Spotlight: Pennsylvania

by
byivanna
darrick
c.meneken
sukkar

Troubled homeowners in the Keystone State have long had help when it comes to
avoiding foreclosure. The state’s Homeowners’ Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program
(HEMAP) has kept more than 44,000 owners in their homes since its inception in 1983, according
3 Regions to Watch
to the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency. Philadelphia msa
The program helps unemployed workers avoid foreclosure by offering as much as $60,000 in loans to
catch up and stay current on mortgage payments. Pennsylvania’s foreclosure rate trailed the nation’s
this past July — one filing per 1,081 housing units versus the national rate of one per 397 units — accord-
ing to RealtyTrac, and ranked 17th-lowest nationally.
A lack of jobs, however, continues to drive foreclosures statewide, according to Liz Hersh, executive
director of the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania. More than 5,000 in-state properties received a fore-
closure notice this past July.
The median sales price for single-family homes
In response to increasing unemployment, HEMAP was expanded in February 2009. At the time, year- here increased 5.8 percent to $223,200 from the
over-year foreclosures were increasing more than 70 percent in Pennsylvania, RealtyTrac reported. Since second quarter of ’09 to this past second quarter,
then, however, the trend has declined 11 out of 17 months. according to the National Association of Realtors.
The increase occurred despite a 38.3-percent
spike in foreclosures from the first half of ’09 to
Unemployment unemployment rates the first half of this year, according to RealtyTrac.

Pennsylvania’s 9.2-percent unem-

ployment rate this past May and
Harrisburg-Carlisle
June was its highest since mid-1984.
The state unemployment rate has
increased or remained stagnant ev-
ery month since December 2007,
according to the U.S. Department of
Labor. The rate more than doubled
from June ’07 through this past June
but remained consistently better The metropolitan statistical area (MSA) that in-
than the U.S. average. cludes Pennsylvania’s state capital, Harrisburg,
Source: U.S. Department of Labor has the nation’s fourth-lowest prevalence of real
estate-owned properties — 0.99 per 1,000 “mort-
gageable properties” — according to the Brook-
ings Institution’s first-quarter 2010 MetroMonitor
Mortgage delinquency first-quarter 2010 mortgage delinquency
report. The MSA’s 8.4-percent unemployment
Pennsylvania’s statewide mortgage- rate this past June trailed state and national aver-
delinquency rate increased from 7.4 ages, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
percent in the first quarter of ’09 to
8.3 percent this past first quarter, State College
the Mortgage Bankers Association
reported. But the state’s overall, sub-
prime and Federal Housing Admin-
istration (FHA) delinquency rates all
trailed national levels. The state’s
subprime delinquency ticked upward
in the same period — from 22.8 per-
Source: Mortgage Bankers Association
cent to 24.9 percent — while the FHA
A spike in government spending, including at The
late-payment rate decreased from
Pennsylvania State University, spurred a 1.2-per-
11.2 percent to 10.6 percent.
cent increase in personal income in the State
College MSA last year, the Centre Daily Times
reported. Because it is home to the university,
Home sales new- and existing-home sales “this town is always going to weather [economic]
storms well,” David Passmore, a workforce edu-
Home prices depreciated 9 per- cation and development professor told the news-
cent from the second quarter of ’07 paper this past August.
through this past second quarter,
according to the Pennsylvania As-
sociation of Realtors. The state’s What the Locals Say
existing-home median price topped
out in September ’07, CoreLogic re- “In Philadelphia, we’ve been pretty resilient. It’s
ported. In falling 11.9 percent since a very mature real estate market without much
that peak through this past spring, speculation. Other than a handful of high-rise
Pennsylvania’s existing-home prices condominiums built late in the boom, we really
haven’t had that much depreciation. The market in
ranked 18th-strongest nationally. the middle of the state has been a little softer.”
Source: Pennsylvania Association of Realtors
Meanwhile, the state’s median sales — Jason F. Griesser, senior mortgage consultant and
certified mortgage banker, Trident Mortgage Co.
price for new and existing homes held
steady at $190,000 in the 12-month period ending this past June, the state Realtors association said. Sources: Brookings Institution, Centre Daily Times, CoreLogic, Housing Alliance of
Pennsylvania, Mortgage Bankers Association, Mortgage Banking, National Associa-
tion of Realtors, Pennsylvania Association of Realtors, Pennsylvania Bulletin, Penn-
sylvania Housing Finance Agency, The Pennsylvania State University, Philadelphia
Darrick Meneken is an associate editor at Scotsman Guide. Reach him at (800) 297-6061 or darrickm@scotsmanguide.com. Business Journal, The Philadelphia Inquirer, RealtyTrac, Rotary Club of York, U.S. De-
partment of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Depart-
ment of the Treasury, The Washington Independent, The York Daily Record

Reprinted from Scotsman Guide Residential Edition and scotsmanguide.com, October 2010
All rights reserved. Third-party reproduction for redistribution is prohibited without contractual consent from Scotsman Guide Media.