News Updates

Black Knight’s First Look: Number of Seriously Past-Due Loans Continues to Improve

Long Holiday Weekend Drives Up May’s Overall Delinquency Rate – The national delinquency rate rose to 4.73% from 4.66% in April, driven largely by the three-day Memorial Day weekend foreshortening available payment windows – Similar occurrences are rare; the last time was in May 2004, at which time mortgage delinquencies jumped by more than 15% in a single month; this month saw a 1.5% increase – Early-stage delinquencies (those 30 or 60 days past due) rose by 110,200 in May, while serious delinquencies (90 or more days but not yet in foreclosure) improved for the ninth consecutive month – Despite this improvement, nearly 1.7 million first-lien mortgages remain seriously delinquent, 1.26 million more than there were prior to the pandemic – Foreclosure inventory hit yet another new record low as both moratoriums and borrower forbearance plan participation continue to limit activity, keeping foreclosure starts near record lows as well – Mortgage prepayments fell to their lowest level in more than a year, driven by falling refinance activity as well as purchase-related headwinds Black Knight, Inc. reports the following “first look” at May 2021 month-end mortgage performance statistics derived from its loan-level database representing the majority of the national mortgage market. Total U.S. loan delinquency rate (loans 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure): 4.73%Month-over-month change: 1.51%Year-over-year change: -39.05% Total U.S. foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate: 0.28%Month-over-month change: -2.46%Year-over-year change: -26.14% Total U.S. foreclosure starts: 3,800          Month-over-month change:  2.70%Year-over-year change: -25.49% Monthly prepayment rate (SMM): 2.15%Month-over-month change: -16.88%Year-over-year change: -6.26% Foreclosure sales as % of 90+: 0.12%Month-over-month change: -12.01%Year-over-year change: 38.92% Number of properties that are 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure: 2,511,000Month-over-month change: 11,000Year-over-year change: -1,612,000 Number of properties that are 90 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure: 1,669,000Month-over-month change: -99,000Year-over-year change: 1,038,000 Number of properties in foreclosure pre-sale inventory: 148,000Month-over-month change: -5,000Year-over-year change: -52,000 Number of properties that are 30 or more days past due or in foreclosure: 2,659,000Month-over-month change: 6,000Year-over-year change: -1,665,000 Top 5 States by Non-Current* Percentage Mississippi: 8.56% Louisiana: 8.07% Hawaii: 7.08% Oklahoma: 6.76% Maryland: 6.64% Bottom 5 States by Non-Current* Percentage Montana:  3.20% Utah:  3.05% Washington: 3.02% Colorado:  2.98% Idaho: 2.52% Top 5 States by 90+ Days Delinquent Percentage Mississippi: 5.21% Louisiana: 5.00% Hawaii: 4.57% Nevada: 4.53% Maryland: 4.39% Top 5 States by 6-Month Improvement in Non-Current* Percentage Utah: -30.89% Colorado: -28.83% Florida: -28.38% New Jersey:  -27.97% Arizona: -27.68% Top 5 States by 6-Month Deterioration in Non-Current* Percentage District of Columbia: -14.32% Maryland: -18.92% Oklahoma: -19.07% Minnesota: -19.99% Vermont:    -20.11% *Non-current totals combine foreclosures and delinquencies as a percent of active loans in that state. Notes:1) Totals are extrapolated based on Black Knight’s loan-level database of mortgage assets.2) All whole numbers are rounded to the nearest thousand, except foreclosure starts, which are rounded to the nearest hundred. For a more detailed view of this month’s “first look” data, please visit the Black Knight newsroom. The company will provide a more in-depth review of this data in its monthly Mortgage Monitor report, which includes an analysis of data supplemented by detailed charts and graphs that reflect trend and point-in-time observations. The Mortgage Monitor report will be available online at https://www.blackknightinc.com/data-reports/ by July 7, 2021. For more information about gaining access to Black Knight’s loan-level database, please send an email to Mortgage.Monitor@bkfs.com. About Black Knight Black Knight, Inc. (NYSE:BKI) is an award-winning software, data and analytics company that drives innovation in the mortgage lending and servicing and real estate industries, as well as the capital and secondary markets. Businesses leverage our robust, integrated solutions across the entire homeownership life cycle to help retain existing customers, gain new customers, mitigate risk and operate more effectively. Our clients rely on our proven, comprehensive, scalable products and our unwavering commitment to delivering superior client support to achieve their strategic goals and better serve their customers. For more information on Black Knight, please visit www.blackknightinc.com.

