Market Studies

With no fundamental changes to the origination process in decades, the lost efficiency, increasing costs and decreasing profits, combined with ever-merging regulatory hurdles, have left a gap in the mortgage industry to be filled by "disruptors," who are innovators creating new business models to better serve the industry.

With more Americans worried about where the economy is headed, fewer are optimistic about the prospect of selling their homes, according to Fannie Mae’s July National Housing Survey, released Friday.

Also of note, job gains for May and June were revised upward for a combined total of 14,000 more jobs than were originally reported, according to the BLS. Smoke said the job growth in the last year, which has been consistently strong in the last nine months, has been a key reason for stronger housing demand this year.

Although this increase may seem marginal, this one point rise up places the market closer to the one point goal, indicating that it has returned to normal. In addition, 66 percent of markets have shown improvement year-over-year.

Sales of new single-family homes rose 18 percent year-over-year in June with a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 482,000 compared to June 2014's pace of 408,000, according to the survey.

July's total of 71,820 bankruptcy filings nationwide represented in jump of 2,069 from June's total of 69,723. Filings declined by 7.4 percent year-over-year in July, however, down from 77,532 in July 2014. Average filings per day over the 22 filing days in July rose by nearly 100 from June, from 3,171 up to 3,265.

That number of 12.7 million detached homes currently in the single-family rental market comprises about 29 percent of the demand for rentals nationwide (out of 44.3 million), according to Burns.

On the other hand, the median number of days on the market, or the inventory, increased to 69 days, down 7 percent year-over-year, but up 5 percent month-over-month.

The National Housing Survey from Fannie Mae contains data that suggests that homeowners who are underestimating how much equity they have in their homes may also be underestimating in other areas, such as how large of a downpayment they could make with that equity; their chances of qualifying for a mortgage, assuming they need a large downpayment; and their opportunities for selling their house and buying another one.

Low-income households were found to be implicated the most by debt. Their debt equaled to just one-fifth of their income in 2007, but that proportion increased to half by 2013.