Federal Reserve: Improving the 30-Year Fixed-Rate Mortgage
FEDS (Finance and Economics Discussion Series) 2017-90 | August 2017 Wayne Passmore and Alexander H. von Hafften Abstract: The 30-year fixed-rate fully amortizing mortgage (or “traditional fixed-rate mortgage”) was a substantial innovation when first developed during the Great Depression. However, it has three major flaws. First, because homeowner equity accumulates slowly during the first decade,…
FHFA: Index Shows Mortgage Rates Decreased in July 2017
Nationally, interest rates on conventional purchase-money mortgages decreased from June to July, according to several indices of new mortgage contracts. The National Average Contract Mortgage Rate for the Purchase of Previously Occupied Homes by Combined Lenders Index was 3.99 percent for loans closed in late July, down 1 basis point from 4.00 percent in June….
HUD and Census Bureau: New Residential Home Sales July 2017
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Census Bureau today jointly announced the following new residential sales statistics for July 2017: NEW HOME SALES Sales of new single-family houses in July 2017 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 571,000, according to estimates released jointly today by…
FHFA: U.S. House Prices Rise 1.6 Percent in Second Quarter 2017
Washington, D.C. – U.S. house prices rose 1.6 percent in the second quarter of 2017 according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI). House prices rose 6.6 percent from the second quarter of 2016 to the second quarter of 2017. FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index for June was up 0.1 percent…
FHFA: Refinance Volume Continued to Slow in Second Quarter 2017
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today reported that more than 356,709 refinances were completed in the second quarter of 2017, compared with 510,074 in the first quarter. FHFA’s second quarter Refinance Report also shows that more than 9,700 loans were refinanced through the Home Affordable Refinance Program, bringing the total number of HARP refinances…
Census Bureau: Upcoming Online News Conference to Announce Report Findings on Poverty, Income and Health Insurance
What: The U.S. Census Bureau will hold an online news conference to announce the findings from three reports: Income and Poverty in the United States: 2016, Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2016, and The Supplemental Poverty Measure: 2016. The income and poverty report provides national-level statistics from the Current Population Survey Annual Social…
HUD & Census Bureau: Residential Construction Activity in July 2017
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Census Bureau jointly announced the following new residential construction statistics for July 2017. Building Permits: Privately owned housing units authorized by building permits in July were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,223,000. This is 4.1 percent (±0.9 percent) below the revised…
Federal Reserve: Total Household Debt Increases, Driven by Mortgage, Auto and Credit Card Debt
Credit Card Delinquency Flows Step Up Notably Over Past Year, While Delinquency Flows for Other Non-Housing Debt Worsen Modestly NEW YORK – The Federal Reserve Bank of New York today issued its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, which reported that total household debt increased by $115 billion (0.9%) to $12.84 trillion in the second…
Census Bureau: U.S. Population on the Move Between Counties
Today the U.S. Census Bureau updated the Census Flows Mapper to include 2011-2015 American Community Surveydata. Census Flows Mapper is a web mapping application that allows users to view and save county-to-county migration flows in the United States. Users can sort and customize maps by dataset, type of migration flow, colors and range of movers….
Federal Reserve: FinTech and Financial Innovation – Drivers & Depth
Abstract: This paper answers two questions that help those analyzing FinTech understand its origins, growth, and potential to affect financial stability. First, it answers the question of why “FinTech” is happening right now. Many of the technologies that support FinTech innovations are not new, but financial institutions and entrepreneurs are only now applying them to…