According to HousingWire.com reporting...the US forelcosure rate rose to 3.12% in September...a 2.6% increase over August.
Also. 12.49% of active home loans are "non-current".
Folks...we are in this for the long haul.By these numbers, we'll have inventory coming out the wazoo for the next ten years. More inventory...lower prices.
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US Foreclosure Rate Swells to 3.12% in September: LPS
By JON PRIOR November 10, 2009 11:23 AM CST
The rate of non-current loans, a combination of foreclosures and delinquencies as a percent of active loans, reached 12.49%, a record high in the US, according to a report from Lender Processing Services (LPS: 42.81 +1.28%).
LPS manages loan-level residential mortgage data and performance information from more than 40m loans.
LPS’ Mortgage Monitor report also showed the nation’s September foreclosure rate jumping to 3.12%, a 2.6% increase from the previous month and an 88.9% hike from last year. Florida led the way with 10.4% of loans in foreclosure, and more than 22% of loans reported as non-current.
The total US delinquency rate stands at 9.37%, according to the report, and the number of loans sinking further into delinquent status more than doubled the amount of foreclosure starts. Nearly 33% of foreclosures remain in pre-sale status after 12 months, double the amount from last year. The six-month deterioration ratio rose in the past two months to 300%, meaning that for every loan that improves in status, three more deteriorate further, according to the report.
This large “shadow” inventory of foreclosures and real estate-owned (REO) inventory indicates another onslaught of troubled loans in an already backed-up pipeline, according to the report.
Florida, Nevada and Mississippi lead all states with the most non-current loans. North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming have the fewest non-current loans.
As promised….here are the details for the home buyer tax credit.
It’s official. President Obama has signed a bill that extends the tax credit for first-time homebuyers (FTHBs) into the first half of 2010. This program had been scheduled to expire on November 30, 2009.
In addition to extending the tax credit of up to $8,000 through June 30, 2010, the extension measure also opens up opportunities for others who are not buying a home for the first time.
So Who Gets What? The program that has existed for FTHBs remains intact with the one exception that more people are now eligible based on an increase in the amount of income someone may now earn.
Additionally, the program now gives those who already own a residence some additional reasons to move to a new home. This incentive comes in the form of a tax credit of up to $6,500 for qualified purchasers who have owned and occupied a primary residence for a period of five consecutive years during the last eight years.
Deadlines In order to qualify for the credit, all contracts need to be in effect no later than April 30, 2010 and close no later than June 30, 2010.
Higher Income Caps in Effect The amount of income someone can earn and qualify for the full amount of the credit has been increased.
Single tax filers who earn up to $125,000 are eligible for the total credit amount. Those who earn more than this cap can receive a partial credit. However, single filers who earn $145,000 and above are ineligible.
Joint filers who earn up to $225,000 are eligible for the total credit amount. Those who earn more than this cap can receive a partial credit. However, joint filers who earn $245,000 and above are ineligible.
Maximum Purchase Price Qualifying buyers may purchase a property with a maximum sales price of $800,000.
First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit – Frequently Asked Questions Here are answers to some commonly asked questions about the tax credit.
What is a tax credit? A tax credit is a direct reduction in tax liability owed by an individual to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In the event no taxes are owed, the IRS will issue a check for the amount of the tax credit an individual is owed. Unlike the tax credit that existed in 2008, this credit does not require repayment unless the home, at any time in the first 36 months of ownership, is no longer an individual’s primary residence.
What is the tax credit for first-time homebuyers (FTHBs)? An eligible homebuyer may request from the IRS a tax credit of up to $8,000 or 10% of the purchase price for a home. If the amount of the home purchased is $75,000, the maximum amount the credit can be is $7,500. If the amount of the home purchased is $100,000, the amount of the credit may not exceed $8,000.
Who is eligible for the FTHB tax credit? Anyone who has not owned a primary residence in the previous 36 months, prior to closing and the transfer of title, is eligible. This applies both to single taxpayers and married couples. In the case where there is a married couple, if either spouse has owned a primary residence in the last 36 months, neither would qualify. In the case where an individual has owned property that has not been a primary residence, such as a second home or investment property, that individual would be eligible.
As mentioned above, the tax credit has been expanded so that existing homeowners who have owned and occupied a primary residence for a period of five consecutive years during the last eight years are now eligible for a tax credit of up to $6,500.
