Nearly 60 percent of metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) surveyed by the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) showed an increase in housing prices during the first quarter of 2010 when compared to levels one year ago. Even more have seen what NAR called "healthy gains" in home sales. The NAR survey covered 152 MSAs, 91 of which showed higher median single-family home prices during the first quarter of 2010 than during the same period in 2009. 29 of the increases were in the double digits. Prices continued to decline in 58 MSAs and were unchanged in three. In the fourth quarter of 2009, 67 areas showed increases while 123 areas saw prices decline. Nationally the median price of an existing single-family home was $166,000, down 0.7 percent from a year earlier when the price…(read more)
Fannie Mae has reported First Quarter 2010 Earnings Results. The government-sponsored enterprise, which has been operating under government conservatorship since September 7, 2008, lost $11.5 billion in the first quarter compared with a net loss of $15.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009. Fannie Mae paid $1.5 billion to the Treasury Department during the quarter in the form of dividends on senior preferred stock held by the U.S. government. The loss attributable to common stockholders was $13.1 billion or ($2.29) per diluted share. The shareholder loss in the fourth quarter of last year was $16.3 billion or ($2.87) per diluted share. Net revenues in the current statement were $3 billion compared to $5.8 billion in Quarter Four and $5.2 billion during the same period one year ago. Net interest…(read more)
The roots of the mortgage crisis have been microscopically examined by everyone from economists to consumer groups and volumes of conten has been written on underwriting guidelines, irrational exuberance, greed, and hubris. Now comes a study which offers a stunningly simple explanation, not for the whole crisis, but for a contributing factor: Americans can't add and subtract Kristopher Gerardi, Lorenz Goette, and Stephan Meier recently produced a working paper for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta which examined the relationship between financial literacy and subprime mortgage delinquencies. They found that the ability of individuals to make simple financial calculations is strongly related to the amount of time they spend being delinquent on their mortgages . The study used loan level…(read more)
Freddie Mac released its financial reports for the first quarter of 2010 showing a net loss of 6.7 billion and announced that its Conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), will be asking the Department of the Treasury for a draw of $10.6 billion under the Senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement. This request, which is proforma as Treasury has already authorized nearly unlimited draws, will bring the total borrowed from the Treasury by Freddie to $61 billion. Freddie said it expects to request additional draws under the Purchase Agreement in future periods and the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the ultimate cost to taxpayers from bailing out Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will be $389 billion through 2019. The net loss attributable to common stockholders during the quarter…(read more)
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending April 30, 2010. Michael Fratantoni, MBA's Vice President of Research and Economics says: "Purchase application activity continued to increase in the last week of the homebuyer tax credit program…Purchase applications were up 13 percent over the previous week and almost 24 percent over the last month, driven by significant increases in both conventional and government purchase applications. We also saw the Government share of applications for purchasing a home increase to over 50 percent of all purchase applications last week, which is the highest in two decades." The survey covers over 50 percent of all US residential mortgage loan applications taken by mortgage…(read more)
Freddie Mac's total mortgage portfolio shrank rather dramatically in March , dropping 9.1 percent on an annualized basis from February figures. This was the third straight month that the portfolio decreased in size. The portfolio at the end of March was valued at $2.225 trillion. The annualized growth rate for the entire year is -4.4 percent. In February, Freddie Mac announced it would begin purchasing substantially all 120 days or more delinquent mortgages from its related fixed-rate and adjustable rate PCs, which totaled approximately $73 billion. The purchases of these loans from related PCs were reflected in the PC factor report published on March 4 but not in Table 1 of the Monthly Investor summary because they were purchased from loans already in Freddie Mac PC portfolio. However…(read more)
All 20 of the large metropolitan areas with the highest rates of foreclosures during the first quarter of 2001 were located in the same four states. According to the Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report released by RealtyTrac on Thursday, the four, California, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona each had at least one metropolitan area with a population of 200,000 at the top of the 206 city list with California accounting for ten positions, Florida seven, Nevada two and Arizona one. However, 14 of the top 20 areas and eight of the top ten reported a decrease in foreclosure activity from the same quarter in 2009. At the same time, activity increased over the last year in 159 of the metropolitan areas tracked by the survey and nationwide activity increased by 16 percent. "The decreasing foreclosure…(read more)
All 20 of the large metropolitan areas with the highest rates of foreclosures during the first quarter of 2001 were located in the same four states. According to the Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report released by RealtyTrac on Thursday, the four, California, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona each had at least one metropolitan area with a population of 200,000 at the top of the 206 city list with California accounting for ten positions, Florida seven, Nevada two and Arizona one. However, 14 of the top 20 areas and eight of the top ten reported a decrease in foreclosure activity from the same quarter in 2009. At the same time, activity increased over the last year in 159 of the metropolitan areas tracked by the survey and nationwide activity increased by 16 percent. "The decreasing foreclosure…(read more)
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