Home prices rose 17.5% year-over-year in Q4 2021 and 3.3% from Q3 2021, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s House Price Index (FHFA HPI). Home prices were up 1.2% from November to December. Home prices increased in every state between Q4 2020 and Q4 2021, with the highest appreciation in Arizona (27.4%), Utah (27.1%), Idaho (27%), Florida (25.6%), and Tennessee (24.1%). Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL, saw the greatest annual price increases. The metros with the least annual appreciation were Washington, D.C. (6.6%), Louisiana (10.2%), North Dakota (10.3%), Maryland (10.8%), and Alaska (11.3%). “House prices continued to climb but not as rapidly during the final quarter of 2021 as in earlier quarters,” said William Doerner, Ph.D., Supervisory Economist in FHFA’s…
The number of loans in forbearance fell 11% in January to 1.30% of servicers’ portfolio volume, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Loan Monitoring Survey. MBA now estimates that 650,000 homeowners remain in forbearance plans. This is the second consecutive month that forbearance exits hit a new low since June 2020. Of Fannie and Freddie loans, the number in forbearance dropped 4 basis points to 0.68%. Ginnie Mae loans saw a 3 basis point drop to 1.60%, while PLS and portfolio loans saw a 41 point decline to 3.02%. But re-entries and new forbearance requests rose, especially for Ginnie Mae loans. While forbearances keep falling, January saw the smallest monthly decline in a year. Of all forborne loans, 26.8%…
Mortgage applications for new home purchases fell 12.5% year-over-year in January 2022, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Builder Application Survey (BAS). However, applications rose by 10% from December 2021, as MBA estimates 66,000 new homes were sold in January compared to December’s 60,000. MBA estimated that new single-family sales were running at a rate of 821,000 units, down 7.4% from December’s 887,000 unit pace. “Purchase applications for new homes fell on an annual basis in January, but the 10% monthly gain is a positive sign to start the year. While homebuyer demand remains strong, purchase activity is being constrained by higher prices and building delays due to supply-chain pressures and building materials shortages,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s Associate…
Active forbearance plans rose by 11,500 plans (1.5%) last week, following a “typical pattern of mid-month restart activity”, according to Black Knight’s blog, Vision. Forborne loans held by portfolios and PSLs increased by 7,600 (3.1%), while FHA/VA loans in forbearance rose by 4,900 (1.8%). In contrast, GSE plans actually fell by 1,000 (-0.4%). Plan volumes are down 38,100 (-4.7%) month-over-month. Black Knight notes that as many homeowners have already exited their plans, expiration activity is slowing. Moderating improvement is the result of this “gradually flattening slope.” Some 129,000 plans are up for review in early March, the next time Black Knight expects to see significant improvement. One-third should expire. ATTOM Data Solutions reported that foreclosure-related filings jumped 29% from December and…
Mortgage rates jumped to 3.92% from 3.69% this week, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. Freddie’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) found that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.96%. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 2.81%. “Mortgage rates jumped again due to high inflation and stronger than expected consumer spending,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist. “The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is nearing four percent, reaching highs we have not seen since May 2019. As rates and house prices rise, affordability has become a substantial hurdle for potential homebuyers, especially as inflation threatens to place a strain on consumer budgets.” Demand remains high despite rising rates. Rate locks for purchase loans increased 19.9% month-over-month in January. “The…
More than 14.5 million single- and multifamily homes were impacted by natural disasters in 2021, causing an estimated $56.92 billion in property damage, according to CoreLogic’s 2021 Climate Change Catastrophe report. The report analyzed thirteen “major hazard events” of 2021– including hurricanes, tornados, wildfires, and winter storms– and 120 million residential structures in the U.S. The findings show significant damage to residential properties and increased economic instability in impacted areas. For example, damage from Hurricane Ida in Houma, Louisiana, resulted in delinquency rates rising from 7.4% before the storm to 13.3% the following month. “By leveraging granular data for the increasing frequency and severity of catastrophes, we are able to see that more than 14.5 million homes were impacted to…
Real estate investors bought 80,293 properties in Q4 2021, a record 18.4% of homes sold. Redfin reported that investor purchases were up from 43.9% YOY, though they fell 9.1% from Q3’s peak, likely due to stock shortages that impacted regular homebuyers and investors alike. Seasonality also contributed to the quarter-to-quarter drop, as the housing market typically slows in the winter. More than three-quarters of homes bought by investors (75.3%) were all-cash purchases. Atlanta saw the most investor activity in Q4 at 32.7% of market share, followed by Charlotte (32.1%), Jacksonville (29.8%), Las Vegas (29.2%), and Phoenix (28.4%). These are all popular destinations for moving Americans and have seen high demand during the Great Migration. “While record-high home prices are problematic…
“Million-dollar cities” skyrocketed in 2021, with typical home values reaching at least $1 million in a record 146 new U.S. cities. Zillow found there are now 481 cities where the average home is worth $1 million or more, and an additional 49 cities could make the list by mid-2022 if home appreciation continues at its current rate. Typical home values jumped 19.6% in 2021 as homebuyers faced severe stock shortages, causing bidding wars that pushed prices up. Homeowners gained $2.6 trillion in tappable equity in 2021, up by 35% YOY for an aggregate total of almost $10 trillion. In Q4 2021 alone, tappable equity rose by nearly half a billion dollars. “Home price appreciation over the course of 2021 was…
Mortgage credit availability fell in January after inching up in December, falling to its lowest level since August 2021, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI). The MCAI dropped by 0.9% to 124.8 in January, wiping out December’s 0.8% increase. This indicates that lending standards are tightening, while increases show loosening credit. The index was benchmarked to 100 in March 2012. The Conventional MCAI fell 2.5%, though the Government MCAI rose by 0.7%. Within the Conventional MCAI, the Jumo MCAI fell by 1.6% and the conforming MCAI fell by 4.2%. “The decline in credit supply came at a time of rising mortgage rates and limited inventory, which add to the challenges that some prospective buyers…
Overall rate locks rose 9.5% month-over-month in January, with a 19.9% increase for purchase loans and a 9.2% increase for cash-outs, Black Knight reported in its Originations Market Monitor. Rate/term refinance locks dropped for the fifth month straight, down 16.5% to its lowest level since May 2019. It is an 80% decline YOY. The refinance share of January originations fell to 43%, its lowest since July 2019. “With some $10 trillion in homeowner tappable equity in the market, it makes sense that we’d see cash-out refinance locks on the rise,” Happ said. “The significant jump in purchase originations can likely be attributed in part to typical pent-up, post-holiday demand. It could also represent skittish homebuyers hoping to lock in a…
