The Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Treasury released their Monthly Housing Scorecard for February on Wednesday afternoon according to Jann Swanson's Mortgage News Daily article.
This monthly report is an attempt to encapsulate the Obama Administration's efforts to stabilize the housing market and provide a snapshot of the status of that market. It contains a round-up of information from both public and private sources. The Scorecard is issued simultaneous with the release of the monthly report on the Making Home Affordable Program (HAMP).
According to the Scorecard, the housing market remains fragile as data through January paint a mixed picture of recovery. On the sales front there was a little good news as sales of existing homes ticked up to 446,700 in January compared to 435,000 in December. New home sales, however, dropped from 27,100 to 23,700. The inventory of existing homes fell by slightly less than 200 thousand to 3.38 million while the supply of new homes was almost flat at 188,000. There is a 7.6 month supply of existing homes compared to 8.2 months in December and a 7.9 month supply of new homes as compared to 7.0 months.
Over 3.6 million homes are currently vacant and held off the market for a variety of reasons. This is an increase of 45,000 since December.
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