buyer: What to do with the appraisal process? - 06/23/12 11:00 PM

Somebody is just not getting it. In the Northern Virginia market, a steadily increasing number of transactions are not closing due to lower-than-fair-market-appraisals. The process that was put in place to remedy past failures and bloated appraisals, has been replaced by one that leaves appraisers in fear of punitive measures for doing their jobs in tracking pricing trends in areas they are sent to assess value. It is totally random luck if you end up with an appraiser who is not from 50 miles away, let alone familiar with the local market conditions. Yes Virginia, Santa Clause has been replaced … (5 comments)

buyer: Finding your "Dream Home" - 12/30/10 07:05 AM
After 23 years in this business of helping people buy and sell homes, I have come to the conclusion that the "dream" home is just around the next corner or bend in the road. For most, the buy decision is an emotional bonding, mixed with fear-of-loss (someone else is going to get it before me). I have been out with folks who swear allegiance to a 4-bedroom, 3-bath colonial on day one and, dump it for a 5-bedroom Contemporary nestled in a wooded setting on day two. In fairness, it really is a big-deal decision and everyone goes through the process … (1 comments)

buyer: Housing Market Will Have Excess Capacity for Five Years - 04/15/10 11:05 PM
On a continued gloomy note, business intelligence company, SNL Interactive interviewed homebuilding space analyst for Stifel Nicolaus & Co., Michael Widner, who predicted that the housing market will have excess capacity for at least the next five years.
If the number of housing starts continues at the current levels then capacity may shrink substantially within three years, but with the predicted ramping up of new housing starts by a number of the major builders, that excess capacity is likely to run for at least five years.
Widner does expect some of the major builders to return to profitability in 2010 and … (2 comments)

buyer: Housing Economy will not fully rebound until 2025 - 04/14/10 10:49 PM
The cities that saw the bubble housing boom in the first decade of the century—cities in California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona especially—won’t see the next big boom until around 2025 according to the financial services company, Fiserv. Fiserv expects other markets in the Northeast and Midwest to take a full ten years before price spikes equivalent to 2006 and 2007 return.
For most of the country some level of normalcy will prevail starting in 2011, but the recovery period will be prolonged almost everywhere in the U.S. Factors that will keep housing cycles from a more historic 10 year pattern are … (1 comments)

buyer: 228,000 helped to keep homes through loan modifications in March 2010 - 04/14/10 06:31 AM
President Obama's foreclosure prevention plan has helped nearly 228,000 delinquent borrowers keep their homes, the administration said Wednesday. That's up from a month ago, when roughly 168,000 people received long-term mortgage modifications.
Another 781,000 troubled homeowners were in trial modifications, through March, officials said. Of these, 108,000 have been approved for permanent modification by servicers and are awaiting borrowers' acceptance. So far, some 19.8% of trial modifications have become permanent, up from 15.5% a month ago.
Overall, some 6.7% of the estimated 3.4 million eligible borrowers have received long-term help.
While the number of people receiving permanent modifications is steadily growing, … (0 comments)

buyer: Barclay’s Take on the Housing Market????? - 04/12/10 10:53 PM
While I'm not sure what they had for lunch, but housing "experts" at Barclay’s Capital are convinced that the worst of the housing market decline is over. A look at the 4th quarter earnings documentation from 20 national and regional banks provided the data that led to Barclay’s conclusion.
The banks all seem to agree that the housing market has stabilized in all but a few parts of the country. The weakest areas where further declines may be seen are Arizona, Nevada and parts of Florida.
Housing still constitutes an area where troubled asset portfolios still trouble many banks, but the … (0 comments)

buyer: Why Some Housing Markets Dodged a Bullet - 04/12/10 11:04 AM
Ever wondered why some housing markets virtually disintegrated when the housing bubble burst, while others have survived quite well? This was the subject of a research report put out recently by the New York Federal Reserve Bank written by two of the Bank’s economists and researchers, Jaison R. Abel Richard Deitz. Deitz and Abel answer the question by focusing particularly on the upstate New York housing market.
During the housing boom of 2000 to 2006 home prices in upstate New York cities of Utica, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo did not appreciate rapidly like so much of the rest of the nation. … (0 comments)

