Market Studies

While 38 states and 40 out of 50 metro areas showed an improving three-month trend in MiMi value for December, those numbers are down from December 2013. For that month, 47 states plus the District of Columbia and 47 of 50 metro areas showed an improving three-month trend.

The NAR’s latest look at existing-home sales shows that while sales nationally were 3.2 percent higher this January than last, single-family transactions were down almost 5 percent to 4.82 million. This is the lowest since last April’s 4.75 million.

Manufacturing growth slowed from December to January, according to an early February report from the Institute for Supply Management. Meanwhile, permits for future home construction dropped 0.7 percent month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.05 million, the Commerce Department said.

The default risk for Agency mortgage loan originations rose in January, marking the fifth straight month-over-month increase, according to the composite National Mortgage Risk Index (NMRI) released by AEI's International Center on Housing Risk. In January, the NMRI for Agency purchase loans increased to a series high of 11.94 percent. That number represented an increase of 0.4 percentage points from the October through December average and a jump of 0.8 percentage points from January 2014.

New York-based private investment firm BlueMountain Capital, a purported holder of notes issued by HLSS Servicer Advance Receivables Trust (HSART) wrote a letter last month accusing Ocwen of breach of contract and default on certain notes serviced by HLSS. Ocwen subsequently issued a statement vowing to "vigorously defend itself" against BlueMountain's accusations.

New household formation in the United States has recovered from the widespread job losses that came with the recession, according to a new study from the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southern California.

A recent study from Freddie Mac turned up some discouraging results to throw some cold water on economists' high hopes: The job fields that are expected to grow most in the coming years happen to have some of the lowest homeownership rates.

The nation's mortgage delinquency rate for loans 60 days or more overdue continued its steady decline in the fourth quarter of 2014, falling to 3.29 percent – representing a 14 percent drop from the same quarter in 2013 (3.84 percent), according to TransUnion's latest mortgage report.

Balances went up across most categories, led by a $39 billion increase in mortgage debt to a total of $8.2 trillion. Student loan debt—a commonly cited obstacle for recent college graduates interested in owning a home—followed closely, increasing $31 billion to a total of $1.2 trillion.

The nation's first mortgage default index stayed flat in January while the national composite credit default index rose slightly for the sixth straight month, according to the S&P Dow Jones Indices and S&P/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices for January 2015 released Tuesday. According to the data, the first mortgage default index remained at 1.02 percent from December to January after experiencing its largest increase in 15 months (five basis points) from November to December. January's first mortgage default level is still 14 basis points above its lowest level of 0.88 percent, which was reached in July 2014.