This Week in Real Estate News!

Here are three news stories hot off the press, and all of interest to real estate investors:

***FHFA House Price Index Released***

The monthly FHFA House Price Index was released on September 22d for July 2011. Overall, U.S. house prices increased 0.8% from June to July. However, for the 12 months ending in July, prices fell by 3.3 percent. The good news is that prices rose in 8 of the 9 Census Divisions tracked by the index. Only the South Atlantic division showed a decrease of -0.4%. The other divisions broke out as follows:

Pacific +1.2%
Mountain +0.4%
West North Central +3.6%
West South Central +0.1%
East North Central +0.7%
East South Central +3.0%
New England +0.5%
Middle Atlantic +0.2%

The entire U.S. Index is 18.4% below its April 2007 peak, and roughly the same as it was in March 2004.

***Housing Starts Fall***

The U.S. Commerce Department said that housing starts declined more than expected in August. They fell 5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 571,000 units. This includes both single family and multi-family units. A small bright spot was a small increase in permits for future construction.

July’s starts were revised downward to a 601,000 unit pace, from a previously reported 604,000 number. August was worse than economists had predicted, with a previous Reuters survey indicating they expected the rate in August to be 590,000 units.

***No Vote on Loan Limits Extension***

While there are bills in both the House and the Senate to extend the increases in conforming loan limits, none of them have yet to get to a vote. In 2008, Congress raised the conforming loan limits to $729,750 in some higher priced areas. If they’re not extended, this limit will drop on October 1 to $625,500.

With bills in both houses that propose extension of the higher limit, it’s not been easy to get them to a vote. The Conforming Loan Limits Extension Act, one of the House’s plans to extend the limits, failed to make it into a short-term spending bill coming up for a vote soon.

In the Senate, the Homeownership Affordability Act of 2011 would keep the higher limits in place by increasing the guarantee fees charged on loans between $625,500 and $729,500. It also hasn’t made it to a vote, and there doesn’t seem to be a big push to make that happen.