The outlook is improving for US housing, according to August’s official scorecard, with prices stabilizing after a 2 1/2 year slide. The report prepared by HUD and the Treasury suggests that government rescue measures – including incentives, modifications, and suppressed lending rates – are working. See the following article from HousingWire for more on this.
The Obama Administration’s latest scorecard on the housing market touted advances in refinancing and house prices in August.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Treasury Department compiled data for the monthly scorecard. According to the administration, stabilizing housing prices leveled off in the past year after 30 straight months of declines. Homeowners added $95 billion in home equity in the second quarter.
Claim up to $26,000 per W2 Employee
- Billions of dollars in funding available
- Funds are available to U.S. Businesses NOW
- This is not a loan. These tax credits do not need to be repaid
The scorecard did acknowledge “a dip” in home sale figures in July after the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit. But since April 2009, record low mortgage rates have helped more than 7.1 million families refinance, saving more than $12.7 billion.
According to the scorecard, more than twice as many modification agreements have been begun compared to foreclosure completions. Servicers started more than 3.3 million mod agreements between April 2009 and July 2010, including 1.3 million through the Home Affordable Modification Program and more than 1.6 million through proprietary programs.
Through HAMP, servicers have now completed more than 33,000 permanent modifications in August, pushing the total to 468,000 since the program launched in March 2009. But the amount of permanent HAMP mods completed in August was 27% below the amount done in July.
“Over the last 17 months, the Obama Administration has taken comprehensive action to keep interest rates at record lows, provide incentives to responsible homebuyers, and help millions of families stay in their homes,” said HUD Assistant Secretary Raphael Bostic. “But we’re certainly not going to stop fighting to turn things around.”
This article has been republished from HousingWire. You can also view this article at HousingWire, a mortgage and real estate news site.
