Financial Reform Bill Kills HVCC; Helps Appraisers

By , on July 16th, 2010

Dennis Norman

07/17/10-Correction – This past week Congress passed H.R. 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act which is the most comprehensive reform to the banking industry since the Great Depression. The bill now awaits President Obamas signature which is expected to happen in the coming week.

This is a very comprehensive bill and I’m not sure even the Congressmen that passed it know everything that is in it, so I’m certainly not going to even pretend to know that much about the bill, but the one thing I do know is the Home Valuation Code Continue Reading →

Mortgage Fraud Trend Down; Still $14 Billion in 2009 Losses

By , on July 16th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Missouri one of 32 States Identified as “Low” risk of mortgage fraud

According to the 2010 Mortgage Fraud Trends Report released by CoreLogic this week, fraud risk in the mortgage industry has declined by 25 percent since it peaked in the third quarter of 2007. Even though the trend is down it is still estimated that there were $14 billion in fraud losses experienced in 2009 alone.

CoreLogics’ fraud index can drill down to show states, cities and even streets that have the highest mortgage fraud risk. Highlights of the report:

Overall mortgage fraud risk has Continue Reading →

One in 78 Housing Units In U.S. In Foreclosure In First Half of 2010

By , on July 15th, 2010

Dennis Norman

According to a report released this morning by RealtyTrac there were 1,961,894 foreclosure filings in the first six months of 2010 on 1,654,634 housing units in the U.S. This reflects a 5 percent decrease from foreclosure activity for the prior 6 month period but is an 8 percent increase from the same period of 2009. What is just a sickening statistic in the report is that, during the first six months of 2010, 1.28 percent of all housing units in the U.S., or one in 78, received at least one foreclosure filing during that period.

For Continue Reading →

One in Four Sellers Have Reduced Their Prices

By , on July 14th, 2010

Dennis Norman

According to a report released by Trulia.com, 24 percent of the homes for sale as of July 1, 2010 have experienced at least one price cut. This is a 9 percent increase from the prior month. The average discount for price-reduced homes continues to hold at 10 percent off of the original listing price.

Western U.S. Leads with Price Reduction Increases

For the first six months of this year, cities in the Western U.S. saw a reduction in their price declines, however for this month those same cities have experienced some of the largest surges Continue Reading →

St. Louis Home Prices Increase

By , on July 13th, 2010

Dennis Norman

According to a report issued today by CoreLogic, their home price index shows home prices in the U.S. increased in May, marking the fourth-consecutive month there was a year-over-year increase in home prices. U.S. home prices in May 2010 increased by 2.9 percent over May 2009.

St. Louis home prices did better than the U.S. average, increasing by 3.49 percent in May 2010 compared with May 2009.

No doubt some of the good news was the result of buyers rushing to buy a home before the April 30th deadline to receive tax credits. This will affect Continue Reading →

Homeowners Should Think Twice if Considering a ‘Strategic Default’

By , on July 12th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Last month I wrote about a new policy implemented by Fannie Mae that would “lock-out” borrowers from getting a Fannie-Mae insured loan for 7 years if they did a “strategic default” or otherwise did not act in good faith and were foreclosed upon. In a nut shell, the borrower that Fannie Mae is targeting here is the borrower that has the financial ability to make their payments, accept a loan modification or other “work-out” from Fannie Mae but instead chooses just to walk away from their home and letting the lender foreclose.

In addition to locking Continue Reading →

‘Shadow’ Foreclosure Inventory is the 800 lb Gorilla

By , on July 9th, 2010

Dennis Norman

For way too long I’ve been writing about record, or near- record, levels of foreclosures and mortgage delinquencies. My ongoing concern about this, in terms of the housing market, is that I just don’t see how we are going to have a sustainable recovery of the housing market while we have 1 in 8 homeowners with a mortgage in the U.S. currently either delinquent on their mortgage or in some stage of the foreclosure process.

Lately there has appeared to be some leveling off of mortgage delinquencies and foreclosure growth is at a slowing rate, both Continue Reading →

Foreign Purchases of US Residential Real Estate Nearly Doubles

By , on July 8th, 2010

Dennis Norman

I may be getting desperate to find something good to write about with regard to the Housing Market, but nonetheless I found some good news today! According to a report titled “Foreign Investment in U.S. Real Estate” that was released recently by the National Association of REALTORS®, investment in residential real estate in the U.S. by foreigners shot up by almost 80% for the 12-month period ending April 2010 from the 12 month period ending April 2009.

