Market Studies

Data through December 2008, released on Tuesday by Standard & Poor’s for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices (HPI), show that the prices of existing single family homes across the United States continue to set record declines, a trend that prevailed throughout all of 2007 and 2008.

Minneapolis-based Wolters Kluwer Financial Services recently announced that two members of its compliance management services team have earned the prestigious Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager (CRCM) designation from the American Bankers Association’s (ABA’s) Institute of Certified Bankers (ICB).

Home prices in the United States posted record declines in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA’s) House Price Index (HPI). The agency’s purchase-only HPI, based on data from home sales, was 3.

Ninety-seven percent of prime borrowers who originally had a conforming adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) chose a new conforming fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) when they refinanced in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to a report released today by Freddie Mac analyzing refinancings funded by the GSE.

Freddie Mac has released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) for the week ending February 19, 2009, showing that mortgage rates fell for all loan products this week. The GSE reported that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) this week averaged 5.

According to a report released today by Boston-based The Warren Group, foreclosure deeds in Massachusetts climbed during the month of January. Foreclosure petitions were also up from December, but actually declined 39 percent from a year earlier, the research company said.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 13, 2009. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 45.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury released its first monthly bank lending survey on Tuesday, showing that despite the negative effects of the economic downturn and unprecedented financial crisis, the top 20 banks receiving government funding have continued to originate, refinance, and renew loans.

January brought an unexpected, across the board drop, in the total Notices of Default, Notices of Trustee Sale, and sales at auction in California, not only from the prior month, but year-over-year as well, according to a report released by ForeclosureRadar on Thursday.

RealtyTrac released its January 2009 Foreclosure Market Report today, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 274,399 U.