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Redfin Reports Homebuying Demand Lets Up a Bit as Prices Soar

Redfin’s Homebuyer Demand Index was down 14% from its peak 9 weeks ago, and pending sales have declined 10% from their early May peak Fierce competition continues to drive home prices up, but home tours, offers and pending sales have slowed, according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage. New listings, a key lever for home sales growth, have held up better than pending sales and are inching up increasingly close to 2019 levels. “Offers no longer pour in the day a home hits the market,” said Phoenix Redfin real estate agent John Biddle. “It has become more common for offers to come in at least a few days after a home is listed for sale. If this were three years ago, we’d marvel at how fast the market was, but it’s a clear slowdown from a few weeks ago. Now that things are opening up again and the summer is almost here, people have other priorities, like going on vacation. Plus, many homebuyers are frustrated and tired of competing, so they’ve stepped back—for now at least.” “Many measures of the housing market, such as pending home sales, mortgage applications and touring activity, showed some improvement this past week following the Memorial Day slump, but don’t call it a comeback,” said Redfin Lead Economist Taylor Marr. “Seasonally adjusted homebuyer demand is unlikely to rebound to the levels we saw earlier in the spring. While some buyers will find reprieve in less intense bidding wars this summer, others may be disappointed that homes remain hard to find.” Key housing market takeaways for 400+ U.S. metro areas:Unless otherwise noted, this data covers the four-week period ending June 13. Redfin’s housing market data goes back through 2012. Data based on homes listed and/or sold during the period: The median home-sale price increased 24% year over year to $358,766, a record high. Asking prices of newly listed homes were up 14% from the same time a year ago to a median of $363,450, down 0.2% from $364,225 during the four-week period ending June 6. Pending home sales were up 26% year over year. For the week ending June 13, pending sales were down 9.8% from the 2021 peak during the week ending May 2. New listings of homes for sale were up 9% from a year earlier, have been basically flat since early May and are now 3% below pre-pandemic 2019 levels. Active listings (the number of homes listed for sale at any point during the period) fell 35% from 2020 and have been relatively flat since late February. 56% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within the first two weeks on the market, well above the 43% rate during the same period a year ago, but down 0.9 percentage points from the high point of the year, set during the four-week period ending March 28. 43% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within one week of hitting the market, up from 31% during the same period a year earlier, but down 1.1 percentage points from the high point of the year, set during the four-week period ending March 28. Homes that sold were on the market for a median of 15 days, a new all-time low and down from 39 days a year earlier. A record 54% of homes sold above list price, up from 26% a year earlier. The average sale-to-list price ratio, which measures how close homes are selling to their asking prices, increased to 102.2%. In other words, the average home sold for 2.2% above its asking price. This measure is 3.7 percentage points higher than a year earlier and an all-time high. Other leading indicators of homebuying activity: Mortgage purchase applications increased 2% week over week (seasonally adjusted) during the week ending June 11. For the week ending June 17, 30-year mortgage rates decreased to 2.93%—the lowest level since February 25. Home tours as of June 13 were 28% above their level at the beginning of the year, compared to 50% increase at the same point last year according to home tour technology company ShowingTime. The drop in touring over Memorial Day weekend was larger this year than in 2020 or 2019, and the rebound was weaker, indicating more sensitivity to holidays as buyers travel and socialize more this year. Google Trends search interest in homes for sale has declined for three weeks in a row as of May 30. The seasonally adjusted Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index—a measure of requests for home tours and other services from Redfin agents—was down 14% from the week ending April 11, and currently just 3% above the same period last year. To view the full report, including charts and methodology, please visit: https://www.redfin.com/news/housing-market-update-homebuying-demand-slips/ About RedfinRedfin (www.redfin.com) is a technology-powered real estate broker, instant home-buyer (iBuyer), lender, title insurer, and renovations company. We sell homes for more money and charge half the fee. We also run the country’s #1 real-estate brokerage site. Our home-buying customers see homes first with on-demand tours, and our lending and title services help them close quickly. Customers selling a home can take an instant cash offer from Redfin or have our renovations crew fix up their home to sell for top dollar. Since launching in 2006, we’ve saved customers more than $1 billion in commissions. We serve more than 95 markets across the U.S. and Canada and employ over 4,100 people. For more information or to contact a local Redfin real estate agent, visit www.redfin.com. To learn about housing market trends and download data, visit the Redfin Data Center. To be added to Redfin’s press release distribution list, email press@redfin.com. To view Redfin’s press center, click here.

