National Clean Energy Summit 2.0 to be held in Las Vegas - 07/30/09 11:31 PM
Center for American Progress Action Fund, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, and University of Nevada, Las Vegas are the hosts for this one-day gathering here in Southern Nevada. It's set for Monday, August 10, 2009, starting at 10:00 AM at UNLV's Cox Pavilion. Click here for more info.
National Clean Energy Summit 2.0: Jobs and the New Economy, that's the full title for the event, aims to stimulate debate over the deployment of clean energy, energy efficiency, good job creation, advances in energy independence and creation of economic prosperity for Nevada, the country and the entire world. That is … (2 comments)

Freddie Mac launches sales promotion of homes it owns - 07/27/09 07:07 PM
HomeSteps, the real estate sales arm of Freddie Mac, just introduced a new program in an attempt to thin its inventory of agency-owned homes, in other words homes it has foreclosed on. In this demanding housing environment it predictably has quite a few of them available for purchase and has decided to do something meaningful about it.
HomeSteps has dubbed the campaign SmartBuy. Someone at Freddie Mac must be really good at coming up with catchy names. Anyhow, it runs from July 17 to October 31, 2009, unless extended. It's good for single-family homes only from HomeSteps inventory and it must … (4 comments)

Homebuyer tax credit may be expanded - 07/24/09 11:43 PM
Las Vegas housing market alone would be a big beneficiary if it did happen. Southern Nevada has already seen solid gains this year in sales thanks in large part to the first-time buyer tax credit of $8,000. This incentive is set to come to an end December 1.
NAR, or National Association of Realtors, and the mortgage industry are currently working on Congress to keep it going well into 2010. It has such a good track record, so why not. They have two other worthwhile ideas in mind as well.
The tax credit ceiling ought to be hiked to $15,000 is … (6 comments)

HARP, or Home Affordable Refinance Program, limit goes up to 125% loan-to-value - 07/22/09 10:26 PM
Relief Refinance Mortgage by Freddie Mac falls under this banner. It's now official that the previous limit of 105% has been pushed up to 125% loan-to-value, or LTV, something that Washington had been tossing around for a bit. "This is a change that will put affordable refinancing opportunities within reach of performing borrowers who have suffered the effects of local home price erosion," explained a Freddie Mac wool suit. Qualifying homeowners are current on their payments and have a mortgage owned or guaranteed by the agency.
Freddie Mac's Relief Refinance Mortgagehas some nice features, too. It lets borrowers finance closing and … (5 comments)

FICO score can take a hit following Home Affordable Modification Program - 07/17/09 07:16 PM
This outcome hasn't been discussed much before but now it's out there for everyone to see. Namely that if a homeowner in distress is successful in using the Home Affordable Modification Program, kicked off in March, to lower his mortgage payments, his FICO score is likely to take a hit. FICO is the commonly-used barometer to assess a consumer's credit standing.
That's because many mortgage lenders report the modification to FICO as such. This means that the original terms of the loan were changed, often for less than the full amount, and any time that happens FICO's existing formula regards that … (20 comments)

FHA mortgage coming on strong in Las Vegas - 07/14/09 04:11 PM
FHA barely had any market share in Southern Nevada a few years ago because the conventional product was generally offering home loans with better terms. And then comes the mother of all housing slumps that manhandles the conventional mortgage segment and gives FHA another chance to show what it can do. And it's rising to the occasion.
Much of the real estate activity in Las Vegas is now at the lower end of the market where prices are truly affordable, be it a single-family home or a condo or a townhouse. Values have been mercilessly rolled back to the levels of the … (2 comments)

Southern Nevada existing home sales jump in June - 07/10/09 09:32 PM
Las Vegas housing market is gradually changing for the better. The key word is gradually. There have been subtle hints about it in the past few months and more are trickling in.   
As stated by GLVAR, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, a total of 3,785 single-family homes were closed in June, climbing a respectable 16.3% from May. What's even better is that this is a 70% improvement from the same month last year. REOs still dominate but it doesn't matter as long as the market remains active. Strict conventional mortgage guidelines kept these numbers from going even higher, … (2 comments)

CityCenter Las Vegas weak condo values trouble some buyers - 07/07/09 04:44 PM
It was expected. Southern Nevada housing market has been buffeted by gale-force winds, brought to its knees by rampant overbuilding, unchecked speculation, foreclosed mortgages and weakened economy. That includes the luxury high-rise condominium segment that was once flying as high as the International Space Station. As predicted, prices in condos have retreated by long strides as well, not just in small steps.
The elegant and massive CityCenter project on the Strip, an $8.4 billion gig, has been sucked into the same spine-tingling spiral. It has three residence destinations to offer; Veer Towers, The Residences at Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas, and Vdara … (2 comments)

HVCC appraisal regimen drawing missile strikes - 07/04/09 08:48 PM
Complaints against it are growing. Known as the Home Valuation Code of Conduct, or HVCC, it is only some two months old and is now being attacked from several directions. It is the required appraisal system for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the giant government-sponsored mortgage investors. Just about everybody is upset about it - home builders, mortgage lenders, real estate agents and even consumers - because of low appraisals it is producing are killing deals. 
Under the new setup, designed to keep the process more honest and accurate, so-called appraisal-management companies are now sending their experts out to do the … (17 comments)