News

Despite improvements in home values, Radar Logic continues to contend the factors underpinning the recovery will not lead to sustainable price gains. In March, Radar Logic's home price index, which tracks 25 metro areas, showed a 13.1 percent year-over-year gain. Even with the double-digit gain, the data and analytics firm touched on several points to explain why the trend won't last, with the main one being the temporary issue of limited supply. Demand is also not expected to last since it is driven by low mortgage rates and institutional investors.

According to BEA, profits fell for both financial and non-financial corporations in the first quarter. For financial corporations, it was the fourth quarterly decline in profits in the last five quarters. The slip in financial corporation profits comes at a particularly critical time for the financial sector, as housing-so heavily dependent on lending institutions--is in the midst of a nascent recovery, and that recovery is causing concerns that we may be on the cusp of yet a new housing bubble. Recent data shows home prices rising at the fastest pace since the housing bubble burst.

While reverse mortgages can be a boon to seniors as they head into retirement, a new report from the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) says recent trends show trouble in the market that may cost taxpayers billions of dollars. According to a 2012 MetLife survey, two-thirds of borrowers are now using reverse mortgages to pay down debt. Pamela Villarreal, a senior fellow at NCPA, expects the ""troubling trend will increase as more baby boomers enter retirement with mortgage debt than previous generations.""

As of the end of May, borrowers have cashed or deposited 2.6 million foreclosure review checks, according to the latest update from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The checks are valued at $2.3 billion and are part of a foreclosure settlement reached in January between the OCC, the Federal Reserve Board, and 13 servicers.

Over 4.2 million single-family residential properties across 19 states are at risk of encountering hurricane-driven storm surge damage, according to CoreLogic's latest storm surge report. In a worst-case scenario situation, CoreLogic's analysis also found risk for property damage is valued at $1.1 trillion. Out of the over 4 million properties at risk, CoreLogic reported more than 976,000 of the homes are in an ""extreme risk"" zone, meaning they are at risk for damage from a hurricane of any category.

In some markets, the recent home price gains may actually be too rapid, leading to concerns of a market imbalance that could eventually stall or reverse the positive trend, according to an analysis from Fitch Ratings. While the unemployment rate is trending down and low mortgage rates are helping with affordability, certain areas are seeing prices accelerate far beyond job growth and incomes. This particular problem has been especially notable in markets that have not fully recovered from the previous bubble, which includes several cities in California, the agency found.

Restrained by drops in farm income and sequester-driven cuts in government programs, personal income slipped $5.6 billion in April while personal consumption spending dropped $20.5 billion, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Friday. Though the income drop was less than one percent (0.04 percent), and it was less than the 0.1 percent increase forecast by economists who also expected April spending to be flat compared to March.

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman recently brought attention to two foreclosure bills meant to provide greater protection to homeowners in the state. The Certificate of Merit gives homeowners who are facing foreclosure the chance to participate in a court-supervised mediation session with their bank.

Waushara County in Wisconsin is now using eRecording to electronically record real estate and land use records.

Encouraging economic data helped lift fixed mortgage rates to their highest level in the past year this week, according to surveys from Freddie Mac and Bankrate.com. Freddie Mac's survey showed the 30-year fixed rate rising to an average 3.81 percent (0.8 point) for the week ending May 30, up from last week's 3.59 percent. Since the beginning of May, the 30-year fixed average has jumped up nearly half a percentage point. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) also soared this week, rising to 2.98 percent (0.7 point) from last week's 2.77 percent.