New Housing Scorecard Results

By Liz Clinger Updated on 5/7/2012

According to the Obama administration, the United States lowered levels of delinquencies and higher rate of home sales in the first quarter benefited the housing market, however, home prices remain inconsistent which is still creating an uncertainty in the market.

April’s Housing Scorecard shows that existing home sales rose 5.3% in the first quarter, up to 373,300 sales comparing to last year’s 355,000 sales in the first quarter. New home sales also grew, with 27,300 sales over last years 25,400 sales in the first quarter.

Available home inventories have declined to their lowest level in years, with an estimated 5.3 months to sell the current supply of new homes and 6.3 months to sell the existing homes supply. A housing market sitting with a six month supply is considered balanced.

Refinancing has also grown in year over year for the first quarter, with mortgage origination data showing 1.1 million this year over last year’s 918,000. As interest rates continued to fall, refinancing activity rose, with FRM rates sliding from last year’s 4.78% to 3.88% in this year’s first quarter.

The data also shows that less borrowers were late on their loans this years first quarter, with the Housing Scorecard showing a prime mortgage delinquency rate down from last year’s 4.2% to 3.8% this year. Subprime delinquency rate is also lower year over year, sitting at 28.6% compared to last years 31.8%. FHA delinquency rates grew however, with 11.4% this year over last year’s 10.6% in the first quarter.