Home Equity Buoyed by Rising Home Prices - Nice graphic by RealtyTrac

Mortgage News daily reported that the steady rise in home prices last year has pulled up an estimated 600,000 properties from the category of "deeply underwater" just since May.

Daren Blomquist, Vice President of Realty Trac said that the steadily rising home prices are lifting all boats in this housing market and should spill over into more inventory of home for sale in the coming months. " Home owners who already have ample equity are quickly building on that equity, while the 8.3 million homeowners on the fence with little or no equity are on track to regain enough equity to sell before 2015 if home prices continue to increase at the rate of 1.33 percent per month that they have since bottoming out in March 2012."

Blomquist said that homeowners in foreclosure with some equity have a better chance to avoid foreclosure without resorting to a short sale assuming they don't miss the opportunity to leverage that equity.  "Even homeowners deeply underwater have reason for hope, with about 150,000 each month rising past the 25 percent negative equity milestone - although it will certainly take years rather than months before most of those homeowners have enough equity to sell other than via short sale."

States with the highest percentage of homes with LTVs of 125 percent or higher included Nevada (46 percent), Illinois (40 percent), Florida (40 percent), Michigan (38 percent), Rhode Island (34 percent), and Ohio (31 percent).

Privocorp is a licensed mortgage processor in several states in the US.

Mortgage Rates Push Further Into 6-Week Lows

According to industry sources mortgage rates continued lower today, bringing rates in line with the lowest levels seen during the past 4 months (officially, 6-week lows as several days have been slightly better during that time). Some lenders are now down to 4.375% for their most efficient combination of closing costs and rate (best-execution) while a majority remain at 4.5%.

Last week's big news regarding the Fed abstaining from any significant policy changes continues to benefit rates.  Several speakers from the Federal Reserve shared their opinions on the topic today and the overall tone reiterated that the economy was not yet likely to make the desired progress without full-fledged stimulus.  Apart from that, news was limited and market conditions were fairly quiet.  This is less likely to be the case as the week progresses and the tone of the economic data should have more of an impact as well.

"Economic Data" refers to various scheduled reports that are released on a set schedule, such as Thursday's GDP and weekly Jobless Claims numbers at 8:30am Eastern.  That combination makes for a relatively potent morning in that if both the pieces of data show the economy in stronger-than-expected territory, rates would likely move higher that day.  Conversely, weaker-than-expected data can help rates move or stay lower.

Today's Best-Execution Rates

• 30YR FIXED - 4.5%
• FHA/VA - 4.25
• 15 YEAR FIXED -  3.5%
• 5 YEAR ARMS -  3.0-3.50% depending on the lender

Mortgage rates up

The average mortgage rates in the US edged up in the latest week amid signs of a stronger economic recovery and recent positive housing and manufacturing data.

Bankrates, weekly national survey shows that the 30 year fixed mortgage rate which was at 4.62 last week is now at 4.72%. The average 15 year fixed mortgage increased from 3.66 to 3.74 %. Seven year adjustable rate mortgages increased from 4% to 4.04%.

Meanwhile the popular five year adjustable rate jumped from last week's 3.61% to 3.65%. To read more click here.

PrivoCorp is a contract mortgage processor licensed in several states in the US.