homeowner: Homeowners battling foreclosure face another unneeded challenge - 03/30/13 04:29 AM
 
Over the past few years the housing fiasco has elbowed millions of property owners and mortgage holders to mental regions they have never been to before. Plummeting home values have introduced them to the dark side of life that is totally new to them. Unable to make mortgage payments on time has tested their patience with the system many believe is working against them. Foreclosure is the word on their taut lips. A short sale could avoid that but then the horror stories associated with it – according to real estate aficionados - isn’t often a viable option.
 
It … (27 comments)

homeowner: Big money investors buying foreclosures in bulk - a caution flag? - 02/28/13 05:57 AM
 
The housing market continues to display signs of slowly shedding its recent bad reputation and is actually gaining real recovery traction. Prices in many areas are firming up and even rising, listing inventories are shrinking, permits for new homes show improvement and mortgage money is still quite affordable, so long as the applicant manages to qualify under today’s rigorous underwriting guidelines.
 
Life seems to be good in the real estate business. And predictably getting better.
 
At least that’s what large investors like equity shops and hedge funds, among them Blackstone Group, Apollo Global Management and Colony Capital, firmly … (33 comments)

homeowner: Home affordability varies greatly across the country - 10/20/12 06:21 AM

The housing bust rearranged residential real estate values downward by percentages not seen since who knows when. On average prices plummeted 30% from the highs reached in 2006. One of the effects of that major shift would logically be that now homes were going to be more affordable, especially in the severely abused cities. Many would-be homeowners are salivating at the concept of being able to qualify for today’s inexpensive mortgages and then push over low-ball purchase offers to grab a home from foreclosure, short sale or even from a regular seller willing to compromise on price.
 
The reality … (2 comments)

homeowner: Foreclosures turn up after steady decline - 07/28/12 04:46 AM

The besieged real estate market has recently displayed encouraging signs that it might be just about to turn the corner for a new and brighter day. In a meaningful way, too. Home sales are increasing in some areas, prices are firming, and even inching up a bit, consumer confidence in housing is improving and then of course mortgage rates continue sliding to new lows – week after week it seems - to everyone’s delight.
 
And then RealtyTrac published its Midyear 2012 Foreclosure Market Report to pour cold water on the incipient party. It isn’t over till the fat … (5 comments)

homeowner: Housing market trending up, say consumers in Fannie Mae survey - 07/11/12 07:01 AM
 
June 2012 National Housing Survey run by Fannie Mae brings a decent dose of good news to the otherwise embattled real estate market. High levels of mortgage foreclosures are still in the headlines a lot, as are short sales, both of which continue to dominate housing market reports from a host of cities across the country, depicting the overall weakness. Throw in the bumpy economic ride and the persistently alarming behavior of some large banks after their near demise just a few years ago and the reasons to feel uncomfortable about it all is real.
 
Yet, the 1,001 consumers polled in the … (4 comments)

homeowner: Refinancing through HARP on a roll - 06/04/12 01:22 PM
 
FHFA – Federal Housing Finance Agency – reported the other day that during the first quarter of 2012 HARP refinances came in at 180,185 closed deals, signifying a healthy jump from the 93,190 HARP refis that were done in the 4th quarter of 2011. If this trend continues it will in its small way help stabilize the entire housing market.  
 
HARP – Home Affordable Refinance Program – was launched in 2009 to help mortgage borrowers who are unable to refinance because their property values had recently absorbed some serious damage. As the real estate market collapsed they found … (4 comments)

homeowner: MERS in middle of new mortgage foreclosure mess - 10/18/10 11:28 AM
MERS is hardly a household name to many homeowners but the company now finds itself tossed right in the middle of the latest and rapidly-heating home loan challenge. It stands for Mortgage Electronic Registration System and the name pretty much says what it does. It records electronically, in proprietary software, mortgages that have been originated throughout the country, having currently over 65 million of them in its books, or better said in its servers.
The standard practice still is that local clerks record all mortgages and when ownership changes a new paper-based entry is created and notarized. Of course, all this … (10 comments)

