The housing market showed small movements up and down in two reports released Monday.
Closings were up, but home prices down, one report says. Another shows new mortgage delinquencies are up slightly, while long-term delinquencies are down.
Steve Palm of Marietta's SmartNumbers thinks the numbers show a "bumping along the bottom" scenario in metro Atlanta.
The Mortgage Bankers Association's second quarter delinquency report noted mortgages that were 30 days past due rose less than 1 percent while the number that were 90 days past due fell less than a percent.
Jay Brinkman, the MBA's chief economist said the rise in 30-day mortgages past due signals an end to the downward trend.
"While overall mortgage delinquencies increased only slightly between the first and second quarters of this year, it is clear that the downward trend we saw through most of 2010 has stopped," he said.
"Mortgage loans that are one payment or 30 days past due are very much driven by changes in the labor market, and the increase in these delinquencies clearly reflects the deterioration we saw in the labor market during the second quarter," Brinkman said.
In Georgia, the unemployment rate is at 10.1 percent, a full percentage point above the national rate.
The MBA report said Georgia has an 11.1 percent mortgage delinquency rate, the highest in the Eastern Seaboard from Delaware to Florida. Only Mississippi along the Gulf Coast was higher at 12.8 percent.
SmartNumbers issued a proprietary report to Atlanta's First Multiple Listing Service on regional home sales, and though he could not discuss specific numbers, Palm's data showed that July closings were up significantly – by double digits when measured by percent.
"We are in a holding period for trends," Palm said.
He expects to see more of the same through the end of the year.
If there is any good news, it is that home prices have sunk to 1999 levels, and mortgage interest rates are lower than he has ever seen.
"It's the best buying opportunity we've ever had," he said. "But what percentage of people can do that in this economy?"
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