Zillow, with all of it’s pitfalls, can’t be all wrong. Whenever someone tells me about a Zestimate, I just say, please speak with a Zappraiser about that. I’m in the business of selling houses, not zestimating. Metro Atlanta’s home values fell 12.9 percent in 2011, according to Zillow ’s Real Estate Market Reports. The area’s home values averaged $109,100, which was down 37.9 percent from the market’s peak several years ago. So, with the fourth quarter numbers in, here’s a little bit of a forecast for 2012: “…Fortunately, against a backdrop of modest further declines in home values, we expect that home sales will pick up briskly this year as affordable prices bring more buyers to the table, especially investors and second-home buyers.” Zillow does not forecast a definitive national bottom until 2013 and predicts a national decline of 3.7 percent in 2012. Click here for more….” … [Read more...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) expects to see mortgage originations fall from an estimated $1.2 trillion in 2011 to $900 billion in 2012. I went to google images to find something “rosy.” I found this  - a photo of a “Rosy lipped batfish.” The Rosy lipped batfish is a rather apt spokesfish for this 2012 forecast… Here are some choice excerpts from their always thorough review of the year ahead. ‘The drop will be driven by a significant decline in refinance originations, while purchase originations will increase only slightly. The economy will see another year of anemic growth in 2012, and then will grow somewhat faster in 2013. Refinance originations are expected to fall despite low mortgage rates as economic uncertainty lingers and fewer eligible borrowers remain” “However, the uncertainty is not one-sided. We also see a path for the economy that could lead to above-trend growth in 2012. Housing inventory and shadow inventory is declining … [Read more...]