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reo: Mortgage foreclosure errors could cloud titles for a long time - 10/02/10 03:25 PM
The wounded mortgage industry has been working as best it can to pick itself up from the canvas, with massive support and guidance from the government. It has instituted many internal policy changes, on one hand, to correct the grave underwriting, mortgage-backed security and other mistakes made in the not too distant past. On the other, Washington has come up with its own legislative cures to prevent another spectacular mortgage and real estate collapse from creeping up on the country again. Despite the continuing uncertainty and weakness in housing, cautious optimism is also entering into the mix. Maybe the worst is … (14 comments)

reo: Mortgage foreclosure pulls home's price down 27%, says MIT study - 08/18/10 10:22 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 … (11 comments)

reo: Washington controls 46% of REOs today - real estate market maker for years to come - 06/30/10 02:41 PM
The housing industry is relying heavily on government-backed mortgage organizations like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA for supplying financing to home buyers, filling a gaping void left by the private home loan sector still applying remedial salve to its festering wounds. Without them the real estate arena would be uniquely anemic. And the government is slowly gaining even more control over housing in a different but quite influential capacity, whether it likes it or not.
As mortgage foreclosures keep steadily spilling onto the ravaged real estate market, GSEs - Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's official designation - and its federal … (10 comments)

reo: Las Vegas regular home sales bring top dollar - REOs and short sales lag - 05/18/10 10:46 PM
The current real estate chaos has introduced even the timid to the exotic avenues of unloading a home. Before, the industry experts were usually the only ones well-versed on REOs and foreclosure and short sales and even auctions. This generation of mortgage borrowers and homeowners has been, whether they liked it or not, put through a crash course on various "creative" methods of selling a property. Some have been personally involved in the paperwork-laden processes when delinquency was knocking on the door, while others have followed from the sidelines through media the often hair-raising developments. It has been for everyone a unique … (8 comments)

reo: Southern Nevada resale statistics all over the map in April - 05/11/10 08:32 PM
If the median price of a single-family house is used as a sole indicator for the health of a real estate market, then Sin City would be hailed as being on the mend. According to GLVAR, or Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, Las Vegas median price grew to $142,000 in April, a strong 4.4% improvement from March. Not only that, it also is 0.2% higher from the same month last year, for the first time the year-over-year number is positive since 2007. Single-family house prices peaked in Las Vegas in February of 2007 at $310,000. The slide without a doubt … (6 comments)

reo: Southern Nevada existing housing stats down a bit in August - 09/10/09 06:13 PM
Las Vegas valley - with communities of Green Valley, Summerlin, Henderson, North Las Vegas and Sunrise Manor - real estate market eased up some as the summer progressed, actually to no surprise. July was already somewhat weaker than the several previous months that had been increasingly strong. Mortgage rates remain very favorable, as do home prices, but even these factors weren't enough to prevent a slight downward movement.
Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, or GLVAR, relates this time that 3,229 single-family houses were closed in August, a 14% drop from July. That's one thing, the other is that in August … (4 comments)

reo: New joint venture to buy distressed residential real estate - 08/20/09 02:04 PM
The co-founders of $1.5 billion fund have long resumes highlighted with mortgage, FHA, Wall Street and financial regulation experience in executive positions. Richard Stewart Jr., CEO of Heritage Capital Resources and Peter Monroe, CEO of National Real Estate Ventures, have carefully assessed the turbulent state of the national housing market and decided to pool their talents to buy and sell distressed real estate. In doing so the plan is to "help return foreclosed homes to productive use, prevent many foreclosures and also allow us to work with banks, servicers and federal agencies to reduce evictions."
Their forward-looking joint venture has also … (4 comments)

reo: 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)

reo: Refinancing upside down mortgages under HARP could get wider range - 06/30/09 10:00 PM
Discussions are underway as we speak. The Federal Housing Finance Authority, or FHFA, is tossing the idea around since the original intent of HARP, or Home Affordable Refinance Program, isn't doing much good at all. Currently it can only refinance loans up to an LTV, or loan-to-value, of 105%.  In the areas that were mauled the worst during this housing nosedive, like Las Vegas and large regions in Arizona, California, Florida, that limit is far too strict, helping only a few borrowers. By the way, FHFA is overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
FHFA is actually toying with an LTV of … (2 comments)

