Mortgage Market Share Report – September 2012

The Monroe County market continued to show modest improvement in most areas during the third quarter when compared to the same quarter of recent years. Nevertheless, activity remains well below the peak years of 2004-2006.

• Buoyed by record low interest rates (How many times have we said that in the last four years?), conforming loans showed their strongest third quarter in the last five years. (charts pages 13 & 14)
• Mortgages securing loans of $50,000 or less are increasing over the last three years but still far below the sub-prime peak of the middle 2000?s. (charts pages 15 & 16)
• Sale transactions for owner occupied properties continue to strengthen as evidenced by the number of sales disclosures indicating the property will be the buyer?s primary residence. Through the first nine months of 2012 there were 1034 such disclosures. The first nine months of 2011 there were only 871. That?s a robust 19% increase.
• One might conclude however that the first time homebuyer tax incentives of 2008 and 2009 provided more stimulus than the current low interest rate environment. (charts pages 9 & 10)
• Sales of property not marked as the buyer?s primary residence (mostly investment property) are essentially unchanged. There were 434 such filings in the first nine months of 2011 and 431 in 2012, so far.
• The upper end of the residential market (sales of $200K to $500K) shows the most improvement. (chart page 9)
• After two years of moderating declines, new foreclosures and recorded Sheriff?s deeds are increasing significantly for the year. This is a worrisome trend that bears watching. (charts pages 17 & 18)

All in all, most of us are more concerned today with servicing our business rather than worrying about whether we have enough. A pleasant and welcome change in our focus from several years ago!