Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Foreclosure Legislation

MARCH 22 • 9:16 pmHB 1523, sponsored by Rep. Tom Grady (R-Naples), a bill that would allow parties in foreclosure proceedings to eliminate court proceedings if both parties agree, easily passed the House Civil Justice and Courts Policy Committee today. One goal of the bill is to enable banks and other mortgage lenders to more quickly get homes back on the market while letting homeowners get on with their lives.


Investors Are Buying Houses Again



March 23, 2010 – More home buyers are snapping up properties with cash, a trend driven in large part by investors returning to the market after four years of falling prices around the country.

The share of home sales involving all-cash transactions was 26 percent in January, up from 18 percent a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. The figures come from a survey of members about their most recent transactions.

Many home buyers also are paying cash, but investors are largely using cash so they can avoid paying interest charges on loans and get a larger return on their investment.

NAR data also show a pickup in investment activity. Home purchases made by buyers identified as investors climbed to 17 percent in January, up from 15 percent in December and 12 percent in November.

“We bottomed out in 2008, and in late 2009, prices stabilized and investors have returned,” says Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American CoreLogic. “It’s a different type of investor going after foreclosed properties and expecting to hold on for longer time frames.”

Many investors say they’re financing their purchases with cash on hand, rather than borrowing. Evan Spinrod of San Francisco bought three rental properties in November and February and now owns 21 in four states. The rent he collects gives him an 8.5 percent annual return on his investment. Some of his homes are worth about $165,000.

“I’m still looking,” Spinrod says. “You can’t build these houses for the prices they’re selling them. I’ve always seen that the real wealth was in real estate. People have been sitting on cash, and there’s no interest from the bank (to pay).”

Leonard Baron, a real estate professor at San Diego State University, has bought three homes with cash in the San Diego area in the past eight months, ranging in price from $100,000 to $130,000. He rents the properties. Baron says now is an ideal time to make such purchases. “It’s because prices have dropped so much and rents really haven’t,” he says. “The deals were unbelievable.”

Some Realtors also say they’re seeing increased investor activity. “Flippers, rehabbers, investors ... are, in fact, buying,” says Lisa Johnson, with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Haverhill, Mass. “I’m getting builders who have stopped building and are instead buying up condos and single-family homes to fix them up and sell them. It’s a neat change I haven’t seen in four years.”

All-cash purchases also reflect a growing number of investors buying higher-end properties without credit, says NAR spokesman Walter Molony. That’s a sign that some investors see real estate prices as having nowhere to go but up. All-cash offers give buyers a competitive edge on rival offers – even higher ones – that are dependent on financing. Cash deals can close faster and are less likely to fall through.

“You have to have cash to be able to close quickly and have negotiating power. Cash is king,” says Tanya Marchiol, president of Phoenix-based Team Investments, which buys about 70 properties a month with cash it raises from investors. “We do want to flip it or generate cash flow (through renting it out). Now is the time to buy for cash flow. We know the market is going to rebound.”

Some investors say the current real estate market is an ideal time to buy because homes are so low priced, they are bound to hold their value. That’s the philosophy of Jim McClelland of Tinley Park, Ill. He is buying about 120 to 150 entry-level homes in the Chicago area this year and owns a total of about 300 properties. He says now is a good time to buy because properties going into foreclosure are no longer just one-bedroom, fixer-uppers but nicer, split-level brick homes with more bedrooms that will probably appreciate to a higher value.

That’s because so many prime-rate borrowers who bought more expensive homes have gone into foreclosure. He puts about $60,000 into upgrading a property, then rents it out.

“Do I think this year will be a better time to invest than in 2009? Yes,” McClelland says. “There have always been foreclosures. The difference now is you get a better home for the same kind of money. You’re sitting on better inventory. People get into real estate for financial independence. It’s not a quick fix. It appreciates. It doesn’t happen overnight.”

