The administration unveiled a new initiative to help the nation's hardest hit housing markets. President Obama is allocating $1.5 billion for states where unemployment is high and home prices have fallen more than 20 percent. While national indicators point to housing stabilization, local conditions vary considerably. Obama is setting up an "innovation fund" for state agencies to develop their own loan modification assistance programs for underwater and unemployed homeowners.
The national residential delinquency rate and new foreclosures initiated both dropped in the fourth quarter. Is it a sign that the industry has finally turned the corner on the housing crisis? The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) says yes. "We are likely seeing the beginning of the end," Jay Brinkmann, MBA's chief economist, said. According to MBA, the delinquency rate has fallen to 9.47 percent, down 17 basis points from the third quarter of 2009. Foreclosure starts are down 22 basis points.
Commercial real estate in the United States has suffered its worst annual capital return on record, according to Investment Property Databank (IPD). The global real estate analysis firm reported that its U.S. property index fell 23.9 percent in 2009. While the pace of market value decline eased over the final quarter, IPD says cap rate pressures and weakening rental fundamentals are curbing optimism that 2010 is the year of recovery for the commercial sector.
In the fourth quarter of 2009, California had the highest mortgage fraud risk, according to the latest fraud report from Interthinx, a provider of risk mitigation and regulatory compliance tools. California nudged Nevada into the No. 2 spot on the company's list. Arizona was third and Florida was fourth. Interthinx's study shows that the most common type of mortgage fraud these days relates to property valuation schemes involving short sales, REOs, wholesale flipping, and refinancing.
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