Short Sales Losing Favor with Lenders?

Short Sales Losing Favor with Lenders?

Lenders may be less inclined to approve short sales due to rising home prices, according to a new report by RealtyTrac.

During the first quarter, short sales posted a 35 percent drop compared to year-ago levels. 

'The decrease in short sales was a bit of surprise given that 11 million home owners nationwide still owe more on their homes than they're worth,' says Daren Blomquist, spokesman for RealtyTrac. 'Rising home prices are taking away the incentive for short sales on the part of both home owners and lenders.' Foreclosure prices are on the rise, increasing 28 percent in the first quarter.

Fixed Rates Soar to Highest Level in a Year

Investors Place Big Bets on Widespread Housing

Investors Place Big Bets on Widespread Housing

Housing Recovery: Investors are picking up shares of appliances, building materials, and even pickup trucks in betting on a widening housing recovery, The Wall Street Journal reports. Investors say that the increase in residential construction and home renovation represents a big opportunity on Wall Street.

The recovery is in 'the very early innings,' Russell Croft, a portfolio manager at Croft Leominster Inc., told The Wall Street Journal. '[I’m trying] to find the secondary or tertiary stocks that might be influenced by housing. Read more...

Foreclosure Plummets

Foreclosure Plummets

The number of Americans who are in the foreclosure process has fallen by nearly 25 percent in the past year, according to new data out by Lender Processing Services. 

For the first time since July 2008, the delinquency rate—loans 30 days or more past due—fell below 6.5 percent, according to LPS’ April report. The delinquency rate is down 9.61 percent from year-ago levels.

The total U.S. foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate hit 3.17% in April, down 24.55% from year ago levels.  Read more ....

Distressed Sales Fall

Distressed Sales Fall

Investors Increase Short Sale Activity:

 In April, the share of sales involving foreclosures and short sales maintained their downward path, falling to the lowest level since 2009, according to the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking survey.

Using a three-month moving average, the survey found distressed sales accounted for 33 percent of home purchases in April, a decrease from 35.6 percent in March and 43.6 percent in April 2012. The figure for April is the lowest level since the HousingPulse survey began accumulating data on such properties in 2009. Read more ....

Home Prices Appreciated at a Strong Pace

Home Prices Appreciated at a Strong Pace
U.S. home prices appreciated at a strong pace in the first quarter as prices rose 1.9 percent from the previous quarter, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported. The quarterly gain marks the seventh straight increase.

Compared to the first quarter of 2012, prices were up by 6.7 percent, according to the FHFA’s seasonally adjusted, purchase only House Price Index (HPI). From February to March, the index increased by 1.3 percent.
“The housing market has stabilized in many areas and homebuilding activity has strengthened in recent quarters,” said Andrew Leventis, FHFA principal economist. “That said, labor market weakness and still-elevated foreclosure pipelines remain hindrances to a more robust recovery.” 
May Utah Housing Market Statistics

Mortgage Rates Trend Higher This Week

Mortgage Rates Trend Higher This Week

Mortgage rates continued to inch higher this week, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey. 

 'Fixed-rates moved up for the third consecutive week, with the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage about a quarter-percentage point higher than three weeks ago,” says Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.

“While this may slow some of the refinance momentum, rates are nonetheless low and home-buyer affordability high, which should further aid home sales and construction in coming weeks.” See Rates...

Freddie Mac Begins Securitizing Modified,

Freddie Mac Begins Securitizing Modified,
Performing Loans: Freddie Mac is in the process of securitizing over $1 billion in performing loans that were modified.

The loans are pooled into new Freddie Mac fixed rate modified participation certificates (modified PCs), according to a release. The modified loans have been performing for at least six consecutive months and were held in the company’s mortgage portfolio. Freddie Mac’s goal is to help families stay in their homes and provide alternatives to foreclosure.”
Fixed Rates Rise Again

5 Most, Least Affordable Housing Markets

5 Most, Least Affordable Housing MarketsI n the first quarter of this year, housing affordability continued to hold near its historic highs, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index. 

From the beginning of January to the end of March, 73.7 percent of new and existing homes sold were affordable to families earning the U.S. median income of $64,400, NAHB reports. That is down slightly from 74.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012. 


5 Most Affordable Major Housing Markets 1.Ogden-Clearfield, Utah: 93.4% of all new and existing homes sold there in the first quarter were affordable to families earning the area’s median income of $70,800. See more ...

