Foreclosures hit 5-year low

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Foreclosures hit 5-year low By Kerri Ann Panchuk
Foreclosure activity reached a 5-year low in September with only 180,427 filings made on distressed properties, RealtyTrac said Thursday. The filings surveyed include default notices, scheduled foreclosure auctions and bank repossessions. Overall, September's foreclosure numbers fell 7% from August and 16% from last year as more non-judicial foreclosure states moved through backlogs of foreclosure inventory. >>HousingWire

Property Flipping Gaining Momentum in 2012
With home prices still near historic lows and rental rates on the rise, several investors who have sizable cash are now entering the flipping market to make a profit on the influx of distressed assets that are available throughout the country. According to RealtyTrac, nearly 100,000 properties have been flipped nationwide in the first half of 2012. This is a substantial increase over the previous two years by 25% and 27%, respectively >>Mortgage Technology

Mortgage Rates Slightly Higher To Begin The Week by Matthew Graham
Mortgage rates rose gently to begin the holiday-shortened week despite improvements in the underlying bond markets.  Some lenders' rate sheets are little changed from Friday's latest offerings while others are marginally higher in cost with no change to the Best-Execution rates, which moved higher from 3.25% to 3.375% after Friday's jobs report >>Mortgage News Daily

Cash Buying Down in 2012 as Non-Investors Return By: Tory Barringer 
The percentage of homes purchased with cash nearly doubled between 2006 and 2011, even as mortgage rates fell into free-fall, research firm Hanley Wood Market Intelligence reported. Analysts Jonathan Dienhart and Ken Lee revealed that between 2006 and 2011, the share of homes purchased with cash jumped from 22 percent to 40 percent. The upward trend finally stalled in 2012 with a drop back to 38 percen >>MReport

Rising Home Values Bring Equity to Highest Level Since 2008
By: Tory Barringer   
Rising home values in September brought homeowner equity to its highest level since the third quarter of 2008, according to the Obama administration's latest Housing Scorecard.  The scorecard was a little more positive than it has been in recent months, though officials continued to caution that the overall recovery is still fragile >>MReport

By Kerri Ann Panchuk*
The Homeowner Bill of Rights launched in California not only changed hundreds of years of real estate law, it may have turned the West Coast state into a judicial foreclosure state with financial firms on high alert, legal experts claim.
"In California, they just gave trial lawyers a nuclear weapon to use against the industry," said Bob Jackson, president and attorney at Irvine, Calif.-based Jackson & Associates >>Housing Wire

Low Mortgage Rates Fuel Rise in Applications By: Tory Barringer 
Mortgage application volume increased 16.6 percent in the week ending September 28, according to MBA's Mortgage Composite Index. On an unadjusted basis, the index increased 17 percent compared with the previous week. MBA also reported an increase in its Purchase Index, which rose 4 percent (both adjusted and unadjusted) from one week earlier and 11 percent year-over-year >> MReport

'Fiscal Cliff' Could Send Prices Tumbling By: Carrie Bay  
Recent gains in housing are closely linked to rising consumer confidence, according to numbers juxtaposed and analyzed by Clear Capital in its latest report on home price movements. The feeble underpinnings of price increases, however, could soon topple, according to the real estate valuation company >>MReport

Fed Study Points to Wisdom of Further HARP Enhancements By Jan Swanson
Economists have been debating the value versus risk of expanded refinancing opportunities since the early days of the housing crisis. Proponents argue that refinancing would free up homeowner money for spending elsewhere to the benefit of the economy, opponents fear that since the Federal Housing Administration and the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) are realistically the only source of refinancing currently available, any risk inherent in refinancing will disproportionately fall the government. >>Mortgage News Daily

Housing Alert: Short Sales May Be in Big Trouble By: Diana Olick
     As lenders plow through a backlog of over five million delinquent mortgages, short sales are becoming an ever more popular escape route. A short sale is when the bank allows a home to be sold for less than the value of the mortgage. The bank takes the loss, but that loss is generally less than a more costly foreclosure.
     The government has been pushing more short sales at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac through financial incentives, and banks are streamlining the process. Short sales have been gaining so much steam, they actually surpassed sales of foreclosed properties last spring, according to LPS Applied Analytics' Home Price Index. But all the progress that has been made could end abruptly. >>CNBC

Mortgage Rates Move Higher For The First Time In Two Weeks
by Matthew Graham 
Mortgage rates finally broke their unprecedented winning streak on Thursday as rates moved higher for the first time since the Fed announced it's third round of quantitative easing on September 14th.  The 10 straight sessions of improving rates crossed into new all-time low territory earlier this week, and even after today's weakness, it's still the 3rd best day in the history of mortgage rates.  Best execution levels continue hovering firmly at 3.25% for 30yr Fixed Conventional Loans >>Mortgage News Daily

First-Time Home Buyers: 31 Percent of Residential Buyers
by Scholastica (Gay) Cororaton, Approximately 31 percent of REALTORS® who responded to the latest REALTORS® Confidence Index survey reported making a sale to first-time home buyers. Normally first-time buyers are in the neighborhood of 40 percent of total residential sales, according to NAR's Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. The proportion of first-time home buyers hit a peak of approximately 50 percent in 2009. Most first-time buyers obtain a mortgage: About 8.7 percent of REALTORS® who made a first-time home buyer sale reported a cash sale (compared to 10.8 percent in July). National Association of Realors