My Real Estate Blog

September Housing Scorecard shows improvement

The latest housing figures show continued signs of stabilization in home prices, although existing- and new-home sales declined in July, according to the September edition of the Obama Administration’s Housing Scorecard recently released by HUD and the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury.

Highlights of the September Housing Scorecard include:

• As expected with the expiration of the Homebuyer Tax Credit, new and existing home sales showed a dip in July. At the same time, home prices have leveled off in the past year after 30 straight months of decline and homeowners added $95 billion in home equity in the second quarter.
  
• More than 3.35 million modification arrangements were started between April 2009 and the end of July 2010, including more than 1.3 million trial Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) modification starts, more than 510,000 Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loss mitigation and early delinquency interventions, and nearly 1.6 million proprietary modifications under HOPE Now. The number of agreements offered continued to more than double foreclosure completions for the same period (1.24 million).
  
• More than 468,000 permanent modifications granted to homeowners; more than 33,000 homeowners received a HAMP permanent modification in August.

Reprinted From C.A.R.