homeowner: Mortgage lenders about to face 45-day short sale approval deadline - 09/27/10 08:14 AM
The current real estate meltdown has been a true testing ground for anyone involved in its devastating turbulence. Homeowners have watched helplessly as their property values have headed south with little resistance. Home loan providers have worked under pressure for years to stay afloat in choppy waters full of creepy icebergs and many other deadly maritime hazards. Real estate agents are fighting to secure deals in a marketplace shrunk to a flat pie on life support from a full-blown strawberry cheesecake. The support industries are in it as deep as anyone else.
Something intriguing that could be rather meaningful for many … (12 comments)

homeowner: Mortgage walk-aways poised to accelerate - 09/16/10 03:33 PM
It appears relative calm has descended on the long-suffering housing market, especially when it comes to price movement. For months now home values have shown signs of stability, and even moderate increases in some areas. Real estate observers of course like to see that but are generally unconvinced that a sustainable real estate recovery is imminent. Too many hazards remain in its way, among them the still notable oversupply, a weak job market and the potential of many more mortgage walk-aways.
Yes, that walk-away - a term that has finessed its way into today's popular real estate vocabulary - where a … (12 comments)

homeowner: Mortgage foreclosure pulls home's price down 27%, says MIT study - 08/18/10 03:22 PM
When major upheaval pummels a real estate market, it as a rule leads to home value depreciation. That's the easy part. The hard part is to try to put an actual number on the price reversal. A team led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or more commonly MIT, recently conducted some deep research to determine how much a home's value deteriorates because of a foreclosure. The current housing and mortgage meltdown obviously got them thinking and they decided to dig up some realistic answers.
The group looked at 1.8 million real estate sales in Massachusetts spanning from 1987 all the … (7 comments)

homeowner: Fannie Mae's new strategic default rule could amount to very little - 07/30/10 09:05 AM
Fannie Mae recently took an assertive step, in its own mind at least, to stem the growing tendency of mortgage borrowers pulling off strategic defaults. In that homeowners who could afford their payments choose to walk away from the obligation anyway. The GSE went ahead and added another category to the new policy. Home loan recipients who fail to do a workout in good faith also fall under the spell of its new guidelines. What this all means is that property owners fitting these parameters would be ineligible for mortgages backed by Fannie Mae for seven long years from the recorded … (46 comments)

homeowner: Southern Nevada June home sales up - median price lower - 07/14/10 09:41 AM
Las Vegas homeowners and real estate observers have been looking for clear direction the local housing market could be happy about but it's refusing to cooperate. It seems to have settled on a typically erratic path that markets display when they reach the bottom on a downward cycle - or are very near it -  and just can't decide how to shake the gloominess off and embark on a climb out for better days. Last month's real estate statistics reflect that rather well.
GLVAR, or Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, recounts for its rapt audience that 3,360 resale homes were … (7 comments)

homeowner: Mortgage foreclosure assistance authorized for worst-hit states - 06/24/10 09:55 AM
As the housing sector kept sucking for more oxygen, Washington announced back in February the Hardest Hit Fund worth $1.5 billion that was designed to help states in serious housing peril and asked them at the time, as a condition to get a slice of the money, to submit creative programs that would lend a hand to homeowners struggling with mortgage payments. The plans from Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada have now been okayed by the Treasury and the assigned funds are ready to begin flowing to the states' Housing Finance Agencies, or HFA, tasked to administer their use.
California … (8 comments)

homeowner: Curious strategic mortgage default legislation proposed - 06/13/10 03:33 PM
Washington has already come up with some unusual and at times confusing legislation during this enduring housing collapse to correct perceived deficiencies. HVCC – the Home Valuation Code of Conduct – addressing the alleged appraisal problems of the recent past is one. The new RESPA – Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act – is another that has led to many complaints and questions from the mortgage and real estate industries and puzzles the consumer as well. More of the same could be forthcoming.
House Republicans presented a surprise rider at the end of an FHA-related debate the other day that would … (14 comments)

