Market Studies

Institutions insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation recorded their second-highest annual earnings ever in 2012, according to the FDIC's Quarterly Banking Profile for the fourth quarter of 2012. High noninterest income and declining loan loss provisions contributed to the increase, according to the FDIC. Delinquencies at FDIC-insured institutions are also declining. The number of loans 90 or more days past due fell 5.5 percent in the fourth quarter. At the end of the year, 3.6 percent of loans held by the institutions were noncurrent, down from 2.86 percent a year earlier.

The price gap between non-distressed properties and damaged REOs is widening, according to results from the January Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking survey. According to the survey, while non-distressed property prices have risen to their highest level in three years, damaged REOs, or bank-owned properties in need of repair, fell in January. The survey also found that while the investor share of purchases for damaged REOs has increased, interest for properties in that category has waned among current and first-time homebuyers.

The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) rose 4.5 percent to 105.9 in January, its highest level in almost three years, the National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday. The monthly increase was the strongest since May, when the index rose 4.9 percent. Despite the strong report, NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun remained cautious. ""Over the near term, rising contract activity means higher home sales, but total sales for the year are expected to rise less than in 2012, while home prices are projected to rise more strongly because of inventory shortages,"" Yun said.

Home prices rose 5.5 percent year-over-year in 2012's final quarter, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported Tuesday. FHFA's seasonally adjusted purchase-only Home Price Index (HPI) increased 1.4 percent on a quarter-to-quarter basis in Q4. Month-over-month, December's index was 0.6 percent up from November, marking the 11th straight month of increases. While the national purchase-only HPI rose 5.5 percent from Q4 2011 to Q4 2012, FHFA notes prices of other goods and services rose 1.7 percent over the same period.

In the fourth quarter of last year, the risk of mortgage fraud elevated to the highest level since 2009, Interthinx reported Tuesday. According to the company's Mortgage Fraud Risk Report, the mortgage fraud risk index climbed to 159, representing a 16 percent increase from Q3 2012 and 9 percent increase from Q4 2011. Interthinx pinpointed the source of the increase to a surge in property valuation fraud risk, which rose 25 percent from Q3.

New home sales jumped 15.6 percent in January--the strongest gain in 20 years--to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 437,000, the highest since July 2008, the Census Bureau and HUD reported Tuesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected the report to show a much smaller sales pace: 381,000. January's rate of sales was the highest since July 2008. At the same time, the months' supply of new homes for sale dropped to its lowest level since March 2005.

Home prices rose at their fastest pace since July 2006, according to the Case Shiller 10- and 20-city Home Price Indices, Standard & Poor's reported Tuesday. At the same the Case Shiller national index, reported quarterly, registered its strongest gain since Q2 2006. The 10- and 20-city indices each rose 0.2 percent in December, reversing declines in November. Year-over-year, the 10-city index was up 5.9 percent, and the 20-city index rose 6.8 percent. The national index was up 7.3 percent year-over-year.

As regulatory institutions begin to provide some clarity to the mortgage market, the National Association of Home Builders insists the market still lacks confidence and is badly in need of a sound and functional appraisal system. ""At the center of this ongoing crisis in confidence is an appraisal system that remains dysfunctional and is a major impediment to reestablishing a vibrant and stable housing finance framework,"" NAHB stated in a white paper released last week, titled A Comprehensive Blueprint for Residential Appraisal Reform.

Home prices in December were mostly flat from the month before, according to the latest Home Price Index (HPI) released by Lender Processing Services (LPS). LPS' index shows prices climbed 0.1 percent in December, staying at a rounded-off $207,000. November's HPI was also reported at $207,000. While December's index was little changed from the prior month, it was up 5.8 percent from $196,000 in December 2011.

Following the financial crisis, a prevalence of misrepresentations in the residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) market has exposed investors to greater risk, according to a recent report authored by university researchers Tomasz Piskorski, Amit Seru, and James Witkin. The researchers studied private-label RMBS sold in 2007 in search of misrepresentations regarding occupancy status and second liens. Overall, the researchers detected one of these two categories of misrepresentations in one out of every 10 loans.