The Woodlands Real Estate Blog

Industry watchers and housing economists looking for the recovery now have a new report to decipher: the Obama administration's housing scorecard.

On Monday, HUD and Treasury together launched the initial report, offering it as an indicator of the government's success in stabilizing the housing market.

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan stated, "This scorecard will allow the American people to monitor the administration's efforts to strengthen the housing market on a monthly basis and hold the government and industry accountable. Demonstrating the progress in the housing market due to the administration's policies, this month's report provides a broad set of indicators showing encouraging signs of recovery.""

The most useful part of the scorecard for builders might be the ""Housing Market Fact Sheet"" in the full report, which aggregates housing statistics from a wide range of sources:
- first-time buyer activity from the National Association of Realtors (NAR)
- the Census Bureau and HUD
- foreclosure actions from RealtyTrac, and home sales and housing activity from HUD, the Census, and NAR

Also, the monthly report gives details on the progress of the U.S. government's foreclosure prevention programs and mortgage modification.

For example, the Home Affordable Mortgage Program has counseled almost 3.6 million borrowers, with 1.2 million receiving trial mortgage modifications under HAMP since April 2009.

Only loans guaranteed or owned by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae are eligible for HAMP modifications.

According to the new scorecard, the alliance of private mortgage lenders and servicers as well as nonprofits and other similar organization, HOPE Now, has modified the 1.2 million borrowers' loans in the same time frame.

According to the report, the numbers of seriously delinquent mortgages remain staggering at over 4.4 million in May 2010. That figure includes subprime, prime, and FHA loans.
Some have questioned the success and value of the HAMP program as the foreclosure and home price crisis continues.

They point to the difficulty for several borrowers in getting permanent modifications, redefaults among borrowers who do receive loan mods, and the continuing cost of subsidizing the housing market in this way.