You finally reach a deal with a buyer to sell your house, or strike a deal with the seller of your dream home, only to see the deal fall apart later when the house doesn’t appraise for the price that has been agreed upon…what are you to do? This is a plight that has become all too common today for many buyers and sellers. Why? Several reasons….appraisers have, after being blamed by many for causing or contributing to the downfall of the housing market, understandably so become cautious and somewhat conservative when putting a value on a home today. Not Continue Reading →
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A report released by CoreLogic showed that the St. Louis foreclosure rate increased in October marking the fourth-consecutive month of increases. The report shows St. Louis to have a foreclosure rate in October of 1.58 percent, a slight increase from September’s 1.57 percent, however an increase of over 11 percent from a year ago. The foreclosure rate in the U.S. in October was 3.33 percent, an increase of 14 percent from the year before. Today, CoreLogic released its November Home Price Index (HPI) showing that home prices in the U.S. declined for the fourth-straight month. The report shows home prices declined by 5.07 percent in November 2010 compared with November 2009. St. Louis home prices fell by 7.57 percent in November 2010 compared with November 2009, right at 50 percent more than the national home price decline. The real estate market has not been very nice to us over the past 3 years or so and we are all anxious to see the light at the end of the tunnel. With that in mind, and 2011 in front of us, where is the real estate market headed in 2011? Before I take my humble stab at answering this question I need to remind you I am not an economist nor do I have a PhD behind my name, in fact I have nothing behind my name. All I can offer is a whole lot of experience “in Continue Reading → As 2010 quickly comes to an end I sat here early this morning pondering the real estate market and reading reports on the housing industry. One thing that caught my attention was an article titled “The Mortgage Interest Deduction and Negative Equity” by Ted Gayer, the co-director of economic studies at the Brookings Institute (and occasional contributor to this blog). Ted’s article made some interesting points related to the mortgage interest deduction, negative equity and home-ownership rates in the U.S. In his article Ted states “It seems semantically incorrect to call someone who owes more on an asset than it’s Continue Reading → Dennis Norman The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for November shows an increase of 3.5 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and a 5.0 percent decrease from a year ago. As your kids grow up, you support them through their bumps and bruises, pay for their braces, school and much, much more. Over the past few years, I have run into the issue of young adults not being able to qualify for a mortgage without a parent’s help. So, the big question is: should you offer to co-sign on your child’s loan? Your kid may need something more than your money… Dennis Norman Yesterday the S&P/Case-Shiller Index report for October was released and was filled with bad news on the housing market. The report revealed that home prices decreased in all 20 metro areas covered by the report from their September levels and only four of the metro’s showed a year-over-year price gain in October.Furthermore, six metros – Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Portland (OR), Seattle and Tampa – hit their lowest levels since home prices started to fall in 2006 and 2007. This news comes at a time when we have seen a couple of bits of positive news on Continue Reading → It seems we always need to find someone to blame for our problems… When it comes to the meltdown in the housing market that has taken place over the past three years there has been no lack of finger pointing by many inside and outside the industry as to factors that either caused or contributed to the collapse of the housing market. Sub-prime lending, Wall Street, mortgage fraud, the mortgage industry, banks, community reinvestment act, real estate brokers and agents, fannie mae, freddie mac, federal government over-regulation, federal government under-regulation, appraisers, unemployment, the economy in general, “flipping”, sellers, buyers and Continue Reading → Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau released new home sales data for November 2010 showing an increase of 5.50 percent from the month before, but a decrease of 21.2 percent from a year ago. The seasonally-adjusted new home sales rate for November was 290,000 homes, a 5.5 percent increase from October’s revised rate of 275,000 homes. The supply of new homes on the market decreased from an adjusted 8.8 month supply in October to a 8.2 month supply in November. The median new home price increased for the month to $213,000 from $197,200 Continue Reading → A report released this week by Standard & Poor’s and Experian showed an increase in monthly default rates on first mortgages to 3.05 percent and an increase in default rates on second mortgages to 1.80 percent. The increase in default rates for first mortgages is the first increase since December 2009. The good news is that even though the rate in November increased, it is still down 34.84 percent from a year ago at the same time. Today’s existing home sales report from theNational Association of REALTORS(R) shows existing home sales in November were at at a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 4.68 million units which is an increase of 5.6 percent from October and is a decline of 27.9 percent from a year ago. Great Desire to Own a Home by Growing Ethnic and Immigrant Populations Could Drive Future of the Housing Market Fannie Mae just released a report which included a study on “Renting and Owning Behaviors by Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration Status and Economics of Owning and Renting Through the Cycle and Across Geographies” in which was shown that “all racial and ethnic groups polled, as well as immigrants, strongly aspire to own a home, despite current disparities in homeownership rates for these groups.