Lots of news impacting the real estate industry this week…
- The Federal Reserve announced that they expect to keep short-term interest rates near zero for the next three years — citing the economy and the housing market still needing help. See the Wall Street Journal story: Fed Sees Low Rates to 2014
- Wells Fargo, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, is launching a program to clear its REO inventory over the next five years. The program will launch next month in Atlanta and Los Angeles. See the HousingWire story: Wells Fargo launches pilot programs to clear LA, Atlanta housing inventory If the program proves successful, perhaps they’ll bring it to Reno.
- The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is planning to reduce the cap on allowable seller concessions. Currently set at 6 percent, the allowable seller concessions cap my be reduced to 5%, 4%, or maybe even 3%. Read this interesting Inman News piece for one take on the coming cap reductions: FHA may lower cap on seller concessions to buyers
- And thank you to RRB reader Reno Dino for finding this 24/7 Wall St. piece, The Nine American Cities Nearly Destroyed by the Recession. Carson City and Reno-Sparks took the #1 and #2 spots, respectively. The list came out of the US Conference of Mayors’ 2012 U.S. Metro Economy report.
- Today, the Reno Gazette-Journal ran a piece mentioning the list and containing some comments from local officials. See the RGJ piece: Report: Reno, Carson economies hardest hit
