Is The US Housing Market On The Road To Recovery?

With a couple of years of bleak data from the U.S. residential real estate market, this month’s numbers continues to be varied. Is recovery truly in the works? Here is what the statistics state:

Foreclosures

According to figures from real estate data corporation RealtyTrac, foreclosures in January ended up down, the 2nd sequential monthly decrease. The countrywide foreclosure rate fell to one in every 404 U.S. households, representing a 10 percentage decline from December.

RealtyTrac wasn't positive this really is a sincere sign of recovery though.

January foreclosure facts are exposing a pattern exceptionally similar to a year ago. A double-digit percentage increase in December foreclosure activity followed by a 10 pct descent during January. If history repeats itself we'll observe a upturn in the statistics over the next several months as lending institutions foreclose on over due mortgages wherever neither the current loan modification methods or the latest short sale and deed-in-lieu of foreclosure choices works.

Home Sales

Existing home sales ended up down once more in January, falling 7 % from December, based on facts from the National Association of Realtors. Reported by the Census Bureau, new home sales attained an all-time record low during January, plummeting 11.1 % with a seasonally adjusted yearly tempo of 309,000 units. That has become the lowest rate of sales on record. Foreclosed residences along with short sales continue to be a focus for more individuals than the higher prices of new houses.

Fannie Mae

The government-sponsored entity, that has been under government direction since September 2008, of late announced it will need an added $15.3 billion in bail out capital from taxpayers. Fannie Mae, one of the major mortgage finance companies within the nation, had $216.5 billion worth of non-performing, toxic loans on its books as of December and just revealed total 2009 losses of $74.4 billion dollars. Fannie and Freddie Mac are instrumental in getting substandard mortgages out of the investment markets.

Interest Rates

Credit rates stayed gloomy for the whole month of February, but there is plenty of conversation about what will materialize once the Federal Reserve stops purchasing mortgage-backed securities at the end of March. Most experts say that the laws of supply and demand hint rates can increase, possibly by a half to a full pct. Nonetheless, based on current reports by officials, there's reason to believe that the Fed plus the Obama Administration are absolutely willing and ready to step back in to support the us housing market if rates do begin to go higher, which would in turn bring lower rates once more.

Whereas no one is prepared to say the us housing market is back to normal, things are at the least better than they have been through some periods over the past 2 years. The question is whether or not they will continue to look up or head south once more.

Ken Schmidt is an skilled Realtor in the Phoenix region specializing in golf homes and communities. Get further information at http://golfcoursehomesaz.com