Prior to Q3 2011, 60-day mortgage delinquency rates had dropped for six consecutive quarters. This latest quarter brings the delinquency rate to its lowest point since Q1 2009.

Between fourth quarter 2011 and first quarter of 2012, all but eight states experienced decreases in their mortgage delinquency rates.

House prices continue to face downward pressure and unemployment remains high, but many see the economic environment beginning to show modest improvement. Therefore, TransUnion’s forecast predicts mortgage delinquency rates to drift downward in 2012 as more homeowners are able to repay their mortgage debt obligations.

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• Once a primary tool for real estate agents looking to sell a home, experts say the traditional open house has lost its influence in the Internet age.  Most buyers today conduct their preliminary research at home – reviewing online photos, virtual tours, and a home’s layout – and arranging for private showings of the properties they’re interested in.
• Many REALTORS® report that open houses rarely attract interested, qualified buyers.  During the boom times, it was more common for buyers to make offers at open house because they were worried that another buyer would beat them to it.  But with real estate sales slow in most markets, the urgency is no longer there.

Buyers who visit an open house without their REALTOR® could be setting themselves up for problems.  Listing agents – the REALTORS® who are representing the seller – have a fiduciary responsibility to represent the sellers’ best interests, which, not surprisingly, are often in conflict with the buyers’ best interest.

Calif. Pending Home Sales Index: March 2012: 143.7, an increase from the revised 126.5 recorded in February.

Calif. Traditional Housing Affordability Index: Fourth quarter 2011: 55 percent (Source: C.A.R.)

Mortgage rates: Week ending 5/3/2012 30-yr. fixed: 3.84% fees/points: 0.8% 15-yr. fixed: 3.07 fees/points: 0.7% 1-yr. adjustable: 2.70% Fees/points: 0.6% (Source: Freddie Mac)

While the latest monthly housing data have shown signs of a slight softening, NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe said this is more reflective of typical month-to-month volatility in the numbers and unusual seasonal factors than they are an indication of any significant downward trend in the broader housing market.

Crowe noted that numerous other fundamentals remain positive for housing at this time, including demographic factors (with pent-up household demand expected to ramp up and echo-boomers heading into their prime household formation ages), historically favorable mortgage rates that are not expected to move higher than 5 percent by the end of next year, more than 100 local markets currently listed on the NAHB/First American Improving Markets Index, and the fact that house price-to-income ratio has now returned to its historical average of about three-to-one versus the nearly five-to-one to which it had previously risen during the height of the housing boom.

However, he cautioned that housing still continues to face formidable challenges of its own — such as rising foreclosures, persistently tight lending standards for home buyers and builders and difficulties in obtaining accurate appraisals. Moreover, disappointing job growth numbers in March and uncertainty in the European economy are undermining prospects for a vigorous recovery.

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