Monday, November 2, 2009

The Devil is in the Details

"Don't believe the hype!" The words from Public Enemy's hit song title rang true once again last week when the Commerce Department reported the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the 3rd Quarter. As you can see from the chart below, GDP rose by 3.5% for the first gain in a year and the strongest reading in two years.
While most media outlets were giddy about the news and started the hype that the recession is behind us, it's important to remember that there's more to the economic data than just the headlines.
The temporary "Cash for Clunkers" program has now expired, but was a big part of last quarter's GDP gain. If we remove it from the total, the reading would have been a more modest 1.9%. But there is even more to the rise in the latest GDP number that is just temporary...
Also bolstering the economy has been the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit - which is set to expire at the end of this month. Many home buyers have been taking advantage of this program - and wisely so.
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New Home Sales were reported last week, showing a 7.5-month supply of inventory. While that number is slightly worse than last month's 7.3 reading, it's still a big improvement from where we were in January. Back in January, inventory levels reached a high of 12.4-month supply! The improvement in housing inventories has been due in large part to the $8,000 First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit, which is set to expire on November 30.
There is a real possibility of an extension of this program through a proposed Bill, but it is not yet a certainty. The extension Bill still must be reconciled between the House and Senate, and then voted on for final approval. Under the current extension proposal, sales with signed purchase agreements by April 30th that close before June 30th, 2010 would qualify for the credit.
Another positive element would be the possible addition of $6,500 tax credit for other primary home purchasers, meaning the tax credit would no longer be limited only to first-time homebuyers. There is also a possibility that qualifying income limits could increase from $75,000 to $125,000 for singles, and from $150,000 to $250,000 for joint tax filers.
I will be keeping an eye on this for you, so stay tuned.
After all last week's news and movement in the markets, Bonds and rates ended the week slightly better than where they began.

This week brings us new employment numbers...and a chance to see if the labor market is showing signs of recovery. The employment news begins Wednesday with the ADP National Employment Report. Sandwiched between that report and Friday's Jobs Report, is the Initial Jobless Claims report on Thursday.
The big news comes on Friday, when the all-important Jobs Report will be released. Last month's report underscored the struggling labor market, as the Labor Department reported 263,000 jobs lost in September and an increase in the unemployment rate to 9.8%. The report due out this week is expected to show 166,000 jobs lost in October, which would be significantly better than the previous month if it happens. However, the Unemployment Rate is expected to continue its climb to 9.9%.
In addition to employment news, we'll also see the ISM Index on Monday. This is the king of all manufacturing indices and is considered the single best snapshot of the factory sector.
Finally, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) holds its two-day meeting this week, with an announcement of the Fed Rate Decision and Policy Statement due on Wednesday at 2:15 p.m. (ET).
Remember: Weak economic news normally causes money to flow out of Stocks and into Bonds, helping Bonds and home loan rates improve, while strong economic news normally has the opposite result. As you can see in the chart below, Mortgage Bonds were able to bounce back last week with help from weakness in the Stock markets.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Short Sales Leave Homebuyers Frustrated

CHICAGO – Sept. 21, 2009 – A few years ago, few people in the housing market had ever heard of a short sale.

Mention the term today and people, whether they are homeowners or real estate agents, just roll their eyes.

The practice, which involves selling a property for less than the amount owed on the mortgage, has grown in popularity as an exit strategy for financially strapped homeowners because it doesn’t ding a credit report as deeply as a foreclosure. But because the transactions have to be approved by first and second lien holders, they are languishing. Some real estate agents try to steer clear of them entirely and even specify in their listings that a property is not a short sale.

The Obama administration is aware of the frustrations. In mid-May, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner announced plans to streamline the process by offering financial incentives to mortgage servicers and investors that accept short sales, much in the same way that they are rewarded for refinancing or modifying troubled mortgages.

Four months later, homeowners, real estate agents and lenders are still waiting for specific details of how the plan would work. A Treasury Department spokeswoman said an update on the program is expected in a few weeks.

Meanwhile, homeowners like Dallas O’Day are in limbo.

O’Day, a Chicago attorney, and his family relocated from California in June 2004 and bought a Mediterranean-style home in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood for $395,000. They rewired the house, stripped and refinished the wood floors and the woodwork and did other work to restore its charm.

Last year, personal circumstances prompted them to list the home for sale just as the housing industry’s meltdown was picking up steam. With no takers and no longer even expecting to break even on his investment, O’Day relisted the 2,700-square-foot home in January as a short sale.

Four months and three price reductions brought the house down to $384,900, at which point a potential buyer made an offer in late May. O’Day accepted it and submitted the paperwork to the lenders holding first and second mortgages on the home.

He has yet to receive a response. Meanwhile, the family has moved into a North Side apartment, the refrigerator has broken in the home and there’s evidence of mold in the basement.

“The only thing we keep hearing is they keep wanting current payroll stubs, bank statements and taxes,” said O’Day’s real estate agent, Pam Decker at Prudential Biros Real Estate in Evergreen Park.

“What has astonished me is that in the presence of one of the softest housing markets I can remember, we’re hitting up on four months and they’ve just had a person assigned to look at it, that they would move at such a glacial pace,” O’Day said. “My expectation is I’ll be renting until whatever blemish is gone. I’ve just accepted the fact that at some point it’ll be foreclosed upon because I just don’t think the banks will pull it together. I feel like I’ve done everything I can do.”

