The Obama Administration released the March edition of the Housing Scorecard, cautioning that the latest housing figures underscore fragility in the housing market and the need to continue efforts to help families stay in their homes. Citing figures from CoreLogic, home prices remain weak under continued strain from foreclosures and distressed home sales.
"There’s no question that this month’s figures show a troubling dip in home sales and housing prices," said HUD Assistant Secretary Raphael Bostic. "While we should not ignore the real impact that the Obama Administration’s programs are having for millions of homeowners and borrowers, these statistics clearly show that housing markets across the country continue to struggle to regain stable footing. We must remain steadfast in our efforts to support homeowners and communities in ways to help advance market stabilization and a transition towards health."
The Scorecard reveals that mortgage delinquencies continued in a downward trend compared to a year earlier and foreclosure starts and completions remain below the peak just before the “robo-signing” controversy in October.
However, the report states that they believe the decline is likely to be temporary as lenders who have been delaying foreclosure actions will eventually revise and resubmit foreclosure paperwork in the coming months.
The once a month report also disclosed that since April 2009, nearly 10 million American homeowners have refinanced there mortgage due to record low mortgage rates, resulting in $18.1 billion in total borrower savings.
In addition, more than 4.4 million modifications have been arranged between April 2009 and February 2011 which included 1.5 million HAMP trial modification starts, more than 776,000 FHA loss mitigation and early delinquency interventions and nearly 2.2 million private lender loan modifications under the HOPE Now program.
"The latest data underscore the importance of continuing our efforts to help families stay in their homes,"said acting Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Tim Massad. "Each month, the Administration's Home Affordable Modification Program helps over 25,000 additional families avoid foreclosure, and it has set important standards that have led to more than 2 million mortgage modifications outside of the program. We are also working hard to implement additional programs to assist families in the hardest-hit states. We will continue these efforts so that we help more Americans remain in their homes and help our nation recover from this crisis."
Tags: Obama, March Scorecard, fragile, housing figures, housing market, home sales dip, home prices dip, mortgage delinquencies, foreclosure paperwork, loan modifications, HAMP, HOPE Now
Sources:
HUD
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