The Bani Group Inc.

Housing scorecard shows promising signs of stability:

HUD and the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury have released the June edition of the Obama Administration’s Housing Scorecard, which shows some promising signs of stability, though the overall outlook remains mixed.

Home equity rose $457.1 billion in the first quarter of 2012, a 7.4 percent increase from the previous quarter and its highest level since the second quarter of 2010. Sales of previously owned homes posted sharp gains in May of 9.6 percent compared with a year ago and new home sales in May recorded their highest level in more than 2 years. However, foreclosure starts and completions turned up in May, underscoring continued fragility in the housing market.

The June Housing Scorecard features key data on the health of the housing market and the impact of the Administration’s foreclosure prevention programs, including:

• More than 5.3 million modification arrangements were started between April 2009 and the end of May 2012 – including nearly 1.2 million homeowner assistance actions through the Making Home Affordable Program and more than 1.3 million FHA loss mitigation and early delinquency interventions.
• As of May, more than one million homeowners have received a permanent HAMP modification, saving approximately $536 on their mortgage payments each month, and an estimated $13.3 billion to date. 
• Eighty-six percent of homeowners entering the program in the last 23 months have received a permanent modification, with an average trial period of 3.5 months. 

More than 83,000 homeowners have had their principal reduced as part of their HAMP permanent modification, and nearly 84,000 second lien modifications have been completed through the Second Lien Modification Program.