CoreLogic - 70,000 foreclosures in January
CoreLogic released its National Foreclosure Report for
January, which provides monthly data on completed
foreclosures, foreclosure inventory and 90+ delinquency
rates. There were 69,000 completed foreclosures in January
2012, compared to 80,000 in January 2011, and 65,000 in
December 2011. The number of completed foreclosures for the
previous twelve months was 860,128. From the start of the
financial crisis in September 2008, there have been
approximately 3.3 million completed foreclosures.
Approximately 1.4 million homes, or 3.3% of all homes with a
mortgage, were in the foreclosure inventory as of January
2012 compared to 1.5 million, or 3.6%, in January 2011 and
1.4 million, or 3.4%, in December 2011.
Nationally, the number of loans in the foreclosure inventory
decreased by 145,000, or 9.5% in January 2012 compared to
January 2011. The foreclosure inventory is the stock of
homes in the foreclosure process. A property moves into the
foreclosure inventory when the mortgage servicer places the
property into the foreclosure process after serious
delinquency is reached and remains there until the
foreclosure is completed. The foreclosure inventory is
measured only against homes with an outstanding mortgage,
rather than against all homes. Nationwide, roughly one third
of homeowners own their homes outright.
The share of borrowers nationally that were more than 90
days late on their mortgage payment, including homes in
foreclosure and REO, fell to 7.2% in January 2012 from 7.8%
in January 2011, but remained unchanged from December 2011.
The inventory of REO assets held by servicers nationwide
grew faster in January than the pace of REO sales, as
measured by the distressed clearing ratio. The distressed
clearing ratio is calculated by dividing the number of REO
sales by the number of completed foreclosures; the higher
the ratio, the faster the pace of REO sales relative to the
pace of completed foreclosures. The distressed clearing
ratio for January 2012 was 0.69, down from 0.80 in December
2011. Highlights as of January 2012:
- The five states with the largest number of completed
foreclosures for the twelve months ending in January 2012
were: California (155,000), Florida (86,000), Arizona
(65,000), Michigan (65,000) and Texas (57,000). These five
states account for 49.7% of all completed foreclosures
nationally.
- The% of homeowners nationally who were more than 90 days
late on their mortgage payments, including homes in
foreclosure and REO, was 7.2% for January 2012 compared to
7.8% for January 2011, and 7.2% in December 2011.
- The five states with the highest foreclosure rates were:
Florida (11.8%), New Jersey (6.4%), Illinois (5.3%), Nevada
(5.0%) and New York (4.7%).
- The five states with the lowest foreclosure rates were:
Wyoming (0.7%), Alaska (0.8%), North Dakota (0.8%), Nebraska
(1.1%) and Texas (1.3%).
- Of the top 100 markets, measured by Core Based
Statistical Areas (CBSAs) population, 32 are showing an
increase in the foreclosure rate in January 2012 compared to
a year ago, the same as from December 2011 when 32* of the
top CBSAs were showing an increase in the foreclosure rate
compared to December 2010.
Jobless claims fall
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped
14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 351,000, the Labor
Department said. That took claims back to a four-year low
reached in February. The prior week's figure was revised up
to 365,000 from the previously reported 362,000. Economists
polled by Reuters had forecast claims falling to 356,000
last week. The four-week moving average for new claims,
considered a better measure of labor market trends, was
unchanged at 355,750. First-time applications for jobless
benefits have been tucked in a tight range since
mid-February, a hopeful sign for the labor market, which has
enjoyed three straight months of employment gains above
200,000. The jobless rate held at a three-year low of 8.3%
in February. While the Federal Reserve on Tuesday
acknowledged the recent improvement in the labor market, it
remained concerned with the still-high unemployment rate.
The US central bank said it expected the jobless rate, which
has declined 0.8 percentage point since August, to
"gradually'' decline. A Labor Department official said
there was nothing unusual in the state-level data and that
no states had been estimated.
