“We’re seeing positive signs of a strengthening recovery in Florida’s housing market,” says 2012 Florida Realtors President Summer. “In both the statewide single-family and condo-townhome markets, pending sales are higher and the statewide median sales price rose – up 5.3 percent to $129,000 for single-family homes and up 18.8 percent to $95,000 for condo-townhomes. Improving the availability of affordable financing to qualified buyers and investors would continue to stabilize Florida’s housing market and economy.”

The median is the midpoint; half the homes sold for more, half for less. Sales of foreclosures and other distressed properties continue to downwardly distort the median price because they generally sell at a discount relative to traditional homes, according to housing industry analysts.

The national median sales price for existing single-family homes in December 2011 was $165,100, which is 2.5 percent below the previous year, according to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR). In California, the statewide median sales price for single-family existing homes in December was $285,920; in Maryland, it was $222,934.

Florida statewide sales of existing single-family homes totaled 12,044 in January 2012, down 5.5 percent compared to the year-ago figure, according to data from Florida Realtors Industry Data and Analysis department and vendor partner 10K Research and Marketing.

Looking at Florida’s year-to-year comparison for sales of condos/townhomes, a total of 5,963 units sold statewide last month, down 22.6 percent from those sold in January 2011. According to NAR, the national median existing condo price in December 2011 was $160,000.

“Even though closed sales are down from a year ago, there are two really bright spots in Florida’s housing market,” said Florida Realtors Chief Economist Dr. John Tuccillo. “One is a significant increase in pending sales. In fact, pending sales have been up every month since May. The barrier that stands between pending sales and closings is the difficulty consumers are experiencing in obtaining financing.

“The second positive is inventories, which are now at a point close to a balanced market,” Tuccillo said. The months supply of inventory stands at 6.4 for both the single-family homes market and the condos/townhomes market.

The interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.92 percent in January 2012, down from the 4.76 percent average during the same month a year earlier, according to Freddie Mac.

To see the full statewide housing activity report, go to Florida Realtors Media Center at http://media.floridarealtors.org/ and look under Latest Releases, or download the report under Market Data at: http://media.floridarealtors.org/market-data.

The January 2012 Florida Realtors home sales release marks a new statewide housing market reporting partnership between Florida Realtors Industry Data and Analysis department and a new vendor partner, 10K Research and Marketing. Housing sales data from the state’s 63 local Realtor organizations is collected and organized with the goal of providing unique, localized market reports to the local Realtor boards and associations within Florida Realtors, enabling the groups and their Realtor members to serve as the definitive voice of real estate in their respective local markets.

At the same time, Florida Realtors is providing comprehensive statewide housing market statistics – but this new data series only includes statewide numbers. Beginning with this January 2012 housing data report, Florida Realtors is no longer reporting any market data for Realtor members’ sales in the state’s metropolitan statistical areas, as had previously been reported in partnership with the University of Florida’s Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies.

© 2012 Florida Realtors®

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Foreclosures rose 8 percent nationally last month from December, but were down 15 percent from a year earlier, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

Despite the annual decrease at the national level, some states posted sharp increases compared to January 2011. In New Hampshire, foreclosures jumped 62 percent. In Massachusetts, 75 percent.

That trend is expected to strengthen this year in light of last week’s $25 billion settlement between the nation’s biggest mortgage lenders and 49 state attorneys general over the industry’s handling of foreclosures.

Many banks and mortgage servicers processed foreclosures without verifying documents. Some employees signed papers they hadn’t read or used fake signatures to speed foreclosures — a practice dubbed “robo-signing.”

Major banks temporarily put foreclosures on hold after the problems surfaced in the fall of 2010. Some had to refile previously filed foreclosure cases and revisit pending cases to prevent errors. Those delays and uncertainty over state and federal probes into the industry’s foreclosure practices led to a sharp slowdown in foreclosure activity last year.

The settlement between the banks and state attorneys general helps clarify the rules banks must follow to foreclose on borrowers, said Daren Blomquist, a vice president at RealtyTrac. That will pave the way for more foreclosures, he said.

“The settlement will accelerate the foreclosures that are happening this year and it will accelerate the process of lenders catching up on the backlog of foreclosures that has been building up over the last year and a half,” Blomquist said.

Credit rating agency Fitch Ratings also anticipates foreclosures will climb nationally this year, but not right away, noting it will take some time for lenders and mortgage servicers to make sure they are in compliance with the rules set forth in the settlement.

“You probably are going to see the pace pick up as the year goes on,” said Grant Bailey, a managing director at Fitch.

RealtyTrac projects foreclosures will rise 25 percent this year to 1 million homes. Last year, lenders took back 804,000 homes.

Even so, the rise in foreclosures isn’t expected to be uniform nationwide. That’s because the settlement isn’t likely to ease the backlog of foreclosure cases in states where courts play a role in the process.

In addition, some states have taken steps to slow lenders down.

Throughout the housing downturn Nevada has had the nation’s highest foreclosure rate. There, a law that went into effect in October requires that foreclosure documents must be filed in the county where a property is located and a lender must provide a notarized affidavit detailing their legal right to proceed.

That has contributed to fewer homes entering the foreclosure process, but also a smaller pool of foreclosed homes available for sale in places like Las Vegas.

There are as many as 3,000 fewer homes listed for sale in the greater Las Vegas market than just a year ago, said Rosa Herwick, a broker and owner of Century 21 JR Realty in Henderson, Nev.

That’s made multiple offers on foreclosures and other properties priced up to $250,000 commonplace, she said.

