las vegas: Short sales making a move - Henderson mortgage recipients have more options - 02/22/10 12:41 PM
Mortgage foreclosure statistics of late are showing that the persistently upward trend seems to be waning, which is good news indeed. However, it is only part of the whole real estate picture. The economy remains weak and the stubbornly high unemployment level continues to worry many housing observers, suggesting that homeowners would still be vulnerable. So, how is it that home loan foreclosures are losing steam?
The answer to that interesting question appears to be that mortgage lenders are adjusting strategy to favor short sales over mortgage foreclosures. Campbell/ Inside Mortgage Finance survey just concluded supports that theory. It says that … (7 comments)

las vegas: Las Vegas mortgage borrowers get federal attention - 02/19/10 03:18 PM
The current mortgage and housing meltdown has been particularly brutal to property owners here in Southern Nevada, home to communities like Henderson, Silverstone Ranch, Anthem, Summerlin, Southern Highlands and Mountains Edge. Nevada has held the lead in most foreclosures by any state for months and that statistic is heavily influenced by Las Vegas valley, the most populous area in the state. Many of those who are still in their homes are often in some stage of the foreclosures process, trying to do a loan modification or have started a short sale campaign. Scores of others are hanging in there, but are … (4 comments)

las vegas: Mortgage delinquencies just won't let up - 02/17/10 09:39 AM
Some national housing reports lately have been cautiously positive. Prices have stabilized a bit in scattered real estate markets, a good example of that is Las Vegas. Sales have gone up here and there, spurred on by affordable mortgage money and of course record-low price levels. All this is still short of kicking off a full-blown recovery, but at least it's something to work with.
Despite that, TransUnion, one of the big three credit bureaus, now says that mortgage delinquencies of 60 or more days climbed to a new high of 6.89% in the fourth quarter of 2009, translating into a … (6 comments)

las vegas: Shared-appreciation mortgage new kid on the block - 02/14/10 02:11 PM
Home loan modifications have the potential to remedy the housing market swoon currently severely affecting most of the nation. They have to be done right for them to work, though. Thus far the government has been the driving force behind loan mods, urgently pushing the private mortgage sector to follow its lead. But the response has been disturbingly lukewarm, so far.
Innovation in the home loan business has been robust in the past but somehow now that new ideas are desperately needed there isn't much to write home about. Option ARMs, Alt-As, NINA products and many others flooded the real estate … (4 comments)

las vegas: Lender offering extra carrot to struggling homeowners - Las Vegas mortgage borrowers hoping to join in soon - 02/12/10 08:40 AM
The government has burned the midnight oil for months in an effort to help distressed homeowners deal with mortgage payments they can't afford and possibly find a way for them to stay in their homes. HAMP, or Home Affordable Modification Program, and other similar programs haven't really produced the results they were designed for, though. It is also almost single-handedly running the massive mortgage market today, pumping sufficient liquidity into it that in turn has kept interest rates record low. Despite its pro-active programs it can't do it alone. It needs the private home loan industry to play ball, which it simply … (6 comments)

las vegas: Las Vegas real estate statistics weaker in January - 02/09/10 01:54 PM
Southern Nevada - including Summerlin, Rhodes Ranch, Anthem, Southern Highlands, Mountains Edge and Spanish Trail - housing market has shown some stability over the last several months, essentially all through last fall and in December. The important numbers cautiously moved in the right direction, or at least didn't get much worse. Appealing mortgage rates continue to excite buyers, as do enticing prices especially in the lower half of the Las Vegas real estate spectrum. The new year started a little bit on an iffy note, though.
There were 2,608 existing single-family homes sold in January, 864 less than in December, adding … (6 comments)

las vegas: Las Vegas housing market entertaining a rebound - 02/04/10 01:55 PM
In small steps real estate talk in Southern Nevada - with communities like Summerlin, Mountains Edge, Charleston Heights, Spanish Trail, Henderson and Anthem - is turning to recovery looming on the horizon. 2009 statistics showed that it does have a pulse as investors descended in droves on the scene to gobble up property for rentals in the lower half of the market. First-time home buyers were also active, enjoying low mortgage rates, nice tax benefits and attractive prices.
Prominent Las Vegas housing industry analyst, Home Builders Research, is cautiously optimistic about the market's direction this year. Resale home prices are to … (10 comments)

