Market Studies

The data points out markets that will make profitable rental markets and where home prices are likely to increase at a good rate over the next few years. These markets must have a population that is growing at a rate of 4 percent or better with people coming into the area in search of jobs.

May 2015's increase was also the largest month-over-month spike for any month since it jumped by 12 percent in November 2014. That month, just like May 2015, ended on a Sunday. According to Black Knight, months that end on a Sunday historically trigger increases in delinquency rates; the top five month-over-month increases in the last seven years have all come on months that ended on a Sunday, Black Knight reported.

In January, the company forecasted total national housing market growth for 2015 to reach 1.3 percent, more than five percent lower than growth for 2014 at 6.7 percent. The adjusted forecast presumes that year-end national growth will come in at 2.6 percent, falling within the projected range of 1 percent to 3 percent.

Increasing home values have played a role in reducing foreclosure inventory, since homeowners who either have little equity or are underwater tend to have higher default rates. Nothaft said homeowners underwater by 20 percent or more had a default rate that was four times that of homeowners with a current LTV ratio of 80 percent.

The U6 unemployment rate, which counts both people without work seeking full-time employment and those workers "marginally attached to the labor force and those working part-time for economic reasons," dropped 0.3 percentage points month over month down to 10.5 percent and is down from 12.1 percent in June 2014.

Bankruptcy filings in June 2015 experienced only a slight month-over-month increase despite having two more filing days in June than in May, according to June 2015 AACER bankruptcy data reported by Epiq Systems. In June 2015, there were 69,723 total bankruptcy filings, an increase of only 412 (only about half of 1 percent) from May's total of 69,311, despite June having 22 filing days compared to 20 for May.

Vacancy rates among single-family rental securitizations remained relatively flat month-over-month despite a general trend of a rising number of lease expirations, according to data reported by Morningstar Credit Ratings in its June 2015 Single-Family Research: Performance Summary Covering All Morningstar Rated Securitizations released Monday.

May's NMRI stood at 12.33 percent, which was an increase of 0.4 percentage points from the prior three-month average and a jump of 0.7 percentage points from May 2014, according to AEI. The composite risk index reached a series high, as did the index for Veterans Affairs-backed loans, while the share of high-risk loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) increased.

According to Fannie Mae's National Housing Survey for May 2015 released earlier this week, the majority of mortgage lenders (61 percent) believe that the economy is on the right track, while 29 percent said they believed it was on the wrong track.

The single-family REO-to-rental market is being consolidated seven years after the crash as some investors are still looking to profit, while others are taking advantage of economies of scale. ProTeck concluded there will always be a need for rental properties, and there will always be a need for investors to purchase those properties.