For the 12 month period ending April 2010 foreign purchases of residential real estate in the U.S. totaled $64 Continue Reading →

Mortgage Delinquencies Increase In May; 1 in 8 Borrowers At Risk of Losing Home

By , on July 6th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Homeowners’ mortgage delinquency rates increased in May 2.3 percent from April rising to 9.2 percent of all mortgages being delinquent. This information comes from a report issued by LPS Applied Analytics, one of the largest mortgage servicers in the U.S.

According to the report there are, as of May 31, 2010, 7.3 million home mortgages currently in some stage of delinquency. After seeing a couple of months of improvement there was a turn for the worse in May of the “deterioration ratio”, the reltionship between the number of loans going to a “worse” status for every Continue Reading →

More On The Housing Boom and Bust; Cause and Effect

By , on July 5th, 2010

Dennis Norman

While there has been much discussion about the causes and effects of the Housing Boom as well as the Bust (including by yours truly in prior posts) I don’t think we need to refrain from continuing to examine this part of history that is affecting millions of people across the country. Perhaps we can learn some lessons from this that will help us avoid another such collapse of the housing market in the future.

My topic today actually has a silver lining of sorts. The topic is debt and how so many homeowners across the country Continue Reading →

What’s Hot and What’s Not in New Homes?

By , on July 2nd, 2010

Dennis Norman

Less Is More

Over the past decade or so it seems everything has gotten “super-sized” to the point of absurdity in my opinion. Therefore I find it refreshing to see that, according to the “Home Trends 2010” report by the Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council, home buyers are scaling down both in size and in features. Perhaps the past couple of years has humbled many of us and given us a different perspective on materialistic things?

Anyway, before I go off on a tangent, here are highlights from the Home Trends report:

The average size of Continue Reading →

Pending Home Sales Index For May Drops to Lowest Level In History of Index

By , on July 1st, 2010

Dennis Norman

There was no question in my mind that home sales would plummet after the April 30th deadline to buy a home and qualify for the home-buyer tax credit passed, the only question was how bad? Today the National Association of REALTORS released it’s Pending Home Sales Index for May showing a decrease of 30.0 percent in the index from April (seasonally adjusted) and a 15.9 percent increase from May 2009. In my past articles I have spoke of a “sugar-rush” created in the market by the tax credits and the sudden slow-down after that wears off…we are Continue Reading →

Nearly 233,000 Foreclosure and Bank-Owned Homes Sold in First Quarter

By , on June 30th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Average discount on Foreclosure and Bank-Owned Homes is 27 Percent

This morning RealtyTrac released a report stating that 31 percent of all residential sales in the first quarter of 2010 were foreclosure homes or bank-owned homes. They are reporting 233,000 foreclosure and bank-owned homes sold during first quarter 2010 at an average price discount of 27 percent (based upon average sale price of non-foreclosure properties).

This data is fairly consistent with date from the National Association of REALTORS which reported there were right at 1 million existing homes sold in the first quarter of 2010 and Continue Reading →

House Passes Bill To Extend Closing Deadline For Home-Buyer Tax Credits

By , on June 29th, 2010

Dennis Norman

UPDATE -July 2 – The President has signed the bill into law….It’s official, the deadline is September 30th to close..

UPDATE-July 1- GOOD NEWS! I Stand Corrected! Yesterday, before ending session, the Senate did PASS H.R. 5623 by Unanimous Consent…the bill now goes to the President for his signature and then will extend the closing date until September 30th…

UPDATE-June 30th-Today was the last day the Senate is in session before the 4th of July break and there was no action on this bill…..The Senate is now on recess until July 12th so nothing Continue Reading →

Home Prices In Most Metro Areas Improved in April But Do Not Show Signs of a Sustained Recovery

By , on June 29th, 2010

Dennis Norman

This morning S&P/Case-Shiller Index report for April was released showing that theannual growth rates of all 20 Metro Area’s their reports cover improved in April compared to March 2010. The 10-city composite is up 4.6 percent from the year before and the 20-city composite is up 3.8 percent from the year before.