las vegas: Principal cutbacks gaining ground - Las Vegas mortgage borrowers sure could use them - 01/29/10 07:15 AM
Mortgage lenders and servicers have been reluctantly doing loan modifications mainly by paring back interest rates and stretching terms, thereby managing to reduce borrowers' monthly payments to some degree. But obviously that strategy is not working as well as many had hoped for. Restructured home loans keep defaulting at an alarming rate.
DBRS, a debt rating agency, now figures that more than half of them are two or more months behind or sink into foreclosure inside six months from the mortgage modification. Clearly, that's hardly the way to resolve the home loan mess. To get to the core of the problem … (4 comments)

las vegas: Las Vegas housing market faces shadow inventory challenge - 01/22/10 09:16 AM
Southern Nevada - with communities of Summerlin, Henderson, North Las Vegas, Mountains Edge, Silverstone Ranch, Spanish Trail and Charleston Heights - real estate arena is showing some green sprouts coming up from the soil that has been pretty dormant for a long while. So, there is hope. Quite affordable mortgage money and shamefully low prices are largely behind the modest trend to turn things around. But a potential obstacle to the budding recovery could derail a promising start.
The lately much-discussed words shadow inventory are back on the lips of housing observers in Las Vegas and throughout. Shadow, or phantom, inventory … (6 comments)

las vegas: Short sale fraud accusations surface against prominent mortgage lenders - 01/19/10 02:51 PM
Homeowners who are upside down and facing mortgage payment trouble are increasingly being approved by their lenders to do a short sale, a process where the bank accepts less for the property than what the loan balance is. They amounted to roughly 12% of real estate sales at the end of 2009. Short sales generally are time-consuming and nerve-wracking and can cause to those involved in them heart palpitations and other physical harm. That often happens when there is only one mortgage, or lien, on the home.
When there is a second lien behind the first mortgage, things get even more … (8 comments)

las vegas: Las Vegas rejected for HUD stimulus money - 01/14/10 11:15 AM
Southern Nevada jurisdictions of Clark County, Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas together turned in an application for $367 million from Washington to help battle the once-in-a-lifetime-tough mortgage foreclosure meltdown still roiling here. The stimulus money falls under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, or NSP, run by HUD, or Department of Housing and Urban Development, and is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The basic idea is to assist in stabilizing hammered communities by converting vacant homes into affordable housing opportunities and stimulate their economies. State and local governments and non-profit developers would work together to buy land and … (8 comments)

las vegas: Southern Nevada existing home sales trend up in December - 01/11/10 02:01 PM
Las Vegas area - with communities like Henderson, Summerlin, Mesquite, Mountains Edge, Silverstone Ranch, Anthem and Spanish Trail - real estate market closed the door on 2009 on a cautiously positive note. Low mortgage rates continue to draw buyers' attention, as do rock-bottom prices. And the first-time home buyer tax credit extension, spiced with the inclusion of a similar move-up buyer credit, stirred the scene even more. Those incentives are hard to ignore even in this shaky economic environment.
As usual, GLVAR, or Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, is behind the stats that follow. Altogether real estate agents closed 3,472 … (11 comments)

las vegas: Fannie Mae eases up on condo guidelines - Las Vegas mortgages for condominiums - 01/08/10 03:11 PM
The GSE - or Government-sponsored Enterprise - is one of the key participants in the secondary mortgage market, helping finance single-family houses and condominiums under the banner of conforming conventional home loans. During this housing downturn it has suffered some scary losses - who hasn't - and as a result has tightened its underwriting guidelines. The condo segment has been under a really tight watch during the last few years.
Now, however, Fannie Mae is initiating a fresh approach to make more condominiums eligible for its mortgage programs. It starts doing that only in Florida at this point, a state where … (10 comments)

