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» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 125 across the U.S. remains upbeat, with more than 80 percent of metro areas earning a positive ranking. Moreover, markets with strong ties to the oil and gas industries are among the most improved in 2017 due to solid job growth and rising housing demand. "e housing market is still moving for- ward thanks to solid job gains, but it's showing signs of strain. We're watching to see if house- hold formations, income, job, and mortgage trends can sustain the market's health," Berson said. WASHINGTON FHFA: Seattle Home Prices Spiked in 2017 Home prices also jumped in each of the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas over the course of the past year. Prices increased the most in the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Washington metropolitan statistical area (MSA), climbing 14.6 percent in the past year. On the other end of the spectrum, prices in the Camden, New Jersey MSA were up only 0.5 percent during that period. e latest installment of the Federal Housing Finance Agency's House Price Index (HPI) reveals that prices rose 1.4 percent in Q 3 2017, and were up 6.5 percent between Q 3 2016 and Q 3 2017. FHFA's seasonally adjusted monthly index for September increased 0.3 percent from August. HPI calculations are based on home sales price information gleaned from mortgages sold to, or guaranteed by, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In the report, Andrew Leventis, Deputy Chief Economist, said, "With relatively favor- able economic conditions and a continued shortage of housing supply, price increases in the third quarter were generally robust and widespread. At some point, declining housing affordability should temper appreciation rates in some of the nation's fastest appreciating markets, but our third quarter results show few signs of that." According to FHFA's HPI, those price increases could be seen from coast to coast in Q 3 2017. During the quarter, home prices rose in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In fact, the District of Columbia led the pack in terms of annual appreciation, coming in at 11.6 percent, ahead of the state of Washington (11.5 percent), Hawaii, and Arizona (the latter two states tied at 10.0 percent). Breaking things down by census division, the HPI report reveals that the Pacific region boasted the strongest annual appreciation, up 8.9 percent between Q 3 2016 and Q 3 2017. Since Q2 2017, there has been a 1.7 percent increase for the Pacific division. Compare those numbers to the Middle Atlantic divi- sion, which showed the weakest annual price increases—only 0.5 percent. In spite of the increased house prices across the board, a First American Real Home Price Index showed that real house prices were 17.9 percent below the level of real house prices measured in January 2000, and 38.9 percent be- low their housing boom peak from July 2006. another system or vendor." DocMagic plans to open additional region- al print centers across the U.S. over the next several years to support its expansion into other types of consumer loan programs. While there will always be some degree of fallout, as bor- rowers embrace the eSigning of all documents as the new norm, opting out to a paper process will become less common, as well as the need to support additional fulfillment centers. NEVADA Las Vegas Leads Major Markets Still Below Price Peaks Despite continued rapid home apprecia- tion across the U.S., nearly a quarter of metro markets have not fully recovered from their price peaks before the housing market crash a decade ago, including a few that are still off by more than 20 percent. Las Vegas, Nevada, led the 10 major markets that remain below their prior price peaks, followed by Bakersfield and Fresno in California; Tucson, Arizona; Orlando-Kissimmee in Florida; Camden, New Jersey; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Riverside- San Bernardino, California; Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona; and Naples, Florida. According to Nationwide's Health of Housing Markets Report, homeowners in these metro markets are more likely to be un- derwater in their mortgages. e report noted the national share of mortgages that have nega- tive equity is near 5 percent, and that number doubles for homeowners who live in markets with prices still below their prior peaks. e report also noted that sustained rapid home appreciation is weakening the near-term outlook for the U.S. housing market. "e biggest concern with regard to the housing market in 2017, especially as the year ends, is that persistent price gains are reducing affordability," David Berson, SVP and Chief Economist at Nationwide, said. e report noted that house price gains continued to run at a pace well above the long-term average as historically few homes on the market created heightened competition among homebuyers. However, job gains, rising incomes, and a healthy mortgage market still supported a positive—although slightly less optimistic than last quarter—outlook for the U.S. housing market. According to the report, the outlook for the vast majority of regional housing markets THE LEADER IN DEFAULT SERVICING NEWS Help shape the next issue of DS News. Drop us a line at Editor@DSNews.com. Washington homeowners gained an average of approximately $40,000 in home equity between 2016 and 2017, according to CoreLogic's Q3 2017 home equity analysis released in December 2017. KNOW THIS

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