However, in spite of this little bit of encouragement, David Blitzer, Chairman of the Standard & Poor’s Index Committee casts a negative light on the market by pointing out the, while this report does show some price gains, “many of the gains are modest Continue Reading →

Population Growth Equals Housing Demand; Which States are Growing?

By , on June 28th, 2010

Dennis Norman

While there are many factors that go into what makes for a good or bad housing market and ultimately how well an investment in real estate will do in a market, two things in my book are key; population growth and job growth. Actually job growth brings population growth so perhaps it is the most important factor, but I think one could argue that population growth also brings jobs. Those states that, for one reason or another, attract people to live there (ie; no, or low state income tax, good public education, Continue Reading →

Federal Government Is Largest Owner of Foreclosed Properties; Over 200,000 and Growing

By , on June 25th, 2010

Dennis Norman

According to a report issued by Radar Logic Incorporated government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) and Federal agencies involved in housing finance currently have an inventory of over 200,000 repossessed homes. Being the largest owner of foreclosed homes in the U.S. gives the government a lot of power and influence over the housing market for years to come as they will generate significant pressure on home prices as they sell off foreclosed homes in the coming years.

Foreclosed homes currently sell at significant discounts to the unpaid balances of the mortgages they back, generating a loss for the seller Continue Reading →

Two and a half Million Foreclosures; Just the beginning

By , on June 24th, 2010

Dennis Norman

I spent this morning reading a sobering and, quite frankly depressing, report issued by the Center for Responsible Lending that focused on the demographics of people losing their homes as a result of foreclosure. The report is done well and looks at the impact of foreclosures on different races and ethnicity’s and then addresses what they believe to be the cause of this crisis.

While the reports main subject was eye opening, what really got my attention as I went through the report were some of the facts and figures being quoted. This caused me to Continue Reading →

Fannie Mae’s New Rule Punishes Borrowers That ‘Walk-Away’

By , on June 23rd, 2010

Dennis Norman

So, you have the money to pay on your ‘underwater’ mortgage, or to afford the reduced payment amount offered to you under the HAMP program, but think, rather than throw good money after bad you’ll just do like so many borrowers are doing and ‘walk-away‘? Well, if you have any plans to buy a house again in, say the next seven years, particularly with a Fannie Mae loan, think again.

Today Fannie Mae announced policy changes to “encourage borrowers to work with their servicers”. These policy changes include, a seven-year “lock-out” period for borrowers that Continue Reading →

New-Home Sales Crash In May after Sugar-Rush of Tax Credit Sales

By , on June 23rd, 2010

Dennis Norman

Last month after the new home sales reports came out I had this to say:

“I’m very encouraged by home sales in March and April, both in new homes and existing home sales and, if it wasn’t for the fact the homebuyer tax-credit incentive expired April 30th, no doubt a factor that caused buyers to rush to buy, I would feel the market was turning. However, I have strong concerns that this recent “housing recovery” is the result of an artificial market created by incentives, leading to sort of a “sugar-rush” among homebuyers, and now that Continue Reading →

Home Sales Fall Slightly in May; Still Propped-Up By Tax Credit Deals

By , on June 22nd, 2010

Dennis Norman

May and June Sales Expected to Remain Elevated as Buyers Rush to Close By June 30th Deadline for Tax Credits.

The deadline to buy a home and qualify for the home-buyer tax credit was April 30th so it’s not surprising we saw pending home-sales increase dramatically in March and April as buyers rushed to get “under-contract” before the April 30th deadline. For those home-buyers that were lucky enough to qualify for the home-buyer tax credit they have, unless Congress extends the deadline, until June 30, 2010 to close on the purchase of their home. Therefore, as I Continue Reading →

Is The Government Going to Push Us Into Another Housing Bust?

By , on June 21st, 2010

Dennis Norman

UPDATE June 21, 2010- I said I would update this post after the proposed rules were published on the Federal Register with info on how to submit a comment -If you would like to comment, see the comment instructions in the Federal Register (I highlighted them) by clicking here -end of update.

June 4, 2010 Are they really going to repeat the same mistakes that helped cause this housing recession?

I say this because of a release I received from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) last week announcing that the FHFA “has sent to the Continue Reading →

Real Estate Market Favoring Lower Priced Home Sales Since 2006

By , on June 21st, 2010

Dennis Norman

A report just issued by Radarlogic shows that, since 2006, lower-priced homes have been selling better than higher-priced ones. Given the current economy this is not all that surprising but it is a dramatic change from what the norm was during the “housing boom”.