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Arrived Homes Announces $37 Million in Seed Funding and Debt Financing

Arrived is the first and only company with SEC qualified offerings allowing anyone to buy shares in individual rental homes Arrived Homes (“Arrived”), the ground-breaking real estate investing platform that makes ownership of rental properties a possibility for everyone, announced that it has raised $37 million in a combination of seed funding and debt financing. The round is comprised of $10 million in equity financing and $27 million in debt financing. This is the company’s first financing round and was led by Core Innovation Capital with participation from Bezos Expeditions (the personal investment company of Jeff Bezos), Good Friends (a venture fund run by the CEOs and co-founders of Warby Parker, Harry’s and Allbirds), Time Ventures (the investment fund of Marc Benioff), Spencer Rascoff (General Partner of 75 & Sunny Ventures and former CEO of Zillow), Dara Khosrowshahi (CEO of Uber), Hadi Partovi (CEO and founder of Code.org), Fred Tuomi (Former CEO of Invitation Homes), PSL Ventures and Neo (Ali Partovi’s venture fund). The $37 million in funds will be used to scale the Arrived team and build up the company’s supply of rental homes across the country. To date, Arrived has secured over 30 properties throughout Arkansas, North Carolina, and South Carolina, which are either fully funded or are being prepared to offer to investors. It costs as little as $100 to invest in an Arrived rental property, with investors receiving rental income quarterly and their share of the property appreciation. Arrived is the first and only company with SEC qualified offerings allowing anyone to buy shares in individual homes. The company’s platform manages end-to-end all elements of the investment experience, from finding the most promising investment properties — based on home appreciation and local rental cash-flow potential — to the management of the day-to-day operations. “Investing in real estate is synonymous with the American dream, yet very few people are in a financial position to buy whole homes or have the time to invest in and manage rental properties,” said Ryan Frazier, CEO and co-founder of Arrived. “With Arrived, we’re breaking down the barriers to investing in rental homes, by taking a process that typically takes months and making it accessible in less than 4 minutes, starting from just $100. We’re really passionate about the opportunity to help millions of people better access this historically great asset class.” “The Arrived team is making an iconic and attractive asset class available to millions of everyday Americans: single family rental,” said Arjan Schütte, Founder and Managing Partner at Core Innovation Capital. “Through Arrived, retail investors can finally gain access to the more consistent rental income and property appreciation that comes from real estate investing, for as little as $100. They have created an entirely new category of consumer investing and we’re proud to help them democratize wealth creation in a way that’s never been done before.” “Real estate has long been a vehicle for wealthy people to diversify and grow their portfolios,” said Spencer Rascoff, co-founding General Partner of 75 & Sunny Ventures and former CEO of Zillow. “The past year has brought huge strides in the democratization of investing, including in real estate. Arrived makes investing in a rental home accessible to anyone with $100 and four minutes to spare. That’s incredibly empowering.” About The Team: Arrived was founded by Ryan Frazier (CEO), Kenny Cason (CTO), and Alejandro Chouza (COO) and is based in Seattle Washington. About Arrived Homes: Arrived Homes is a Seattle-based real-estate investing platform that makes ownership of rental properties possible for anyone and everyone. At Arrived, our mission is to empower the world to build wealth through modern real estate investing. www.arrivedhomes.com

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Civic Financial Services Surpasses $5 Billion in Loan Originations

Private money lender hits industry milestone at record pace for business purpose loan space Civic Financial Services, a leading institutional private money lender, announced that it has surpassed $5 billion in loan originations and 12,000 funded loans since the company was founded six years ago. CIVIC funds exclusively business purpose loans for real estate investors, making this milestone the first for any company in the private lending industry. CIVIC topped the $4 billion milestone on Sept 30, 2020. “We could never have imagined what the road from $4 billion to $5 billion would be amidst the pandemic, yet we reached it at record pace.” CIVIC President William Tessar said. “Reaching $5 billion was six years in the making, and now – with virtually unlimited access to capital – our current pace and trajectory will lead us to $10 billion in just two years.” CIVIC was acquired by Pacific West Bancorp in February 2021. This move has given the company the ability to lend at a lower cost, enabling CIVIC’s customers to benefit from considerably improved terms and lower interest rates. The company has also expanded its footprint, now lending in 25 states plus the District of Columbia. “We’re so proud to emerge from a tumultuous year in the strongest position possible to deliver the best loan products, support and service available in the institutional private lending industry and help our customers capitalize on today’s real estate opportunities,” Tessar continued. “While low inventory has plagued the housing market, the brevity in which CIVIC achieved this milestone is just one indicator that real estate investors are finding properties and scaling at a rapid pace.” ABOUT CIVIC FINANCIAL SERVICESCivic Financial Services, LLC is a leading institutional private money lender specializing in the financing of non-owner-occupied investment properties. CIVIC helps investors leverage opportunities to grow their real estate portfolios and build wealth through real estate. As a direct lender offering an array of residential and multifamily financing solutions for retail, wholesale and correspondent channels, CIVIC maintains all operations in-house so loans are managed closely, quickly, and efficiently. For more information, please visit http://www.civicfs.com.