The number of people still receiving benefits under regular
state programs after an initial week of aid declined 81,000
to 3.34 million in the week ended March 3 — the lowest
level since August 2008. Despite the improving labor market
picture, long-term unemployment remains a huge problem and
about 43% of the 12.8 million out of work Americans in
February had been jobless for more than six months. The
number of Americans on emergency unemployment benefits fell
53,415 to 2.88 million in the week ended Feb. 25, the latest
week for which data is available. A total of 7.42 million
people were claiming unemployment benefits during that
period under all programs, up 36,392 from the prior week.
Defaults up
Default notices were filed for the first time on 58,886
homes last month, up 1% from January, though still down 7%
from February 2011, a report from RealtyTrac showed. A
dozen states saw increases of 20% or more compared with the
year before, including Hawaii, Florida and Massachusetts.
Overall foreclosure filings - which include default notices,
scheduled auctions and bank repossessions - decreased 2%
from January to 206,900 homes, and were down 8% from
February 2011. But there was a divide in the pace of
activity among the states, depending on the structure of
their foreclosure process, which suggested some of the homes
in the pipeline were starting to move. Foreclosure activity
jumped 24% from a year ago in states where foreclosures must
be processed through the courts, known as judicial states.
Foreclosure times have stretched longer in judicial states,
contributing to the backlog. Meanwhile, activity tumbled 23%
in non-judicial states. "We're seeing definite signs that
the foreclosure log jam that's built up over the last year
and a half is beginning to loosen up," said Daren Blomquist,
director of marketing communications at RealtyTrac. "It's a
little difficult because it's not all happening at the same
time across the country. Regionally and state by state,
we're seeing the numbers loosen up at different times."
Overall, banks seized fewer homes. Repossessions fell 4% to
63,834 and were down 1% from a year ago.
Inflation up
The Labor Department said its seasonally adjusted producer
price index increased 0.4% last month, quickening from
January's 0.1% gain. Economists polled by Reuters had
expected prices at farms, factories and refineries to rise
0.5%. Wholesale prices excluding volatile food and energy
costs rose 0.2%, moderating from January's 0.4% increase.
While that was in line with economists' expectations, it was
the third consecutive month of increases in core PPI. The
Federal Reserve said on Tuesday the recent steep run-up in
oil and gasoline prices would push inflation up only
temporarily. Overall produces prices were lifted by a 1.3%
increase in energy prices after a 0.5% drop in January.
Food prices dipped 0.1% after falling 0.3% the prior month.
In the 12 months to February, producer prices increased
3.3%, the smallest increase since August 2010, after
advancing 4.1% in January. Gasoline prices rose 4.3%, the
largest gain in five months, after gaining 2.0% in February.
Outside food and energy, producer prices were pushed up by
pharmaceuticals, which accounted for a third of the increase
in core PPI. A rise in prices for civilian aircraft also
contributed. Passenger car prices edged up 0.1% after
falling 0.8% the prior month. Light motor trucks prices fell
0.4% after a 0.9% rise the prior month. In the 12 months to
February, core producer prices increased 3.0% after rising
by the same margin the previous month.
Dodd Frank killing small banks
Community banks have a lot to fear from the Dodd-Frank
financial reforms, which could put half of them out of
business, former FDIC Chairman Bill Isaac said yesterday.
“The bigger banks can absorb it, the smaller banks
can’t,” Isaac, who is now chairman of Fifth Third
Bancorp, told Larry Kudlow. “I would not be surprised to
see half of the community banks in this country go out of
business if we don’t give some relief from Dodd-Frank for
them.” Earlier Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke said most of the provisions in the 2010 law were
aimed at the largest financial institutions and not
community banks. “We will work to maintain a clear
distinction between the community banks and larger
institutions in application of the new regulations,”
Bernanke said in prerecorded remarks played at a convention
of community bankers. However, Isaac called the sweeping
reforms a burden on community banks. “I think that
Dodd-Frank is a terrible piece of financial legislation, he
said. “It didn’t address any of the causes of the crisis
that we just went through. It won’t prevent the next
crisis. It’s heaped volumes and volumes of
regulations.”
