A new paper by Federal Reserve Bank of Boston economists used consumer sentiment data to try to find out how the housing market’s state of affairs was affecting the willingness to buy a home. Age mattered, which suggests a new generation may be coming along that will cast a wary eye at homeownership for a long time to come.
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http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/10/18/next-generation-of-homeowners-are-freaked-out/
A leading official at the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has echoed President Obama’s push to reform mortgage refinancing to help borrowers take advantage of historically low rates and lower their monthly payments.
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http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/oct/05/obama-administration-we-need-make-refinancing-easi/
Concerns about job loss and increasing consumer pessimism reveal that 64 percent of Americans surveyed during the second quarter say the economy is on the wrong track, according to Fannie Mae’s latest quarterly National Housing Survey.
The monthly survey found that 70 percent of respondents now believe the economy is on the wrong track, and just 23 percent say the economy is heading in the right direction.
More than a quarter (26 percent) of American workers reported being concerned about losing their job in the next year. While 44 percent of concerned American workers reported having a home mortgage (compared with 42 percent of all Americans), just 33 percent of them perceive their savings to be sufficient (versus 49 percent of those workers not concerned about losing their job).
Forty-four percent of these workers say their household expenses have increased significantly over the past year, compared with 35 percent of workers not concerned about losing their job.
Nearly three-fourths (73 percent) of single-family renters say it would be difficult to get a home mortgage, with 33 percent citing their credit history as the biggest obstacle to getting a home mortgage (versus 20 percent of multifamily renters), according to the survey.
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The Obama administration is ramping up talks on how to revive the housing market, which is weighing on the economic recovery.
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304584404576440033488980192.html?mod=WSJ_RealEstate_LeftTopNews
