January 15, 2016
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has issued a housing market report on its official site–“Measuring Progress in the Housing Market” examines the state of the market near the end of the old year and noted that equity is rising, while the number of homeowners still underwater in the wake of the Great Recession is going down.
“As 2015 came to a close, we saw our housing market reach key milestones on the path to recovery homeowners equity rose again, the number of homeowners in negative equity continues to decline, and purchases of new homes increased. Its clear that we must continue to support programs that will allow more American families and homeowners to recover from the Great Recession.”
HUD offers this report as a regular feature of its blog, The HUDdle.On the topic of equity, the report notes, “Homeowners equity (total property value less mortgage debt outstanding) was up $361 billion (3.0%) from the second quarter of 2015, for a total of nearly $12.4 trillionthe highest level since the fourth quarter of 2006.”
The report states that equity “peaked in the first quarter of 2006” at or near $13.3 trillion. “The increase in owners equity was $260 billion in the second quarter. The change in equity since April 1, 2009, when the Administration initiated its broad set of actions to stabilize the housing market, now stands at more than $6.1 trillion (+98.6%)” according to sources at the Federal Reserve.
And what about the number of homeowners who are still “underwater” on their mortgages, owing more than the home is actually worth? According to HUD, that number is going down. “As of the third quarter of 2015, CoreLogic estimated that 4.1 million homes, or 8.1 percent of residential properties with a mortgage, were in negative equity.”
HUD compares that number to 4.3 million, (8.7 percent according to the report) reported as being in negative equity, “in the second quarter and 5.2 million, or 10.4 percent one year ago. From the beginning of 2012 through the third quarter of 2015, the number of underwater borrowers (those who owe more on their mortgage than the value of their home) has declined by 66 percentfrom 12.1 million to 4.1 millionor by 8.0 million homeowners.”
Is now a good time to consider buying a home with an FHA mortgage? Based on reports like this, the answer would seem to be yes.
Do you work in residential real estate? You should know about the free tool offered by FHA.com. It is designed especially for real estate websites; a widget that displays FHA loan limits for the counties serviced by those sites. It is simple to spend a few seconds customizing the state, counties, and widget size for the tool; you can copy the code and paste it into your website with ease. Get yours today:
http://www.fha.com/fha_loan_limits_widget
Joe Wallace has been specializing in military and personal finance topics since 1995. His work has appeared on Air Force Television News, The Pentagon Channel, ABC and a variety of print and online publications. He is a 13-year Air Force veteran and a member of the Air Force Public Affairs Alumni Association. He was Managing editor for www.valoans.com for (8) years and is currently the Associate Editor for FHANewsblog.com.
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