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Buy a HUD Home & Save Thou$and$!
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, April 10, 2012
HUD HOUSING SCORECARD RELEASED: OUTLOOK IS MIXED
On Friday, April 6, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released the March Housing Scorecard.
 HUD and the US Department of Treasury released the March edition of the Obama Administration's Housing Scorecard, a comprehensive monthly report on the health of the nation's housing market. There are promising signs of stability, but the overall outlook is mixed. "1 in 5 Americans still owe more than their home is worth," says HUD Assistant Secretary Raphael Bostic. While sales of existing homes is the strongest since 2007, there are still mortgage delinquencies in a downward trend.
The Scorecard provided updated data on the Administration's foreclosure prevention programs such as the enhanced Affordable Refinance Program, HAMP trial modification arrangements, HOPE Now lenders, and Making Home Affordable. It also included a regional spotlight on Chicago and the Neighborhood Stabilization Programs that have fueled local foreclosure prevention efforts. Read the full report here, including past Scorecards to keep you informed.
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Where Do We Go From Here?, by Greg Whitmire
The first quarter of the year is over, and it feels as if we have actually completed an entire year. If you look at the numbers, the stock market has already produced gains that were on the upper end of predictions by analysts for the year. Oil prices have also hit the price which was on the upper end of forecasts, though they have eased back a bit as the quarter came to a close. Even interest rates joined the party as we experienced moderate increases for the first time in more than a year. This takes us to a very obvious question. If the markets have performed a year's worth of work in three months, where do we go from here? For one thing, we have not seen a year's worth of economic growth. The gain of over 600,000 jobs for the quarter was strong, though the March numbers were mixed with 120,000 jobs created but another drop in the unemployment rate to 8.2%. We still have a long way to go in order to recover the jobs lost due to the recession.
The real estate sector has a long way to go as well. One look at real estate numbers shows that the market was basically flat in the first two months of the year. On the other hand, these numbers were up close to ten percent on a year-over-year basis. This is the new normal. What we need to happen is for real estate to improve another ten percent by the end of the year. Note we are not expecting real estate to explode with activity, just a continuation of expansion. We could easily lose the gains in the stock markets and oil prices and rates could easily fall back to previous levels if the economy does not progress from here. Don't get us wrong. The economy has improved significantly since the depths of the recession. For example, auto sales hit their highest level in the first quarter since early 2008. But the markets have built in these improvements into the very optimistic first quarter of gains. The second quarter's economic numbers will be watched closely to see if we are continuing to establish new benchmarks in our long awaited recovery from the severe recession, rather than moving into another lull in the recovery.
To view the whole article, please follow the link below.
www.newsletterproonline.com/newsletter/originationpro/
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Elizabeth "Lisa" Ristow
HUD Local Listing Broker
Broker/Owner
The Ristow Group LLC
Phone: 928-763-1234
Toll Free: 877-Ristow9
Fax: 928-704-0654
Email Us
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