NORRIS LAKE RESOURCE CENTER

By Kenneth R. Harney, Published: April 20It’s not something that economists routinely track, but it provides a rough sense of what’s happening in local real estate markets. Call it the low-ball index.A year ago, according to researchers at the National Association of Realtors, one out of 10 members surveyed in a monthly poll ...

 This is the first quality lakefront home I have seen offered on Norris Lake in this price range.  Home is 4300 sq ft.  Has driveway  to lake.  This home first came on the market in 2009 with an asking price of $799,000, which dropped to $600,000 before foreclosure.  It was described then as: Unbelievable quality ...

Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that buying single-family homes is such a great investment right now, if it were practical, he’d buy a couple hundred thousand of them. Given how low rates are for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (3.95 percent, according to the Freddie Mac Mortgage ...

Capital Economics expects the housing crisis to end this year, according to a report released Tuesday. One of the reasons: loosening credit. The analytics firm notes the average credit score required to attain a mortgage loan is 700. While this is higher than scores required prior to the crisis, it is constant with requirements one year ago. ...

The average rate for 30-year fixed mortgages remained at its all-time low of 3.87 percent for the week ended Feb. 16 and now has held steady at that level since the first week of the month, says Freddie Mac. The 15-year fixed mortgage also was unchanged, matching the prior week's average of 3.16 percent. Freddie Mac chief economist Frank ...

A December survey by Campbell Inside Mortgage Finance found that cash buyers are driving down home prices, with investors accounting for one out of three transactions last month. Nearly three-quarters of investor home purchases for the month were all-cash transactions. The poll also determined that cash buyers were able to make purchases at much ...

The Federal Reserve announced that it intends to keep rates at their record lows at least through the end of 2014 and that their targeted inflation rate is to be 2%. The Fed announced its intention to be more transparent in communicating the direction of its rate guidance and the factors that it uses to measure the economy's performance. The ...

Freddie Mac reports that the 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to a new low this past week, averaging 3.88 percent, which is down a notch from 3.89 percent a week earlier! The benchmark rate has been below 4 percent for seven straight weeks. Meanwhile, the average interest on 15-year loans bumped up to 3.17 percent from 3.16 percent last week. ...

Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes continued to climb for a fourth consecutive month in January, rising four points to 25 on the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), released today. This is the highest level the index has attained since June of 2007. "Builder confidence has now risen four months in ...

Information circulating on the Internet claiming health reform includes a 4 percent tax on home sales is incorrect. Starting in 2013, the law imposes a 3.8 percent Medicare tax on households with adjusted gross income (AGI) of more than $200,000 for individuals ($250,000 for married couples), a portion of which is "net investment ...