Housing Scorecard: Homeowner Equity Up $3.4 Trillion

The White House’s January Housing Scorecard shows that foreclosure starts last year were the lowest since 2005. In addition, rising prices helped boost homeowner equity by an aggregate of $3.4 trillion in 2012 and 2013. Issued jointly by the Departments of Treasury and HUD, the Housing Scorecard is a compilation of the most recent industry information on home sales, distressed residences, construction statistics, mortgage originations, and other data gathered from such sources as the National Association of Realtors, National Association of Home Builders, CoreLogic, and the Census Bureau. HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs Kurt Usowski remarks, “The January Housing Scorecard shows that the Obama Administration’s efforts continue to have a positive effect on the housing market.” Last year, the number of U.S. properties that started the foreclosure process was down 33 percent from 2012. At the same time, sales of previously owned houses climbed by 9.1 percent. | Read More