During the second quarter, 14 percent of all home sales were short sales and they were made primarily to first-time buyers who may have more flexibility to deal with the long wait times, according to a survey by Campbell Communications. The sales volume could be much greater. Two out of three short sales never close.

“In general, you have to have three offers for every completed short sale,” said survey designer Thomas Popik. “The first offer, the buyer walks before they get a yes or no. On the second offer they walk a good part of the time. The third offer is the charm because it’s been in process long enough at the lender that [the lender] knows they want to do this.

“Home buyers are now putting in half a dozen verbal offers, hoping that on one of them the lender will say yes. What this is doing is bogging down the approval [process] at the mortgage servicers. It’s just gotten to the point that everyone has started engaging in unproductive behavior. It’s a vicious cycle.”

The process of getting a short sale approved involves a packet of documents that includes bank statements, tax returns, letters explaining any other sources of income and a hardship letter explaining why a short sale is being sought.

After the packet is submitted to a mortgage servicer, it has to be entered into the system, a person has to be assigned to it, and an appraisal has to be ordered for the property. On average, it took loan servicers 9 1/2 weeks to respond to a short sale offer, Campbell’s survey found.

“You’ve got to stay on top of these banks,” said James Orrico, a real estate agent at Professional Residential Brokerage LLC in Oak Brook. “I call on my files every day. If you don’t stay on top of them, you’ll lose it.”

But not every real estate agent is willing to deal with the process. Online realty company Redfin doesn’t show or write offers on short sale properties “because of the slim chance that you’ll get the home,” according to its Web site.

A number of factors are contributing to the delay. Lenders say their top priority is keeping people in their homes, and their own and the government’s loan modification programs are taking the bulk of their resources.

“The modification [program] was just like an atom bomb that dropped on [servicers],” said Matt McCabe of National Short Sale Center, a company that acts as a negotiator between borrowers and mortgage lenders. “They had a really hard time reacting to that increased demand.”

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, which services more than 8 million mortgages, said it has cut the average 60-day response time on short sale offers to 30 to 45 days.

“We’re not satisfied with that number,” said Tamara Swain, senior vice president of real estate owned and short sales at the lender. “The current goal is 15 to 20 days. This has been a big learning process of a function that wasn’t very prominent a couple years ago.”

Also delaying the process is that if a home can’t be saved, servicers are keen on trying to recover as much as possible for what could be multiple investors and that requires a fair amount of due diligence.

“The challenge is buyers always want to pay as little as possible and sellers want to receive as much as possible,” said Tom Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which services 10.3 million mortgages. “The bank is the server in the middle.”

From a prospective buyer’s standpoint, purchasing a short sale property can be preferable to a foreclosure because if the borrower stills owns the home, he or she is likely to take better care of it.

However, with so many distressed properties for sale, and other homes selling conventionally at drastically reduced prices, there’s a wealth of inventory available allowing buyers to get a quick yea or nay to their offer. Some buyers make offers on multiple short sales or write the offers so they can walk away if a lender doesn’t respond within a certain time frame.

Xia Zhao and her family thought they’d found their next home when they walked into a Jefferson Park townhouse that was listed as a short sale. It was large and near her son’s school. However, they walked away from the offer after a month because they still hadn’t received a response and were worried they wouldn’t be moved in by the time school started.

Instead the family bought a new town home with a price that was cut by the developer in the city’s Old Irving neighborhood.

“I guess we’re not people with extreme patience,” Zhao said. “What if you wait for a couple months and this goes away? You have to start all over again.”

“Most people really aren’t in a situation where they can deal with the uncertainty,” said Zhao’s real estate agent, Eric Rojas at Prudential Rubloff. “Even when you explain that it’s not accepted until the bank accepts it and you build these safeguards into the contract, people are dropping out, left and right. These sales would get done, but people just can’t wait.”

Chicagoan Marie Cabrera, a real estate agent at Baird & Warner, is hoping she has found a purchaser with some patience.

After being unable to sell her own condo in the luxury Palmolive Building, Cabrera decided she didn’t want to simply wait for her lender to foreclosure on it. Earlier this month she listed it as a short sale, priced at $1.15 million. Within a week, she had a cash offer of $1 million that she sent to her lender.

“I have no idea whether the bank will take it,” Cabrera said. “I have an offer that’s solid and they’re willing to wait.”

Monday, September 21, 2009

Possible Extension of First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit

New Bi-Partisan Senate Bill to Extend First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit for 6 Months

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RISMEDIA, September 21, 2009—Realogy Corporation, a global provider of real estate and relocation services, announced its support of a bi-partisan Senate bill (S. 1678) recently introduced that would create a six-month extension of the $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time homebuyers and move the current expiration date forward to June 1, 2010.

