Spotlight: Pennsylvania
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
to the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.
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.
In response to increasing unemployment, HEMAP was expanded in February 2009. At the time, year-
over-year foreclosures were increasing more than 70 percent in Pennsylvania, realtytrac reported. Since
then, however, the trend has declined 11 out of 17 months.
3 Regions to Watch
PHILADELPHIA;MSA
Unemployment
Pennsylvania’s 9.2-percent unemployment rate this past May and
June was its highest since mid-1984.
the state unemployment rate has
increased or remained stagnant every 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
than the U.S. average.
UNEMPLOYMENT RATES
the median sales price for single-family homes
here increased 5. 8 percent to $223,200 from the
second quarter of ’09 to this past second quarter,
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
the first half of this year, according to realtytrac.
HARRISBURG-CARLISLE
Source: U. S. Department of Labor
Mortgage delinquency
Pennsylvania’s statewide mortgage-delinquency rate increased from 7. 4
percent in the first quarter of ’09 to
8. 3 percent this past first quarter,
the Mortgage bankers Association
reported. but the state’s overall, subprime and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) delinquency rates all
trailed national levels. the state’s
subprime delinquency ticked upward
in the same period — from 22. 8 percent to 24. 9 percent — while the FHA
late-payment rate decreased from
11. 2 percent to 10. 6 percent.
FIRST-QUARTER 2010 MOR TGAGE DELINQUENC Y
the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) that includes Pennsylvania’s state capital, Harrisburg,
has the nation’s fourth-lowest prevalence of real
estate-owned properties — 0.99 per 1,000 “
mort-gageable properties” — according to the brookings Institution’s first-quarter 2010 MetroMonitor
report. the MSA’s 8.4-percent unemployment
rate this past June trailed state and national averages, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Source: Mortgage bankers Association
STATE;COLLEGE
Home sales
Home prices depreciated 9 percent from the second quarter of ’07
through this past second quarter,
according to the Pennsylvania Association of realtors. the state’s
existing-home median price topped
out in September ’07, coreLogic reported. In falling 11. 9 percent since
that peak through this past spring,
Pennsylvania’s existing-home prices
ranked 18th-strongest nationally.
Meanwhile, the state’s median sales
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.
NEW- AND EXISTING-HOME SALES
Source: Pennsylvania Association of realtors
A spike in government spending, including at
the Pennsylvania State University, spurred a
1.2-percent increase in personal income in the
State college MSA last year, the Centre Daily
Times reported. because it is home to the uni-
versity, “this town is always going to weather
[economic] storms well,” David Passmore, a
workforce education and development profes-
sor told the newspaper this past August.
WHAT;THE;LOCALS;SAY
“In Philadelphia, we’ve been pretty resilient. It’s
a very mature real estate market without much
speculation. Other than a handful of high-rise
condominiums built late in the boom, we really
haven’t had that much depreciation. the market in
the middle of the state has been a little softer.”
—;JASON;F.;GRIESSER,;SENIOR;MOR TGAGE;CONSULTANT;AND
CERTIFIED;MOR TGAGE;BANKER,;TRIDENT;MOR TGAGE;CO.
Darrick Meneken is an associate editor at Scotsman Guide. reach him at (800) 297-6061 or darrickm@scotsmanguide.com.
Sources: brookings Institution, Centre Daily Times, coreLogic, Housing Alliance
of Pennsylvania, Mortgage bankers Association, Mortgage Banking, National
Association of realtors, Pennsylvania Association of realtors, Pennsylvania
Bulletin, Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, the Pennsylvania State University, Philadelphia Business Journal, The Philadelphia Inquirer, realtytrac,
rotary club of York, U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U. S.
Department of Labor, U.S. Department of the treasury, The Washington Independent, The York Daily Record
