DS News - Digital Archives

CONFERENCE HOUSING SCORECARD SUGGESTS IMPROVEMENT CALENDAR PLACES TO BE THIS MONTH OCTOBER 8 - 10 California Realtor Expo LONG BEACH CONVENTION CENTER LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA Contact: 213.739.8301 Online: EXPO.CAR.ORG OCTOBER 9 - 12 ALTA Annual Convention THE BREAKERS PALM BEACH, FLORIDA Contact: 202.296.3671 Online: ALTA.ORG/MEETINGS OCTOBER 16-18 National Association of Residential Property Managers Annual Convention HOTEL REGENCY LA JOLLA SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA Contact: 800.466.2776 Online: NARPM.ORG/CONFERENCES OCTOBER 20 - 22 Moody's 8th Annual Risk Practitioner Conference MONTELUCIA RESORT & SPA SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA Contact: 212.553.1653 Online: MOODYSANALYTICS.COM/RPC2013 OCTOBER 27 - 29 Inaugural 2013 Consumer Finance Symposium THE COSMOPOLITAN LAS VEGAS, NEVADA Contact: 212.300.2520 Online: IIBIG.COM/F1305 OCTOBER 27 - 30 MBA's 100th Annual Convention WALTER E. WASHINGTON CONVENTION CENTER WASHINGTON, D.C. Contact: 800.793.6222 Online: MBAA.ORG 16 The housing recovery continues to gather momentum, indicating an ongoing economic upswing according to the Housing Scorecard released by HUD and the Treasury Department last month. Improving market indicators include home prices, purchases of new homes, and sales of existing homes, according to federal officials. "As indicated in the August housing scorecard, the administration continues to work to stabilize the housing market and help responsible homeowners get back on their feet," commented Kurt Usowski, HUD deputy assistant secretary for economic affairs. "With the number of underwater homeowners decreasing by more than 40 percent, it is clear that we are moving in the right direction. As we regain stability in our housing markets, it is important to remember that we still have a long way to go in making sure that our housing finance system is strong for future generations." "The standards set by the Making Home Affordable program have changed the mortgage servicing industry, as have our quarterly assessments of servicer performance," added Tim Massad, Treasury assistant secretary for financial stability. "While there has been significant progress, there is still more improvement needed in servicer behavior. And while the housing market has recovered substantially, there are still homeowners struggling to avoid foreclosure, and it is vital that we continue to try to help them." Home prices continued to show strong annual gains, according to the report. The Federal Housing Finance Agency's purchase-only index rose 7.7 percent from last year, marking the 17th consecutive month of annual gains. The Housing Scorecard highlighted the government's foreclosure mitigation programs, including the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). Through the government's loan mod program, servicers provided more than 1.2 million permanent modifications as of July. HUD also noted in the report that grantees of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program reported completion of more than 25,000 rehabilitated housing units. DELINQUENCIES CONTINUE DECLINE; HIGHEST AMONG ALT-A, SUBPRIME LOANS Delinquencies and foreclosures are continuing to decline with higher concentrations among Alt-A and subprime loans, according to the latest Mortgage Market Monitor from Lender Processing Services (LPS). Foreclosures are down 31 percent yearover-year in July, while delinquencies are down 9 percent, according to LPS data. Both delinquencies and foreclosures declined over the 12-month period among all types of loans, except Alt-A and subprime loans. Delinquencies rose 1 percent among Alt A loans and 3 percent among subprime loans. In fact, more than one-third of current delinquencies are made up of these two loan categories. LPS reported foreclosure starts year-to-date as of the end of July are their lowest since 2007, and "[g]iven that nearly 50 percent of these are repeat foreclosures means that the picture is even more positive than a surface reading of the numbers might suggest," said Herb Blecher, SVP of data and analytics at LPS. Distressed sales are also making up a diminishing share of home sales nationwide, according to LPS. For the first half of this year, distressed sales made up 10 percent of home sales, down from 16 percent over the first half of last year. The percentage of noncurrent loans—both delinquencies and foreclosures—continues to remain highest in judicial states. Seven of the top 10 noncurrent rates are in judicial states, with Florida topping the list. However, Mississippi—a nonjudicial state— took the No. 2 spot. The other two nonjudicial states in the top 10 were Nevada and Rhode Island, which claimed the sixth and seventh spots on the list. Nationally, 9.2 percent of mortgage loans are noncurrent, which is a 16.9 percent decline from last year. LPS also highlighted prepayment trends among the rising interest rate environment in its report. "[E]ven with that increasing interest rate pressure, July's monthly prepayment rates are still about where they were this time last year, when rates were at historic lows," Belcher said. "In fact, they are roughly at the same levels as the heights of the 'mini refinance booms' in 2010," he said. However, "as interest rates continue to climb, we can expect that both prepayments and associated originations will decline," he added. KNOW THIS Short sales and REO sales combined accounted for one in four home sales in August, according to RealtyTrac.

• Cover