How do I claim the credit? For those taking advantage of the tax credit in 2009, you may choose to either apply for the credit with your 2009 tax return or you may apply for the credit sooner by filing an amended 2008 tax return with Form 5405 (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f5405.pdf).
Can you claim the tax credit in advance of purchasing a property? No. The IRS has recently begun prosecuting people who have claimed credits where a purchase had not taken place.
Can a taxpayer claim a credit if the property is purchased from a seller with seller financing and the seller retains title to the property? Yes. In situations where the buyer purchases the property, even though the seller retains legal title, the taxpayer may file for the credit. Examples of this would include a land contract, contract for deed, etc. According to the IRS, factors that would demonstrate the ownership of the property would include: 1. the right of possession, 2. the right to obtain legal title upon full payment of the purchase price, 3. the right to construct improvements, 4. the obligation to pay property taxes, 5. the risk of loss, 6. the responsibility to insure the property and 7. the duty to maintain the property.
Are there other restrictions to taking the credit? Yes. According to the IRS, if any of the following describe your situation, a credit would not be due.
You buy your home from a close relative. This includes your spouse, parent, grandparent, child or grandchild.
You do not use the home as your principal residence.
You sell your home before the end of the year.
You are a nonresident alien.
You are, or were, eligible to claim the District of Columbia first-time homebuyer credit for any taxable year. (This does not apply for a home purchased in 2009.)
Your home financing comes from tax-exempt mortgage revenue bonds. (This does not apply for a home purchased in 2009.)
You owned a principal residence at any time during the three years prior to the date of purchase of your new home. For example, if you bought a home on July 1, 2009, you cannot take the credit for that home if you owned, or had an ownership interest in, another principal residence at any time from July 2, 2006, through July 1, 2009.
Can you buy a home from a step-relative and be eligible for the credit? Yes. Provided the person you are buying a home from is not a direct blood relative, the purchase would be allowed.
Can parent(s) who will not live in the property cosign for a mortgage for their child and the child that is a qualifying FTHB still be eligible for the credit? Yes.
Can a separated spouse who has not owned a home for four years qualify for the FTHB tax credit if the spouse has owned a property anytime in the last three years? No. However, the spouse may be eligible for the repeat buyer credit. The best path to take in any situation regarding income taxes is to speak with a professional tax preparer or CPA.
Breaking News*********If you are a Real Estate Agent: Kim and I will be talking about this program this week on our coaching calls with Harris Real Estate University Sign up and Log in to the Thursday Call 10:00AM PST
To our clients...you'll be receiving an email soon.
As our subscribers know...Kim and I are always looking for the latest and greatest news on Short Sales.
I liken this news to "Mans First Steps on The Moon"...Sounds extreme, I know, but this is just the beginning.
A lender from California is offering an FHA 3.5% purchase program for current homeowners that are selling their property on short sale.
The program works like this...
The short sale of the current home and timing the purchase of the next home run simultaneous.
The day after the "short sale" home sells, the closing of the "new" home takes place.
Yes...this can be a bit tricky with the unpredictable length of the short sale approval and placing an offer on a property on today's market...however a huge win and step in the right direction for our Short Sale sellers.
(Real Estate Agents) This part is for you.....!
Imagine...you could actually "quadruple end" a sale.
How does that work?
You list short sale #1.
You find the buyer for short sale #1.
You List short sale #2.
You Sell property #2 to the seller of the property #1.
Everyone Wins!
And, the program is currently available in 45 states... (program not currently available in Alaska, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin).
Scenario:
The Smiths bought their home in 2005 for $400,000 with 5% down. It's now worth $200,000+, but they still owe $390,000. You negotiated to short sell it for $225,000. During the short sale process you got them approved for a new maximum loan of $376,000. Upon closing the short sell of their home, they closed on their new nicer, bigger home for $375,000 and didn't have to move into a rental apartment for 2 to 3 years.
It doesn't stop there... Past Short Sale Clients...
If you have sold a home on a short sale and want to buy another home, as long as you meet some additional criteria...paying your rent on time for a year...you may also qualify for this program.
Your asking...what is the criteria?
Here it is:
(1) Purchase price of new home cannot exceed original (short sell) home loan(s).
(2) Minimum 640 FICO Credit Score throughout the Short Sell and New Home purchase process
(3) Adhere to HUD County Limits on New Loans
(4) No Mortgage "lates" last 12 months, nor through the new home purchase
(5) There are no income limits
(6) Non owner-occupant, co-borrowers are allowed
(7) Competitive FHA lending rates available for this program
(8) Must qualify with normal income ratios
(9) 3.5% minimum down payment on new home ~ Gifts are OK
It appears that ywo Loan Modification Scam victims took their anger out on the perpertraitors...now they are facing Life in Prison!
