Friday, December 10, 2010

Housing Inventory Drops in November, Still Above 2009 Numbers

A new report from ZipRealty shows the supply of homes for sale in November declined by an average of 3.8 percent in 26 major metropolitan areas that the company researched. The largest inventory declines were seen in Austin, Texas, where the for-sale supply fell 9.5 percent, and Boston, Massachusetts, down 10 percent. The company says declines could be indicative of sellers deciding to take their homes off the market, and could also be a result of foreclosure moratoriums.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Pressure Mounts for Fannie and Freddie to Write Down Mortgages

With property values still tumbling, it's no surprise that nearly a quarter of the nation's mortgage borrowers owe more than their home is worth. Industry studies support the consensus that the farther a borrower sinks into negative equity, the more likely they are to throw in the towel. The severity of this catch-22 is now top-of-mind for government officials. The administration is reportedly pressuring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to make principal write-downs a key component of their foreclosure prevention efforts.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Radar Logic Says Home Prices Not as Stable as Thought

Recently released information from Radar Logic claims home prices experienced a much sharper decline than the decline shown in other companies' reports. Radar Logic's September housing market report released on Thursday shows the composite index of home prices experienced a 2.7 percent decline from the previous month. Radar Logic asserts that its data, which is compiled from measurements of 25 metropolitan statistical areas, shows that the housing market is weaker than it might appear.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Distressed Homes 25% of Third-Quarter Sales: RealtyTrac

New data released by RealtyTrac Thursday shows that distressed homes - including those in default, scheduled for foreclosure auction, and REO - accounted for 25 percent of all U.S. residential sales during the third quarter. These properties sold at an average of 32 percent below the price of their non-distressed counterparts. The company tracked 113,933 REO sales during the July to September period and 74,815 pre-foreclosure, typically short sale, transactions.

Monday, November 22, 2010

CoreLogic Home Price Index Shows Decline for Second Straight Month

Home prices in the United States have declined for two months in a row, according to CoreLogic's market index, after rising for the first seven months of the year. The latest CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI) shows that national home prices, including distressed sales, declined 2.79 percent in September 2010 when compared to September 2009. That follows a drop of 1.08 percent in August 2010 from a year earlier. All but seven states saw a decline in residential property values during the month of September.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Analysts See 7% Drop in Home Prices over Next Year

Despite a bounce in home prices during the first half of 2010, Fiserv Inc. says it expects property values nationally to fall another 7.1 percent over the next 12 months before beginning to stabilize at the end of 2011. The company sees double-dip territory ahead for many major markets, particularly those that saw the strongest appreciation during the spring and summer months of this year. The analysts at Standard & Poor's have released a similar forecast for the path of home prices. They anticipate an additional 7 percent to 10 percent drop through 2011.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

FHA's Annual Single-Family Business Down 10% from Last Year

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insured 1.74 million single-family mortgages during fiscal year 2010, which for the agency ended in September. The collective value of the loans endorsed was $318.8 billion. FHA's loan volume for the year was down 10.3 percent from 2009, and came in below the 1.87 million mortgages it had previously projected would be endorsed in the 2010 fiscal year. The agency's serious delinquency rate stood at 8.4 percent at year-end. At the same time in 2009, the rate was 8.3 percent.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Fitch Says 7M Homes in the Shadows Will Take 40 Months to Clear

Fitch Ratings puts the industry's shadow inventory - meaning loans that are seriously delinquent, in foreclosure, or REO - at 7 million homes. The agency says based on recent liquidation trends, it will take more than 40 months to clear this distressed inventory. While the volume of newly delinquent mortgages has begun to improve, liquidation rates have been constrained by weak demand and initiatives to modify loans. On top of that, Fitch says the recent discovery of defects in the foreclosure process is prolonging the housing correction.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Study: Shadow Inventory to Keep REO Supply Elevated for Several Years

An estimated 4.1 million borrowers are in the process of foreclosure or are more than 90 days delinquent. Their homes make up what's been termed the shadow inventory -- a pent up supply of REOs that could drive down home prices and perhaps cause another wave of defaults. Guhan Venkatu, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, says even under the most benign projections, the stock of REO properties is likely to remain elevated for the next several years.