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Experts Say Zoning Changes Are Most Effective Path to Boost Housing Supply for a More-Balanced Market

A Zillow survey of economists and other real estate experts finds high costs are expected to slow construction and may lower homeownership among today’s 30-somethings. – The expert panel’s prediction for home price growth is the most optimistic ever in the quarterly survey that dates back to 2010. – The panel expects new construction to slow in the coming years, with high costs as the main barrier. But last quarter, the same panel predicted total inventory would rise later this year thanks mainly to more existing homes being listed for sale. – Relaxing zoning rules is what the panel says would be most productive to increase new housing supply. Relaxing zoning rules would be the most effective way to increase supply in a housing market currently near historic inventory lows, experts say in the latest Zillow® Home Price Expectations Survey. On the current path, those experts anticipate new construction growth to stall and home prices to rise, resulting in fewer of today’s 30-somethings owning homes. High costs are expected to slow new construction momentum, which would be a blow to home shoppers who are already facing an intensely competitive market with relatively few available homes when compared to the number of interested buyers. On average, the panel expects new housing starts to end the year 2.5% below December 2020 levels, and to fall an additional 2% by the end of 2022. Panelists cited the high cost of labor, materials and land as the biggest headwinds for home builders. “A prediction for a construction slowdown is surprising given recent positive readings, but it’s clear the panel believes rising costs will drag down the pace of construction from its impressive speed this spring,” said Zillow senior economist Jeff Tucker. “Builders have been firing on all cylinders to meet the excess demand from buyers left unmet by the existing home market, and demand appears poised to stay high for years to come. But builders will need more than willing buyers to close the massive shortfall since the Great Recession. They need buildable land, and the panel overwhelmingly pointed to zoning changes as a leading way to move the needle, with the potential to open up enough building capacity to add millions of homes.” When asked what could be done to increase housing supply, relaxing zoning rules was the runaway top choice. Previous Zillow research has found even a modest amount of upzoning in large metro areas could add 3.3 million homes to the U.S. housing stock, creating room for more than half of the missing households since the Great Recession — a major reason for today’s frenzied housing demand. A majority (57%) of homeowners Zillow previously surveyed believe they and others should be able to add additional housing on their property, and 30% said they would be willing to invest money to create housing on their own property, if allowed. Other recommendations to increase housing supply according to the panel include easing the land subdivision process, relaxing local review regulations for projects of a certain size, accelerating the adoption of new construction technologies and increasing training to build up the construction workforce.  New construction is of course not the only path to more inventory — a majority of the same panel, when surveyed in Q1 2021, said they expect housing inventory to begin growing again this year, with an increase in existing homes being listed for sale being the most likely catalyst for inventory growth. Previous Zillow research has shown widespread coronavirus vaccine distribution would make 14 million households newly comfortable moving.  With housing demand showing no signs of slowing from a pandemic-fueled boom in the second half of 2020, the expert panel has once again adjusted their home price growth expectations upward. The panel’s average home value growth prediction for 2021 is 8.7% — the highest for any year since the inception of the quarterly survey in 2010. That’s up from 6.2% last quarter and more than double the expectation from the Q4 2020 survey (4.2%). Home value growth is expected to moderate down to 5.1% in 2022, according to the panel, which would still be strong growth compared to a historical average of about 4%.  “A profound shift in housing preferences, adoption of remote employment, low mortgage rates, and the recovering economy continue to stoke demand in the single-family market and drive prices higher,” said Terry Loebs, founder of Pulsenomics. “Strict zoning regulations, an acute labor shortage, and record-high materials costs are constraining new construction, compounding disequilibrium, and reinforcing expectations that above-normal rates of home price growth will persist beyond the near-term.” Average rates for a fixed 30-year mortgage currently sit near 3%. Panelists expect a small rise to 3.45% by the end of the year, continuing to 3.99% at the end of 2022. That would add $55 to a monthly payment on a typical home at the end of this year, and $124 at the end of 2022. Still, this would represent a bargain historically. Average rates were near 5% as recently as 2018, and they started the 2000s above 8%.  In large part due to affordability challenges from rising home prices, the panel on average expects homeownership among 35-44 year-olds will drop slightly over the next five years, when that group will be dominated by millennials. The majority (54%) of experts who expect homeownership to fall among this age group by 2026 cited worsening affordability, via higher mortgage rates and/or home prices, as the top cause.  Of the more optimistic panelists who anticipate more homeowners in this age group, most (61%) said an increased preference to own instead of rent would be the primary driver, possibly because of how the pandemic and the rise of remote work options has changed what we want and need in a home.  About Zillow GroupZillow Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: Z and ZG) is reimagining real estate to make it easier to unlock life’s next chapter.  As the most-visited real estate website in the United States, Zillow® and its affiliates offer customers an on-demand experience for selling, buying, renting or financing with transparency and nearly seamless end-to-end service. Zillow Offers® buys and sells homes directly in dozens of markets across the country, allowing