It appears that these two Sothern California homeowners who had hired "Loan Mod Experts" felt that since nothing was happening with their modification that they would simply get their money back or beat it out of them.
Well that back fired and the 2 home owners along with 3 assailants are facing:
False imprisonment
Robbery
Extortion
Yada,Yada, Yada
Lesson Learned...
"Vengence is Mine...Sayeth the Lord"
As seen in Mortgage Ledger:
"One California couple facing foreclosure decided to violently take their desperation and frustration out on the very people they hired to help them save their home.
Daniel Weston and Mary Ann Parmelee, both 52, and three other people are charged with torturing two loan-modification agents they hired to help them try to save their home, authorities said.
The two are accused of luring their two victims, who they suspected of fraud, to an office where they tied the men up, held them against their wills for hours and beat them, according to a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney.
According to court documents, the five assailants, who have all since been arrested, set out to “cause cruel and extreme pain and suffering for the purpose of revenge, extortion, persuasion and for a sadistic purpose, inflict great bodily injury.” Both victims were treated at a local hospital and have now been released.
Weston and Parmelee own a home in La Canada-Flintridge, a suburb outside of Los Angeles, that fell into foreclosure.
The pair then allegedly sought loan modification assistance from the victims but eventually came to believe that nothing was being done in their favor and then requested their money back, as was written in a statement from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
Weston, Parmelee and the three other defendants were each charged with two counts of torture, two counts of false imprisonment by violence and two counts of second-degree robbery, according to a criminal complaint filed against them.
Weston and another defendant are accused of carrying out the beatings while their three co-defendants watched, prosecutors said.
Each count of felony torture, defined as inflicting "great bodily injury" for the purpose of "revenge, extortion, persuasion and for a sadistic purpose," carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
The case became publicly known as Los Angeles officials and community groups began a national public-awareness effort urging homeowners to beware of bogus loan-modification programs and to report suspicious activity to authorities."
Today's article in The Truth About Mortgage.com it was reported that new, previously unaffected metro cities around the US are being bitten by the Foreclosure bug:
Chico, CA 98% increase over last year
Reno-Sparks, NV up 80%
Prescott, AZ up 77%
Jacksonville, FL & Rockford, Il up 64%
Boise City-Nampa, Idaho & Salt Lake City, Ut also made the charts
"While cities in California, Florida, and Nevada continued to account for the 10 highest foreclosure rates among metro areas in the third quarter, five reported decreased year-over-year activity, according to RealtyTrac.
Meanwhile, new foreclosure hot spots emerged, including the Chico, CA metro, where foreclosure activity was up 98 percent year-over-year, and the Reno-Sparks metro, where activity was up 80 percent from a year ago, per RealtyTrac’s Q3 2009 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report.
The Prescott, Arizona metro saw a 77 percent increase in foreclosure filings, foreclosure activity in Jacksonville, Florida and Rockford, Illinois jumped 64 percent, and the Lansing-East Lansing, Michigan area saw a 41 percent increase.
“Rising unemployment and a new variety of mortgage resets continued to gradually shift the nation’s foreclosure epicenters in the third quarter away from the hot spots of the last two years and toward some metro areas that had avoided the brunt of the first foreclosure wave,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.
“While toxic subprime mortgages drove much of that first wave of foreclosures, high unemployment and exotic Alt-A Option ARMs are spreading the foreclosure flood to more metro areas in 2009.”
Among the top 50 metro foreclosure rates, the biggest movers year-over-year included Boise City-Nampa, Idaho, and Provo-Orem and Salt Lake City, Utah.
The Las Vegas metro continues to post the nation’s highest foreclosure rate, with one in 20 housing units receiving a foreclosure notice during the quarter, up nine percent from the previous quarter and 54 percent from a year ago."
This is great news and it's with bi-partisan agreement. It appears that the first time home buyer credit will be extended...but no specifics.
Talks have it so that the plan may be:
in place through the end of 2010.
May be a "step-down" plan that will reduce the benefit every quarter.
A credit of 10% of sale price with a Max cap of $7,290.
Also may benefit "step-up" buyers...buyers who have lived in their home for more than 5 years and buying "up."