Isaac is also not a fan of the way the Fed’s current
stress tests, which are mandated under Dodd-Frank, are being
done. Since banks are required to capitalize on a
depression-era scenario, they either have to raise capital
or slow their growth or balance sheets, which he said many
are now doing. “What they’re missing here is that when
you require banks to capitalize for a depression, it’s
going to be awfully hard to get this economy moving,” he
said. The new banking regulations have also lead to the
tightening of lending standards, despite the fact that banks
have a lot of excess capital right now. “Loan growth has
almost been non-existent for the past three years,” he
said. “It’s hurting the people who need the money the
most. It’s hurting small business. I think it is impeding
economic growth.”
WSJ - banks take more hits
A problem that bankers hoped was behind them—rising costs
to repurchase soured home loans they previously sold to the
government-backed mortgage investors Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac—has instead bitten back with a vengeance. Fannie and
Freddie asked banks to buy back $33 billion of loans last
year. That is up 10% from 2010, according to federal
securities filings the companies have made this month. The
banks don't typically pay the full amount but during the
second half of 2011, the companies collected $11.1 billion
from banks, compared with $6.9 billion in the first half of
the year. The numbers shed light on the long-running battle
between mortgage-originators and the housing-finance giants
over how to split the tab for dodgy loans. The surge in
so-called putback requests adds to the pressure on banks to
contain costs at a time when revenue is weak amid soft
economic growth, low interest rates and tighter
regulations.
Fannie and Freddie, which don't make loans but package them
into securities that are sold to investors, can force banks
to repurchase loans found to contain faulty appraisals and
other defects. Several companies have reported an uptick in
buyback demands from Fannie in recent months. Wells Fargo &
Co. said it had increased its repurchase liability to $1.3
billion at the end of 2011, up from $1.2 billion at the end
of September, due to "higher than anticipated" demands from
Fannie. Wells Fargo, based in San Francisco, declined to
comment. A dispute over large volumes of unresolved
repurchase requests prompted Fannie to say last month it
hadn't renewed an agreement that enables Bank of America
Corp. to sell loans to Fannie under agreed-upon conditions.
Bank of America bought Countrywide Financial Corp.—once
Fannie Mae's biggest supplier of home loans—in 2008. The
dispute comes just a year after Bank of America paid $2.8
billion to settle some claims tied to faulty mortgages sold
to Fannie and Freddie, the government-sponsored enterprises,
or GSEs.
CoreLogic released its National Foreclosure Report for
January, which provides monthly data on completed
foreclosures, foreclosure inventory and 90+ delinquency
rates. There were 69,000 completed foreclosures in January
2012, compared to 80,000 in January 2011, and 65,000 in
December 2011. The number of completed foreclosures for the
previous twelve months was 860,128. From the start of the
financial crisis in September 2008, there have been
approximately 3.3 million completed foreclosures.
Approximately 1.4 million homes, or 3.3% of all homes with a
mortgage, were in the foreclosure inventory as of January
2012 compared to 1.5 million, or 3.6%, in January 2011 and
1.4 million, or 3.4%, in December 2011.
Nationally, the number of loans in the foreclosure inventory
decreased by 145,000, or 9.5% in January 2012 compared to
January 2011. The foreclosure inventory is the stock of
homes in the foreclosure process. A property moves into the
foreclosure inventory when the mortgage servicer places the
property into the foreclosure process after serious
delinquency is reached and remains there until the
foreclosure is completed. The foreclosure inventory is
measured only against homes with an outstanding mortgage,
rather than against all homes. Nationwide, roughly one third
of homeowners own their homes outright.
The share of borrowers nationally that were more than 90
days late on their mortgage payment, including homes in
foreclosure and REO, fell to 7.2% in January 2012 from 7.8%
in January 2011, but remained unchanged from December 2011.
The inventory of REO assets held by servicers nationwide
grew faster in January than the pace of REO sales, as
measured by the distressed clearing ratio. The distressed
clearing ratio is calculated by dividing the number of REO
sales by the number of completed foreclosures; the higher
the ratio, the faster the pace of REO sales relative to the
pace of completed foreclosures. The distressed clearing
ratio for January 2012 was 0.69, down from 0.80 in December
2011. Highlights as of January 2012:
- The five states with the largest number of completed
foreclosures for the twelve months ending in January 2012
were: California (155,000), Florida (86,000), Arizona
(65,000), Michigan (65,000) and Texas (57,000). These five
states account for 49.7% of all completed foreclosures
nationally.
