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34 THE TOP 3 SINGLE-FAMILY HOME MARKETS TO FOLLOW Pro Teck released its Monthly Housing Report using data from its Home Value Forecast (HVF) ranking system this week, showing the top 200 CBSAs in the U.S. in September 2017. For the fifth consecutive month, the San Jose- Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California CBSA is one of the best-performing markets in the country based on September 2017 trends. Recently named as "one of the hottest markets in the country by Realtor.com," Pro Teck attributes the San Jose metro's high ranking to its Months of Remaining Inventory (MRI) of under four months, as well as other factors. Foreclosure sales as a percent of of Regular Sales were under six percent and the metro experienced a 15.46 percent change in Sold Price at 1,120,000 sold homes. Pro Teck believes these are all indicative of a healthy single-family housing market. When looking at the percentage in Sold Price data, Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, Nevada CBSA ranked second to San Jose CBSA with a 10.64 percentage change, followed by Tacoma- Lakewood, Washington, at 8.89 percent. Regarding MRI percentage change, the same CBSAs mentioned ranked below San Jose, but their spots reversed, with Tacoma-Lakewood CBSA coming in second with a 47.58 percent change and Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise with a 44.23 percentage change in September. Pro Teck reports that the HVF is based on a purely objective ranking system that uses nine market indicators based on directional trends. e system then identifies positive, negative, and neutral trends for a given series, which Pro Teck scores. e CBSA is calculated by summing the directional scores of each of its indicators and a declining trend in active listings is considered positive. GETTING IT RIGHT: HOW WELL DID CORELOGIC PREDICT HOME PRICES? Leading analytics company CoreLogic compared their CoreLogic HPI Forecast released in June 2016 to the actual HPI Index that came out in August in its first HPI Forecast Validation Report. e company announced that moving forward, the report would be biannual. So, how accurate were they in terms of predicting how home prices would grow over a 12-month period? In core based statistical areas (CBSAs) like Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Arizona, very. In this market, CoreLogic forecasted that the area would experience a 6.2 percent increase in home prices in 12 months, while the area actually jumped 6.6 percent. Other accurately predicted CBSAs included Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV (both with only a 0.5 percent difference), and Tampa-St. Petersburg- Clearwater, FL, and St. Louis, MO-IL (both with only a 0.6 percent difference). Nationally, CoreLogic accurately predicted the path home prices would take as well. In June 2016, the company predicted a national price increase of 5.4 percent, and reported an actual price increase of 6.1 percent as of June 2017 (a 0.7 percent difference). "Our clients leverage the CoreLogic HPI Forecasts to price portfolios, conduct stress testing, allocate cash reserves, and conduct a host of other critical business functions," said Dr. Frank Nothaft, Chief Economist for CoreLogic. "With the introduction of the biannual HPI Forecast Validation Report, users can now get specific insight into the degree of accuracy of our HPI forecasts at the national and CBSA levels." e area that reported the largest gap between forecast and reality was the CBSA of Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA, with overestimated prices by 8.4 percent. In this locale, CoreLogic predicted a 14.3 percent increase in prices and only had a 5.9 percent increase. CFPB OUTLINES PROTECTING CONSUMER-SHARED DATA According to the CFPB's Newsroom, new principles were outlined to help protect consumers who authorize their financial data to third-party companies. ese principles are intended to help "fintech" firms, banks, and other institutions develop and innovate financial products for consumers. "Today, the bureau released its consumer protection principles for the consumer-authorized data-sharing market," said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. "ese principles express our vision for realizing an innovative market that gives consumers protection and value." e CFPB has since reached out to large and small banks and credit unions, their trade associations, aggregators, 'fintech' firms, consumer advocates, and individual consumers to better understand consumer-authorized data access can be improved." When consumers authorize companies to collect their financial data from other organizations, they can provide a variety of products and services to them. ese products include fraud screening, identity verification, personal financial management, and bill payment softwares and subscriptions. While the CFPB recognizes these products can help consumers, there are many challenges to be addressed as technology continues to develop. e protection principles cover several different areas designed to reiterate the importance of protecting consumers; this includes data access, scope, and usability, the control of the data and its informed consent, payment authorizations, security, transparency of access rights, accuracy, accountability for access and use, and disputes and resolutions for unauthorized access. e CFPB is ready to facilitate constructive efforts to take appropriate action to protect consumers, but these principles are not intended to be a statement for future enforcement. ey are not intended to alter or provide guidance on existing statutes or regulations currently applied in the market.

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