homeowner: Home-grown mortgage modification making headway - 06/02/10 09:23 AM
Creativity is the spice of life in the mortgage loan modification business. When the bottom fell crashing out of the real estate market and homeowners began sliding in droves toward foreclosure, home loan providers at first just watched the carnage from afar, unwilling to lift a finger for help. Soon the ominous situation grew into a full-blown crisis and the government had to get involved because the private mortgage industry couldn't or wouldn't do much about it. Despite that, mortgage lenders still found novel ways to deny most homeowners the loan modification they were applying for. The original paperwork somehow got lost, … (4 comments)

homeowner: Housing starts could double by next year - 05/10/10 12:40 PM
New home construction has had it very tough over the last few years, despite appealing mortgage financing and first-time and move-up buyer tax incentives. The sector simply hasn't been able to compete much with the existing real estate market because of vast price differences. Values, for instance, have sunk up to 60% in Las Vegas that basically gives new construction little chance to generate any meaningful demand. Housing starts nationwide reached 554,000 units last year, a surprisingly high number considering the malaise still hovering over the residential real estate landscape, while at the top of the bubble in 2005 they were … (8 comments)

homeowner: Delinquent mortgage borrowers with PMI staging fragile comeback - 04/01/10 07:12 AM
Some good news are starting to sneak into the devastated real estate market from far-off directions. They may not mean all that much in the conventional big picture that usually chews over topics like foreclosures, short sales, home price drops and mortgage lender failures. Nevertheless, many small time indicators often give hints about which way the housing market is heading. One of these gems is the private mortgage insurance, or PMI, default rate.
Mortgage Insurance Companies of America, or MICA, keeps tabs on this and just released its latest report. In short, the trade group explains that 80,758 homeowners with PMIs … (6 comments)

homeowner: Las Vegas underwater homeowners to float by 2020? It's possible - 03/26/10 08:19 AM
Many Southern Nevada - including Mountains Edge, Summerlin, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Canyon Gate and Spanish Trail - mortgage borrowers are still dealing with the effects of the great real estate meltdown. Short sale has recently become a more acceptable avenue for home loan banks to address the lingering issue of delinquency, giving people a somewhat more palatable way out of a tight spot. Despite that, high mortgage foreclosure filings continue clouding the sandy landscape of Las Vegas valley. The once in a lifetime housing upheaval is by no means over and done with yet.
Sin City's homeowners have watched in … (13 comments)

homeowner: HOA fees going increasingly unpaid - creative legal remedy to help - 03/12/10 07:03 AM
Home Owners Associations are as vulnerable to the mortgage and real estate meltdown as banks, property owners and investors are. There is no escaping the wrath of the marketplace. Homeowners finding themselves in mortgage payment trouble often stop meeting their HOA responsibilities even before letting the loan itself go delinquent. That can spawn an unrelenting downward spiral where the HOA falls short on its fee collections and has to cut back on services and maintenance, while affected homeowners later on go into foreclosure and abandon their properties, leaving vacancies subject to blight and all sorts of ugly stuff. The end result … (9 comments)

homeowner: Southern Nevada real estate prices firming up in February - 03/10/10 08:42 AM
Las Vegas homeowners should be mildly encouraged about the direction housing prices are going nowadays. Well, they aren't actually going much of anywhere, and that's what's good about it. They have put the breaks on the slide that seemed to go on forever and are seemingly stabilizing. Mortgage borrowers whose property is underwater can now hope that values will soon start heading in the other direction, up that is. And eventually lift them from the painful, wallet-busting submersion, whenever that'll be.
GLVAR, or Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, just released its latest stats for February to show that the median … (2 comments)