“We are encouraged by the noticeable progress we are seeing over the last several months in the mortgage industry,” says Anand Nallathambi, CEO of CoreLogic. “During the last several years, the industry has faced enormous challenges working through difficult and complex issues. We are hopeful that these recent improvements are early signals of revitalization in the mortgage market.”

As GlobeSt.com recently reported, foreclosure filings were reported on 206,900 US properties in February, down 2% from January and 8% from February 2011. However, that decrease was less than decreases during each of the past 14 months, and 21 states posted annual increases in foreclosures, the most since November 2011, according a recently released RealtyTrac US Foreclosure Market Report.

The report also shows that the share of borrowers nationally that were more than 90 days late on their mortgage payment, including homes in foreclosure and REO, fell to 7.2% in January from 7.8% in January 2011, but remained unchanged from December 2011. Also, the inventory of REO assets held by servicers nationwide grew faster in January than the pace of REO sales, as measured by the distressed clearing ratio, which was 0.69, down from 0.80 in December 2011.

“The pace of completed foreclosures is gradually increasing again, but the clearing ratio is falling as REO sales have slowed in the winter months, says Mark Fleming, chief economist with CoreLogic. “Non-judicial foreclosure states completed almost twice as many foreclosures per 1,000 active loans as judicial foreclosure states in January.”

In addition, 60% of Americans are significantly more optimistic about homeownership than they were a year ago, a rise of 8 points, according to the second-annual Prudential Real Estate Outlook Survey. The survey shows that 96% of those surveyed agree or somewhat agree that now is a good time to buy, 70% have some degree of confidence that property values will improve over the next two years and 63% believe that real estate is a good investment despite the recent market volatility. Eight in 10 respondents said homeownership is very important to them, while only 15% said the economic downturn made homeownership less important.

“Respondents told us what our sales professionals see every day—that, despite recent market volatility, homeownership remains integral to the dreams of most Americans and that consumers’ confidence in the housing market is returning,” says Earl Lee, president of Prudential Real Estate. “This is good news for home buyers and sellers, communities and our economy as a whole. As more people look to take advantage of historic interest rates and prices, we believe the foundation for a sustainable recovery is in sight.”

The survey also highlighted strong ties between homeownership and the community: 77% agree that homeownership strengthens a sense of community, and 87% agree or somewhat agree that neighborhoods composed of homeowners have a stronger sense of community than neighborhoods made up of mainly renters. Also, among the generations, 94% of respondents said they believe that finding the right home and community are crucial to helping their family be happy, and only a small minority of older Americans said the recent housing crisis made homeownership less important to them, while nearly half of Gen Y respondents said it made homeownership more important. A fully 72% of Gen Y-ers expressed favorable views about the residential real estate market.

Consumer caution in a recovering real estate market was also highlighted in the survey: 93% of respondents said that the housing crisis reminds them that they must be more careful about buying and selling property. More than 90% of respondents said a good real estate sales professional can help them make the right choices about homes and communities, and 71% believe good agent representation is more important than ever, up 4% from last year’s survey.

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