“This is an important next step for maintaining positive momentum toward a recovery in the housing markets and the overall U.S. economy,” said Realogy President & CEO Richard A. Smith, who also serves as chair of the Business Roundtable’s Housing Working Group. “While we applaud this effort and support passage of this prudent and necessary legislation, we also want to make it clear that we will continue to work with Congress to broaden the scope of the credit.

“Specifically, Realogy supports expanding the existing first-time homebuyer tax credit to all homebuyers of a principal residence, increasing the size of the tax credit, and eliminating the existing income eligibility caps, all of which we believe are critical to the ‘move-up’ or repeat buyers who we expect will drive the essential second phase of a housing recovery.

“We believe that stimulating demand for housing – particularly in the repeat buyer or ‘move-up’ market – is the most effective way for Congress to truly accelerate a broader economic recovery,” said Smith.

The bill was introduced by U.S. Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), along with Senators John Ensign (R-NV), Harry Reid (D-NV), Johnny Isakson (R-GA) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). The current tax credit provision for first-time homebuyers, passed as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, expires December 1, 2009. According to the most recent data from the Department of the Treasury, nearly 530,000 Americans have applied for the tax cut to help them purchase their first home. About 40% of all homebuyers this year will be eligible for the tax credit.

For more information, visit www.Realogy.com.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Interesting statistics

Did you know?

87 % of recent homebuyers in the U.S. say they used the internet as an informational resource during their home buying process.

Home shoppers search the internet for an average of 55 hours before picking up the phone to call a real estate professional.

78% of all buyers work with a Realtor when they are ready to make an offer on a property.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Check out this choice listing in beautiful Plantation Bay- click on home picture to see interior shots

# 489663 810 Westwood Drive OB, 32174 $620,000
Single Family Area: 47 Plantat Bay,Halifx P,SugarMill County: FL Photos: 12 Status: Active
Volusia County School Board


Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 3 Half Baths: 1
Living Area: 3845 Total Area: 5475 Source: Property Appraiser
Lot Size: 1300 SF Year Built: 2005 As Is Cond: No
Subdivision: Plantation Bay Pets YN:
Bedroom 1: 20x16 Living Rm: 20x18 Utility Rm: 10x8
Bedroom 2: 15x15 Dining Rm: 16x16 Porch/Balc: 31x26
Bedroom 3: 16x13 Family Rm: 21x20 Deck/Patio: 65x35
Bedroom 4: 16x13 Kitchen: 24x23 Other Rm: Den/Office 31x13
Special Cont.: N Parking: NA
Pool:Heated , Inground Pool Home , Screened Garage: 2 Car Garage , Oversized , Workshop
Sale or Lease: Sale Style: Single Family
Lease Price: $ Lease Availability:
Lease Terms:

Virtual Tour:
Architecture: Contemporary Construction: Concrete Block Building: 2 Stories
Roof: Shingle Floor Covering: Carpet , Tile Orientation: East
A/C: Central , Multiple Units , Zoned Heat: Central , Electric , Zoned Water: Private
Land Type: Acreage: 0 to 1/2 Sewer: City
Waterfront: Lake Front Occupancy: Occupied Ownership:
Rooms: Balcony/Decking , Bonus Room , Breakfast Bar , Breakfast Nook , Dining Room , Eat-In Kitchen , Family Room , Foyer , Great Room , In-Law Suite , Inside Laundry , Living Room , Media Room , Office
Appliances: Cooktop , Dishwasher , Disposal , Dryer , Range , Refrigerator , Washer
Inside: Attic Fan , Cable/DSL Internet , Cathedral Ceiling , Ceiling Fans , Split Bedrooms , Volume Ceiling , Wet Bar
Outside: Clubhouse Facility , Irrigation Sprinkler , Screened Porch
Misc: Gated Community , Golf Community , Homeowners Association , Jacuzzi/Hot Tub , Security System
Porch: 2+ Porches/Decks , Balcony , Enclosed , Screened
Remarks: GORGEOUS LAKEFRONT EXECUTIVE HOME in gated secure Plantation Bay. Floor plan is Poinciana model with DOUBLE BONUS ROOMS upstairs. This property has it all- Spacious master suite, huge walk in shower, walk in closets. Living and family rooms open to a spacious paver patio with low maintenance saline lap pool. Beautiful lake views from pool. Office and extra bedrooms on first floor. Huge upstairs with FITNESS ROOM, plus awesome HOME THEATRE (both of which could easily be bedrooms). Seller will consider conveying theater equipment at negotiable terms. Other features include an oversized double garage, wet bar, security system, multiple AC units and zones, and high end laundry with personal dry cleaner. Many other amenities. Home is barely lived in, shows like a model. All information recorded in the MLS intended to be accurate but cannot be guaranteed.