The management team at Phoenix Capital Fund-US continually tracks the US housing market to stay up to date on recent trends. A positive recent development is the continual rise in home prices through recent highs on the 10-year Treasury note. Given that US mortgage rates generally follow 10-year Treasury rates, and Treasury rates nearly doubled in 2013, it was a positive surprise to not see a significant drop in home sales in late 2013. Home prices were up 13.4% in December, capping off an extremely successful 2013 for real estate growth.

However, the rapid growth rates of 2013 are not expected to continue as the housing market is predicted to stabilize and return to normal steady rates of growth.  A major reason for this is many homeowners have now been rescued from underwater mortgages and are able to sell their homes on the open market. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development reported that foreclosures are down 33% from 2012, reaching the lowest level since 2005, while properties repossessed by lenders decreased by 31% since 2012. These numbers have been driven in part by government mortgage assistance programs, which have completed over 8 million mortgage modifications and assistance arrangements since 2009. Overall, this is excellent news for the US housing market as prices have rebounded well and are predicted to continue their growth, but at marginally lower and more stable rates.

To read the US Department of Housing Report for January 2014 click here