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» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 9 A look at facts you didn't know you couldn't live without. Compiled by the DS News Staff Housing completions also showed a 5.6 percent decrease from December to January, with privately owned completions declining from 1.1 million to one million, according to January 2017 residential construction statistics released by HUD and the U.S. Census Bureau. At the end of 2016, 5.4 million homes were deemed as seriously underwater, according to ATTOM Data Solutions' Year-end 2016 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report. OUTSTANDING LOANS, DELINQUENCIES REMAIN FLAT INSIDE THE JOURNAL // MOVERS & SHAKERS // ON THE WEB // THE APP SPECTRUM TAKE A LOOK INSIDE THE NUMBERS D ATA B I T S Source: Bankrate.com. Composite score based on five metrics—housing affordability, the job markets for young adults, housing market tightness, credit availability, homeownership among consumers 35 and under. EASIEST—AND TOUGHEST— STATES FOR FIRST TIME BUYERS TO PURCHASE A HOME 1 Iowa 40.32 2 Utah 40.16 3 Minnesota 39.60 4 Kansas 38.11 5 Missouri 38.10 6 North Dakota 37.66 7 South Dakota 37.50 8 Wyoming 36.91 9 Vermont 36.34 10 Nebraska 36.33 Cities Percentage Ranking THE TOUGHEST 1 California 13.67 2 Hawaii 20.16 3 New York 23.12 4 Louisiana 23.96 5 Mississippi 24.56 6 Rhode Island 25.18 7 Texas 25.33 8 Colorado 25.71 9 Oregon 25.76 10 Massachusetts 26.06 Ranking Cities Percentage PAGE 26 Founder of the Margolin & Weinreb Law Group COUNSEL'S CORNER WITH Alan Weinreb e latest Consumer Trends report from Equifax showed that first mortgage early delinquency rates in Q 4 were largely where they were a year earlier, but loans in serious delinquency were down by about 1 percent. e number of outstanding loans at the end of Q 4 2016 remained at a steady 50 million, where they've been, more or less, since early 2014. e percentage of those loans in early-stage delinquency‒‒30 to 89 days past due‒‒closed the year at about 1.3 percent. at number barely fluctuated over 2016 and is almost identical to the end of 2015. e total balance of outstanding first mortgages is $8.43 trillion, a year-over-year increase of 2.4 percent. However, the percentage of first mortgages in serious default‒‒90 or more days past due‒‒has been steadily declining since 2012, when serious delinquency rates hovered just below 2.5 percent. Serious delinquency rates ended 2016 at 1.26 percent, down from close to 1.77 percent a year earlier. e numbers reflect what Equifax Chief Economist Amy Crews Cutts said was a strong performance in the first mortgage market. Cutts also said HELOC performance remains strong into 2017, where subprime loans are lower in volume than first mortgages. According to the report, there were about 14 million outstanding home equity loans at the end of 2016. at total continues an almost pure steady dropoff in outstanding home equity loans since 2008, when they totaled more than 24 million. About 11 million of those outstanding HE loans were revolving HELOCs; the remainder were installment equity loans. e 4.4 percent of home equity installment loans outstanding was a 2.3 percent drop from the close of 2015. e total number of outstanding HELOCs in December were down 3 percent from a year earlier. e total balances outstanding on HELOCs in that same time is $474.9 billion, a decrease of 3.8 percent; the severe delinquency rate of 1.18 percent in Q 4 was down from 1.33 percent in December of 2015. Early-stage delinquencies in all home equity loans finished Q 4 around 0.05 percent, which is flat compared to Q 4 of 2015. About 1.4 percent of home equities were in serious delinquency at the end of 2016, down less than a quarter of a percent from a year earlier. "About 11 million of those outstanding HE loans were revolving HELOCs; the remainder were installment equity loans." THE EASIEST

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