14 Real Estate Stats: Pre-Valentine's Day Edition

In honor of Valentine’s Day, I will up the number of real estate stats this week to 14 from the customary 10 I usually provide:

1% – The percentage decrease from December to January of homes that received initial default notices. The number of homes that received initial default notices was also the lowest in 3 years.
78,133 – Number of homes that reverted back to lenders in January. Still, that number is a decline of 11% from the previous year
36,000 – Number of jobs added to the economy in January. Although lower than expected, the tough winter weather factored heavily in those disappointing numbers.
4.81% – Average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage loan. It’s the 3rd week in a row that rates have risen.
27% – Percentage of homes nationwide that are underwater.
70%- Percentage of homes in Phoenix (my hometown) that are underwater.
36% – Percentage increase in commercial real estate originations in 2010 over the previous year. That translates into $110 billion in commercial and multifamily originations in 2010.
78% – Percentage of home owners who describe their house purchase as the “best” investment they’ve ever made according to a Trulia survey.
19 months – The amount of time real estate listings lasted on Google Maps. The short experiment of featuring listings on Google Maps, which dated back to July 2009, was discontinued on February 10, 2011.
5.6% – Percentage home values fell in 2010. Furthermore, between the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2010, values fell 2.6% and negative equity increased from 23.2% to 27%.
1.76 million – Estimated number of mortgage loans permanently modified in 2010. Two-thirds of those modifications were done in-house and not done through the Home Affordable Modification Program implemented by the government.
85% – Percentage of new home loans backed by the government (Fannie, Freddie, FHA, etc.) in some capacity. With the government’s release of their “white paper” on February 11th, giving options on how to overhaul the U.S. home finance system, this should be a topic of much discussion in the coming months.
47 – Number of housing markets (out of 74 that are being tracked) where housing affordabability has returned to pre-bubble (1989-2003 average) levels. At the peak in 2005, the ratio of housing prices to household income peaked at 2.3. This past September, the ratio fell to 1.6, matching the lowest in the 35 years the ratio has been tracked.
$116.21 – The average amount that a person will be spent on Valentine’s Day merchandise this year according to the National Retail Federation, which is up 12.8% from last year. Have a Happy Valentine’s Day all.

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.