In a previous blog post, we explored the relationship between the age of the US Hispanic population and its homeownership rate; now, let’s examine a second factor: income. As shown in the first figure, higher income clearly correlates with higher rates of homeownership. Just like our measure of age and homeownership in the last post, the biggest ... Read More ›

Hispanics are the most rapidly growing ethnic group in the United States, more than doubling in number over the past 20 years. This demographic that accounts for a fifth of the millennial population will play an ever-increasing and important role in the housing market, upcoming elections, and the future of the country as a whole. However, ... Read More ›

Last week, I spoke at the National Association of Business Economists Los Angeles chapter event entitled “Rebuilding the American Dream.” This was a particularly exciting presentation for me as it is a rarity that I get to speak to a group of professionals with similar training and background. Yes, 30 economists all in a room together! Only other ... Read More ›

NAR Existing-Home Sales numbers for April will be released on Thursday, May 21st. We have crunched the numbers based on April data and believe that the market continues to under-achieve relative to its capacity. Based on fundamentals, housing market capacity continued to strengthen in April based on the most recent information on labor markets, ... Read More ›

First American recently released the First American/Interthinx fourth quarter 2014 Mortgage Fraud Risk Report. You can view the full, interactive report here. First, let’s consider the main headline, “Fraud risk is up three percent from the third quarter, but unchanged from a year ago.” So, fraud, for now, isn’t trending for the worse or the ... Read More ›

The Federal Reserve made waves by recently dropping the word “patient” from its outlook on interest rates. This simple, one-word change, indicates that the Federal Reserve could soon raise rates—which have been stuck at near-zero for over six years—as early as June. Once this happens, rates on everything else will increase with it. But here’s the ... Read More ›