Mortgage news this week painted a picture of a variety of ways people are attempting to cope with the mortgage slump:

• While the housing bill continues to meander its way through Congress, it apparently was not an urgent enough issue to get done before Congress adjourned for its Fourth of July recess
• Hope Now, a mortgage industry alliance, reported that it helped 170,000 homeowners avoid foreclosure in the month of May
• Further evidence that falling behind on a mortgage need not be permanent was seen in the fact that more that 40,000 borrowers who had been behind on their mortgages caught up in May
• The week ending June 27 offered a small sign of broader resiliency in the mortgage market, as mortgage application volume recovered slightly from the year-to-date low set during the prior week

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Few have emerged unscathed from the mortgage mess. But you’d think that if you were renting rather than owning that you could just duck and wait until things settle down, right? It depends. In some communities, high rates of foreclosure have turned so many former homeowners into renters that rents have been pushed up. To make things worse, good tenants have found themselves served with eviction notices when their landlords default on the property and a lender takes possession.

At the same time, lenders have tightened underwriting standards, requiring better credit scores, higher income, and larger down payments before granting mortgages. So those who might have become homeowners as home prices fell are finding that home ownership remains just out of reach. Finally, fear of making a homebuying mistake has kept a sizable portion of the population from buying — pushing rents up.

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Mortgage rates edged lower this week, as the prevailing drift of housing news could be seen as good or bad, depending on the perspective.

• Home prices in the first quarter of 2008 were reported to have fallen by 7.7% from the same period a year ago
• Foreclosures for the month of April were reported to be up 65% from one year earlier
• Inflation for April came in at a relatively mild 0.2%

In other words, more bad news for homeowners — at least some of them — but good news for potential home buyers.

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Economist say we are seeing some action with first time home buyers. For the economy to rebound it has to start with the housing market, so can first time buyers boost the market or are there too few options available for this to happen? Also with lower housing prices, what do you need to do as a seller to make sure your house sells in this first time buyer’s market?

For more on this read:
U.S. housing slump may require tax credit to encourage buyers
Part one: Shoppers can get more house for their money across price ranges
First-time home buyers have few options

The past week was chock full of news affecting the mortgage and housing markets:

• Foreclosure notices were reported to have increased by 112% over the past year
• Housing prices nationally were reported to have declined by 12.7% over the past year
• Economic growth for the first quarter of 2008 remained positive, if anemic
• The Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the seventh time in as many months

In short, a clouded economic picture continues to make this a buyer’s market for financially sound house hunters.

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