Market Studies

CoreLogic has released its fourth out of a series of four white papers entitled Foundation for a Sound Housing Market addressing the high-level aspects of the challenges today's mortgage servicing sector is facing.

Mortgage banking net income was $439 million, down $266 million from a year ago and $270 million from the prior quarter. Much of the year-over-year decline stemmed from a reduced benefit from credit loss provisions—$19 million compared to last year's $1 billion.

Citigroup reported an increase of 7 percent in its net income from $3.2 billion up to $3.4 billion year-over-year in the company's 2014 Third Quarter Earnings Report released on Tuesday.

PAR's latest quarterly housing report shows closed sales statewide totaled 41,371 in Q3, up 5.1 percent from the previous quarter. Year-over-year, third-quarter sales fell short 1.1 percent.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported there were 4.8 million job openings (3.4 percent) nationwide on the last business day in August, which was the highest level of job openings since January 2001.

The index tracks consumer cash flow through a handful of measures—tax burden, initial unemployment claims, real wages, and new home prices—as an indicator of future consumer spending. Out of those four gauges, only one improved: Real hourly wages were up 0.5 percent from August to $8.86 in September, Deloitte reported.

Now that the overall economy is on more solid ground, Wells Fargo economists suggest that housing may soon follow in its footsteps, according to Wells Fargo's Housing Chartbook for October 2014 released on Thursday.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been the top college town for home flipping so far in 2014, according to data released by RealtyTrac earlier this week.

According to results from Fannie Mae's September 2014 National Housing Survey, Americans' optimism about the housing market recovered last month.

Delinquency and foreclosure rates also were much improved. According to Trulia and Black Knight, the national delinquency and foreclosure rate was 74 percent back to normal in August—the same as one quarter ago and up from 56 percent one year ago. Trulia's chief economist, Jed Kolko, said that with the share of mortgage borrowers with negative or near-negative equity dropping, the default rate should continue to drop.