- The% of homeowners nationally who were more than 90 days
late on their mortgage payments, including homes in
foreclosure and REO, was 7.2% for January 2012 compared to
7.8% for January 2011, and 7.2% in December 2011.
- The five states with the highest foreclosure rates were:
Florida (11.8%), New Jersey (6.4%), Illinois (5.3%), Nevada
(5.0%) and New York (4.7%).
- The five states with the lowest foreclosure rates were:
Wyoming (0.7%), Alaska (0.8%), North Dakota (0.8%), Nebraska
(1.1%) and Texas (1.3%).
- Of the top 100 markets, measured by Core Based
Statistical Areas (CBSAs) population, 32 are showing an
increase in the foreclosure rate in January 2012 compared to
a year ago, the same as from December 2011 when 32* of the
top CBSAs were showing an increase in the foreclosure rate
compared to December 2010.
Jobless claims fall
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped
14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 351,000, the Labor
Department said. That took claims back to a four-year low
reached in February. The prior week's figure was revised up
to 365,000 from the previously reported 362,000. Economists
polled by Reuters had forecast claims falling to 356,000
last week. The four-week moving average for new claims,
considered a better measure of labor market trends, was
unchanged at 355,750. First-time applications for jobless
benefits have been tucked in a tight range since
mid-February, a hopeful sign for the labor market, which has
enjoyed three straight months of employment gains above
200,000. The jobless rate held at a three-year low of 8.3%
in February. While the Federal Reserve on Tuesday
acknowledged the recent improvement in the labor market, it
remained concerned with the still-high unemployment rate.
The US central bank said it expected the jobless rate, which
has declined 0.8 percentage point since August, to
"gradually'' decline. A Labor Department official said
there was nothing unusual in the state-level data and that
no states had been estimated.
The number of people still receiving benefits under regular
state programs after an initial week of aid declined 81,000
to 3.34 million in the week ended March 3 — the lowest
level since August 2008. Despite the improving labor market
picture, long-term unemployment remains a huge problem and
about 43% of the 12.8 million out of work Americans in
February had been jobless for more than six months. The
number of Americans on emergency unemployment benefits fell
53,415 to 2.88 million in the week ended Feb. 25, the latest
week for which data is available. A total of 7.42 million
people were claiming unemployment benefits during that
period under all programs, up 36,392 from the prior week.
Defaults up
Default notices were filed for the first time on 58,886
homes last month, up 1% from January, though still down 7%
from February 2011, a report from RealtyTrac showed. A
dozen states saw increases of 20% or more compared with the
year before, including Hawaii, Florida and Massachusetts.
Overall foreclosure filings - which include default notices,
scheduled auctions and bank repossessions - decreased 2%
from January to 206,900 homes, and were down 8% from
February 2011. But there was a divide in the pace of
activity among the states, depending on the structure of
their foreclosure process, which suggested some of the homes
in the pipeline were starting to move. Foreclosure activity
jumped 24% from a year ago in states where foreclosures must
be processed through the courts, known as judicial states.
Foreclosure times have stretched longer in judicial states,
contributing to the backlog. Meanwhile, activity tumbled 23%
in non-judicial states. "We're seeing definite signs that
the foreclosure log jam that's built up over the last year
and a half is beginning to loosen up," said Daren Blomquist,
director of marketing communications at RealtyTrac. "It's a
little difficult because it's not all happening at the same
time across the country. Regionally and state by state,
we're seeing the numbers loosen up at different times."
Overall, banks seized fewer homes. Repossessions fell 4% to
63,834 and were down 1% from a year ago.
Inflation up
The Labor Department said its seasonally adjusted producer
price index increased 0.4% last month, quickening from
January's 0.1% gain. Economists polled by Reuters had
expected prices at farms, factories and refineries to rise
0.5%. Wholesale prices excluding volatile food and energy
costs rose 0.2%, moderating from January's 0.4% increase.
While that was in line with economists' expectations, it was
the third consecutive month of increases in core PPI. The
Federal Reserve said on Tuesday the recent steep run-up in
oil and gasoline prices would push inflation up only
temporarily. Overall produces prices were lifted by a 1.3%
increase in energy prices after a 0.5% drop in January.
