The Obama administration’s May Housing Scorecard, released Wednesday, indicates the market is continuing to show signs of stability, but stated officials warn of a mixed overall outlook.
Sales of existing homes rose 2.4% in April, up in every region of the U.S. Inventory of newly constructed homes also increased for the first time since April 2007. The supply of homes on the market dipped to 5.1 months in April from 5.2 months in March as sales continued to outpace inventory levels.
The report indicated that distressed sales remained a “key factor” as the impact of serious delinquencies and underwater mortgages still weaken market gains.
Subprime delinquency rates were up in April to 28.9% from 28.6% last period, but down from last year when they sat at 32.2%. FHA delinquency rates are also up from last period, increasing to 11.6% from 11.44%, and are also up from last year’s 11.1%. Prime delinquencies are up as well from last period, ticking to 3.9% from 3.8%, but are down from last year’s 4.3%.
Seriously delinquent subprime mortgages are also up for this period from last, increasing to 1,609,000 from 1,607,000, but down from 1,632,000 one year ago. Seriously delinquent FHA mortgages are up from one year ago, increasing to 707,000 from 576,000, but are down slightly from last period when there were 708,000. Seriously delinquent prime mortgages came in at 1,395,000 for the period, down from 1,404 last period and 1,512,000 one year ago.
The number of underwater borrowers is also up, now sitting at 11,119,000 from last period’s 10,723 and last year’s 11,089.
