The nation's homeowners paid a median of $1,000 in monthly housing costs in 2009, compared with $808 for renters, according to data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD). However, renters usually paid a higher percentage of their household income on these costs than did owners (31 percent compared with 20 percent). These new figures come from the 2009 American Housing Survey, the definitive source of information on the quality of housing in the United States.Read more

National vacancy rates in the second quarter 2010 were 10.6 percent for rental housing and 2.5 percent for homeowner housing, according to stats released by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Census Bureau. The rental vacancy rate of 10.6 percent was approximately the same as rates recorded in the second quarter 2009 (+/-0.5 percentage points) and last quarter (+/-0.4 percentage points).Read more

The size of new single-family homes completed declined last year, dropping to a nationwide average of 2,438-square feet, according to information about the characteristics of new homes completed in 2009 that was released recently by the Census Bureau. After increasing continually for nearly three decades, the average size of single-family homes completed in the United States peaked at 2,521-square feet in 2007. It was essentially flat in 2008, then dropped in 2009, so that new single-family homes were almost 100 square feet smaller in 2009 than in 2007.Read more

Freddie Mac has released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.71 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending Dec. 3, 2009, down from last week when it averaged 4.78 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.53 percent. The 30-year has never been this low since Freddie Mac began its weekly survey in 1971. The 15-year FRM this week averaged 4.27 percent with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.29 percent.Read more

U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus has sentenced the president of the Metropolitan Money Store, Joy Jackson, age 41, of Fort Washington, Md., to 151 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme that falsely promised to help homeowners facing foreclosure keep their homes and repair their damaged credit, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.Read more