Market Studies

Recent analysis found that 17 percent of loans currently fail for Truth in Lending Act (TILA) reasons and another 6 percent of the loans failed for being outside of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) tolerances.

A lingering effect of the financial crisis nearly seven years later, the number of borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth in the United States totaled 15 million at their peak. That number has been reduced to slightly below half by many factors, including foreclosures, short sales, and rapidly rising home values.

Robust demand and declining inventory were the driving factors behind the increase in home prices, according to contacts in most Fed districts. Inventories in nearly all districts declined or stayed flat, except for Kansas City, where they slightly increased

While existing-home sales have seen solid gains in 2015, reaching levels not seen since before the crisis seven years ago, the rate of increase may be slowing down, according to data released by Auction.com on Tuesday.

According to Morningstar, the retention rate for month-to-month leases improved for most of the transactions in July after dropping in 15 out of 17 transactions in June. The retention rates of scheduled lease expirations remained within Morningstar's expectations for July, in the mid-70s. 

Freddie Mac's monthly Insight & Outlook report for August 2015 released Monday found that a substantial amount of human judgment is required in addition to statistics when determining if a housing market is overvalued or when home prices are likely to drop.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) launched its consumer complaint database in July 2012, one year after beginning operations, and it began publishing complaint narratives in June 2015. Some financial companies expressed concern over the Bureau's publishing of complaint narratives ...

Additionally, the index has increased year-over-year for 11 consecutive months and is the third highest reading of 2015, behind April (111.6) and May (112.3).

Q2's real GDP growth is consistent with the positive news for most housing metrics as of late. Existing home sales are at pre-recession levels, and in the July 2015 pending home sales report released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), pending home sales were up by 7.4 percent year-over-year. Affordability and tight inventory remain obstacles to home sales, however.

While much of the overall economic news has been positive as of late, a survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia released Wednesday indicated that low- to moderate-income (LMI) households are still struggling in the areas of employment and household stability.