INFO THAT HITS US WHERE WE LIVE

Among last week’s interesting tidbits of information about housing, Radar Logic reported transaction-count increases in 14 of 25 metro areas tracked in December 2008, compared to December 2007. They put these gains to improvements in home affordability and low mortgage rates, but cautioned that their numbers don’t necessarily reflect total transaction volume in each area. Meanwhile, the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported the price of the average home sale in Q4 of last year was only 8.2% lower compared to the year before. The National Association of Realtors chimed in with data showing the average home sales price down 9.4% from a 2006 peak. We all know that parts of the country have experienced serious price drops. But the fact that these national averages aren’t so severe, indicates price declines haven’t been that bad for most of the country. Conforming mortgage rates fell again last week, according to FreddieMac’s weekly survey. The rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages is hovering just above January’s all-time low. In fact, conforming mortgage rates in the survey have only gone up and down about a quarter percent since the beginning of the year.