HUD releases December Housing Scorecard

HUD and the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury recently released the December edition of the Obama Administration's Housing Scorecard, which showed the housing marketing bottomed out nationally and clearly turned a corner – as home values continued to rise and home sales remained strong in November – although officials caution that the overall recovery remains fragile.

 “As the December housing scorecard indicates, our housing market is continuing to show important signs of recovery – with the FHFA and Case-Shiller housing price indices up 5.6 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively, from one year ago,” said HUD Senior Advisor on Housing Finance Michael Berman. The December Housing Scorecard features key data on the health of the housing market and the impact of the Administration’s foreclosure prevention programs, including:

• Home prices showed large annual gains for the 12 months ending October 2012, and the Administration’s recovery efforts continue to help millions of families deal with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. More than six million mortgage modification and other forms of assistance arrangements were started between April 2009 and the end of November 2012. More than 81,000 loans were refinanced under the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) in October, bringing the total to 790,600 since the beginning of 2012. 
• The Administration's foreclosure programs are providing relief for millions of homeowners as we continue to recover from an unprecedented housing crisis. More than 1.4 million homeowner assistance actions have taken place through the Making Home Affordable Program, while the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has offered more than 1.5 million loss mitigation and early delinquency interventions. The Administration's programs continue to encourage improved standards and processes in the industry, with HOPE Now lenders offering families and individuals more than 3 million proprietary mortgage modifications through October. 
• HAMP continues to offer homeowners sustainable relief to avoid foreclosure. As of November, more than 1.1 million homeowners have received a permanent modification through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), saving approximately $544 on their mortgage payments each month, and an estimated $16.7 billion to date. 
• In November, 77 percent of homeowners with eligible non-GSE mortgages benefited from principal reduction with their HAMP modification. Eighty-seven percent of homeowners entering the program in the last two and a half years have received a permanent modification of their mortgage through HAMP.