buyer: Better News on Home Values, sorta.... - 04/10/10 09:46 PM
The Case-Schiller Home Prices Index showed another positive jump for the eight straight month in January. The seasonally adjusted prices increased by .4% for the 10 city index and .3% on the 20 city index. Both showed a decline on the unadjusted indexes due in part to the bad weather in many parts of the country.
On the negative side, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Seattle, and Tampa experienced prices that reached new index lows. In Tampa, prices are down 42% from their high levels, and Las Vegas has troughed at 55.8% from its peak. On the more positive side, San Francisco and … (2 comments)

buyer: Federal Foreclosure Funding Goes Unspent - 04/09/10 11:00 PM
The Recovery Act allocated $4 billion in rehabilitation money for foreclosed homes, but with only months left on the funding less than half of the money has been spent to date. As of mid-March 38% of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds had been obligated. All funds must be committed by September or the funds will be lost to the communities that have received grants.
Some communities have used the funds to buy up and renovate foreclosed homes to resell to low income families. Some municipalities have used the funds to tear down abandoned eye-sores. Others are purchasing and renovating apartment buildings … (4 comments)

buyer: Housing Counselors in Maryland Initiate HOPE LoanPort - 04/08/10 09:59 PM
In an effort to expedite loan modifications several states have begun to use an automated portal to lenders participating in the HOPE NOW program. Last week Maryland inaugurated the service with 8 lenders and 100 non-profit loan modification counselors. Maryland is the first state to endorse the program.
The servicers participating in the streamlined loan program are American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc., Chase, Bayview Loan Servicing, Ocwen, GMAC, Saxon Mortgage Services, SunTrust, and PNC Mortgage.
The program is designed to make submission of paperwork more efficient in order to eliminate the concern that modifications are frequently delayed because of lost files.
… (1 comments)

buyer: As of April 5 - HAFA is Here - 04/07/10 10:48 PM
The Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives program debuted April 5. Lenders have been ramping up for a deluge of Short Sales for the past several months and the government’s latest program will probably boost the numbers even though there are flaws in the program. HAFA may help individuals who qualified for a trial loan modification, but didn’t make the final cut for a permanent loan change. The same paperwork prepared for HAMP will apply to HAFA as well.
Bank of America and other servicers have more than doubled the number of Short Sales they are handling in recent months. There is real … (4 comments)

buyer: There are Buyers for Luxury Homes - 04/06/10 10:52 PM
While for most Investors the homes that are most readily purchased as rentals and first homes are the most plentiful and the easiest to sell quickly, there is a resurgence in the luxury home market that may present an opportunity for Investors in certain markets.
The National Association of Realtors reports that the sale of homes valued at $1 million and higher increased 38% in February over the same period the year before. The reasons are low mortgage rates, loosened credit markets and more cash buyers ready to bet that these homes will increase in value in the future.
A 30 … (1 comments)

buyer: Mortgages to Exceed Value until 2015 to 2020 - 04/06/10 10:31 AM
First American CoreLogic has estimated that even in the healthier markets that are now beginning to heal from the steep price drops of the last three years, homeowners currently with underwater mortgages will continue to have mortgages that exceed value until late 2015.
By the 4th quarter of 2009 First American CoreLogic estimated that over 11.3 million residences with mortgages had negative equity. That’s 24% of all U.S. mortgages.
By using a subset of mortgage holders, CoreLogic was able to project the length of time it will take for the average homeowner to again reach positive equity. The typical borrower will … (26 comments)