Food prices dipped 0.1% after falling 0.3% the prior month.
In the 12 months to February, producer prices increased
3.3%, the smallest increase since August 2010, after
advancing 4.1% in January. Gasoline prices rose 4.3%, the
largest gain in five months, after gaining 2.0% in February.
Outside food and energy, producer prices were pushed up by
pharmaceuticals, which accounted for a third of the increase
in core PPI. A rise in prices for civilian aircraft also
contributed. Passenger car prices edged up 0.1% after
falling 0.8% the prior month. Light motor trucks prices fell
0.4% after a 0.9% rise the prior month. In the 12 months to
February, core producer prices increased 3.0% after rising
by the same margin the previous month.
Dodd Frank killing small banks
Community banks have a lot to fear from the Dodd-Frank
financial reforms, which could put half of them out of
business, former FDIC Chairman Bill Isaac said yesterday.
“The bigger banks can absorb it, the smaller banks
can’t,” Isaac, who is now chairman of Fifth Third
Bancorp, told Larry Kudlow. “I would not be surprised to
see half of the community banks in this country go out of
business if we don’t give some relief from Dodd-Frank for
them.” Earlier Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke said most of the provisions in the 2010 law were
aimed at the largest financial institutions and not
community banks. “We will work to maintain a clear
distinction between the community banks and larger
institutions in application of the new regulations,”
Bernanke said in prerecorded remarks played at a convention
of community bankers. However, Isaac called the sweeping
reforms a burden on community banks. “I think that
Dodd-Frank is a terrible piece of financial legislation, he
said. “It didn’t address any of the causes of the crisis
that we just went through. It won’t prevent the next
crisis. It’s heaped volumes and volumes of
regulations.”
Isaac is also not a fan of the way the Fed’s current
stress tests, which are mandated under Dodd-Frank, are being
done. Since banks are required to capitalize on a
depression-era scenario, they either have to raise capital
or slow their growth or balance sheets, which he said many
are now doing. “What they’re missing here is that when
you require banks to capitalize for a depression, it’s
going to be awfully hard to get this economy moving,” he
said. The new banking regulations have also lead to the
tightening of lending standards, despite the fact that banks
have a lot of excess capital right now. “Loan growth has
almost been non-existent for the past three years,” he
said. “It’s hurting the people who need the money the
most. It’s hurting small business. I think it is impeding
economic growth.”
WSJ - banks take more hits
A problem that bankers hoped was behind them—rising costs
to repurchase soured home loans they previously sold to the
government-backed mortgage investors Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac—has instead bitten back with a vengeance. Fannie and
Freddie asked banks to buy back $33 billion of loans last
year. That is up 10% from 2010, according to federal
securities filings the companies have made this month. The
banks don't typically pay the full amount but during the
second half of 2011, the companies collected $11.1 billion
from banks, compared with $6.9 billion in the first half of
the year. The numbers shed light on the long-running battle
between mortgage-originators and the housing-finance giants
over how to split the tab for dodgy loans. The surge in
so-called putback requests adds to the pressure on banks to
contain costs at a time when revenue is weak amid soft
economic growth, low interest rates and tighter
regulations.
Fannie and Freddie, which don't make loans but package them
into securities that are sold to investors, can force banks
to repurchase loans found to contain faulty appraisals and
other defects. Several companies have reported an uptick in
buyback demands from Fannie in recent months. Wells Fargo &
Co. said it had increased its repurchase liability to $1.3
billion at the end of 2011, up from $1.2 billion at the end
of September, due to "higher than anticipated" demands from
Fannie. Wells Fargo, based in San Francisco, declined to
comment. A dispute over large volumes of unresolved
repurchase requests prompted Fannie to say last month it
hadn't renewed an agreement that enables Bank of America
Corp. to sell loans to Fannie under agreed-upon conditions.
Bank of America bought Countrywide Financial Corp.—once
Fannie Mae's biggest supplier of home loans—in 2008. The
dispute comes just a year after Bank of America paid $2.8
billion to settle some claims tied to faulty mortgages sold
to Fannie and Freddie, the government-sponsored enterprises,
or GSEs.
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