TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.
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8 | TH E M R EP O RT MONTH IN REVIEW FROM THE SOURCE Regionally Speaking This month, we've scoured local data across the U.S. to understand the latest trends in the housing market hitting your locale. 1 According to a Trulia report on home prices, Seattle, Las Vegas, and San Francisco lead the nation's hottest markets for the second month. In these locales, year-over-year price gains were 12.7 percent, 11.1 percent, and 9.2 percent, respectively. 2 The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will hit homeowners hardest in the expensive coastal markets across California and throughout the Northeast, says a study by ApartmentList.com. 3 According to NAR, pending home sales in the northeast dropped 9 percent in January and were 12.1 percent below in a year- over-year analysis. In the Midwest, the index fell 6.6 percent and was 4.1 percent lower than January 2017. Pending home sales in the South declined 3.9 percent and were 1.1 percent lower, while the index in the West decreased 1.2 percent and was 2.5 percent below a year ago. 4 Cities in the Southeast and Midwest are most accessible for first-time homebuyers, says a report by LendingTree, with cities like Little Rock, Arkansas; Birmingham, Alabama; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Youngstown Ohio; and Winston, North Carolina leading the way. 5 States on the West Coast and Midwest started the year with the largest price gains in the U.S., with Nevada, Utah, and Washington showing the largest price gains, according to a report by CoreLogic. 6 While the West Coast has some of the most expensive ZIP codes in the country, it is the East Coast that has the wealthiest homeowners, says a study by Property Shark. New York and Washington, D.C., have the wealthiest homeowners, the study found. 7 The NAHB said that homebuilder sentiment during the quarter in the Northeast rose 1 point to 57, and decreased 1 point in the South to 73. In the West, it fell 2 points to 79, and in the Midwest dropped 4 points to 68. 8 Median rent in the U.S. rose 2.6 percent over the past year, to a median of $1,441. The fastest appreciating rental markets are along the West Coast, says a report on home values by Zillow. 9 The East Coast saw the maximum rise in year over year home sales, with Burlington, Vermont leading the way with an 8.1 percent increase, according to a report by RE/MAX. 10 Two of the five states with the greatest year-over- year increase in defect frequency are in the Midwest, according to the First American Loan Application Defect Index—South Dakota (+39.7 percent) and Ohio (+23.1 percent). The other states showing an increase included New Mexico (+29.9 percent), Wyoming (+24.4 percent), and Oregon (+23.9 percent). SHARE THIS POCKET https://getpocket.com/ Do you want to save an important article to refer to later? Bookmark a video that you want to see at a future date? Or even just access a photograph on multiple devices? Then it's time to download Pocket, an app that helps to save items di - rectly from your browser, or from other apps like Twitter, Flipboard, Pulse, and Zite. The best part? You can view your downloaded items offline too. Currently, Pocket has more than 30 million registered users and is integrated into more than 1,500 apps. It is available for major devices and platforms including iPad, iPhone, Android, Mac, Kindle Fire, Kobo, Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, and Windows. READ THIS EXACTLY WHAT TO SAY: THE MAGIC WORDS FOR INFLUENCE AND IMPACT By Phil M. Jones Best-selling author and multiple award-winner Phil M. Jones is regarded as one of the world's leading sales trainers. In his new book, Exactly What to Say, he gives tactics on how to know what to say, when to say it, and make it count to help get customers to choose you over competition. After training over 2 million people across the world, Jones' book helps the reader through tried and tested methods to help them get prospects, clients, colleagues, and just about anybody to say yes. WATCH THIS BLOOMBERG "TAYLOR MORRISON CEO OFFERS READ ON U.S. HOUSING MARKET" https://www.bloomberg.com/news/ videos/2018-02-28/taylor-morrison-ceo- offers-read-on-u-s-housing-market-video "Our expectations for new homes are higher than our ability to build new homes," said Sheryl Palmer, Chairman and CEO of home builders Taylor Morrison, while offering her insight on the status of the U.S. housing market. Palmer discussed with Bloomberg the housing industry trends and the long- and short-term effects of the supply squeeze on the market. TWEET THIS @FINANCIALCMTE With a stream of new legislation impacting the mortgage industry, the official twitter of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services is the perfect place to catch up very movement. From passing four financial bills that impacted small and medium banks and credit unions, to modifying the Dodd-Frank Act, the financial committee is working towards financial reforms that will impact lending operations and the housing industry.