Studies by the National Association of Realtors say that 63 percent of all new homes sold to prospects were introduced to the home builders by Realtors. According to Builder Homesite Inc., a consortium of 32 of the largest production home builders in the country, 84 percent of all home shoppers contact a Realtor first.

Many builders face an important business decision that affects their sales and relationships with the very Realtors they have worked so hard to nurture.

According to S. Robert August, a director of the National Association of Home Builders and president of North Star Energies, the pendulum has already started to swing away from total Realtor commissions in Denver, with builders starting to eliminate commissions on options and lot premiums.

With resale inventory down dramatically, new construction will become a high-demand inventory choice. This is also the first housing recovery in history that comes with a marketing giant…the Internet.

So will the majority of builders continue to woo the Realtor community, or rely more on advanced Internet technology? Some builders are now using “Internet Advisers” to set appointments for Realtor prospects, choosing to focus on the prospect rather than the Realtor.

The bottom line is this, according to some experts: Realtors need the inventory and home builders need qualified prospects to assure continued momentum.

Leading Realtors who continue to sharpen their skills will thrive, and astute builders will continue their relationships with the Realtor community who helped them survive in the first place.

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The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 14.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the index increased 15 percent from the previous week and was at its highest level since mid-January.

The refinance share of mortgage activity was essentially unchanged from the previous week at 77 percent of total applications. The adjustable rate mortgage share of activity was unchanged at four percent of total applications.

The average contract interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with conforming loan balances ($417,500 or less) decreased to 3.70 percent, with points remaining constant at 0.37 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage decreased to 2.96 percent from 3.03 percent, the lowest contract rate since the week ending January 25, 2013, with points increasing to 0.36 from 0.34 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans

The survey covers over 75 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications and has been conducted weekly since 1990.

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Sales in Pitkin County, home to the high-priced Aspen resort, totaled $270 million in December, up 116 percent over December 2011. Most deals were done in cash, with some high country brokers believing the surge was fueled by uncertainty over tax changes planned for 2013.

In Eagle County, home to the Vail and Beaver Creek resorts, December sales climbed 90 percent, with buyers securing a limited number of properties, many as investments.

Total sales in 2009 for Eagle, Grand, Pitkin, Routt, San Miguel, and Summit counties reached nearly $3.6 billion. Last year, sales in these six counties totaled $4.9 billion, which was 22 percent above ahead of 2011 and 37 percent above the 2009 low point.

High country Realtors believe the market will eventually return to the volume reached in 2007, but it will be a slow, steady climb. Some believe developers may return in 2013 or early 2014.

Telluride enjoyed a tremendous December, with $76 million in sales, the highest since July 2007, with San Miguel posting a 47 percent increase over 2011. Investor mentality seems to be shifting from a concentration on financial returns toward lifestyle returns, said one long-time broker.

Skiing, fly fishing, hunting, camping, and simply enjoying Colorado’s magnificent high country is part of Colorado’s mountain environment, and putting a price tag on the experience is difficult, but most buyers believe they cannot get hurt by buying in this market.

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College towns have become a viable retirement alternative for many boomers who don’t really need the warm weather in traditional retirement states. Even ski villages are attracting active retirees who love to ski.

While most people will retire in the homes they have lived in for years, baby boomers have been extremely mobile and they are a very adventurous generation. Many boomers don’t need that half-million retirement home and year-round golf.

College towns are attracting baby boomers, especially where the climate is moderate, such as the southern states. College towns have most of the things that boomers like when it comes to recreation, vibrant downtowns, the restaurant scene, and cultural events. Some boomers say that being around the younger generation also helps keep them young.

Buying a retirement home in a college town may cut property taxes in half and homeowners’ insurance by nearly as much. Auto insurance may rise, but only because of all the inexperienced college students in town.

Some boomers enjoy living right by the college campus within walking distance of collegiate football, basketball, and baseball games, and a variety of other college-related activities and events. In addition, prices for college sporting events are a fraction of the cost for professional sporting events.

The college town alternative for retirement even has some developers building retirement communities in college towns that give residents full access to university facilities. It’s a lifestyle that values continuous learning, says one builder. But perhaps more than any previous generation, baby boomers enjoy being active and living in a robust, vibrant community.

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Housing starts climbed 12.1 percent in December to a 954,000 annual rate, exceeding forecasts in a Bloomberg survey of economists and the most since June 2008, according to the Commerce Department. For the whole of 2012, construction started on a total of 780,000 new homes, up from 608,800 in 2011 and the most since 2008.

According to a Bloomberg article, low borrowing costs and rising property values are fueling the housing market’s recent recovery. In another report, the number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment insurance payments fell more than forecast in early January to the lowest level in five years, which is another sign of economic recovery.

Applications for jobless benefits decreased by 37,000 to 335,000 in the week ended January 12, the fewest since January 2008, according to Labor Department figures. Stock index futures added to earlier gains after the report.