Highlights from the report include:

During the housing boom (2000 through 2005) sales of homes for less than $350,000 remained pretty constant on a year-over-year basis while homes in the $350,000 – $900,000 range increased by 32 percent per year on average. In 2006 the number of home sales in all price Continue Reading →

Mortgage Fraud Sweep Results in Almost 500 Arrests

By , on June 18th, 2010

Dennis Norman

According to a press release issued by the FBI, nearly 500 people have been arrested in a nationwide mortgage fraud take-down as part of “Operation Stolen Dreams.” This operation was launched on March 1, 2010 and, according to the FBI, has lead to a total of 485 arrests, 330 convictions and the recovery of nearly $11 million. The FBI estimates that losses from a variety of fraud schemes are estimated to exceed $2 billion.

Operation Stolen Dreams is the government’s largest mortgage fraud take-down to date. But FBI Director Robert S. Mueller cautioned that there is Continue Reading →

St Louis Area Foreclosures On The Rise

By , on June 18th, 2010

Dennis Norman

While foreclosure activity for the U.S. in May decreased by 3 percent according to a report released by RealtyTrac, the news was much worse for the St. Louis metro area, and Missouri as a whole.

Every County in the St. Louis metro area, on the Missouri side of the river, experienced an increase in foreclosures in May from a year ago, and six of the nine counties contained in the report had an increase in May 2010 from the prior month.

On the Illinois side of the river things looked slightly better with 3 of 7 Continue Reading →

Senate Passes Key Amendment to Extend Closing Deadline for Homebuyer Tax Credit

By , on June 17th, 2010

UPDATE-July 1- GOOD NEWS! I Stand Corrected! Yesterday, before ending session, the Senate did PASS H.R. 5623 by Unanimous Consent…the bill now goes to the President for his signature and then will extend the closing date until September 30th…

Dennis Norman

UPDATE-June 30th-As the Willie Nelson song goes. “Turn out the lights, the party’s over”….well at least for now…Today, the last day the Senate is in session before the 4th of July break, there was yet another motion for cloture (to end debate) on H.R. 4213 and once again, like the previous 2 or 3 attempts, Continue Reading →

New Home Permits Drop Almost 10 Percent in May; New Home Starts Drop 17 Percent

By , on June 16th, 2010

The U.S. Census Bureau and US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a their report on New Residential Construction for May 2010 showing a decrease in building permits and a decrease in new home starts from April.

The report shows the following:

Building permits issued for single-family residences in May were at an annual rate of 438,000 which is 9.9 percent below the revised April rate of 486,000 and an increase of 3.1 percent from a year ago when the rate was 425,000. Housing starts for single-family residences in May were at an annual rate of 468,000 Continue Reading →

Closing Deadline For Homebuyer Tax Credits May Be Extended

By , on June 15th, 2010

Dennis Norman

The deadline to purchase a home to qualify for the extended home-buyer tax credit was April 30th with a deadline of June 30, 2010 to close the sale. Since the deadline to purchase I have heard from many buyers with questions and concerns as they realize that, while they made the April 30th deadline to enter enter a contract to purchase a home, they are concerned that they may not make the June 30th deadline for closing, particularly those buying a new home, and want to know if there were any options available to them to Continue Reading →

Where is the housing market headed in 2010?

By , on June 14th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Will the Bears or Bulls prevail in 2010?

As the real estate market is beginning to show signs that we are “bottoming out” and that the down-slide is leveling off the discussion has become what the rest of 2010 holds in store. Some say we are entering a Bull market and expect prices to increase from the depressed levels they have reached citing the greatly increased affordability of homes and record low interest rates; others say we are entering a Bear market and that over-supply in the market, largely a result of record foreclosures, will Continue Reading →

FHA Reform Bill Passed by House; Good News for Homebuyers

By , on June 11th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 5072, the FHA Reform Act of 2010 which is good news for home-buyers that may need to rely upon an FHA loan for a home purchase. The bill will still need to be passed by the Senate and then signed into law by the President, but a big first step toward this was taken by the House passing it.

Highlights of the bill that I think are important to home-buyers are:

The down-payment requirement for FHA loans will remain at 3.5 percent. There was an amendment to the Continue Reading →

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