The overall housing market remained mostly unchanged from October to November according to the December release of the Obama Administration’s Housing Scorecard but continued to be much improved from a year ago.
Mortgage delinquency rates on prime, sub-prime and FHA mortgages were all higher in November with the delinquency rate of prime mortgages that were at least 30 days or more delinquent at 3.3 percent in November compared to 3.2 percent in October. In November of last year, the delinquency rate was 4.0 percent.
Performance of sub-prime mortgages also worsened in November as the percentage of delinquent loans climbed to 31.9 percent from 31.0 percent in October and was up from 30.4 percent posted a year earlier.
Delinquency rates of mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) were also higher, rising to 11.5 percent in November from 11.1 percent in October. The delinquency rate on FHA loans a year earlier was 11.5 percent.
Seriously delinquent mortgages, those that are 90 days or more past due, improved in two of the three categories with the number of prime mortgages in trouble declining to 779,000 loans in November, down from 801,000 in October and down from 1.181 million a year earlier.
Sub-prime mortgages that were seriously delinquent numbered 1.140 million in November, up from 1.131 million in October. In November of last year, 1.555 million sub-prime mortgages were seriously delinquent.
Loans insured by the FHA that were seriously delinquent moved lower to 627,000 in November, down from 629,000 in October, and were 14.7 percent lower than the 735,000 delinquent loans in November 2012.
Loan originations for home purchases in the third quarter of 2013 fell by 1.9 percent from the second quarter but were still 9.9 percent higher than at the same time last year while refinance originations were down 46.5 percent from the second to the third quarter and were down 46.1 percent from the third quarter of last year.
FHA refinance loan originations were down 24.3 percent from October to November and were down 77.1 percent from a year earlier while FHA purchase loan originations were down 9.1 percent between October and November and were down 16.3 percent from a year ago.
Home prices were improved compared to a year ago with all three of the indices used in the Housing Scorecard, Core-Logic, FHFA and the Case-Shiller Indices, posting pricing gains from the previous year, but showed little improvement from month-to-month.
Sales of new homes fell a seasonally adjusted 2.7 percent from October to November while sales of existing homes declined by 4.3 percent between the two months.
Distressed property sales accounted for 17 percent of all re-sales in October, unchanged from September, but were down from 23 percent the previous year.
The inventory of existing homes listed for sell declined by 0.9 percent with the number of months supply increasing to 5.1 months in November from a 4.9 months supply in October. The supply of new homes for sale declined from 4.5 months at the end of the October to 4.3 months by the end of November.
Foreclosure activity was improved in November with foreclosure starts declining 10.2 percent and foreclosure sales falling by 19.3 percent. Compared to a year ago, foreclosure starts were down 31.9 percent while sales were down by 48.4 percent.
The estimated number of homeowners whose homes are worth less than what they owed declined to 6.4 million at the end of the third quarter of 2013 from 7.2 million at the end of the second quarter.
Tags: December Housing Scorecard, Obama Administration, loan modifications, mortgage delinquencies, trial modifications, prime mortgages, sub-prime mortgages, FHA
Source:
HUD
Reported by Chris Moore