Building permits, a proxy for future construction, climbed less than starts, indicating the industry may take a breather in coming months. Starts jumped by 28.1 percent in 2012 from the prior year, the biggest annual gain since 1983. However, the market remains short of the 2.07 million started at the peak of the housing boom in 2005, which was a three-decade high. The number of starts averaged 1.74 million a year from 2000 through 2004.

Construction of single-family homes climbed 8.1 percent in December from the prior month to a 616,000 annual rate, also the highest since June 2008. Work on multi-family homes climbed 20.3 percent to an annual rate of 338,000.

Confidence among home builders held in January at the highest level since April 2006, according to the National Association of Home Builders. The group’s gauge of buyer traffic also climbed to a more than six-year high.

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Some highlights: December registered 155,000 job gains and November’s payrolls were revised up 24,000, bringing the employment increase for 2012 to 1.86 million, the best since 2006.

Assuming the uncertainty of the fiscal policy debates during the first quarter fails to derail the economic expansion, the U.S. will likely see about two million new jobs created in 2013, gradually nudging the unemployment rate lower.

Over the first 11 months of 2012, home sales were up nine percent from the same period of the prior year; similar gains are projected for 2013.

With the unemployment rate in December holding at an elevated 7.8 percent, it’s likely to ensure a continuation of an accommodative policy stance by the Federal Reserve through the coming year. Therefore, relatively low interest rates will continue to be a feature of mortgage lending and the broader capital markets in 2013.

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“Prices are going into 2013 with strong tailwinds,” said Jed Kolko, chief economist for Trulia. Kolko cites a general strengthening of the job market, which in turn means more families able to cover a sizeable down payment. An increase in household formation, which is also the product of improving job prospects, and home construction, could further bolster demand.

Kolko notes that the sharpest tightening of inventory is taking place in western states. Four of the top 10 cities to see the largest asking price recovery were in California, including Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento, and Fresno. Las Vegas, which was hit hard after the bubble burst, came in at the top of the list with a 16.3 percent year-over-year listing price increase. In the same period in 2011, prices dropped 11.2 percent.

Meanwhile, rents rose nationally 5.2 percent in the same period. In 17 of the biggest rental markets, home prices are rising faster than rents, according to Trulia. Whereas ownership was typically more affordable than renting in most markets in recent years, as sales demand rises, that edge is becoming less apparent, according to Kolko.

Source: wsj.com.

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These actions, which have helped more than 2.1 borrowers stay in their homes, are detailed in the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s third quarter 2012 Foreclosure Prevention Report, also known as the Federal Property Manager’s Report.

The quarterly report has information on state delinquencies and an updated, interactive Borrower Assistance Map for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages, with information on delinquencies, foreclosure prevention activities and Real Estate Owned (REO) properties.

Also noted in the report was that, year-to-date, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have completed nearly 411,000 foreclosure prevention actions. Nearly 38,000 short sales and deeds-in-lieu were completed in the third quarter, up four percent compared with the second quarter. Forty-five percent of troubled borrowers who received loan modifications in the third quarter had their monthly payments reduced by more than 30 percent.

More than one-third of loan modifications completed in the third quarter included principal forbearance. The number of the Enterprises’ delinquent borrowers has declined nine percent since the beginning of 2012. REO inventory continued to decline as property dispositions outpaced property acquisitions during the third quarter.

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The index identifies metropolitan areas that have shown improvement from their respective troughs in housing permits, employment and house prices for at least six consecutive months. A total of 84 new metros were added to the list and eight were dropped from it in December.

The IMI is designed to track housing markets throughout the country that are showing signs of improving economic health. The index measures three sets of independent monthly data to get a mark on the top improving Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The three indicators that are analyzed are employment growth from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, housing price appreciation from Freddie Mac, and single-family housing permit growth from the U.S Census Bureau.

NAHB uses the latest available data from these sources to generate a list of improving markets. The metropolitan area must see improvement in all three measures for at least six consecutive months following those measures’ respective troughs before being included on the improving markets list.

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If the upswing continues, it will most likely be investors rather than consumers who will sustain the momentum, according to a recent web post by CBS News.

According to the recent Fiserv Case-Shiller data, the real estate market during the spring and summer this year was the strongest since the peak of the housing bubble in 2006. Fiserve reports that average U.S. home prices have increased 1.2 percent since summer 2011. Prices were up in more than 50 percent of the 384 metro area markets in the second quarter of 2012.

Home prices in October rose 6.3 percent over a year ago, according to CoreLogic. The National Association of Realtors reported that pending sales in October were up 5.2 percent, and overall housing inventory is down 22 percent year-over-year and is most likely the lowest since the early 2000’s.

What makes the upturn in housing unusual is that it is mostly being fueled by investors scooping up distressed properties. This is the result of the Federal Reserve keeping its prime interest rate very low. Investors represent approximately one-third of buyers. Investors also differ from mainstream buyers in two primary ways: They can pay cash for properties and they buy in bulk. This is a major reason for the slowly rising home prices and diminishing housing supply, according to the CBS News report.

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