Market Studies

During a Bipartisan Policy Center forum Tuesday, experts generally agreed the housing market is on the path to recovery, but the strength of the national recovery remained in question. According to Douglas G. Duncan, chief economist at Fannie Mae, we may be in a recovery, but it has been the ""weakest recovery since World War II"" when considering income growth. Richard Smith, CEO and president of Realogy, took a more optimistic approach and stated we are in the early stages of a ""fairly strong recovery,"" with prices reacting to inadequate supply.

As the housing industry mends, younger Americans are expressing greater confidence in the market, according to results from Prudential Real Estate's Q2 outlook survey. Of the 2,600 millennials surveyed in Q2, 71 percent said their perception of the housing market is favorable, up from 65 percent in Q1. In 2011, only 52 percent of Americans aged 25 to 34 held a favorable perception of the real estate market.

A drop in housing-related retailers slowed retail sales last month. Total retail sales increased 0.2 percent in July, down from June's 0.6 percent increase, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. Economists had expected sales to increase 0.3 percent. The weaker-than-expected retail sales report decreases the likelihood the Federal Reserve will begin to taper its bond buying monetary stimulus program.

Economists and experts in a Zillow survey predicted median home values will rise to $167,490 by the end of this year, a gain of 6.7 percent over 2012. The forecast is a significant jump from the 5.4 percent annual increase expected in the last quarterly survey. Based on current expectations for home value appreciation over the next five years, panelists on average predicted home values could approach new record highs by the end of 2017. That said, many predicted appreciation rates will slow from 2014 through 2017.

Out of 163 metro areas across the country, 31 percent experienced double-digit annual home price gains in the second quarter, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). During the second quarter last year, only 14 percent of markets showed double-digit yearly increases. Overall, 87 percent of the metro areas tracked saw median prices for existing-homes rise compared to last year, while 12 percent experienced declines, NAR data showed.

Newly initiated foreclosures are on the decline, reaching their lowest numbers since December 2005 in June, according to the latest Housing Scorecard from the Obama administration. Meanwhile, the administration continues to add to the tally of homeowners helped through its Making Home Affordable Program, bringing the total to more than 1.7 million as of June. Looking forward, the administration says it will focus on forming a new housing finance system.

President Obama is trying to solve the wrong problem by calling, as he did in his speech in Phoenix, for the end of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as we know it. To be sure, Fannie and Freddie were not the hallmarks of responsibility in the mortgage meltdown, but have gotten a bad rap. For all their housing expertise, they missed all the signals of the housing bubble (but then again so did Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and his successor Ben S. Bernanke who dismissed it when the first signs of the meltdown emerged). Instead of suggesting replacing Fannie and Freddie to restore the nation's housing markets, the president should be proposing to return them to their original charters.

Even as the single-family housing market recovers, apartment properties should still be a solid investment in most markets going forward, according to Freddie Mac's analysts. In its mid-year multifamily outlook for 2013, the mortgage giant notes that multifamily market fundamentals such as rents and vacancies continue to improve, with New York, San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, and Los Angeles all seeing marked growth.

California markets dominate Realtor.com’s list of Turnaround Towns for the second quarter of this year, claiming the top four spots on the list and six of the top 10. While California may take the most spots on the top 10 list, Realtor.com says Detroit's presence on the list is ""most noteworthy."" The top 10 ""Turnaround Towns"" are determined by an algorithm that relies on data including inventory levels, median list prices, median number of days on market, and search and listing activity on Realtor.com.

Wells Fargo is the largest servicer of commercial and multifamily mortgages by dollar volume as of the end of June, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The institution is responsible for primary and master servicing duties for $431 billion in commercial and multifamily loans, according to data released Thursday by MBA. PNC Real Estate/Midland Loan Services is the second-largest commercial/multifamily servicer, working with $352.8 billion in loans.