las vegas: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to get further Treasury support - mortgage borrowers in Las Vegas to benefit? - 01/05/10 02:57 PM
The giant GSEs - or Government-sponsored Enterprises - have been mandated to provide liquidity to the mortgage marketplace and over the years they have fulfilled that role very successfully. They grew to dominate the conventional conforming home loan segment. But when the world-famous housing bubble began gathering steam Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac somehow got caught in its frenzy, were thoroughly ill-treated when it burst and eventually ended up being put into a government conservatorship. Their total failure was not an option.
These mortgage companies are still reeling, absorbing heavy blows as the battered real estate market spawns more foreclosures.
The … (4 comments)

las vegas: Las Vegas new home prices slide more - 01/01/10 09:11 AM
Southern Nevada resale housing market - covering subdivisions in Summerlin, Henderson, Southern Highlands, Anthem, Silverstone Ranch, Rhodes Ranch and Green Valley - has proved in the past several months that it does have a pulse. Motivated by affordable mortgage money, shamelessly low prices and eye-catching tax incentives people - mostly first-time buyers and real estate investors that is - have waltzed into the market to stir the pot. Homes are moving rather well specifically in the lower end of it, pricewise from roughly the $200,000 mark on down.
Las Vegas new home segment, however, has been nonchalantly elbowed to the sideline … (8 comments)

las vegas: Home ownership sliding according to New York Fed report - Las Vegas housing taking flak - 12/27/09 01:29 PM
The mortgage and real estate markets are in the midst of a major overhaul on the heels of the current housing embarrassment. The home loan sector has already seen major regulatory changes, some needed and some of dubious value. And in this climate of political gamesmanship and Wall Street lobbying more is conceivably on the way to favor large financial institutions. Mortgage lenders have also tightened considerably underwriting standards to align their operations to better handle the new market realities.
The economically significant housing sector is absorbing changes unimagined just a few years ago. One of them is the fact that … (12 comments)

las vegas: Real estate jam helps cure marital troubles - 12/21/09 03:06 PM
The housing market is a mess. The home loan industry is limping along. The economy is on an IV drip. Bernanke makes Time magazine's Man of the Year. Tiger, well, nuff said.
But there are also some goods news sprinkled in somewhere there. Here's one.
The real estate meltdown is now credited with bringing down the U.S. divorce rate. That's right. The National Marriage Project just reported that last year this important statistic dropped 4%. See, couples on the ropes in the past used to quarrel over who gets to stay in the house and how to split the accumulated equity. … (13 comments)

las vegas: Las Vegas mortgages over $1 million now in default wringer - 12/19/09 03:16 PM
Early on after the real estate bubble burst the home loans that went bad were largely subprime and the general feeling then was that the defaults would pretty much stay in this particular segment. Lo and behold, slowly the Alt-A type of mortgage, once thought to be on really solid footing, started feeling the heat, too. The avalanche didn't stop there either. Defaults are now hitting the luxury homes that were supposed to somehow bypass the wrath of the mortgage gods, at least that's what many industry observers believed.
Mortgage payments on roughly 12% of loans over $1 million nationwide were … (8 comments)

las vegas: Mortgage overload attracts new remedy - Las Vegas homeowners take notice - 12/17/09 04:01 PM
The home loan mess is a tough customer to bring under control. Everyone agrees with that. The government and the private sector have tried all sorts of cures to change its course, with very little so far to show for their labors. Mortgage foreclosures are going to continue by some reliable estimates at least at the current pace well into the new year.
There is, however, a new creative initiative afoot to help restore the tattered mortgage market to health.
Behind the effort is a man called Lewie Ranieri, who is largely credited with crafting the mortgage-backed securities in the 1980s.These … (3 comments)

las vegas: Home loan defaults caused largely by negative equity - mortgages in Las Vegas in the forefront - 12/14/09 03:04 PM
Mortgage and real estate market aficionados continue to debate how to fix this bone-chilling mess. While the back and forth is going on the government has taken a leading role in actually doing something. It had to act because the private sector - let's call it Wall Street - ran itself to ground, effectively scuttling the chance it could be of any help. Despite plenty of initiatives to stem mortgage foreclosures Washington has had limited success, however, in turning things around.
It seems that identifying the real problem has been botched, to put it bluntly.
So argues a seasoned MBS, or … (5 comments)