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May Housing Scorecard Released

May Housing Scorecard released

Photo credit: faungg’s photo cc

On June 13, HUD and the U.S. Department of the Treasury released the May housing report.  It shows a housing market slowly coming back to life from the recent intense winter, but still lagging in some indicators from last year.

“May’s Housing Scorecard shows that the housing market recovery is picking up after the harsh winter months,” said HUD assistant secretary, Katherine O’Regan. “More homeowners have positive equity, foreclosures continue their downward trend, and sales of new and existing homes are rebounding. While these are all good signs, it’s clear that we must remain committed to helping homeowners as they recover from the worst housing recession since the Great Depression.”

According to the Federal Reserve, homeowner equity was up almost $795 billion in the first quarter of 2014, with a total of $10.8 trillion in total equity. May’s figure was the highest level since the second quarter of 2007.

HUD’s and the Treasury Department’s Making Home Affordable Program have provided more than two million assistance actions, including almost 1.4 million permanent modifications through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). To date more than 8 million mortgage modification and other homeowner assistance actions were completed from April 2009 and April 2014.

Some highlights of the housing report:

  • The number of underwater borrowers dropped 48 percent. This brings more than 5.8 million homeowners above water from 2012 to the first quarter of 2014. This leaves 12.7 percent of residential properties with a mortgage still underwater.
  • According to a National Association of Realtors report, existing home sales grew to 387,500 in April. This is an increase of 1.3 percent over March’s numbers. April new home sales increased slightly to 433,000 compared to 415,800 in April 2013.
  • Foreclosure starts are down 10 percent from April’s numbers and 32 percent lower than April of last year. Foreclosures are the lowest numbers since December 2005.
  • According to Black Knight Financial Services, mortgage delinquency rates for prime borrowers increased slightly in April to 2.8 percent from 2.7 percent in March.

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    With almost 88 percent of all residential mortgages not underwater, foreclosures are at the lowest in seven years and mortgage rates are still low; the housing news is getting better, but there is a troubling question. Why are mortgage applications trending downward?

    Read Mortgage Credit Crisis or Potential Buyer Fears

    Comment here with why you think new mortgage applications continue to fall.

     
     
    Resources:

    DS News. “May Housing Scorecard Shows Progress in Equity and Home Sales” 18 June 2014. http://dsnews.com/news/06-13-2014/may-housing-scorecard-shows-progress-equity-home-sales

    HousingWire. “Scorecard: Despite positive housing reports, officials remain cautious” 18 June 2014. http://www.housingwire.com/articles/30320-scorecard-despite-positive-housing-reports-officials-remain-cautious

    HousingWire. “Bottom falls out as mortgage applications plunge 9.2%” 18 June 2014. http://www.housingwire.com/articles/30356-bottom-falls-out-as-mortgage-applications-plunge-92

     
     
     

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