Low mortgage rates continue to be a main driver of housing affordability over the past four years, says NAHB Chairman Rick Judson. 

Home Prices Climb by at Least 5%

Home Prices Climb by at Least 5% 6th Straight Month in April: 
The majority of metros covered in Zillow’s Real Estate Market Reports saw home values inch up from March to April, the company reported Tuesday.

Zillow’s Home Value Index climbed to $158,300 for April, an increase of 0.5 percent month-over-month and 5.2 percent year-over-year. April marked the sixth consecutive month in which home values appreciated more than 5 percent on a yearly basis. Read more .....

Foreclosure Sales Halt

Foreclosure Sales Halt

Wells Fargo and Citigroup have temporarily halted foreclosure sales in several states, taking precautions after a federal regulator released new guidance on minimum standards for foreclosure sales. 

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) recently released the new standards. The OCC’s directive mostly consists of 13 questions banks need to ask themselves before selling a home in foreclosure, such as whether the borrower is protected from foreclosure by bankruptcy or if the borrower is in an active loan modification plan. Read more ...

New-Home Construction Falls After Reaching 5-Year

New-Home Construction Falls After Reaching 5-Year

Construction on new homes posted a 16.5 percent drop in April after reaching a nearly five-year high the previous month, the Commerce Department reports. 

The National Association of Home Builders called the dip in April a “correction from an unsustainably high level of production on the volatile multifamily side.”

“The big decline in April housing production was mostly on the multifamily side, which recorded a similarly dramatic increase in the previous month,” says NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe.  Read more ...

Housing Is the Economic Recovery's 'Juice'

Housing Is the Economic Recovery's 'Juice'
Freddie Mac: The “juice” that will fuel the economic recovery is housing, or more specifically, new home sales, Freddie Mac stated in its economic and housing market outlook report for May.

Although the unemployment rate has been decreasing, falling to 6.5 percent in April, the GSE explained the reduction is due to a decline in the labor force participation rate, not an increase in employment.
According to Freddie Mac, the labor force participation rate, which remained at 63 percent in April, was at the lowest level since 1980.
However, as the building of new homes adds to the availability of jobs, the unemployment rate should inch down. Read more ...

Mortgage Rates Inch Up for Second Week

Mortgage Rates Inch Up for Second Week

Fixed-rate mortgages climbed this week after signs of stronger consumer spending, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey. Here are the national averages for mortgage rates for the week ending May 16: See Rates....

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  Survey Finds Mortgage Credit Starting to Ease Stringent mortgage standards have kept many potential home buyers on the sidelines the last few years. But 8 percent of banks say they’ve loosened up their mortgage standards in the last three months, according to the Federal Reserve’s latest Senior Loan Officer Survey. The survey shows that credit conditions have either held steady or loosened for eight of the past nine quarters

Building Permits Rise as Foreclosure Start Decline

Building Permits Rise as Foreclosure Start Decline

On a national level, the relationship between building permits and foreclosure starts resembled that of a seesaw in the first quarter, with an equal but opposite rise and fall, but in some markets, both permits and foreclosures are on the rise, according to a report from RealtyTrac.

After analyzing data from HUD, the online foreclosure marketplace found single-family building permits increased 27 percent year-over-year in the first quarter to the highest level in five years, while foreclosure starts fell 27 percent during the same time period to the lowest level since the second quarter of 2006.
Meanwhile, multifamily building permits trended upward, increasing overall by 23 percent. Overall, single-family homes accounted for 64 percent of total permits. Read more ....

Price Improvements by Region

Price Improvements by Region
Report Examines:  The recent rebound in residential real estate investment and housing prices is proving the old adage, “Real estate is local.

” While national indexes paint a picture of a recovering housing market, a closer look reveals quite a wide range of activity across the country.

In general, those markets that fared worst during the housing downturn are the ones gaining the most from the recovery, according to CoreLogic’s MarketPulse report released Tuesday. Read more ...

New Home Sales Begin to Flourish

New Home Sales Begin to Flourish
As Distressed Inventory Declines: The available supply of foreclosures and short sales previously stunted the recovery for new home sales, according to CoreLogic’s May Market Pulse report.

