estate Specialist

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced on Wednesday a proposal to delay the effective date of the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule until Oct. 1.According to a statement by CFPB Director Richard Corday, the decision was made to correct an administrative error that was just ...

When mortgage interest rates begin to climb, experts immediately begin to discuss home affordability indexes. They calculate how an increase in rates will slow home purchases as more and more potential buyers are priced out of the market. Today, with home prices also increasing, many believe that...

Last week, mortgage interest rates jumped over the 4% mark for the first time this year according to Freddie Mac’s Mortgage Market Survey.In an article in Housing Wire, a Bankrate analyst explained:“Mortgage rates rocketed higher following a stronger than expected monthly employment report. The g...

Consumer attitudes about the housing market showed marked improvement last month, strengthening the case for a lift in housing activity this year, according to results from Fannie Mae's May 2015 National Housing Survey. In line with the positive May jobs report—which showed an acceleration in ave...

A recent survey from TransUnion reveals a majority of those planning on or considering buying a home in the next 12 to 18 months are unsure about actions that could help improve their credit score. A majority was also unsure about what their credit score directly affects in the home financing pro...

A new study published in the Journal of Housing Economics found that homeowners on average overestimate the value of their properties by about 8 percent. Homeowners may not have a realistic expectation of what their house is worth, especially when it comes to the added value of renovations. Resea...

There was a first-quarter record high in the median size of newly built, single-family homes. But was that just a statistical blip? Given trends in the broader housing market, including construction of a greater number of smaller, affordable homes, many economists argue that is the case. Robert D...

There have been some improvement in housing sentiment, but likely not enough to trigger any breakout improvements in housing market activity this year, according to Fannie Mae’s April 2015 National Housing Survey. The results show that the share of consumers who intend to own rather than rent the...

The number of yearly apartment evictions in 2014 reached the lowest level in five years, according to a new analysis by TransUnion SmartMove. Approximately 3.41 million evictions records were recorded by TransUnion in 2014, slightly below the 3.43 million evictions recorded in 2009.The average ev...

The homeownership rate declined 1.1 percentage points in the first quarter to a rate of 63.7 percent compared with 64.8 percent in the first quarter 2014 and 64 percent in the fourth quarter 2014, according to the Dept. of Commerce’s Census Bureau.The homeowner vacancy rate of 1.9 percent was 0.1...