The housing market’s been giving mixed signals, flashes of hope mixed with
sudden bad news. There’s no sign yet that a real recovery has taken hold, but
some new data are optimistic.
Home prices and sales are on the rise. DataQuick says the
average
sale price for the past 30 days was $189,500, up $7,000 from a month
earlier. Sales are also up 8.2 percent during this time. In Southern California,
for example, DataQuick
says
the market is continuing its “step-by-tiny-step trek back toward normalcy.”
Shadow inventory is shrinking quickly. The so-called shadow
inventory refers to distressed properties that aren’t listed for sale but
probably will be—homes on which borrowers are grossly delinquent or already in
foreclosure, or that banks have already repossessed. CoreLogic says in April,
1.5 million homes
were in the shadows, which equates to a four-month supply, down from a six-month
supply a year earlier. A smaller shadow inventory can be positive for prices
because it means there are fewer distressed homes poised to come on the
market.
Foreclosures are up. In the fall of 2010, the
robo-signing
scandal erupted over how banks were using faulty paperwork to evict
borrowers. They cut back on processing foreclosures, building up a backlog of
distressed properties. In March, banks agreed to a
$25
billion robo-signing settlement, and new data show banks are restarting the
foreclosure machinery. In May, banks filed to foreclose on 205,990 properties—a
9
percent increase during April, according to RealtyTrac. The foreclosure
pickup hurts the people who are losing their homes but helps the housing market
in the long run because it lets banks get through the backlog and eventually
move on.
Borrowers are building more equity in their homes. Our
colleagues at Bloomberg News report that homeowners have made the
biggest
jump in home equity in more than 60 years. Half of borrowers who are
refinancing are paying down some of their debt and reducing their loans. They’re
also refinancing into shorter-term loans that have higher monthly payments but
let them pay down principal quicker. Overall, mortgage debt is down 7 percent
since 2007—a small consolation for the decline in home values, which are down 23
percent over the same period.
Finally, if you’re looking for more data and
a big-picture
view, check out Harvard’s annual
State
of the Nation’s Housing report that’s out today. It also sees signs of
recovery in the market and says unless something comes along to dent the broad
economy, the housing picture should become even brighter.
Thanks for sharing this article a lot of information. Reading this article about the latest real estate news is worthy. Keep it up.:)
ReplyDeleteNehv | philippines properties for sale