Tag Archives: CoreLogic

Most mortgage fraud takes place in the short sale and REO space, according to Rob Hagberg, associate director of fraud investigations at Freddie Mac. ""This area is ripe with fraud,"" he said during a webinar hosted by CoreLogic. While servicers and others in the industry have adapted to some fraud schemes and put measures in place to detect and prevent fraud, schemes continue to evolve as fraudsters find new ways to manipulate sales. Both short sale and REO fraud often require fraudsters to convince servicers a home is worth less than it actually is.

Year-over-year home price gains in March landed in double-digit territory, according to CoreLogic's Home Price Index (HPI) report. Home prices-when including distressed sales--rose by 10.5 percent in March compared to the year before, marking the biggest annual gain since March 2006, the data provider reported. CoreLogic's pending HPI projects prices in April will show a 9.6 percent annual gain and rise by 1.3 percent month-over-month.

In its most recent foreclosure report, CoreLogic reported 55,000 homes were lost to foreclosure in March, up 6 percent from 52,000 completed foreclosures in February. Still, completed foreclosures stood 16 percent lower compared to the year ago level when 66,000 homes were lost to the process. CoreLogic also reported the number of homes in foreclosure inventory stood at 1.1 million, down 23 percent from March 2012 and down 1.9 percent from February.

CoreLogic, a leading residential property information, analytics, and services provider headquartered in California, announced its acquisition of Case-Shiller from Fiserv, Inc. The acquisition closed March 20.

The broadening housing recovery has firmed up home prices around the country, with the potential to restore many underwater mortgages to a position of positive equity, according to Fannie Mae's economic and strategic research group. Citing data from CoreLogic, the GSE notes that 1.7 million properties moved from negative to positive equity last year. Provided the home price gains seen so far this year continue, Fannie's economic analysts anticipate another 1.8 million properties will rise out of their underwater positions by the end of 2013.

Over the past couple years, rentals of single-family homes have served as a growing segment of the housing market. However, lately limited supply and rising home prices are leading to rising rents, thus slowing growth in this market, according to a report from CoreLogic. Having been on the decline since 2009, single-family rental properties now have about a 2.9-month supply available on the market. For comparison, anything below six months supply in the purchase market is considered low. The result of tight supply, naturally, is rising prices.

CoreLogic's Home Price Index (HPI) posted its largest annual increase in nearly seven years in February. When including distressed sales (short sales and REO transactions), home prices in February increased by 10.2 percent from February 2012, the data provider reported Wednesday. The annual gain marks the largest increase since March 2006. From January to February, prices still moved in a positive direction, but rose by just 0.5 percent.

Data from CoreLogic shows 54,000 homes were lost to foreclosure in February of this year, a 7 percent decline from January's downwardly revised 58,000. The data provider reported a steeper 19 percent year-over-year decrease for completed foreclosures. ""February's 54,000 completed foreclosures is the lowest level nationally since September 2007, with most major metropolitan areas experiencing improvements,"" said Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic.

In January, the number of homes still hidden in the shadows fell to 2.2 million, a 28 percent decrease from the January 2010 peak when an estimated three million housing units were in shadow inventory, data from CoreLogic revealed. The 2.2 million units represent a supply of nine months and a year-over-year decline of 18 percent from January 2012, CoreLogic reported. Seriously delinquent loans were the main drivers of shadow inventory, accounting for one million of the distressed properties yet to be released.

The time properties stay in distress before going to sale has increased nearly five fold since 2003 in non-judicial states, according to CoreLogic's March MarketPulse report. The data provider tracked months in distress from 2003 to 2012 and found the disposition timeline in both judicial and non-judicial states has seen a significant extension. In judicial states, the disposition timelines remained relatively constant at seven months but began to rise in mid-2008 before increasing to an average of 35 months. In non-judicial states, it takes about 24 months before a distressed property goes to sale.