Market Studies

President Obama embarked this week on a series of speeches designed to highlight the nation’s continued economic stress. The immediate response and from both ends of the political spectrum was to decry his efforts as same-old, same-old. And, it is true the President has made this pitch before, emphasizing that the significant progress has made is not enough.

According a survey from the National Association of Realtors, 80 percent of Americans said they believe buying a home is a good financial decision, up by 8 points from 2011. Over the last two years, the market has also seen an increase in renters who are interested in owning. In the recent survey, 36 percent of renters said they are thinking about buying, up from 25 percent in 2011, while 51 percent of renters also said that owning in the future is one of their highest personal priorities. Not only are views toward housing stronger, but Americans are also less concerned when it comes to job security.

Low inventory coupled with rising mortgage rates and home prices are leading prospective buyers to consider using ""aggressive"" tactics such as overbidding to obtain a home, according to recent survey from Trulia. In order to secure the desired home, 25 percent of prospective buyers in the survey said they were willing to bid 1 to 5 percent above the seller's asking prices. When it came to overbidding, younger buyers (aged 18 to 34) are more likely to use the strategy. The survey also examined top worries and found rising mortgage rates weighed on the minds of 41 percent of potential buyers.

According to a new report from Kroll Factual Data, the potential for loan application fraud increased slightly in the first quarter of this year--though some regions saw possible fraud rise 30 percent or higher. The first quarter experienced a 1.06 percent increase throughout the country between the first quarter of 2013 and the fourth quarter of 2012. Despite the relatively small national increase, ""large increases in certain metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) coupled with seesawing data from quarter-to-quarter point to a disconcerting state of unpredictability in certain locations,"" Kroll said.

Housing markets across the country continue to show improvement. The list of fully recovered housing markets across the country stood at 16 as of the end of May, up from 14 in the prior month, according to a report from Homes.com.

The Department of Labor reported Thursday that advance initial unemployment figures for the week ending July 20 totaled 343,000, an increase of 7,000 over the previous week's revised tally. The four-week moving average for first-time claims was 345,250, a decline of 1,250 from the prior week.

The number of borrowers who refinanced through the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) fell 20 percent month-over-month in May, data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) revealed. The GSEs refinanced 84,648 borrowers through HARP in May, down from 106,910 in April. Since HARP's 2009 inception, the program has refinanced over 2.6 million loans.

Mortgage rates backed down for the second consecutive week, according to reports from Freddie Mac and Bankrate.com. Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey put the 30-year fixed-rate average at 4.31 percent (0.8 point) for the week ending July 25, down from last week's 4.37 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.49 percent. The 15-year FRM this week averaged 3.39 percent (0.8 point), down from 3.41 percent last week.

With the exception of short sales, activity for distressed sales was relatively calm in June, according to data from RealtyTrac. Last month, institutional investors accounted for 9 percent of residential sales. The share represents a slight increase from 8 percent in May, and a small decrease from 10 percent in June 2012. Meanwhile, short sales saw a significant increase over the last year, representing 14 percent of all sales in June, up from 8 percent a year ago.

After five months of declines, the national mortgage delinquency reversed course in June, according to data from Lender Processing Services (LPS). From May to June, the delinquency rate shot up by 9.9 percent, ending at 6.7 percent, LPS reported. The increased delinquency rate represents the highest level since February of this year. Despite the increase, the delinquency rate still posted an annual decrease from last year. Compared to June 2012, the delinquency rate is down by 6.5 percent.