Though, now that the supply of distressed homes and existing-homes for sale has fallen, there’s more room for the new home sales market to expand.
According to CoreLogic, the number of seriously delinquent mortgages (90-plus delinquencies, including foreclosures and REOs), peaked at 3.7 million in January 2010, but has fallen by 1.2 million, or by 33 percent.
As delinquencies decline, new home sales are rebounding after hitting low points over recent years. Citing data from the Census Bureau, CoreLogic reported new home sales have increased 19 percent from a year ago in March. Read more ....

Financial Assets Can Be Used as Qualifying Income

Financial Assets Can Be Used as Qualifying Income

Freddie Mac is hoping to spread information about a rule that allows people to leverage financial assets such as retirement accounts as qualifying income when applying for mortgage loans.

Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), 401(k)s, distributions from retirement accounts, and funds acquired from the sale of a business can all contribute to a potential borrower’s qualifying income, according to Freddie Mac.

In order to contribute to a borrower’s qualifying income, these financial assets must be accessible—meaning the borrower must not incur a withdrawal penalty when accessing them. They also cannot already be included as a source of income. Read more....

REO, Short Sale Fraud Continue to Evolve

REO, Short Sale Fraud Continue to Evolve

ost mortgage fraud takes place in the short sales andREO space, according to Rob Hagberg, associate director of fraud investigations at Freddie Mac. “This area is ripe with fraud,” he said during a webinar hosted by CoreLogic.

While servicers and others in the industry have adapted to some fraud schemes and put measures in place to detect and prevent fraud, schemes continue to evolve as fraudsters find new ways to manipulate sales.
For example, many fraudulent REO and short sale transactions involved the use of a straw buyer who temporarily purchased a home at an undervalued price and then sold it to a third party at a higher price.
These transactions would be immediately suspicious to anyone reviewing property records, which would show a home was sold for one price one day and then almost immediately resold at a higher price. Read more ....

Lenders Chip Away at Foreclosure Inventories

Lenders Chip Away at Foreclosure Inventories

Completed foreclosures rose in March, but the big drop in the number of distressed properties entering the pipeline remains encouraging, analysts say. 

In March, 55,000 foreclosures were completed, a 6 percent increase from February, according to a newly released report from CoreLogic. But, overall, foreclosures have fallen more than 16 percent year-over-year. Completed foreclosures are down 52 percent from their 2010 peak, and nearly all of the top 100 major metro areas are posting declining foreclosure rates, says Mark Fleming, CoreLogic’s chief economist. 

About 1.1 million homes were in the foreclosure process in March, a drop of 23 percent year-over-year.  See States ...

Metro Home-Price Growth Trend Continues

Metro Home-Price Growth Trend Continues

Metropolitan area median home prices continued to rise in the first quarter, with the national gain showing the best year-over-year performance in more than seven years, according to the latest quarterly report by the National Association of REALTORS®. A companion breakout of income requirements to purchase a median-priced home on a metro basis shows the typical buyer earns roughly double the income needed to buy a home in his or her area.

The median existing single-family home price rose in 133 out of 150 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) based on closings in the first quarter of 2013 compared with first quarter last year, while 17 areas had price declines. In the fourth quarter of 2012, a comparable 133 areas showed price increases from a year earlier, greatly improved from the first quarter of 2012 when prices in only 74 metros were up. Read more ....

Home Prices Surge by Double-Digit Rates

Home Prices Surge by Double-Digit Rates
Home values are in the rise, increasing by the largest year-over-year amount since March 2006, according to the latest data from CoreLogic’s housing report. Home prices, including distressed sales, rose 10.5 percent in March year-over-year. It marked the 13th consecutive month for home-price increases, CoreLogic reported. 

When excluding distressed sales, home prices rose 10.7 percent in March year-over-year in CoreLogic's index.  By comparison, the National Association of REALTORS®' median price for all housing types in its March existing-home sales index was 11.8 percent higher than it was March 2012.

“Home prices continue to rise at a double-digit rate in March, led by strong gains in the western region of the U.S.,” says Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “Much of the price increases we are seeing are the result of rising demand among investors and home buyers for a still-limited supply of homes for sale.” Read More...

Improving Market List Drops Slightly in May

Improving Market List Drops Slightly in May

The Improving Markets Index fell to 258 metros in May from 273 in April, but continues to reflect metros from every state as well as the District of Columbia, according to the National Association of Home Builders and First American. 

The Improving Markets Index identifies the metro areas that have shown improvement in housing permits, employment, and housing prices for at least six consecutive months. Nineteen metros dropped from May’s index, but NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe says that this is similar to what happened with the index last year, as softer prices are usually seen in the winter months. Read more ....

