US housing crisis is on the way to recovery?

National Association of Realtors report revealed home sales grew for the third-consecutive month in June. Thus, increase of 3.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million properties with gains seen in all major regions of the USA was reflected. These figures provide with the hopes about possibility of housing market stabilizing. 

Recently, Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman, stated the housing crisis seemed to be restraining.

However, home prices still continue slipping: the median price on existing homes in June was $181,800 that is down 15.4% from June 2008. Total housing inventory in June represented a 9.4-month supply at the current sales rate, down from 9.8 months in May. 

Home prices have also been dulling down by the huge number of distressed homes for sale, including sales of foreclosed homes. Distressed sales accounted for about 30% of sales in June that is down from about 50% through March of 2009.

NAR also found first-time buyers in June accounted for 29% of transactions, unchanged from May. However, the economy is still cutting jobs, credit is tight, and a tax credit of up to $8,000 for first-time home buyers that has encouraged sales will expire at the end of November.

As for the rates, they are also spiking higher: the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.20% for the week ended July 23, up from last week when it averaged 5.14%, according to Freddie Mac.

According to RealtyTrac, foreclosures are also continuing creeping higher, with foreclosure filings surpassed 300,000 in June. In the first half of 2009, a total of 1.9 million foreclosure filings were reported, that is exceeding by 15% the first half of 2008. 

Moreover, Thursday, the Federal Reserve promoted changes in mortgage broker commissions, proposed not to allow brokers to earn greater compensation when offering pricier loans.