Team Thayer Property Servicing

Justin Lee Thayer / Eugene Oregon The number of borrowers who owe more money than their home is worth is slowly decreasing; however, more than half of these borrowers are stuck in an underwater free fall with little to no hope of resurfacing. According to  Zillow ’s first quarter  Negative Equity Report  released today, although the negative equity rate is falling, about 4 million homeowners owed at least 20 percent more than the worth of their home. In order for these underwater homeowners to even come close to breaking a sale, their homes would have to appreciate by more than the percentage at which they are underwater. "It's great news that the level of negative equity is falling, but what really worries me is the depth of negative equity,” said Dr. Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist. “Millions of Americans are so far underwater, it's likely they may not re-gain equity for up to a decade or more at these rates," "And because negative equ...

Freddie Mac eased its  U.S. Freddie Mac  rel conomic and Housing Market Outlook  for May today, revealing that low mortgage rates kept affordability high in the first quarter of this year for buyers, but housing markets probably will see interest rates increase for the rest of the year. The outlook credits market participants attempting to anticipate the Federal Reserve's timing around rising short term interest rates as the likely be the cause of the increase. “For the remainder of this year, we're likely to continue to see these mortgage rate swings as market participants try to anticipate Fed timing around rising short term interest rates,” said Len Kiefer, deputy chief economist at Freddie Mac. “Unfortunately, perspective homebuyers may experience bouts of affordability shock in many housing markets." Outlook Forecast: Due to weak first quarter data, revising down the forecast for economic growth for 2015 from 2.6 to 2.3 percent. With tight for-sal...

Housing prices have been steadily rising over the last three years, and are back to pre-crisis levels: Torsten Sløk, Deutsche Bank After the Great Recession, many millennials were forced back into their parents' houses, with nearly 15% of adults aged 25-34 living at home in 2014,  according to the Census Bureau . Sløk observes that this trend may be starting to turn around: Rates of household formation have been surging recently, likely fueled by those millennials moving out. This could lead to a huge jump in housing demand should this surge continue: Torsten Sløk, Deutsche Bank That same millennial cohort has seen a big recovery in employment, which could lead to further household formation and housing demand: Torsten Sløk, Deutsche Bank Meanwhile, the aftereffects of the burst of the mid-2000s housing bubble are beginning to subside. The share of distressed sales among all home sales is way down: Torsten Sløk, Deutsche Bank Foreclosure rates ar...