One Fifth of New Homes Are Green

One Fifth of New Homes Are Green
McGraw Hill Construction says 20 percent of homes built last year were green, and that figure is slated to rise to between 29 percent and 38 percent by 2016. 

 Most large builders have made energy-efficient home construction a standard practice, and federal tax credits for such components as insulation and geothermal heat pumps have helped green housing go mainstream. 

Garbett Homes in Utah Green + Fresh

Nexus Energy Homes COO Bruce McIntosh says green homes generally cost 5 to 10 percent more than conventional dwellings, but material and construction costs are on the decline.  Low-energy homes are gaining in popularity as a way to cut utility bills, address concerns about future energy costs, and become independent from the power grid.  

Learn more....

March Pending Home Sales Improve but Overall Pace

March Pending Home Sales Improve but Overall Pace
WASHINGTON (April 29, 2013) - Pending home sales increased in March and remain above year-ago levels, but contract activity in recent months shows only modest movement, according to the National Association of Realtors^®.
The Pending Home Sales Index,^* a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, rose 1.5 percent to 105.7 in March from a downwardly revised 104.1 in February, and is 7.0 percent above March 2012 when it was 98.8. Pending sales have been above year-ago levels for the past 23 months; the data reflect contracts but not closings.
Lawrence Yun , NAR chief economist, said the market appears to be leveling off. 'Contract activity has been in a narrow range in recent months, not from a pause in demand but because of limited supply. Little movement is expected in near-term sales closings, but they should edge up modestly as the year progresses,' he said. 'Job additions and rising household wealth will continue to support housing demand.' Read more ...

Homes Near Open Spaces Command Big Bucks

Homes Near Open Spaces Command Big Bucks
The research shows that home buyers are willing to pay a premium to live near such open, undeveloped tracts. Sarah Reed, co-author of the study, and her colleagues compared 2,222 home sales in five counties throughout Colorado between 1998 to 2011.
"You can walk out your back door and start jogging on a trail that takes you through miles and miles of forest preserves,"

The conservation developments designated an average 64 percent of land as open space, while traditional rural subdivisions allocated just 4.9 percent. The study found that homes in conservation developments sold for 29 percent more than properties located in conventional residential projects.
Furthermore, increasing lot size in an undesignated conservation development hiked the market price by 38 cents per square foot, the report found. In nonconservation developments, a larger lot size translated to just 9 cents per square foot. The study was funded by the National Association of REALTORS® and CSU's School of Global Environmental Sustainability. Watch the Video ...

Housing Price Surge

Housing Price Surge
'Simply Supply and Demand' Home prices are rising at the fastest rate in years, with some areas even seeing double-digit increases.
'Nobody that I'm aware of anticipated the kind of price growth that we've had,' says Budge Huskey, chief executive of Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. 'It's simple supply and demand.'
“Supplies have dwindled as banks have pushed fewer homes through foreclosure and because many home owners are either unable or unwilling to sell due to a variety of factors related to the housing-crash hangover,” Mortgage Rates Keep Pushing Lower

Completed Foreclosures Rise in March

Completed Foreclosures Rise in March
Foreclosure Inventory Falls: The number of residential properties lost to foreclosure increased from February to March, while foreclosure inventory was down from month and year ago levels, according to data from CoreLogic. 

In its most recent foreclosure report, the data provider reported 55,000 homes were lost to foreclosure in March, up 6 percent from 52,000 completed foreclosures in February. Still, completed foreclosures stood 16 percent lower compared to the year ago level when 66,000 homes were lost to the process.
“In March, completed foreclosures were down 52 percent from the peak in 2010, and almost all of the top 100 major metropolitan areas have declining foreclosure rates,” said Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist. Read more ....

HUD-Owned Homes Expected to Surge

HUD-Owned Homes Expected to Surge
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is reportedly going to be releasing more of its homes to the market, which could be welcome news to buyers who have faced slim pickings in for-sale inventories. 

Over the next two years, experts predict that HUD homes on the market will increase significantly as lenders work through the backlogs of foreclosures and foreclosure reviews.
“The inventory is there, [it’s] just not being released during the banks/servicers review of the loan/mortgage documents,” says Nat Genis, a HUD listing broker in Riverside County, Calif., which is already seeing an increase in HUD-owned homes.Read more ....