Real estate market recap, Aug. 17-21

Inman

9 years ago

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Check Inman every day for the daily version of this market roundup.

Current mortgage rates:

Mortgage rate history:

This week/last week:

Friday, Aug. 21, 2015:

Black Knight’s first look at July mortgage data:

The total U.S. loan delinquency rate (30 or more days past due but not in foreclosure) is 4.7 percent, down 2.2 percent from June and down approximately 16.5 percent from July 2014.
Total U.S. presale inventory foreclosure rate is 1.4 percent, down approximately 3.8 percent from June and down 24.2 percent from July 2014.
The total U.S. foreclosure starts in July 2015 numbered 75,400, down approximately 4.6 percent from June and down approximately 16.9 percent from July 2014.

Thursday, Aug. 20, 2015

NAR’s existing-home sales for July:

Existing-home sales increased 2 percent month over month from June.
Sales in July reached 5.79 million, the highest pace since February 2007. Sales have increased year over year for 10 consecutive months.
The median existing-home price in July was $234,000.

Bellingham, Mount Vernon and Olympia-Tumwater in Washington were among the top core-based statistical areas (CBSAs).
Jacksonville, Florida, and Jacksonville, North Carolina, were among the bottom CBSAs.
San Francisco home levels are at an all-time high; Detroit, often called a “hot” housing market, is still struggling to return to prerecession levels.

U.S. properties with foreclosure filings rose by 14 percent on a year-over-year basis in July.
Foreclosure activity also increased by 7 percent on a month-over-month basis.
Rapidly rising bank REOs are the reason cited for the uptick in overall foreclosure filing volume.

Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015

Ellie Mae’s July origination insight report showed:

The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 4.29 percent in July 2015, up from 4.12 percent in June.
66.2 percent of loan applications closed in July, the highest level since Ellie Mae began tracking this data in August 2011.
The average FICO score on closed loans fell for the third consecutive month to 725, which is its lowest level since February 2014.

Mortgage refinance activity increased to 55.5 percent of total applications from 53.1 percent the previous week.
The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 6.9 percent of total applications.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages backed by the FHA decreased to 3.88 percent, its lowest level since May 2015.

Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015

New home starts fell slightly in July from June, but they were still 10.1 percent higher than in July 2014.
At 1.2 million, new home starts are still at historically low levels.
Permits posted also showed a monthly decline of 6.3 percent but a year-over-year growth of 7.5 percent.

Completed transactions in July 2015 were 3.2 percent lower than June 2015 but 11.3 percent higher than sales in July 2014.
Home prices have risen for 42 consecutive months, year over year.
Median price for homes sold in July was $215,000, and inventory was down 1 percent from June 2015.

Monday, Aug. 17, 2015

Both new residential construction and remodeling activity — measured by building permits pulled — were down nationally in July when compared to June.
Year over year, new residential permit activity is up 3 percent, and remodeling has declined by 6 percent.

Americans rent for an average of six years before they purchase their first homes.
Americans are also buying increasingly expensive first homes.
First-time buyers are older and less likely to be married than in the past.

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