“There are tons of homes sitting out here vacant that people haven’t paid on for two years, or whatever the case, that should be in the foreclosure pipeline and are not yet,” Herwick said.

Foreclosure activity in Nevada fell 8 percent last month from December, but was down 52 percent from January last year, RealtyTrac said.

High unemployment, a sluggish housing market and falling home values remain major factors in homeowners falling behind on their mortgage payments. Many borrowers also have simply stopped paying their mortgage because they owe more on the mortgage than the home is worth.

All told, 210,941 U.S. homes received a default notice, were scheduled for auction or were repossessed by a lender in January, RealtyTrac said.

That’s up 3 percent from December, but a drop of 19 percent from January last year. The foreclosure rate translates to one in every 624 U.S. households.

Credit reporting agency TransUnion said 6.01 percent of mortgage holders were behind on their payments by 60 days or more in the October-to-December period. That compared with 5.88 percent for the third quarter of 2011.

To be sure, the rate is down significantly from the fourth quarter of 2010, when 6.41 percent of mortgage holders were behind by two or more months. But the uptick is still unwelcome news.

“We were hoping for better, because delinquencies remain very high,” said Tim Martin, group vice president of U.S. Housing in TransUnion’s financial services business unit. Prior to the housing bust, the mortgage delinquency rate typically hovered around 2 percent.

What’s more, while the national rate fell from the prior year, 18 states showed delinquency increases from the 2010 period. Leading the increases was a big jump in New Jersey, where the rate went to 8.32 percent from 7.43 percent.

While the national rate is still far above normal, however, Martin said the increase in the fourth quarter may in part reflect a return to seasonal patterns that disappeared during the economic downturn. Historically, delinquencies rose in the fourth quarter as some homeowners directed their funds elsewhere.

“We were certainly off pattern for the last couple of years,” Martin said.

He added that while the increase was not good news, the year-over-year decline is encouraging, and points to a continued, if slow, recovery in the housing market.

Of note were sharp declines in delinquencies in Arizona, where the rate plunged to 7.5 percent from 9.7 percent a year ago, and California, to 7.14 percent from 9.14 percent in the 2010 fourth quarter.

These two states are among the four hardest hit by the housing and foreclosure crisis.

Nevada, where the housing market has also been hit hard, saw delinquencies decline sharply as well, to 12.08 percent from 14.76. Florida, which remains the state with the highest delinquency rate, saw a far smaller decline, to 14.27 percent from 14.5 percent.

Martin said the statistics were not unexpected, in part because of the apparent return to seasonal swings in delinquency. He also noted that housing prices continued to decline during the quarter, a key factor for homeowners who are struggling to keep up with their payments.

Indeed, prices dropped in November from October in 19 of the 20 cities tracked by the Standard & Poor’s/ Case-Shiller home-price index. Only Phoenix showed an increase for the month. And with a large number of vacant homes sitting idle on the market, prices are not expected to rise for several years.

TransUnion expects the rate of late mortgage payments to tick up again in the current quarter, and then resume their decline.

The news last week of a deal with the nation’s five largest mortgage lenders will likely result in many suspended foreclosures being cleared off the books. And roughly 1 million homeowners are expected to see the size of their mortgage reduced through that deal with 49 state attorneys general, which should help reduce delinquency as well.

But until home prices stabilize and unemployment rebounds, Martin said many homeowners will continue to struggle with their payments. “Delinquencies won’t get better until that other stuff works its way through the pipeline,” and the economy also improves, he said.
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Existing home sales rose 7 percent in 4Q 2011 with a total of 42,038 homes changing hands statewide; during the same period the year before, a total of 39,355 homes sold, according to Florida Realtors. Statewide sales of existing condos in the fourth quarter rose 4 percent compared to the year-ago sales figure.

Florida’s existing-home median sales price was $132,000 for the three-month period, down only 1 percent from the $133,400 reported in 4Q 2010. The median is a typical market price where half the homes sold for more, half for less.

In the year-to-year quarterly comparison for existing condo sales, 18,558 units sold statewide in the fourth quarter compared to 17,922 units in 4Q 2010 for a 4 percent gain. The statewide existing-condo median sales price was $88,800 in the fourth quarter; a year earlier, it was $84,400 for a 5 percent increase.

“The quarterly numbers continue to show the steady improvement of the housing market in Florida,” says Florida Realtors Chief Economist Dr. John Tuccillo. “The upward movement in sales has been pretty much across the state. Prices have stabilized, and in general, the state’s economy is improving. With that improvement, we expect continued growth in housing activity.”

Mortgage rates continued to hover around historical lows in the fourth quarter. According to Freddie Mac, the national commitment rate for a 30-year conventional fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.01 percent in 4Q 2011; one year earlier, it averaged 4.41 percent.

The 4Q 2011 sales data release is the last release handled under Florida Realtors’ partnership with the University of Florida’s Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies. Beginning with the January 2012 existing sales statistics, Florida Realtors will launch a new statewide housing market reporting partnership with 10K Research and Marketing, a division of the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors and its Industry Data and Analysis department.

10K will collect and organize housing sales data from the state’s 63 local Realtor organizations. The goal is to provide unique, localized market reports to the local Realtor boards and associations, enabling the groups and their Realtor members to serve as the definitive voice of real estate in their respective local markets.

At the same time, Florida Realtors will provide more comprehensive statewide housing market statistics – but the data series will only include statewide numbers. Beginning with the January 2012 report, Florida Realtors will no longer report any market data for Realtor members’ sales in the state’s metropolitan statistical areas, as had previously been reported.

© 2012 Florida Realtors®