The national mortgage delinquency rate (the rate of borrowers 60 or more days past due) declined in the first three months of 2012 to 5.78 percent. This improvement ends two quarters of increases that began in Q3 2011, according to TransUnion.
Prior to Q3 2011, 60-day mortgage delinquency rates had dropped for six consecutive quarters. This latest quarter brings the delinquency rate to its lowest point since Q1 2009.
Between fourth quarter 2011 and first quarter of 2012, all but eight states experienced decreases in their mortgage delinquency rates.
House prices continue to face downward pressure and unemployment remains high, but many see the economic environment beginning to show modest improvement. Therefore, TransUnion’s forecast predicts mortgage delinquency rates to drift downward in 2012 as more homeowners are able to repay their mortgage debt obligations.
http://www2.realtoractioncenter.com/site/R?i=zZZnyKfImNyQ8PmnDIDvaA
CNNMoney
The S&P/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 cities recorded a decline of 3.5 percent in February compared with the year before.
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http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/24/real_estate/home-prices/index.htm?iid=HP_LN
Bank of America Home Loans has begun reaching out to customers who may be eligible for forgiveness of a portion of the principal balance on their mortgage under terms of a recent settlement among five major banks, 49 state attorneys general, and the federal government.
The first letters in a targeted outreach to more than 200,000 potential candidates for this assistance are arriving in homes this week; most of the letters will be mailed by the third quarter of this year. The bank estimates average monthly savings of 30 percent on mortgage payments of customers who qualify for this program.
Bank of America began making principal reduction offers under the program guidelines in March, initially concentrating on homeowners who were already in the modification review process. So far under this early initiative, about 5,000 trial modification offers have been mailed, providing a potential total of more than $700 million in forgiven principal. Homeowners are required to make at least three timely payments before the modification can become permanent.
The wave of mailings beginning this week will reach a broader base of customers who may be eligible for this principal reduction program. The letters provide each homeowner with a description of the program and an invitation to provide financial information to begin the review process.
To be eligible for this program, a homeowner must meet certain criteria, including:
Owes more on the mortgage than the property is worth today.
Was at least 60 days behind on payments on January 31, 2012.
Has a contractual monthly payment for principal, interest, property taxes, hazard insurance, and any applicable homeowner association fees totaling more than 25 percent of gross household income.
Has a loan that is owned and serviced by Bank of America, or serviced for another investor that has given the bank delegated authority to do such modifications.
For further information on the settlement programs, Bank of America Home Loans customers may call (877) 488-7814.
http://www2.realtoractioncenter.com/site/R?i=YJP1alRRzD5DH3Ck6kPaKQ
CNNMoney
The Federal Housing Finance Agency laid out new rules aimed at speeding up the short sale process, a move that could keep many homes from falling into foreclosure.
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http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/19/real_estate/short-sales/index.htm?iid=HP_LN
Mirroring the uneven economic recovery, the housing market is expected to move in a slow, gradual upward path in 2012, while encountering its share of speed bumps along the road, according to a forecast presented by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) on the housing and economic outlook.
While the latest monthly housing data have shown signs of a slight softening, NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe said this is more reflective of typical month-to-month volatility in the numbers and unusual seasonal factors than they are an indication of any significant downward trend in the broader housing market.
Crowe noted that numerous other fundamentals remain positive for housing at this time, including demographic factors (with pent-up household demand expected to ramp up and echo-boomers heading into their prime household formation ages), historically favorable mortgage rates that are not expected to move higher than 5 percent by the end of next year, more than 100 local markets currently listed on the NAHB/First American Improving Markets Index, and the fact that house price-to-income ratio has now returned to its historical average of about three-to-one versus the nearly five-to-one to which it had previously risen during the height of the housing boom.
However, he cautioned that housing still continues to face formidable challenges of its own — such as rising foreclosures, persistently tight lending standards for home buyers and builders and difficulties in obtaining accurate appraisals. Moreover, disappointing job growth numbers in March and uncertainty in the European economy are undermining prospects for a vigorous recovery.
http://www2.realtoractioncenter.com/site/R?i=FZiEfAGjjs2QkvLzlEYLcw
Los Angeles Times
The pace of new home sales in March was up 7.5 percent from a year earlier, the Census Bureau and the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development reported this week.
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http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-new-home-sales-20120424,0,1201517.story?track=rss
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has released its full year 2011 update of mortgage loan fraud reported suspicious activity reports (MLF SARs), which shows financial institutions submitted 92,028 MLF SARs last year, a 31 percent increase compared with the 70,472 submitted in 2010. The increase can be primarily attributed to mortgage repurchase demands.
Financial institutions submitted 17,050 MLF SARs in the 2011 fourth quarter, a 9 percent decrease in filings compared with the same period in 2010 when financial institutions filed 18,759 MLF SARs. While too soon to call a trend, the fourth quarter of 2011 was the first time since the fourth quarter of 2010, when filings of MLF SARs had fallen from the previous year. FinCEN also updated its SAR data sets used in the report.
Wall Street Journal
Two U.S. Senate Republicans are urging the Treasury Dept. to cancel its plans to subsidize debt forgiveness for troubled homeowners, saying the money would be better off reducing the federal debt.
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http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2012/04/17/gop-senators-forget-write-downs-pay-down-debt-instead/
Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes declined to 25 in April, the first decline in seven months, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. The decline brings the index back to where it was in January, which was the highest level since 2007.
The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as “good,” “fair,” or “poor.” The survey also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers as “high to very high,” “average,” or “low to very low.” Scores from each component are then used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as good than poor.
Each of the index’s components registered declines in April. The component gauging current sales conditions and the component gauging sales expectations in the next six months each fell three points, to 26 and 32, respectively, while the component gauging traffic of prospective buyers fell four points to 18.
Regionally, the HMI results were somewhat mixed in April, with the West, which includes California, remaining steady at 32.
http://www.nahb.org/news_details.aspx?sectionID=122&newsID=15221
CNNMoney
The Federal Housing Finance Agency will decide this month whether Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should allow write downs on the balances of borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth.
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http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/09/news/economy/mortgages-principal-reduction/index.htm?iid=HP_LN
