Tag Archives: Home Prices

The housing market may be stabilizing as house prices and REO saturation rates show little change on a quarterly and yearly basis, according to Clear Capital's most recent Home Data Index. Nationally, prices rose just 0.3 percent while the REO saturation rate was relatively unchanged at 24.6 percent over the most recent quarter, according to data through the end of November. Clear Capital measures housing data on a rolling quarter, which compares the most recent four months with the previous three.

Home price indexes from CoreLogic and Lender Processing Services (LPS) both recorded continuing declines through October. CoreLogic's study shows national home prices dropped 1.3 percent month-over-month, marking the third straight decline. LPS' report indicates the same downward trajectory, with preliminary data pointing to a 1.1 percent decline for October, on the heels of a 1.2 percent drop in September. Looking forward, CoreLogic's forecasts indicate flat growth through 2013 for residential home prices.

The current year will close with a 7 percent yearly decline in mortgage delinquencies, matching last year's decline, according to predictions released Wednesday by TransUnion. The percent of borrowers 60 days or more delinquent will fall to 5.95 percent by the end of the year, and will fall to 5 percent by the end of 2012, the credit bureau says. However, despite yearly declines, TransUnion's forecasters expect a slight rise in delinquencies through the first quarter of 2012.

Home price predictions have traditionally been fairly straightforward, relying heavily on employment and income levels, according to Michael Sklarz of Collateral Analytics. However, the last cycle has posed challenges for analysts, Sklarz noted during a panel at the Five Star MPact Conference held in Dallas this week. Industry experts participating in the discussion stressed that national predictors - even if accurate - may not be relevant on a local basis.

We are five years through a 10-year adjustment process, Fannie Mae's chief economist Doug Duncan told attendees at the Five Star MPact Mortgage Banking Conference and Expo Tuesday morning. Dodd-Frank has 300 rules that must be implemented in the market. Regulators are only halfway through that list so far; the second half will be enacted over the next couple of years. While the market will recover, Duncan stressed that it will take time to adjust to new regulations.

With about 800,000 REOs and about 1 million properties in some stage of default, it is difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel. However, that is just what a group of four analysts tried to do at a panel session Monday during the Five Star MPact Mortgage Banking Conference and Expo. Rick Sharga of Carrington Mortgage Holdings noted that in every previous recession, housing has brought us out, but in this recession, it dragged us in. As a result, he says, recovery this time will be a bit different.

The Federal Reserve released a new market-gauging rendition of its Beige Book Wednesday. The publication recounts signs of slow to moderate economic growth across 11 of the 12 Fed districts. The St. Louis district was the lone dissenter, reporting a decline in economic activity. Residential real estate activity overall was described as ""sluggish,"" while commercial real estate activity was depicted as ""lackluster"" across most of the nation. Mortgage refinancing, however, was said to have grown at a rapid pace.

Edward DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), has announced the appointments of Richard B. Hornsby, as FHFA's COO and Jon Greenlee as the agency's deputy director of the division of enterprise regulation. Hornsby served at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco for 26 years, holding a variety of senior level management and banking supervision positions. Greenlee joins FHFA from KPMG LLP, where he was the managing director in the financial services regulatory advisory practice.

The depreciation of home values over the past half-decade has left millions of mortgage borrowers owing more than their home is worth -- 10.7 million, according to CoreLogic. The company's latest negative equity study found 22.1 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage were underwater as of the end of September. That's down from 22.5 percent - or 10.9 million - at the end of the second quarter, but CoreLogic says the number remains high and makes borrowers more vulnerable to economic shocks such as job loss or illness.

Home prices rose in the third quarter of 2011, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) house price index released Tuesday. The index is calculated using home sales price information from Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-acquired mortgages. It rose 0.2 percent between the second and third quarters. Even with the marginal uptick during the summer months, FHFA's gauge shows that over the past year, home prices have fallen 3.7 percent when compared to the third quarter of 2010.