“ Ah, it is so much fun to be able to write something positive about the real estate market! According to an economic outlook report just issued by Fannie Mae, our country’s economy should “kick into higher gear” by the second quarter of 2011. This positive outlook is the result of improvements in consumer spending, consumer confidence, increased demand for goods and services and falling unemployment claims. For 2011, Fannie Mae, in their December 2010 forecast, is forecasting growth of 3.4 percent which is an improvement from the 2.9 percent growth in 2011 they previously forecast. The big caveat is that Continue Reading → A “first-look” report issued by Lender Processing Services, one of the countries largest loan servicers and aggregators of loan performance data, is somewhat encouraging as it shows the U.S. mortgage delinquency rate (not including foreclosures) for October was 9.02 percent which is a decrease of almost 3 percent from October’s rate of 9.29 percent. Freddie Mac, one of the nation’s largest investors in conforming, conventional mortgages, announced it will delay initiating foreclosure for at least nine months for financially troubled service members who are released from active duty through the end of 2011 and have Freddie Mac-owned mortgages. “Our military make sacrifices every day to protect our homes and families,” said Anthony Renzi, Executive Vice President of Single Family Portfolio Management at Freddie Mac. “This small act will protect financially troubled service members when they return from active duty by giving them more time to work with their lender to stay in their home.” The National Association of REALTORS (NAR) published its’ “Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report” for this year and in it rated exterior replacement projects among the most cost-effective home improvement projects. This reinforces something most REALTORS will tell you which is that a homes curb appeal plays a significant role in the sale of the home. A new report release by Trulia reveals that, in December, the number of listings with at least one price cut grew to 27 percent which is a 23 percent increase from December 2009 when 22 percent of the listings had at least one price cut. In terms of the size of the price cut, that has remained about the same at 11 percent. A survey conducted by Harris Interactive, for Lending Tree, shows that consumers do not comparison shop when it comes to their home mortgage, instead borrowers often “lock in” their first home loan offer. The survey shows 96 percent of consumers compare prices when shopping for anything, but nearly 40 percent obtain just one home loan quote. An interesting comparison given was when shopping for a home computer, consumers check out and research an average of 3.1 models before making a purchase. This probably helps explain why, according to the survey, only 28 percent of borrowers stated they were “very confident” Continue Reading → A report released this morning by CoreLogic shows negative equity declined in third quarter of 2010 for residential properties, marking the third-consecutive quarterly decline. The CoreLogic reports that 10.8 million, or 22.5 percent, of all residential properties with mortgages were in negative equity at the end of the third quarter of 2010, down from 11.0 million and 23 percent in the second quarter. While the decline is good news, the bad news is that the report states the decline is “due primarily to foreclosures of severely negative equity properties rather than an increase in home values.” Ah, the reverse mortgage battle continues…Consumers Union says their risky and dangerous; RetireSafe, a grassroots organization that advocates on behalf of seniors says they provide financial independence to Seniors…so who’s right? First off, I have to say that I personally feel reverse mortgages offer an excellent opportunity for seniors to live a better life, or get them through a tough financial period, by tapping the equity in their homes. I have written before about a friend of mine, Tom Carter, who has helped dozens of seniors over the years with reverse mortgages. Having said that, obviously, like almost Continue Reading → Report by Zillow estimates that U.S. Homes have now lost $9 Tillion in value since Market Peak U.S. homes are expected to lose more than $1.7 trillion in value during 2010, which is 63 percent more than the $1 trillion lost in 2009, according to a report released by Zillow.com. That brings the total value lost since the market peaked in June 2006 to $9 trillion. According to information released by the Home Builders Association of St. Louis & Eastern Missouri (HBA), building permit activity in the St. Louis area through October of this year, is up over 12 percent from the same time last year. Today, Trulia and RealtyTrac released the latest result of their ongoing survey tracking the attitude of homebuyers toward foreclosed homes. The most recent survey, conducted in early November by Harris Interactive, showed that Americans are still concerned about the health of the housing market with 58 percent of adults survey expecting a housing recovery to take at least another two years. For those that frequent this site you have probably noticed (and perhaps even participated in) an informal survey we were running on the site. For about the past four months we have asked the question: “Is a home a good long-term investment?” and the results are in: 61 percent of the respondents said Yes 39 percent of the respondents said No So there you have it….In spite of the real estate recession, which has been with us for too long now, about 3 out of 5 people still look at a home as a good long-term investment. For what it’s Continue Reading → Dennis Norman The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for October shows an increase of 10.4 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted), and a 20.5 percent decrease from a year ago. According to a report released by RealtyTrac, foreclosure homes accounted for 25 percent of all U.S. residential sales in the third quarter of 2010 and that the average sales price of properties that sold while in some stage of foreclosure was more than 32 percent below the average sales price of properties not in the foreclosure process — up from a 26 percent discount in the previous quarter and a 29 percent discount in the third quarter of 2009. A report released by CoreLogic showed the St. Louis metro area to have a foreclosure rate in September of 1.57 percent, and increase of over 25 percent (25.6%) from a year ago, and an increase of a little over 3 percent from the month before. The national foreclosure rate in September was 3.29 percent, a slight increase from 3.20 percent the month before. |
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