Monday, April 18, 2011

Housing Forecast for Spring 2011

April showing signs of a pick-up in home sales beginning this spring driven by the recent encouraging employment reports, low mortgage rates and continued high homebuyer affordability.

Outlook Highlights:
  • Unemployment declined for the fourth straight month to 8.8 percent, and net employment increased by 216,000 jobs.
  • A projected 5 percent increase in 2011 home sales over 2010, on a calendar year basis.
  • Despite weak and inconsistent monthly job gains for the real estate sector, real estate employment was up by 10,000 jobs since last November.
  • Refinancing is likely to account for a much smaller share of loan applications later this year as borrowers who are "in-the-money" decrease and mortgage rates begin inching up.
  • The share of adjustable-rate mortgages loans is projected to be 7 percent in 2011, compared to the 5 percent 2010 average in part because the level of fixed-rate mortgages rates are expected to rise relative to short-term interest rates.
Search the MLS for free with a free listingbook account.  Access via my secure site at http://www.foreclosures4sale.listingbook.com/ where you can gain access to the entire MLS in real time.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Nonbank lenders staging a comeback

Mortgage lenders that are not banks acquired a bad reputation during the housing crisis, when now-defunct players like Countrywide Financial and Ameriquest Mortgage came to light as purveyors of risky, high-priced loans, often to subprime borrowers with less-than-stellar credit.
Read the Full Story:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/realestate/03mortages.html?_r=1&ref=realestate

Want a vacation home? Prices are falling!

Been dreaming of a vacation home? Somewhere warm to get away? Or maybe a cabin in the woods? Prices are right if you can afford it.

Search online at:

http://www.foreclosures4sale.listingbook.com/

Full Story:  http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/30/real_estate/second_home_sales/index.htm

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Banks Drag Feet on Short Sales

Survey Says ~

The CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTOR® (C.A.R.) published its findings of a survey this week, which show that tedious lender requirements and poor communication hamper short sales.

MAKING SENSE OF THE STORY
• Fewer than three of five short sales close in California, illustrating the complexity and difficulty of navigating lenders’ and servicers’ short sale procedures, according to C.A.R.’s survey, which gauged REALTORS®’ experience in working with short sale transactions – transactions in which the lender or lenders agree to accept less than the mortgage amount owed by the current homeowner.
• Although not every homeowner or mortgage is eligible for a short sale, those who are able to finalize a short sale avoid a foreclosure on their credit record and can move on with their lives.
• Banks are taking much longer to respond to short sale offers than those specified in government guidelines for banks. Nearly two-thirds of survey respondents said banks took longer than 60 days to respond to short sale offers. Often, this results in buyers walking away from the transaction.
• "Increasing the number of successful short sale transactions is one important way we can help California families avoid foreclosure and move our economy closer to recovery," said C.A.R. President Beth L. Peerce.
• C.A.R. is asking government agencies, such as the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury, to force banks to complete all short sales following HAFA guidelines and to comply with the program’s time frames.
Read the full story

Sunday, January 30, 2011

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For Sale: Studio/1BA Condo in San Diego, CA, $245,000