Despite home prices rapidly increasing over the last few years, 2024 actually saw home prices grow at their slowest pace since 2011. According to technology and data provider Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), annual home price growth finished the year with a 3.4% rate of growth. This could be in part because of for-sale inventory growth. Inventory levels increased by 22% in 2024, with a quarter of housing markets now back to or above pre-pandemic inventory levels. However, mortgage performance continues to be a sore spot for the housing market.
From a mortgage performance perspective, the market enters 2025 on a mixed note. Overall, the national mortgage delinquency rate remains 22 basis points (bps) below pre-pandemic levels, but mortgage performance is a tale of two markets. Performance remains strong among GSE and portfolio-held loans, with delinquencies among portfolio-held mortgages down 11 bps from last year and 1.1 percentage points from the beginning of 2020. FHA delinquencies, on the other hand, have been sharply rising, and now sit 2.5 percentage points above pre-pandemic levels. VA delinquencies have also been on the rise, up 80 bps in 2024 and 83 bps from the beginning of 2020. Read more