Morning Roundup (2/2/2022)– Applications Up, Home Prices Expected To Moderate

Good Morning! Today is February 2, 2022. It’s official: Tom Brady is retiring. The U.S. national debt topped $30 trillion, a record. ABC suspended Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks after she said that the Holocaust was not about race. She later apologized. The Mortgage Note Reports Guaranteed Rate No. 8 To Debut In NASCAR Race:Race car driver Tyler Reddick will debut the new Guaranteed Rate No. 8 Chevrolet at the first-ever Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum this Sunday. Application Volume Back Up: Mortgage loan application volume rose 12% after falling 7.1% last week, MBA reports. CoreLogic HPI: Home prices rose by 18.5% across the nation in December 2021, but are expected to moderate in the next twelve months. Panorama CEO: Panorama Mortgage Group named…

Home Prices Grew 18.5% In 2021, Should Cool In 2022

Home prices rose year-over-year (YOY) by 18.5% across the nation in December 2021, and by 1.3% from November, CoreLogic’s latest Home Price Index reported. Home price growth averaged 15% for 2021, which saw one of the hottest housing markets in decades. Q1 2021 started off with 10% appreciation but continued to grow, reaching 18% in Q4. By comparison, price appreciation for the full year of 2020 averaged only 6%. The states with the highest increases YOY were Arizona (28.4%), Florida (27.1%), and Utah (25.2%). The cities with the biggest gains were Phoenix (30.2%), Las Vegas (24.4%), and San Diego (22.4%). CoreLogic predicts that home prices will remain flat this month and rise by only 3.5% by next December. Comparing annual…

Morning Roundup (1/5/2022)– UWM Under Fire, Loan Applications Down

Good Morning! Today is Wednesday, January 5. A snowstorm in Virginia left hundreds of drivers stranded for more than 24 hours. Chicago canceled school today amid a clash with teachers about remote schooling during the Omicron surge. Walmart and Kroger are raising prices for BinaxNOW at-home Covid tests after a White House deal to sell them at cost expired. And in mortgage and housing news… UWM Under Fire: United Wholesale Mortgage is under scrutiny from both state and county health officials in the wake of complaints about the company’s handling of Covid. Loan Applications Down: Mortgage loan application volume dropped 2.7% from the week ending December 31, with refis down 2% as interest rates reached their highest point since April…

MBA: Mortgage Applications Down 2.7%

Mortgage loan application volume dropped 2.7% from the week ending December 31, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) weekly survey reported. MBA adjusted the results to account for the holidays. The adjusted Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, fell 2.7%. The adjusted purchase index fell 4%, while the unadjusted purchase index fell 32% and was 12% lower YOY. The refinance index fell 2% and was down 40% YOY. Refinances made up 65.4% of total applications. The survey attributed the drop in refinances to an increase in the 30-year fixed rate, which rose to 3.33%, its highest point since April. “The higher rates to close 2021 caused refinance activity to decrease 2.2%. Refinance demand continues to dwindle, as…

Home Prices Hit New Record In November 2021 But Expected To Slow In 2022

Home prices across the country climbed 18.1% year-over-year (YOY) in November 2021, according to CoreLogic’s Home Price Index (HPI) Report. This is the highest annual growth since at least 1976 when the HPI began. For comparison, the annual growth in November 2020 was 8.1%. Home price growth, which is calculated against the median national home sale price, was up in all four price tiers measured by CoreLogic. The lowest price tier rose 19.8% YOY, while the low- to middle-priced tier rose 19%. Middle- to moderately-priced homes saw an increase of 19.1%, while high-priced homes saw prices rise 18.6%. Arizona saw the highest YOY appreciation (+28.6%), followed by Florida (+25.8%) and Idaho (+25.5%). Washington, D.C., and Alaska were at the bottom…

CoreLogic: Double-Digit Rent Growth In September

Strong demand and the labor market are fueling single-family rent price increases which remain at record highs. September data from CoreLogic’s Single-Family Rent Index shows rents increased 10.2% year-over-year (YOY), compared to a 2.6% YOY increase in September 2020. Rents increased across all four tiers of rental prices used by CoreLogic. Lower-priced rentals (less than 75% of the regional median) saw an increase of 8.3% YOY, while rents in the lower-middle price range (75%-100% of the regional median) rose 9.3% YOY, both more than doubling their growth from the same time in 2020. Rents for higher-priced properties broke 10%, with higher-middle priced (100%-125%) rents climbing 10.5%, compared to 2.4% in September 2020. Higher-priced rentals (125% or more of the regional…

Serious Delinquencies Lowest Since May 2020

Only 4.2% of all mortgages were in some stage of delinquency in July 2021, according to CoreLogic’s monthly Loan Performance Insights Report. This is a 2.3% drop from July 2020, when it was 6.5%, but higher than the pre-pandemic rate of 3.6%. The rate of early-stage delinquencies, ranging 20 to 59 days past due, dropped 0.4% year-over-year to 1.1%. Adverse delinquencies, 60 to 89 days past due, fell from 1% to 0.3% year-over-year. Delinquencies 90 or more days past due, or serious delinquencies, fell from 4.1% to 2.8%. It is the lowest serious delinquency rate since May 2020. The share of mortgages that transitioned from current to 30 days past due dropped from 0.8% to 0.6% year-over-year. The foreclosure inventory…

Average Homeowner Up $51k Since Q2 2020 As Home Values Soar

Homeowner equity grew $2.9 trillion since Q2 2020, up 29.3%, CoreLogic’s Homeowner Equity Report found. That shakes out to $51,500 in gains for the average borrower. Homeowners with mortgages make up roughly 63% of all residential properties in the U.S. Fifty-nine percent of borrowers reported they felt highly confident in their ability to make their mortgage payments in the coming year.  This is great news for underwater borrowers. The number of homes in negative equity has fallen 30% since Q2 2020. In Q2 2021 alone, the number of underwater homes fell 12% to 1.2 million homes, 2.3% of all mortgaged properties. The national aggregate value of negative equity dropped from $273.2 billion to $268 billion, a year-over-year decrease of about…