However it shakes...this is great news.
Below is the supporting article from DSNews.com release today:
"The U.S. Senate’s chief Democrat, Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nevada), said Wednesday that his party has reached a consensus to extend the first-time homebuyer tax credit, which is set to expire November 30.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut) has voiced the same sentiment to the media today, as well.
But the party support isn’t one-sided. Reuters reported that the chamber’s foremost Republican, Sen. Mitch McConnell (Kentucky), acknowledged that most senators support the measure, quoted by the news agency as saying he shares Reid’s view.
Reid summed it up on the Senate floor when he said, “There has been general agreement by a significant number of senators, Democrats and Republicans, to get this done.”
As DSNews.com reported Tuesday, the proposal gaining the most favor among Senators was an amendment offered up by Reid and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max
Baucus (D-Montana), which would extend the tax incentive until the end of 2010, but reduce the credit amount with each quarter.
Take two: The tax break measure has gotten yet another makeover. The latest version reduces the credit to 10 percent of the sale price, with a cap of $7,290 – as opposed to the $8,000 maximum currently in place. The benefit could be applied to home sales signed – not closed – by April 30, 2010, allowing 60 days beyond that date for closing.
It would also be opened up to buyers who have lived in their current residence for at least five years, so-called step-up buyers. The income limits for first-time homebuyers would stay the same – $75,000 for individuals, $150,000 for couples – but increase for step-up buyers to $125,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples.
Andrew Parmentier, a managing partner at Height Analytics, a research firm in Washington, told Bloomberg News that the demand for new homes and condominiums may more than double with step-up buyers as part of the equation. “You just opened up a whole new pool of people who can buy into those empty homes and empty condos that were built out,” Parmentier said – a move that would aid the existing-home market as well, as overall inventory levels are reduced.
A Senate vote on the credit extension was expected to come last night, but reportedly got entangled in legislative procedural issues. The tax credit amendment did not get attached to an insurance benefit bill, which did pass Tuesday night, as intended. Despite the red-tape roadblock, senators say a decision will be made sometime this week"
On October 14, Lord Christopher Monckton, a noted climate change skeptic, gave a presentation in St. Paul, MN. In this 4-minute excerpt from his speech, he issues a dire warning to all Americans regarding the United Nations Climate Change Treaty, scheduled to be signed in Copenhagen in December 2009.
Lord Monckton served as a policy adviser to Margaret Thatcher. He has repeatedly challenged Al Gore to a debate to which Gore has refused. Monckton sued to stop Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth” from being shown in British schools due to its inaccuracies. The judge found in-favor of Monckton, ordering 9 serious errors in the film to be corrected. Lord Monckton travels internationally in an attempt to educating the public about the myth of global warming.
There has been considerable debate raised about Monckton’s conclusion that the Copenhagen Treaty would cede US sovereignty. His comments appear to be based upon his interpretation of the The Supremacy Clause in the US Constitution (Article VI, paragraph 2). This clause establishes the Constitution, Federal Statutes, and U.S. TREATIES as the supreme law of the land. Concerns have been raised in the past that a particularly ambitious treaty may supersede the US Constitution. In the 1950s, a constitutional amendment, known as the Bricker Amendment, was proposed in response to such fears, but it failed to pass. You can read more about the Bricker Amendment in a 1953 Time Magazine article.
for two lucky customers, up to a maximum of $60,000 each.
Of course, if your mortgage is interest-only, you’ll only receive 12 months of interest-only payments.
The prize also doesn’t include taxes and insurance; you’re on your own there.
And if you’re not current on your mortgage, don’t expect the prize to be honored.
The winners will receive a one-time payment at some point in the first quarter of 2010, with drawings taking place on or about October 26 and December 11.
There are three ways to win; you’ll be automatically entered in the contest if you sign up for Wells Fargo Online and simply click through to your mortgage account, or if you sign on and view your mortgage account online.
You can also enter the contest by sending in a postcard with your details via snail mail (see rules for important dates and terms).
It looks like Wells Fargo is attempting to get customers to manage their mortgages online, perhaps in the hopes that some will set up automatic payments.
Since Countrywide collapsed, Wells Fargo has been the top mortgage lender in the United States, accounting for 24.77 percent of the total market share in the first-half of this year.
Loan fundings at the company were up 63 percent compared to the same period a year ago; unfortunately, they’ve also got a stable of bad loans, many acquired via their merger with Wachovia."
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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