Market Studies

In what seems to be an ever-increasing trend, both sales and prices of homes and condos in Connecticut increased on a year-over-year basis in April, according to a recent report by the Warren Group, a provider of real estate data in New England. ""Sales of single-family homes and condos have been climbing year-over-year for seven straight months now and prices have also been on the rise,"" said Timothy M. Warren Jr., CEO of the Warren Group.

Home loan servicers are continuing to step up efforts to put distressed homeowners into more sustainable mortgages, according to data released this week by HOPE NOW. The number of loan modifications offered to homeowners during the month of April - more than 172,000 - represents a 46 percent increase compared to a year earlier, when the industry completed nearly 118,000 loan mods. Nearly two-thirds of the April 2010 number were through servicers' own proprietary, non-government mod programs.

After weeks of continuous declines, mortgage rates remained nearly unchanged for the week ending June 3, 2010, Freddie Mac and Bankrate reported Thursday. According to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.79 percent this week, barely inching up from last week's average of 4.78 percent. Bankrate's study put 30-year rates at 4.95 percent this week, up slightly from 4.92 percent.

The economic downturn has choked off demand for commercial space, with vacancy rates rising and new occupancy limited by the duress in today's job market. At the same time, commercial real estate (CRE) values have dropped more than 40 percent in some markets. Plagued with the same trip wires that have set off a barrage of residential mortgage delinquencies - unemployment and negative equity - the CRE market, too, is seeing default volumes soar to new heights, both on loans held by banks and those owned by securities investors.

Revealing a discouraging forecast for the U.S. housing market, a recent consumer poll found that 49 percent of respondents feel they will never be able to save enough money for a downpayment on a home. The poll, conducted by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, found that of those remaining, just 12 percent feel they would have no trouble coming up with a 20 percent downpayment. With today's turbulent housing market, the problem of being unable to afford a downpayment is spreading.

In a reflection of the broad impact of the homebuyer tax credit and favorable housing affordability conditions, April marked the third consecutive month that pending homes sales have risen, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Wednesday. NAR's pending sales index, which is based on contracts signed during the month, climbed 6 percent compared to March and soared 22.4 percent from April of last year, as buyers rushed to sign contracts before the April 30 deadline of the extended and expanded homebuyer tax credit.

Following an 11.3 percent surge the week prior, overall mortgage loan application volume nudged up just 0.9 percent for the week ending May 28, 2010, as refinance applications began to level out and purchase applications continued to decline, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Wednesday. According to MBA's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey, the purchase index fell 4.1 percent from one week earlier, while the refinance index jumped 2.4 percent.

April marked yet another month of improvement for the residential real estate market in Massachusetts. According to a recent report released by the Warren Group, a provider of real estate data in New England, the Bay State saw year-over-year increases in both sales and prices of single-family homes and condos in April.

April proved to be a month of continued stabilization for the Illinois housing market, as both home sales and prices jumped on a year-over-year basis, the Illinois Association of Realtors (IAR) recently reported. According to IAR, statewide total home sales totaled 10,323 transactions in April 2010, jumping 34.4 percent from April 2009. In addition, the association said the median home price in April was $157,450, up 5 percent from the same month last year.

The number of unpaid mortgages in the United States declined again in April, but delinquency roll rates remain high, according to an industry report released Monday by Lender Processing Services (LPS). The Florida-based analytics firm says that while signs of stabilization in the nation's mortgage delinquency and foreclosure rates may be emerging, the progress is largely neutralized by the more than 7 million loans still in distress.