News

As the private sector struggles with regulatory uncertainty, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will continue to maintain their dominant role in the housing market, according to a report from Fitch Ratings. Since the GSEs act as key players in the market's fragile recovery, political motivation for far-reaching GSE reform has been limited, the rating agency explained. Although regulators and politicians have emphasized the need for the private sector capital to enter the mortgage market, Fitch said ""results have been disappointing.""

The housing market is seeing prices appreciate at a normal pace, with further growth expected in the next five years, according to Fiserv Inc. From Q3 2011 to Q3 2012, home prices rose by 3.6 percent, the Fiserv Case-Shiller Indexes revealed. Furthermore, Fiserv predicts a 0.6 percent increase in home prices from Q3 2012 to Q3 2013. The gains are expected to continue into the next 5 years, with prices projected to grow at an annualized rate of 3.3 percent from Q3 2012 to the Q3 2017. When excluding gains from the 2009 and 2010 home buyer tax credits, Fiserv noted 2012 was the first positive year for home prices and home sales volumes.

Mortgage debt for U.S. households was roughly unchanged quarter-over-quarter, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Household Debt and Credit report. Mortgage debt stood at $8.03 trillion in Q4, making up the largest component of household debt. At the same time, overall consumer debt increased by $31 billion to $11.34 trillion, a slight 0.3 percent increase from the third quarter.

Specialized Business Software announced enhancements to Docunym--a web-based document management and workflow solution. The enhancements enable mortgage servicers to manage and retrieve loan documents faster.

Redfin's latest survey shows a shortage of inventory and rising prices--both of which naturally benefit sellers--are creating frustration for buyers trying to get in on the ground floor of the housing recovery. According to Redfin's findings, 79 percent of buyers who responded to the survey now believe home prices will increase in their neighborhood over the next year, up from 71 percent in Q4 2012. The share of buyers who believe prices will rise ""a lot"" more than doubled, increasing to 22 percent from 10 percent previously.

The sad fact of the budget sequestration being played out in Washington is how avoidable it was. The sadder fact is that however temporary it might prove to be--and that appears from a distance to be more of a wish than a forecast--it will affect real people, and not well. The effects of sequestration go beyond the impact of jobs loss because defense or other contractors are not hired or because federal workers are furloughed. The effects will put even more homeowners at risk of delinquency, or worse, foreclosure, just at a time when the housing sector is recovering.

The volume of underperforming CMBS loans in the hands of special servicers fell to the lowest level since 2009, Fitch Ratings reported. At the end of 2012, the volume of specially serviced CMBS loans decreased to $70.6 billion after peaking at $91.7 billion in 2010, according to the rating agency. Fitch attributed the decrease to a significant drop in the number of loans transferred to special servicing in 2012 and the high number of loan resolutions.

While some read recent home price gains as a sign of an improving market, Radar Logic warns the recent gains are ""unsustainable"" and may actually be dampening market recovery. Radar Logic attributes recent house price gains to anomalous factors it considers temporary, including low interest rates and elevated investor demand. ""None of these drivers are likely to last, particularly as housing prices increase,"" RadarLogic stated in its December RPX Monthly Housing Market Report.

Historically, higher-priced homes are a leading indicator of the real estate market and tend to lead the market during times of recovery, according to the Home Value Forecast (HVF) report jointly released by Pro Teck Valuation Services and Collateral Analytics. The companies assessed price changes in the Bay Area and around Los Angeles and found the high-end markets showed stronger price growth compared to lower-priced areas. The HVF report also included a list of the 10 best and worst performing metros for February based on factors such as sales/listing activity and prices, months of remaining inventory (MRI), days on market (DOM), sold-to-list price ratio, and foreclosure and REO activity.

Mortgage rates finally broke their holding pattern this week, pulling back as reports demonstrated the housing market's ongoing strength and the global economy's precariousness. According to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.51 percent (0.8 point) for the week ending February 28, dropping from 3.56 percent previously. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.90 percent. Bankrate.com's weekly national survey showed rates falling to five-week lows.