reo: Southern Nevada resale housing inventory falls in May - 06/09/09 10:31 PM
Another whiff of optimism over the local real estate market blew into the Las Vegas valley this week. Any small improvement anywhere in the industry stats is nowadays welcomed with wide-open arms. So, let's take it.
In the latest statistical report on the housing market here just released, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, or GLVAR, discloses that the inventory of homes fell by 9.3% from the same time last year. Moreover, there were 21,181 units in it in May, about 1,000 less than in April when the number stood at 22,112. This statistic has remained alarmingly high despite the … (2 comments)

reo: Las Vegas new single-family house market draws recovery prediction - 05/26/09 09:19 PM
A lot of time and money is spent annually in foreseeing the future in a variety of areas. From the familiar to the strange. As expected, the mortgage and real estate markets have seen their fair share of this. Some of these studies are more accurate than others, after they are later independently checked for accuracy. But overall, the results of these novel exercises appear to be off the mark, sometimes way off.
In any case, here is the latest for Las Vegas. According to a new housing market study completed by the Concord Group, Southern Nevada can expect its new … (14 comments)

reo: Vegas housing market getting demand help, from vulture funds - 04/21/09 04:42 PM
The numbers are still too high. Southern Nevada existing home inventory, according to the local MLS, continues to hover up there where no one wants to see it. It has been over 20,000 for months. Much of it has to do with the high mortgage foreclosure rates here that seem to be marching along unabated, month after month.
Bottom line is, demand is still too weak. Low home loan interest rates have been a big help and the various government incentives are also weighing positively in. But that's not enough. To change the real estate market dynamics in Las Vegas more qualified … (8 comments)

reo: Home builders more confident about housing - 04/16/09 05:33 PM
After having endured a long stretch of dismal news, home builders are now feeling more optimistic about the state of the real estate market. The National Association of Home Builders, or NAHB, and Wells Fargo together periodically compile an industry survey called The Housing Market Index. It's based on how builders feel about single-family home sales, their outlook for sales six months out and the number of prospective buyers.
Looking at the latest index in April from purely numbers point of view, it jumped over 50%, climbing to 14 from a meager 9, the old mark. When the survey was started … (10 comments)

reo: Las Vegas real estate market ready for a recovery? - 02/24/09 09:03 PM
That would be nice. But will it actually happen any time soon? Hard to say.
Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association for Realtors, or NAR, thinks it is just around the corner. In his opinion it could kick off in the latter half of this year. He was in town to speak to the group's Rocky Mountain Regional Conference and said that Southern Nevada will be in the forefront of the upcoming turnaround.
Prices here have plunged to levels that make home buying very affordable again, like it was early in the decade. Mortgage interest rates remain low, … (4 comments)

reo: Las Vegas foreclosures take a breather in October - 11/15/08 08:29 PM
Overall, it has been a tough year for Clark County, Nevada, home of Las Vegas, when it comes to residential real estate. One of the bright spots has been the availability of mortgage money at affordable rates that has kept matters on some sort of a path toward a distant normalcy. Wherever that might be. The solution to that largely rests on how soon the marketplace can first arrest and then reverse the persistently high foreclosures here.
The statistics just released by Foreclosures.com for October appear to offer a ray of hope for Southern Nevada. Real estate owned, or REO, in … (12 comments)

reo: Southern Nevada resales stellar, new home sales lacking - 08/21/08 10:14 PM
The Las Vegas real estate market has turned into a rather disjointed spectacle. As the July stats show, compiled by local housing specialist SalesTraq, existing home sales continued on its recent accelerating pace by recording 3,173 closed transactions in July, which is a nice 56.5% jump from July of last year. What's important to keep in mind, however, is that around 60% of these sales were foreclosure-related. Banks have been pricing their REOs, real estate owned, with passion just to get rid of the non-performing inventory and that is one large reason why resales are doing so well now.
On the other … (4 comments)