“As the housing market continues to improve nationwide, the San Francisco metropolitan area is also showing signs of significant improvement,” said Usowski. “As the regional spotlight shows, from the launch of the Obama Administration’s assistance programs in April 2009 through December 2013, nearly 73,500 homeowners in the San Francisco metropolitan area have received assistance. This is a positive step in our recovery efforts, but more work must be done to help homeowners in this area struggling from an excess of housing construction and unsustainable mortgage lending in the years leading up to the housing crisis and recession.”
The Housing Scorecard Regional Spotlight features data on the health of the San Francisco MSA housing market and impact of efforts to help homeowners at the local level including:
The foreclosure crisis has had an asymmetrical impact on the San Francisco MSA. The Oakland Metro Division (MD) has fared less well than the other divisions. During the housing bubble, home price appreciation in Oakland peaked earlier and rose higher than the MSA as a whole, but the subsequent decline in home prices was greater for Oakland (45 percent) than for San Francisco (22 percent) and that of the nation (30 percent). From 2000 through 2006, the share of distressed mortgages in the San Francisco MSA–those 90 or more days delinquent or in the foreclosure process—were considerably lower than comparable shares in the rest of the nation. The impact of the 2007-2009 recession, however, was more severe for the San Francisco MSA than for the nation, adding to rising mortgage delinquencies.
Economic and housing market conditions in the San Francisco MSA are improving. The share of mortgages that remain underwater has dropped to 2.5 percent in the San Francisco MD as of the third quarter of 2013, down from 9.0 percent a year earlier; in the Oakland MD, negative equity has declined to 13.9 percent from 29.7 percent over the same period. Jobs in the MSA have been increasing at an average annual rate of 38,900, or 2.1 percent, from the second quarter of 2010 through the third quarter of 2013. The Administration’s broad approach to stabilizing the San Francisco housing market has contributed to the improvements as nearly 73,500 homeowners received mortgage assistance between April 2009 and December. Furthermore, the San Francisco MSA has benefitted from $36 million in funding from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, and the State of California has received $1.975 billion from the Hardest Hit Fund program.
The National Mortgage Servicing Settlement is continuing to provide relief for those in the San Francisco metropolitan area and throughout the state of California. Under the landmark National Mortgage Servicing Settlement, more than 186,000 California homeowners have benefitted from over $20 billion in refinancing, short sales and completed or trial loan modifications, including principal reduction on first and second lien mortgages provided as of June 30, 2013. Nationwide, the settlement has provided more than $51 billion in consumer relief benefits to more than 643,000 families. That is in addition to the $2.5 billion in payments to participating states and $1.5 billion in direct payments to borrowers who were foreclosed upon between 2008 and 2011.
For more information, visit www.hud.gov.
