Ending the reporting week on Thursday, Freddie Mac survey of residential mortgage brokers are reporting residential mortgage rates are at 4.79% for a thirty year fixed interest mortgage.  The fifteen year rate is at 4.20%.  The thirty year mortgage requires an average of 0.8 point down and the fifteen requires 0.7.  Positive trends are continuing to emerge including a decline in the number of delinquencies.  Righting wrongs committed by Countrywide,  Bank of America is settling federal charges with a payment of $108 million to homeowners who were charged outrageous fees when they faced financial troubles and impending foreclosure.  The bad behavior was actually the result of Countrywide activities before BoA bought them.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has released a report in which the Fed attempts to determine the true homeownership in the United States.  The numbers that have been in the media generated by the Census Bureau on a quarterly basis indicate we are currently at 67.2%. When the Fed study took out homeowners in the process of losing their home and unlikely to recover, the gap was actually five percentage points lower.  Breaking the numbers down a little bit demonstrates that the largest gap is seen in areas of the country with the highest foreclosures and declines in home value.  The obvious are Las Vegas, Phoenix, Detroit and Miami.  The Rocky Mountain area demonstrated a decline of less than 2.5% with an effective homeownership rate of approximately 60%.  The Rocky Mountain and New England regions are consistently demonstrating stability and a great foundation for long term recovery.

Looking at the local stats in the Pikes Peak region, there are currently 5,551 active listings in the PPMLS. One year ago, there were just over 5,000 active listings.   Year to date, there have been 3,439 sales (3,023 one year ago).  The median sales price is $194,450, a modest improvement over the number same time last year of $189,130.  With the closure of the Homebuyer Tax Credit, we are expecting to see a modest decline in the numbers as they relate to the number of transactions.  The areas most likely to see a decline in activity will be to the southeast and east portions of the region and under a price point of $250,000.  We are hoping to be pleasantly surprised and see the numbers continue in seasonally appropriate upward trend.  The numbers overall look pretty solid; be sure to check out next week’s blog in which we will start breaking down the numbers by area. Ending May, there is certainly enough data to begin studying the 2010 recovery.   During this recession, we have been reminded that specific areas, even neighborhoods, are dramatically impacted by new construction, price point and accessibility to larger employers.  We will be looking closely at Black Forest, Tri-Lakes, Broadmoor and western areas of the PPMLS.