A report from Fox Business. "The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The VA has said it backed a record breaking 1.2 million loans in 2020, and a new study suggests it's already on pace to break that record again in 2021. VA refinancing loans were up 76% in the first half of 2021 compared to this time last year, and the demand for VA purchase loans increased by 10% during this same time period. Military veterans are entitled to a number of benefits, including VA home loans. These loans don't require a down payment or private mortgage insurance, which is typically required if you don't put money down. VA loans are also lenient when it comes to debt to income ratio and minimum credit score requirements, so they may be an option if you have fair credit or bad credit."

"The No. 1 metro area for VA loan growth is Honolulu, Hawaii, where loan activity nearly doubled year-over-year. Retired service members are also seeking the warmth of the South, flocking to states like Texas and Alabama. Additionally, the study showed that veterans are taking out more VA loans in our nation's capital and the surrounding areas."

From Our Community Now on California. "The San Diego metropolitan area was ranked 11th for VA loans. The VA says roughly 90 percent of its loans are made without a down payment. Tony Rector, a Coast Guard veteran, bought a $850,000 single-family home in the Del Cerro neighborhood in July with a VA loan. Since he no longer is active duty, he does not receive a monthly housing allowance. However, he said he plans to have three roommates and his job as a financer for a car dealership will help him to make the payments. 'It’s just a much better option all around,' he said of a VA loan. 'That’s why it is a privilege for us.'"

"There was a 76.3 percent increase in refinances in San Diego for the first six months of this year, compared to the same time last year. It mirrors national trends of more refinancing loans than purchases during much of the pandemic."

From AZ Big Media. "Sellers are returning to the housing market as the number of homes newly listed for sale surpassed 2019 levels for the first time since the start of the year, according to Redfin. Despite a long-awaited increase in the supply of homes for sale, homebuying demand continued to slip, leaving the market feeling a few degrees cooler."

"'Many buyers have backed away from the housing market and are waiting until more and better homes are listed,' said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather.'Buyers don’t have the same sense of urgency that they did at the beginning of the year. They aren’t racing to buy before prices increase, because asking prices have already increased and stabilized. And they aren’t racing to buy before mortgage rates go up, because rates have dropped back below 3% and are likely to stay low. With more new listings starting to come on the market, buyers who threw in the towel may want to look again because the market is tilting more in their favor.'"

From Seattle PI in Washington. "Summer started off briskly for Seattle’s condominium market with increasing sales velocity, rising prices and stagnant inventory. The resale condo inventory has remained relatively flat. Seasonally, we would normally experience an increase in listings. However, the actual number of condos for sale is quite a bit higher when taking into consideration the hundreds of construction units in the downtown area that are not publicly listed for sale in the NWMLS."

"Looking at the table at the bottom of the post, the NWMLS data showed that condo listings decreased in downtown in June, which could lead to an incorrect interpretation that the market has tightened when it’s actually the opposite."

From Popville in Washington DC. "Notable Fresh Listings: Your REO/Bank-Owned Property of the Week has had a recent $100k price reduction in Capitol Hill, but $850k is steep when you can’t even see the inside quality."

The Daily Sentinel in Colorado. "According to Realtor.com, although asking prices for U.S. homes continue to rise, there are signs that the red-hot housing market has passed its peak, according to a recent report. The median listing price was up 12.2% compared to the same time in 2020 which is the 45th week in a row in which price growth was in the double digits. Despite the rise, the pace of annual price growth has been slowing since its high of 19% in early April and if the downward trend continues, prices could return to a 'more typical seasonal price pattern' in the next six months."

"While I do not have a crystal ball, I can share with you some of the reasons that caused the housing market crash due to poor mortgage practices and what has changed to prevent it from happening again.Most important, lenders are required to verify all supporting documentation, income, job history, etc. and negative amortization and interest only loans are no longer available. Most loans require some form of a down payment and the minimum FICO score levels have increased over the years. I do believe we have put in place the appropriate guidelines, checks & balances, to prevent what happened 13 years ago from occurring again."

