Mortgage delinquencies continued a downward trend and were substantially below year-ago levels, while sales of existing homes in January and February marked the strongest start to a year since 2007, according to the Obama administration’s March housing scorecard.
However, data on home prices changed little from the previous month – marking a fifth month of seasonal lows.
The March Housing Scorecard features key data on the health of the housing market and the impact of the Administration’s foreclosure prevention programs, including:
Mortgage delinquency rates continued a downward trend and are substantially below year ago levels. In addition, foreclosure completions ticked downward last month, although increased activity is expected in the coming months as firms lift processing delays following the landmark mortgage servicing settlement reached with the five largest banks in early February.
More than 5.8 million modification arrangements were started between April 2009 and the end of February 2012.
As of February, more than 970,000 homeowners received a permanent HAMP modification, saving more than $530 on their mortgage payments each month.
http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/press/press_releases_media_advisories/2012/HUDNo.12-068
CNNMoney
Renting used to be cheaper than buying, but in many U.S. cities that’s no longer the case as rent continue to climb and home prices stagnate.
Read the full story
http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/05/real_estate/buy-rent-home-prices/index.htm?iid=HP_LN
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has learned that businesses have received emails that falsely purport to originate from the CFPB. These emails contain the subject line “Consumer Complaint regarding your Company.” They direct recipients to respond to consumer complaints filed against them.
The CFPB did not send or direct anyone to send these emails.
These emails may be malicious. To minimize the risks they may present, recipients are advised to do the following:
1. Do not respond to the email
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The CFPB continues to investigate this incident and will respond accordingly.
Washington Post
With U.S. borrowers owing a collective $700 billion more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, and foreclosures ramping up again in many places, it might seem surprising that experts are increasingly optimistic.
Read the full story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/housing-experts-optimistic-despite-dismal-data/2012/03/26/gIQA7UH2eS_story.html
After years of home price declines and tightening rental markets, homeownership is now more affordable than renting in all but two of the 100 largest metros – even in expensive real estate markets such as New York, Los Angeles and Boston, according to Trulia. Only in Honolulu and San Francisco is renting often a better deal than buying. However, buying a home in these markets might make sense for people who plan to stay in their next home for at least five years and can benefit from the mortgage-interest tax deduction.
Trulia’s Winter 2012 Rent vs. Buy Index, which tracks whether it is more affordable to rent or buy a home in America’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, is based on asking prices for rental units and for-sale homes on Trulia.com between December 1, 2011, and February 29, 2012. The index reveals the relative cost of renting versus buying for similar homes in similar neighborhoods.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, homeownership is most expensive relative to renting in San Francisco, the Peninsula (San Mateo County) and in the South Bay (Santa Clara County). In the East Bay (Alameda County and Contra Costa County), where vacancies are higher and foreclosures more common, buying looks even better relative to renting than in the rest of the Bay Area. But the region overall has become more affordable, especially in San Francisco and San Mateo counties, where the price-to-rent ratio dropped more than three points between Winter 2011 and Winter 2012.
Even in real estate markets where buying is generally cheaper than renting a home, renting might actually be a better deal on a larger house. In most major metros, the price-to-rent ratio is lower for smaller homes, so buying seems even more affordable relative to renting for a one-bedroom or studio home than for a home with three or more bedrooms. In fact, renting a home with more than two bedrooms can be less expensive than buying in New York, NY-NJ and San Francisco. Size, however, factors less into the rent versus buy decision in Chicago and Miami.
More info
USA Today
Housing appears to be rated a “buy” these days, especially among investors, who see a ripe and rising rental market and big potential for income.
Read the full story:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/story/2012-03-04/cnbc-real-estate-is-it-time-to-buy/53338660/1
Recent improvements in the overall economy, combined with extremely low interest rates lifted California home sales from both the prior month and year in February, according to data from C.A.R. The median price dipped from January but is beginning to show signs of stabilization.
“While the median home price dipped in February, the year-over-year decline was the smallest recorded since December 2010,” said C.A.R. President LeFrancis Arnold. “This may be a signal of a possible stabilization in home prices, which should bode well for prospective buyers who have been on the sidelines waiting for prices to level out and may entice them to jump into the market.”
Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California totaled a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 528,010 in February, according to information collected by C.A.R. from more than 90 local REALTOR® associations and MLSs statewide. February’s sales were up 2.1 percent from January’s revised pace of 517,120 and up 5.5 percent from the revised 500,480 sales pace recorded in February 2011. The statewide sales figure represents what would be the total number of homes sold during 2012 if sales maintained the February pace throughout the year. It is adjusted to account for seasonal factors that typically influence home sales.
The statewide median price of an existing, single-family detached home dipped 0.6 percent to $266,660 in February from January’s $268,280 median price. The median price was down 1.7 percent from the revised $271,370 median price recorded in February 2011.
http://www.car.org/newsstand/newsreleases/2012releases/Febsales
The Wall Street Journal
As more people refinance home mortgages, some are getting tripped up by tax-deduction rules. Those who decide to borrow more than they owe on their existing mortgage often assume they can write off interest on the whole new loan, but in many cases they can’t.
Read the full story
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203960804577239152801934074.html?mod=WSJ_RealEstate_MIDDLETopNews
Foreclosure sales dropped significantly in February, according to a report by ForeclosureRadar. Although sales to third parties, typically investors, were down month-over-month, as a percentage of all sales, third parties purchased a record 37.6 percent of foreclosures, up from 20.3 percent a year earlier, and just 2.2 percent in February 2008.
California, Nevada, and Washington experienced substantial drops in new foreclosure filings. Unlike years past, February’s drop in sales was not due to the short month. As a result of Leap Year, California had only one less business day than usual in February (because of the observance of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday). The other states do not observe Lincoln’s birthday, and so had the same number of business days as other months.
Foreclosure starts declined 12.8 percent in California in February, and foreclosure sales declined 22.3 percent. The length of time it took to foreclose on a house in California increased 6.5 percent.
http://www.foreclosureradar.com/foreclosure-report
The New York Times
The guarantee fee – a hidden fee inside the interest rate quoted on a home mortgage – has been mandated by Congress to increase this spring, and other increases are likely later to take place later this year and next.
Making sense of the story
- The guarantee fee has been charged by government sponsored entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for more than three decades. The fee does not show up in borrowers’ mortgage documents or good-faith estimates, and it is little known outside the industry. According to a Fannie Mae spokesman, the fee “gets incorporated into the underlying rate the borrower pays.”
- An interest rate is usually made of up three parts: The largest goes to the bank or the investors who buy the loan; the smaller portion is for the mortgage servicer that collects monthly payments; and then there’s the guarantee fee. Fannie and Freddie charge guarantee fees as a form of insurance against default for the loans they acquire and resell to investors.
- The guarantee fee will rise 10 basis points on April 1; the increase was included in the two-month extension of the payroll tax reduction last December. A basis point is equal to one one-hundredth of 1 percent, or 0.01 percent.
- One way to avoid the guarantee fee is to use a lender that does not sell off its loans – for instance, a community bank or a credit union.
- In addition to offsetting risks, the fees provide a primary source of revenue for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Both organizations started raising fee rates in 2008 during the housing crisis, as foreclosure costs rose.
