Friday 4closure Round Up 5.4.12

–From Trulia:

Strong Housing Demand and Tightening Inventories Spark Nearly 2 Percent Rise in Asking Prices over Previous Quarter

Asking prices on for-sale homes–which lead sales prices by approximately two or more months–were 0.5 percent higher in April than in March, seasonally adjusted. Together with increases in March and February, asking prices in April rose nationally 1.9 percent quarter over quarter (Q-o-Q), seasonally adjusted. The price increase unadjusted for seasonality was even higher: 4.8 percent Q-o-Q, since prices typically jump in springtime. Year over year (Y-o-Y), asking prices rose 0.2 percent nationally.

“Housing prices have already bottomed with asking prices on the rise for three straight months. Aside from a stumble in December, asking prices have been stable or rising for the last eight months,” said Jed Kolko, Trulia’s Chief Economist. “Prices have joined the recovery, alongside sales and construction. But foreclosures threaten prices, especially in judicial-foreclosure states like Florida, New Jersey, Illinois and New York, where many more distressed sales are still to come.”

 

–From Freddie Mac:

Fixed Mortgage Rates Average New All-Time Record Lows

Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing average fixed mortgage rates finding new all-time record lows … The 30-year fixed averaged 3.84 percent, down from its previous all-time record low of 3.87 percent last registered on February 9, 2012…… Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.71 percent.

 

 –From RealtyTrac:

REO Properties Devoured by Investors

  • Investment homes sales soared a whopping 66 percent in 2011, with investors purchasing 1.23 million properties compared to 749,000 in 2010
  • Sales of investment properties jumped to 27 percent of the market in 2011, compared with 17 percent of the market in 2010.
  • 41 percent of investment buyers purchased more than one property in 2011.

REO Properties
All told, the REO inventory was a staggering 634,000 properties as of the end of March 2012, according to RealtyTrac. Uncle Sam is the largest holder of REO property. The government sponsored enterprises — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — together own some 180,000 REO listings.

Nationwide, investors are buying  REO real estate, rehabbing them and either renting them out for cash flow or putting them back into the market for re-sale. In a letter to federal agencies and regulators, the NAR urged policymakers and lenders to expand the  availability of financing for qualified buyers and investors to reduce the number of REO properties on the market.

 

–From Nick Timiraos at the WSJ:

Housing Ends Slide but Faces a Long Bottom

Nearly six years after home prices started falling, more U.S. housing markets appear to be nearing a new phase: a prolonged bottom.

Housing economists are debating whether that shadow inventory will spoil any housing recovery. “That’ll be like a ball and chain,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist at CoreLogic. “It won’t prevent a recovery, but it could drag it out over several years.”

Ms. Zelman … said the shadow inventory is “not going to result in the double dip that people always talk about.” She points to a burgeoning appetite for housing from investors, who are scooping up homes that can be converted to rentals, and six years of pent-up demand from traditional buyers who feel better about their financial prospects. “The fear is gone,” she said.

While the foreclosure overhang is serious, some economists say there is a less-noticed tailwind that could balance things out: the sharp decline in new construction over the past four years. “A lot of the people who talk about ‘shadow inventory’ don’t talk about how slow the overall housing stock has been growing,” said Thomas Lawler, an independent housing economist

 

–From Realty Check by Diana Olick

Flood of Foreclosures Still Fails to Materialize

The number of homes entering the foreclosure process rose in March, up 8.1 percent, according to a new report from Lender Processing Services, but the volume is down more than 30 percent from a year ago.

Analysts had expected this number to skyrocket immediately following the $25 billion settlement between banks and state governments over fraudulent mortgage servicing.

Foreclosures sales, which are the final stage of the foreclosure process, not sales of bank-owned homes, dropped precipitously in March to their lowest point in over two years…..The foreclosure sales decline also appears to be exclusively in private and portfolio loans, which again points to the settlement.

That low pace of foreclosure sales is keeping foreclosure inventory, or loans in the foreclosure process, at near historic highs, according to LPS. That number may be heading lower, however, as banks ramp up the short sale process. Short sales, when the bank allows the home to be sold for less than the value of the mortgage, are in fact now outpacing sales of bank-owned homes in many markets, according to a new report from RealtyTrac.

–From CoreLogic:

CoreLogic® Reports 69,000 Completed Foreclosures Nationally in March

CoreLogic … today released its National Foreclosure Report for March, which provides monthly data on completed foreclosures, foreclosure inventory and 90+ day delinquency rates. There were 69,000 completed foreclosures in March 2012 compared to 85,000 in March 2011 and 66,000 in February 2012. Through the first quarter of 2012, there were 198,000 completed foreclosures compared to 232,000 through the first quarter of 2011. Since the start of the financial crisis in September 2008, there have been approximately 3.5 million completed foreclosures.

Approximately 1.4 million homes, or 3.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage, were in the national foreclosure inventory as of March 2012 compared to 1.5 million, or 3.5 percent, in March 2011 and 1.4 million, or 3.4 percent, in February 2012. The number of loans in the foreclosure inventory decreased by nearly 100,000, or 6.0 percent, in March 2012 compared to March 2011.

“The overall delinquency level was unchanged in March, remaining at its lowest point since July 2009,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Non-judicial foreclosure markets like Nevada, Arizona, and California are experiencing significant improvements in their shares of delinquent borrowers. Some judicial foreclosure states are also improving, like Florida, but not to the extent of non-judicial markets.”

Compared to a year ago, the number of completed foreclosures has slowed,” said Anand Nallathambi, chief executive officer of CoreLogic. “Since the foreclosure inventory is also coming down, this suggests that loan modifications, short sales, deeds-in-lieu are increasingly being used as an alternative to foreclosures to clear distressed assets in our communities.”

 

 

 

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