Milwaukee Real Estate Market and Home Prices
Posted by Douglas Lenski on Thu, Jan 05, 2012 @ 11:14 AM
This from a very interesting article in US News.
Home prices bottom out. Nationally, home prices have plummeted almost 24 percent off of their peak, and most economists expect prices to continue to decline as much as 4 or 5 percent before leveling out in late 2012.
While experts don't expect a rapid conclusion to the saga of ever-declining home prices, "the trend of eroding expectations for the housing market recovery has come to a halt," said Terry Loebs, founder of Pulsenomics, in a release.
Nationally, prices could start seeing a modest bump in 2013, but some markets are already recovering. "[T]hese national indexes mask the sizable variation in local house-price performance," Frank Nothaft, chief economist at Freddie Mac, wrote in a recent report. "Some markets have appreciated over the past year and are likely to gain further in 2012, while those markets with higher vacancy rates and relatively large distressed sales will continue to see downward price pressure over the next year."
Foreclosure filings have edged downward over the past few months, suggesting improvement in clearing the gigantic inventory of distressed properties in the United States. But according to a recent report from Realty Trac, a new wave of foreclosures could hit the market in early 2012.
Low mortgage rates. Rock-bottom low mortgage rates are likely here to stay, at least through the first half of 2012, in large part due to the Fed's commitment to keep interest rates low to spur borrowing.
All bets are off, though, if politicians come to a decision on the qualified residential mortgage measure included in the Dodd-Frank financial reform act. "One of the most substantial things that will impact the market will be the definition of the qualified residential mortgage," says Cameron Findlay, chief economist at LendingTree. "That has the potential of entirely changing the way mortgage rates are offered to consumers and it has the risk of raising rates by about 1.25 percent."
As it stands now, the qualified residential mortgage (QRM), could require prospective homebuyers to have at least a 20 percent down payment and face more stringent debt-to-income ratio standards to qualify for mortgages with the best interest rates.
The Milwaukee Housing market could be in for another bumpy ride this year. Milwaukee Mortgage rates for first time homebuyers could rise along with downpayments. This could put a strangle hold on the Milwaukee Real Estate market in 2012.
