Market Mover Tuesday: Case Shiller Housing Index: down 18.1 % y/y; insured defaults rising…
Pace of declines slowing? It would be a start on a bottom…..talk about a stretch for good news though, the rate moderated from a y/y drop of 18.7% to a y/y drop of 18.1%, a .06% improvement, nothing to write home about, pardon the pun….
…The index of 20 metropolitan areas dipped 0.6 percent in April from March, after a 2.2 percent decline the month before, for an 18.1 percent downturn from a year earlier.
S&P said its index of 10 metropolitan areas declined 0.6 percent in April for an 18 percent year-over-year drop, after falling 2.1 percent month on month in March.
The rate of annual decline in these measures has improved, from 18.7 percent for both indexes in March.
“While one month’s data cannot determine if a turnaround has begun, it seems that some stabilization may be appearing in some of the regions,” David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P, said in a statement. “We are entering the seasonally strong period in the housing market, so it will take some time to determine if a recovery is really here.”…
In other news defaults are up, and this is unemployment related defaults now on prime loans, the subprime bubble is over:
Defaults on privately insured U.S. mortgages rose in May following three months of declines, and the number brought up to date fell, providing new evidence that the nation’s housing market is still deteriorating.
The Mortgage Insurance Companies of America, a trade group, said 87,904 insured borrowers were at least 60 days late on payments in May, up 8 percent from April and up 29 percent from a year earlier. Late payments often foreshadow foreclosure.Mortgages brought up to date totaled just 52,590, down 10 percent from April and the fewest since January. But so-called insurance cures were up 29 percent from a year earlier.
Private mortgage insurance lets people buy homes with down payments of less than 20 percent, and guarantees that lenders will be repaid even if borrowers default. Insurance in force totaled $922 billion in May, the trade group said.
The industry has been tightening its standards after struggling with losses from having backed subprime and other risky mortgages, which have eaten into capital. Increasingly, mortgage providers are demanding 20 percent down payments, which could obviate the need for mortgage insurance.
In addition, while most major U.S. home loan providers adopted mortgage-modification programs in the last year to keep borrowers in their homes, many foreclosure moratoriums expired in March…
In other news PPIP is going forward and GE is getting money from it..shockah! Frakkers….
Moderate in the Middle 