News

Compared to the two-year high for new home sales in May, June's figures were met with disappointment. On Wednesday, the Census Bureau reported new home sales dropped 8.4 percent month-over-month. In an IHS Global Insight commentary, economists Patrick Newport and Michele Valverde pointed out that figures for March, April, and May were all revised up, and that sales were up in the Midwest and West, but down in the Northeast and South.Thus, IHS described the report as mixed. Also, unless June ends up breaking the trend for upward revisions, a Capital Economics report said June's sales would have actually been 383,000 if the adjustments seen in previous months are added.

Data in Barclays' newest Securitization Products Weekly suggests that distressed markets are outperforming others in home appreciation and paving the way for a broad-based housing recovery. Barclays waved off concerns about shadow inventory, saying it is more of a symptom than a cause of depreciation and speculated that the share of distressed homes is a more significant factor keeping home prices down. An increased REO stock should actually be taken as a positive sign for non-distressed prices, Barclays said.

New home sales fell to a five-month low, 350,000, in June, the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development reported jointly Wednesday. Economists had expected sales to inch up slightly from the preliminary sales report in May. May sales were revised up to 382,000 from the originally reported 369,000.

Defendants who operated a national loan modification scam were ordered to pay more than $4 million in penalties and restitution, including $2 million to consumers who were falsely promised loan modifications, California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris announced Tuesday in a statement.

Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), laid out the agency's aims to reform mortgage lending standards before a Congressional subcommittee Tuesday. Speaking before the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services, and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs, Cordray acknowledged that although the Dodd-Frank Act has had a hand in improving most consumer lending markets, tight mortgage lending standards have kept creditworthy borrowers out of homes.

Radar Logic's composite to measure home prices may show monthly and yearly gains, but contrary to other reports, the analytics company argues that the increases don't mean prices have hit bottom. Radar Logic's CEO Michael Feder said people who look at current results and call a bottom are being dangerously short-sighted. The company contends the increases are due to temporary forces, such as the warm winter weather, and appreciation may not be consistent for the entire year based on previous trends.

Limited inventory and increased competition helped push June's average home sales-to-listing price ratio above 95 percent, according to the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. HousingPulse attributed the boost to increased competition for the falling inventory of non-distressed property listings, as well as particularly strong home purchase activity in California, Nevada, and Arizona.

For the first time since 2007, home values saw a year-over-year gain in the second quarter of 2012, according to the Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI). The index showed homes increased in value by 0.2 percent to $149,300 from last year's second quarter. Adding to the gain in value, foreclosures decreased again in June, with 5.8 out of every 10,000 homes counted as a foreclosure. Foreclosures have been on the decline since January, when 7.9 out of every 10,000 homes were foreclosed on.

Following promising reports of sales in California's Southland Empire, DataQuick issued another release revealing that foreclosure activity is down in the state. According to the company's data, the number of California homes entering the formal foreclosure process dropped in the year's second quarter to its lowest level since early 2007.

A major player in the ongoing Countrywide settlement dropped its suit against the defunct mortgage unit on Monday. According to news services, Walnut Place, otherwise known as Baupost Group, withdrew objections to a proposed $8.5 billion settlement currently under way with Bank of America, which bought Countrywide in 2008. Several reports held that a tentative deal had been reached by institutional investors last year to settle allegations of systematic misrepresentation.