buyer: Pets Suffer in Foreclosures Too - 04/04/10 10:49 PM
It’s not just two-legged homeowners who are suffering when a home is foreclosed upon. Foreclosure is leading to a surge of abandoned pets in many communities.
In many cases, homeowners forced out of their homes have no way to bring beloved pets with them when they move to rented quarters, or drive hundreds of miles to new and unfamiliar locations to look for work. Family pets are being left behind to starve, or are taken to overburdened animal shelters in hopes that the pets will find new homes. Many animal shelters have been bursting at the seams because of the foreclosure … (5 comments)

buyer: HOPE NOW Provides Non-HAMP Loan Modifications - 04/03/10 02:38 AM
The loan industry’s proprietary loan modification program, HOPE NOW, maintains that it had completed almost twice as many loan modifications as the HAMP program as of January. The total for HOPE NOW during that month was just under 100,000, while HAMP program modifications completed in January numbered 50,364. Of the HOPE NOW loan modifications completed in January, 74 percent included reductions of principal and interest payments.
HOPE NOW has been proactive in gathering paperwork from homeowners to complete permanent modifications. This pro-activity may be one reason for the relative success of this program compared to the government-run loan modification program.
Recently, … (0 comments)

buyer: Loan Modifications Fail to Stem Tide of Foreclosure - 04/01/10 10:43 PM
The government’s Mortgage Metrics Report by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) reveals that half of the loans modified under HAMP at the beginning of 2009 were once again delinquent by the fourth quarter of 2009.
Fully 14% of all mortgage loans were delinquent by the end of 2009 according to this report. There were twice the modifications in the fourth quarter as occurred the same quarter a year before. Most payments were reduced by at least 20%.
New foreclosure filings fell 15% in the fourth quarter as mortgages remained delinquent … (21 comments)

buyer: Government’s New Foreclosure Prevention Plan - 03/31/10 10:55 PM
The Obama Administration revealed on Friday a new plan to stem foreclosure. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Herbert M. Allison contends that the nature of the foreclosure crisis has shifted from one of sub-prime mortgages to one of helping the unemployed and under-water to survive bad times.
For loans above 115% of market value mortgage write-downs will be considered in order to bring the homeowner’s payment to 31% of income. In response to concerns that the mortgage write-down program would encourage people to default who might have otherwise continued to pay, the government has held firm that this program will impact … (1 comments)

buyer: Government Official Says HAMP is Not Working - Now what? - 03/30/10 10:50 PM
Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), admitted that far fewer homeowners will receive assistance under the HAMP program and other government efforts to ease foreclosure than originally estimated. Barofsky estimates that only 1.5 million to 2 million homeowners will be helped as opposed to the 4 million originally expected to receive foreclosure help from the government.
Barofsky does not believe offering modifications is a meaningful goal of the foreclosure program, since so few have actually been helped and many who have received modifications are redefaulting.
Herbert M. Allison, assistant Treasury secretary for financial stability said … (1 comments)

buyer: Private Loan Modification Agencies are Outpacing HAMP - 03/28/10 02:22 AM
The Hope Now Alliance is the private sector loan modification alliance of mortgage servicing companies, mortgage insurers and non-profit counseling agencies who are dealing with non-HAMP qualified loans. Primarily these are vacant and investor-owned homes that no longer have a resident owner. According to Faith Schwartz, Executive Director of Hope Now Alliance, approximately 25% of single family homes are owned by Investors who do not qualify for the HAMP program.
Hope Now Alliance closed almost 100,000 proprietary loan modifications during the month of February compared to the Treasury Department’s HAMP Program which closed 50,364. Between the two programs nearly 150,000 loans … (0 comments)

buyer: NODs Up 20% in California - 03/26/10 07:32 AM
Despite the news from some quarters that delinquency rates may be starting to slow down, California is initiating more notices of default starting in February than in previous months. NODs jumped by 19.7% in February after a four month decline. While properties scheduled for foreclosure continued at a record pace, actual sales back to the bank or to third parties declined in February in California by 11.9%, according to a tracking site, ForeclosureRadar.
The editors of ForeclosureRadar blame government efforts to increase fairness and oversight of the process without really curing the problem of under water mortgages. ForeclosureRadar said that despite … (0 comments)