From KTRH in Texas. "It's been a red hot sellers market due to the COVID lockdowns, but Michael Weaster at Graham & Company Realty Group, says the pandemic is starting to catch up with some homeowners. 'There is definitely a slowdown. I think everybody is getting a little nervous with the (foreclosure) moratoriums ending and there is reported defaults, so it's coming,' says Weaster."

"The average price of a single-family home in Houston was just over $387,000 in May. 'These people have to make decisions if they can sell their home now while the market is still strong, get out from underneath them, great. But historically that's not the way it works. Historically people are going to try to hold until they can't and then we get defaults and foreclosures.'"

The Vancouver Sun in Canada. "The B.C. Liberals believe they have a rare opening to gain the upper hand on the file that has been one of their biggest failings: Housing prices. The NDP government has, during COVID, become vulnerable on housing, which has the Liberals smelling blood. That’s why the Liberals are going to extremes to slam Attorney General David Eby, the minister responsible for housing. Liberal MLAs have been lining up to brand Eby a racist for drawing attention years ago to the way foreign ownership contributed to B.C. housing prices."

"The trouble for the B.C. Liberals is that, while demonizing Eby, they’re revealing that their grasp of the multiple forces that shape housing prices is, to put it kindly, simple-minded. It’s also blind to history. Under Liberal premiers Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark, average house prices in B.C. skyrocketed 130 per cent, according to UBC’s Paul Kershaw, who founded Generation Squeeze. Disturbingly, during the same period real B.C. earnings declined."

"Inflating housing prices only began to stabilize in 2016 after Clark, a cheerleader for offshore investment, did an about-face and brought in a foreign buyers tax, which was supported by the public, including 89 per cent of Asian-Canadians. The tax helped flatten B.C. prices, a trend that continued after the NDP won election in 2017 and brought in the speculation and vacancy tax, which targeted domestic and foreign investors and satellite families, who earn most of their income offshore."

"The NDP and Eby 'galvanized prejudicial and racial attitudes towards people of Asian descent,' said Stewart, whose race-baiting was mirrored more than a dozen times by other theatrically outraged Liberal MLAs, including Michael Lee, Karin Kirkpatrick and Teresa Wat. Even though Eby wasn’t in the legislature and the speaker of the house rebuked the Liberals for their school-yard slander, they kept on."

"They didn’t mention MacDonald Realty had also found 70 per cent of its houses costing over $3 million had been sold to buyers from China. In addition top real estate players, UBC prof. David Ley, author of Millionaire Migrants, and the giant Asian housing site Juwai confirmed that foreign capital was flooding into B.C. housing. And the last thing the righteous Liberal MLAs wanted anyone to remember was how their own party’s chief fundraiser at the time, condo marketer Bob Rennie, had repeatedly told the Urban Development Institute things such as “90 per cent of homes over $2 million are sold to Mainland China.”

"The Liberal tactic of shouting racism to silence anyone who points to how foreign ownership is one of many factors having an impact on B.C. housing gets more bizarre when one keeps in mind it was the Liberals that brought in the foreign buyers tax in the first place. And the B.C. Court of Appeal happened to rule this month there is nothing racist about it."

"The B.C. Liberals are without a party leader, so maybe that’s why they lack discipline, or coherence, on housing. Maybe that’s the excuse the party of laissez-faire capitalism has for trying to distort reality by preaching they are the true champions of the marginalized — in the kind of display for which the term 'virtue-signalling' was invented."

From TRNTO in Canada. "The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board’s (TRREB) report for Juneshows home sales have declined from highs seen this past spring, but are still above numbers seen last year. Prices did drop, though, for semi-detached homes within the 416-area code region of the GTA. TRREB Chief Market Analyst Jason Mercer predicts that prices throughout the entire GTA region will stay 'well above' $1 million through to the end of 2021 as supply continues to lag, but that the record pace of sales over the spring has 'run its course.'"