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RealtyTrac Enhances Online Offerings and Resources for Real Estate Investors and Agents

New Web Platform Houses the Industry’s Largest Database   RealtyTrac, the largest online marketplace for foreclosure and distressed properties and an ATTOM Data Solutions company, announced a significant enhancement of its data offerings and resources – available on realtytrac.com – to help individual investors and real estate agents find, analyze and invest in residential properties. The new web platform showcases RealtyTrac’s property- level database which includes more than 90% of foreclosure properties in the U.S., the largest distressed real estate database available to investors and agents. The new RealtyTrac website offers interactive resources, including property investment analysis tools and finance options. These expanded services provide a single-source for those looking to either fix and flip, or buy, fix and rent properties for ongoing revenue generation. For real estate agents, the site helps them find inventory for their clients who are interested in buying foreclosure homes. “We’ve paid attention to what individual investors are looking for with regard to search functionality and property analysis and have built that into our new offerings,” said RealtyTrac General Manager Ohan Antebian. “Having a single source for distressed property data, coupled with advanced analytic tools and investor education, gives property investors a real advantage in identifying, acquiring and managing their real estate investments.” As part of its expansion, RealtyTrac is partnering with the six largest online auction companies to further supplement its proprietary database of foreclosures, bank-owned properties, MLS listings, auctions and short sales. The partners include Auction.com, Hubzu, RealtyBid, ServiceLink and Williams & Williams. These partnerships give RealtyTrac users access to the largest aggregation of online foreclosure auction properties anywhere. The RealtyTrac database provides instant access to individual property information including the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, lot size, year built, owner information, property debt, sales/tax history, foreclosure status and other relevant investor-focused data. Advanced search and analysis tools allow users to search geographically and estimate a property’s profit potential, using estimated property values from ATTOM and Zillow, and generating a “Deal-o-Meter” rating of Poor, Good, or Great, depending on the property’s potential gross profitability. This estimated gross ROI rating lets buyers understand the opportunity and risk associated with each property and compare properties within states, counties, cities, zip codes and even neighborhoods. Financing for real estate investments is different from typical mortgage lending and can include alternative options such as short-term bridge loans, long-term rental financing and lending for construction and multi-family properties. To help its users finance their foreclosure purchases, RealtyTrac has also partnered with several lenders, including Certain Lending, Foundation/CREF and RCN Capital, that specialize in real estate investment financing for fix-and-flip as well as single-family/multi-family rental property purchase, repair and renovation. The company also plans to introduce training and coaching programs and educational content for aspiring investors and agents who are interested in learning more about real estate investing and buying or selling distressed properties. “We’ve also seen an uptick in real estate agents using our services. Some are working with investors, some are investors themselves, and others are using our site to locate distressed homeowners who would benefit from selling their home rather than losing it to foreclosure,” Antebian added. “So, we’re also introducing a suite of agent products that will help real estate professionals connect with potential buyers and sellers and learn how to navigate the sometimes choppy waters of the foreclosure market.” As part of its launch, RealtyTrac announced a special introductory subscription price of $19.95 per month, down from its regular rate of $49.95. About RealtyTrac Founded in 1996, RealtyTrac publishes the largest database of foreclosure property information in the U.S. in addition to other real estate and mortgage data used by real estate investors and agents to find, analyze and invest in residential and commercial distressed properties. RealtyTrac is owned and operated by ATTOM Data Solutions, a leading provider of publicly recorded tax, deed, mortgage and foreclosure data as well as proprietary neighborhood and parcel-level risk data for more than 150 million U.S. properties. For more information, visit www.RealtyTrac.com.

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