Market Studies

As recent data provide reasons to be both positive and worried about the economy, restrained optimism seems to be the phrase to describe how the public should respond to current economic indicators. Wednesday's release of the Beige Book revealed economic outlooks remain positive, but contacts were slightly more guarded in their optimism, while the Obama administration's Housing Scorecard relayed a similar sentiment. The scorecard provides an overview of the state of the market based on reports published within the public and private sectors.

The June 6 edition of HVF's ""Lessons from the Data"" showed that rent-to-value ratios, also called rental yields, tend to be highest in areas with elastic markets, such as Las Vegas. In areas of the city where the ease of adding new housing keeps home prices low, rental yields in certain neighborhoods climbed to 14 percent or higher. On the other hand, areas with restrained housing markets (like many neighborhoods in the New York metro) see yields lower than 2 percent.

The economy expanded at a modest to moderate pace from early April to the end of May, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday in its periodic Beige Book. The assessment reflected a weakening from the report in April when the expansion was characterized as moderate. Economic outlooks, according to the report, ""remain positive, but contacts were slightly more guarded in their optimism."" Activity in the New York, Cleveland, Atlanta, Chicago, Kansas City, Dallas, and San Francisco districts was described as moderate, while the Richmond, St. Louis, and Minneapolis districts noted modest growth.

The survey, released Wednesday, revealed that more than 83 percent of 2009-2010 homebuyers believe owning a home is still an integral part of the American Dream. Furthermore, 88.7 percent of respondents said they were happy with their purchases, citing a multitude of reasons such as the ""stability of owning [their] own property,"" the relief of ""getting away from renting,"" and ""having a yard and a real 'neighborhood feel,'"" to name a few.

Asking prices fell flat in May after three consecutive monthly increases while also decreasing from the year before, according to reports from Trulia. Asking prices on homes for sale were unchanged in May on a seasonally adjusted basis and fell by 0.2 percent year-over-year. However, when excluding foreclosures, asking prices actually rose 1 percent on a yearly basis, while foreclosure prices dropped 5.8 percent over the same time period.

Tuesday's report showed that during the first quarter of 2012, the 60+ day delinquency rate for commercial and multifamily mortgages held in life insurance company portfolios decreased 0.03 percentage points to 0.14 percent. The 60+ day rate for multifamily loans held or insured by Fannie Mae also decreased, falling 0.22 percentage points to 0.37 percent. The 90+ day delinquency rate for loans held by FDIC-insured banks and thrifts dropped 0.13 percentage points to 3.44 percent.

Home prices across the nation rose in April, and a further increase is expected for May's index, according to CoreLogic's April Home Price Index (HPI) report. The report, released Tuesday, showed that home prices in the United States (including distressed sales-short sales and REO transactions) increased on a year-over-year basis by 1.1 percent in April. This was the second consecutive year-over-year increase in 2012 and the first time two consecutive increases have occurred since June 2010. On a month-over-month basis, home prices increased by 2.2 percent in April, marking the second consecutive month-over-month increase this year.

For the first time since August 2010, home prices rose on both a quarterly and yearly basis, according to the May 2012 Home Data Index (HDI) report released by Clear Capital. Quarter-over-quarter, prices appreciated 0.4 percent, the first quarterly increase since November 2011. Year-over-year, prices rose by 0.1 percent, according to the index. The increases were attributed to stronger regional growth in the West, Northeast, and South, as well as a rise in REO-only prices.

Pre-foreclosure homes that sold in 2012's first quarter took an average of 306 days to sell after starting the foreclosure process, a decrease from 308 days in the previous quarter but up from 256 days in the first quarter of 2011. The FHFA issued guidelines in April that will require servicers to make a decision within 30-60 days of receiving an offer on a property under a short sale program. The new deadline requirements, which go into effect June 15, comes as a welcome change to buyers and sellers who felt that servicers were taking too long to complete sales.

The number of loans refinanced through HARP in the first quarter of 2012 was nearly double the number of refinances in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) March 2012 Refinance Report. The report showed that 180,185 loans were refinanced through HARP during the year's first quarter, nearly twice the 93,190 refinances in the previous quarter. The month of March alone saw 79,470 loans refinanced with HARP, and nearly one in seven loan refinances in the quarter were done through program. The FHFA attributed most of this increase to the launch of HARP 2.0, an enhanced version of the program that eliminated loan-to-value (LTV) ceilings for borrowers.