Market Studies

One of the main points in President Barack Obama's speech about housing in Phoenix on Thursday was how far the housing industry has come since the bust of 2008 and particularly since he took office in January 2009. The president admitted that the housing market has not come all the way back yet and there is still work to be done. But did he overestimate just how far the housing market has come and the role his administration's policies have played in the recovery? It's possible, according to one analyst.

The U.S. labor market reported a strong gain of 252,000 jobs on the payrolls for December in data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Friday. December's job gain was close to 2014's average monthly increase and 2014 was the best year of job growth in the U.S. since 1999. According to Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan, the underlying data may not be so encouraging for the housing market, however.

The U.S. unemployment rate slipped another 0.2 percentage points in December as employers introduced 252,000 new jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said Friday that the national unemployment rate was down to 5.6 percent by year-end 2014, bringing that number down to its lowest level since June 2008.

A recent poll conducted by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) showed that two-thirds of respondents showed uncertainty with regards how to achieve financial stability. Sixty-six percent of respondents said that "I want financial stability, but don't know how to get there."

As home values rise and borrowers continue to gain equity, CoreLogic's analysis indicates that nearly 5.1 million properties are still upside-down on their mortgage. That figure represents about 10.3 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage compared to about 13.3 percent the year prior.

The pristine performance of mortgage loans in the U.S. with a vintage of 2009 or later is an indicator that underwriting standards could be loosened, according to CoreLogic senior economist Molly Boesel in an analysis entitled "What's an Acceptable Level of Mortgage Default?" published in CoreLogic's December 2014 edition of The MarketPulse.

Bankruptcy filings in the U.S. finished an up and down year with a slight month-over-month increase in December, but were down overall year-to-date, according to AACER bankruptcy data reported by Epiq Systems. The number of bankruptcy filings nationwide crept up from 62,417 in November to 63,090 in December, a 1 percent increase.

The U.S. job market finished the year on a strong note as total nonfarm private sector employment increased by 241,000 during December, according to the ADP National Employment Report for December 2014.

While optimism—likely spurred by continuing job growth—is on the rise, the number of Americans whose household income has fallen off significantly over the last year picked up (hitting 14 percent), and a declining share expect their personal financial situation will improve in 2015.

Mississippi was the state with the highest percentage of non-current mortgages and serious delinquent mortgages in November, according to data released recently as part of Black Knight Financial Services' November 2014 “First Look” at mortgage data.