Market Studies

The CMBS delinquency rate made a steep drop in August, marking the first fall since February 2012, according to Trepp. After five months of increases, the CMBS delinquency rate fell 21 basis points to 10.13 percent in August from 10.34 in July. The plunge in August is the largest since November 2011.

Amid uncertainty regarding another stimulus from the Fed, mortgage rates generally declined over the week last week. In his recent speech, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke left the door wide open for further stimulus, according to Bankrate.com. Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft reports mortgage rates ""were little changed"" overall last week. According to the GSE, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.55 percent (0.7 point), demonstrating a decline from both the previous week and last year. The rate the GSE reported the previous week was 3.59 percent.

Despite recent gains, homeowners still feel antsy about the housing market, with 4 out of 5 home-owning Americans unlikely to buy or refinance their homes, according to a recent poll. Union Plus, an arm of the AFL-CIO, conducted the survey with Harris Interactive. The findings? Only employees between ages 18 and 34 felt interested in making a housing investment over the next 12 months.

Homes are spending less time on the market as supply conditions tighten, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released Wednesday. The median time homes stayed listed was down 29.6 percent to 69 days in July compared to 98 days in July 2011. While the overall median is down, the report stated one in five homes bought in July stayed on the market for at least six months.

The number of homeowners who received permanent, affordable proprietary loan modifications jumped up 43 percent from June to July, HOPE NOW reported Wednesday. The voluntary, private sector alliance of mortgage professionals and non-profit counselors released its July 2012 loan modification data, revealing that an estimated 66,002 homeowners received proprietary loan modifications in July, an increase from 46,208 in June.

After seven straight months of gains, commercial real estate (CRE) loan prices took a slight dip in July, DebtX reported Wednesday. According to a release from the company, the aggregate value of CRE loans priced by DebtX that collateralize CMBS dropped to 88.3 percent as of July 31, a small drop from 88.4 percent at the end of June. Loan values were 85.3 percent as of July 30.

While home prices remained little changed, the REO saturation rate fell for the first time this year, according to Clear Capital's Home Data Index Market report, which included data to the end of August. The REO saturation rate, which calculates the portion of REO sales relative to total sales, slipped 6.4 percentage points from the previous quarter to 20.5 percent. The drop is the lowest the REO saturation rate has been since April 2008.

For the fourth consecutive quarter, the mortgage industry posted a net gain in jobs, according to Mortgage Daily's Second Quarter 2012 Mortgage Employment Index. However, the net gain reported in the second quarter is well under the gain reported for the first quarter of the year. According to the report, 1,335 jobs were added to the mortgage industry in the second quarter, down from 2,969 added in the first quarter but up from a net loss of 464 jobs a year ago.

Home prices in July saw the biggest nationwide year-over-year increase since August 2006, CoreLogic reported Tuesday. According to the company's July Home Price Index (HPI), home prices-including distressed sales-increased year-over-year by 3.8 percent in July. On a month-over-month basis, prices increased 1.3 percent from June. July marked the fifth consecutive increase in home prices on both a monthly and yearly basis.

While RealtyTrac found that the average foreclosure discount is 31.74 percent, found that the nationwide average for foreclosure discounts is 31.74 percent, there are some states that are much more generous. Foreclosure discounts include homes in foreclosure or properties that are bank-owned.