Missourians have received more than $112 million of mortgage relief as a result of the National Mortgage Settlement reached a year ago with the nations largest lenders, according to Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster. Koster, along with Attorney Generals from other states, sent a letter to Congress last November urging them to extend a measure that was due to expire at the end of 2012 that would provide tax relief for some people receiving mortgage relief in the form of principal reduction and short sales. January 1, 2013, Congress passed the extension as part of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. Continue Reading →
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Over 35 percent (35.1) of tenants were previously homeowners, according to a survey by Apartments.com conducted in the 4th quarter of 2012. This is a fairly significant increase from a year ago when 33.6 percent of tenants reported they were previously homeowners. The most common reasons given for the change from homeowner to tenant were affordability and the flexibility in location. While it was just 5th on the list, it is worth noting that the loss of a home due to foreclosure or divorce increased nearly 90 percent in the past year as a reason for converting from homeowner to renter. Continue Reading → There are fewer people losing their homes in foreclosure today than there were during the peak of the foreclosure crisis after the real estate market crash, however we still have a long way to go until we will see a “normal” number of foreclosures. According to a report released today by Corelogic, there were 767,000 homes foreclosed on in the U.S. during 2012, down almost 11 percent from the total for 2011, so a definite improvement, however, this is still three-times the “normal” number of foreclosures before the real estate market crash. From the period of 2000 – 2006, there were an average of 252,000 homes foreclosed on per year. Continue Reading → The St. Louis foreclosure rate in November 2012 was 1.27 percent of all outstanding home mortgages, a decrease of 26.6 percent from a year before when the rate was 1.73 percent, according to a report just released by Corelogic. Foreclosure rates in St. Louis were well above the national foreclosure rate for November 2012 of 2.97 percent. In addition, mortgage delinquency rates declined in November 2012 as well falling to 4.39 percent of all mortgage loans (90 days + delinquent), down from 5.00 percent in November 2011. Continue Reading → As part of the fiscal cliff deal, Congress extended the cancellation of mortgage debt relief provision for 1 year, through the end of 2013. It seems there is little focus on the importance of this law, it is crucial to foreclosure mitigation efforts such as principal forgiveness and short sales. Continue Reading → During 2012, 18,242 St Louis homeowners received a foreclosure notice, or were in some stage of the foreclosure process, according to a report just released by RealtyTrac. This means 2012 came to an end with 12.02 percent more foreclosures than the year before however there were over 16 percent fewer St. Louis foreclosures than in 2010 when foreclosure activity peaked. Continue Reading → A report released today by Radarlogic suggests that the housing market is not really recovering as much as it may appear, particularly with regard to home prices. The report says that, the 9.2 percent increase they saw in their home price index for the 12 month period ended November 30, 2012 was the result of a “significant shift in the composition of home sales and overstates the appreciation in individual properties.” The report goes on to say if motivated sales (REO’s, foreclosures, short-sales) are removed from the data, then the “real” increase in home prices was just over half of what their index showed. Continue Reading → The foreclosure inventory in the U.S. dropped to 3.51 percent in November, a decline of 2.84 percent from the month before, according to the November Mortgage Monitor report released by Lender Processing Services. This trend may not continue though as, during the same period, the mortgage delinquency rate (the precursor to foreclosures) increased 1.2 percent from the month before and has increased 3.7 percent since August. Continue Reading → dennis-norman-realtorIf you have tried to buy a rental property lately in St. Louis then you have discovered you are not alone and the competition for good rental property is quite intense. The reason is simple, experienced investors as well as new ones see real estate as a safe investment and, in many ways, a much better alternative to other investments. Part of the reason for this is the demand for rental housing, brought on as a result of many former homeowners that have been forced, or have chosen, to rent instead of own and “would-be” homeowners that are unable to meet tougher requirements for mortgages thereby forced to remain tenants. Continue Reading → Shadow Inventory (properties with seriously delinquent mortgages, are in foreclosure or owned by lenders (REO) but not currently listed on the MLS) are a leading indicator of future foreclosure rates so it is good to see that the shadow inventory in the U.S. in October fell to 2.3 million units, a decline of 12.3 percent from a year ago, according to a report from CoreLogic. Continue Reading → Lately we have seen several reports on the housing market that show the housing market is improving and may even be headed toward a recovery however some experts, including Cliff Rossi, Tyser Teaching Fellow and executive-in-residence for the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, say it may be premature to call this a “real recovery.” Rossi is not entirely negative on the housing market and does admit that home prices are stabilizing and inventories are declining, however he has concerns as a result of the “fiscal cliff”, regulatory reform and tightness of credit, to name a few. Continue Reading → There were 1,880 St Louis homeowners that received a foreclosure notice, or were in some stage of the foreclosure process, in November, according to a report from RealtyTrac. This is a 9.37 percent increase from October and is a an increase of over ten (10.52) percent from October 2011. Continue Reading → There were 1,891 foreclosure sales in St. Louis during the third quarter of 2012, according to a report from RealtyTrac. This is a 46 percent increase from 2nd quarter and a 16 percent increase from the third quarter of 2011. A little under one in five St Louis homes (17.21 percent) that sold during the third quarter of 2012 were foreclosures. The average price St Louis foreclosures sold during third quarter was $102,041 and represented a discount of 37.07 percent from non-foreclosure home sales, according to the report. Continue Reading → In October 7.03 percent of homeowners with a mortgage were delinquent on their loan payments, this is a decline of almost 5 percent from the month before and 7.19 percent less than the year before, according to Lenders Processing Services’ First Watch report. Foreclosure pre-sales (borrowers somewhere in the foreclosure process but have not yet lost their homes) declined 6.77 percent from the month before and was down 15.99 percent from a year ago. LPS does not break out data specific to St. Louis but recent data from RealtyTrac showed that St Louis foreclosure activity increased over 10 percent in October from the month before and was up over 7 percent from a year ago, so St Louis may be lagging behind the national trend in terms of improvement in foreclosure rates. Continue Reading → During the third quarter of 2012, 3.71 percent of St Louis homeowners with a mortgage were 60+ days delinquent on their mortgage, a slight decline from the prior quarter when the rate was 3.88 percent and a decline of over 10 percent from a year ago when the St Louis mortgage delinquency rate was 4.13 percent, according to TransUnion. This marks the third consecutive quarter the St Louis mortgage delinquency rate has declined. Continue Reading → For anyone that has been through the short sale process, or knows someone that has, they will attest to the fact that short sales are not “short” but, instead, are typically long, drawn out processes with many layers of approvals and much red tape. Good news! Beginning today, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac took steps to shorten the short sale process as well as reduce the amount of red tape, by no longer requiring approved private mortgage insurance companies to come to them (Fannie and Freddie) for approvals on short sales or deeds in lieu of foreclosure. This is a significant change from the current policy and should definitely make the short sale process less drawn out going forward. Continue Reading → Over 10,000 St. Louis homeowners (10,101) lost their homes in foreclosure for the 12 month period ending September 2012, according to a report released by Corelogic. We should see fewer Saint Louis homeowners lose their homes to foreclosure in the coming year though as the St. Louis foreclosure inventory (those homes in some stage of the foreclosure process) is declining with 1.5 percent of all St Louis homes with a mortgage being in the foreclosure process in September, down 0.3 percent from the rate a year ago. Continue Reading → The St. Louis foreclosure rate fell to 1.55 percent in August, 2012, the lowest rate since August, 2010 when the rate was 1.54 percent, according to a report released by CoreLogic. Other encouraging news in the report was that the mortgage delinquency rate fell in August to 4.52 percent, the lowest it has been in well over two years! Continue Reading → The St. Louis area has seen a fairly dramatic change in the make-up of the housing occupants with a shift from home-owners to renters over the past six years. After the crash of the real estate market we have experienced, as well as massive unemployment and a weak economy, this is not surprising, but is something that I think needs to be recognized. The five-county St Louis core market (St Louis County, St. Louis City, St Charles County, Jefferson County and Franklin County) as a whole saw owner-occupied units drop almost 3.5 percent during the period while, at the same time, renter-occupied units increased almost 15 percent. Continue Reading → There were 1,560 foreclosure filings on St. Louis properties in September, which is a decrease of 22.62 percent in the St. Louis foreclosure rate from August, and a decrease of 11.86 percent from September 2011 when there were 1,770 foreclosure filings on St Louis homes, according to a report released this morning by RealtyTrac. Continue Reading → REALTORS® surveyed by the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), say that low valuations on appraisals are causing their seller’s problems ranging from delaying the sale to renegotiating the price to even killing the deal. Of the REALTORS® that responded, 11 percent say a low valuation on an appraisal cost their seller a sale in the past 3 months, 9 percent said it caused a delay to a sale and 15 percent said a low appraisal resulted in the seller having to renegotiate and agree to a lower price. If you are considering buying your first home you may very well be asking yourself if now is the time, have prices bottomed out and trying to weigh the risks of buying a home versus the rewards. Well, if this is the case, allow me to give you some things to put on the “rewards” side of the equation…. For starters, with mortgage rates at historic lows, your monthly mortgage payment in most cases should be much lower than what you are currently paying in rent! Remember this…”Your Landlord says Hi…& Thanks You for Paying His Mortgage.” Also, we have seen flexibility from sellers on negotiations and most are helping in paying for the buyers closings costs…so that just leaves the down-payment! Continue Reading → If you’ve been waiting to buy a new home thinking that prices will continue to fall as builders get more desperate to sell homes, I think you may have missed the boat, er, house. The bruised new home market continues to show signs that the worst is over including numbers just released showing new home sales in the U.S. in August were up almost 28 percent from a year ago and new home prices were up 17 percent during the same period in the U.S. Here in St. Louis, the St. Louis HBA just reported that building permits for new homes in St. Louis are 15% through August compared with this time last year. Continue Reading → Yesterday, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster filed three separate lawsuits against individuals and their companies for misleading Missouri consumers in connection with mortgage-modification services. The lawsuits were filed against Colleen Kelly, a Missouri resident operating Heartland Loss Mitigation, LLC,; Eric Mader, a Florida attorney operating Mader Law Group, LLC, a Florida company; and Jim Caplan, a Florida attorney operating CAPLAW, P.A., a Florida company. Continue Reading → St. Louis home sales (the 5 county core market*) in August increased 2.4 percent from the month before and were up over 13 percent from a year ago, following the trend in U.S. home sales as reported today in the existing home sales report from the National Association of REALTORS®. According to the report, U.S. home sales in August increased 7.8 percent from July and were up 9.3 percent from the year before. St. Louis home prices rose 2.7 percent in August from the month before and were up 6.8 percent from the year before falling a little short of U.S. home prices which increased 9.5 percent in August from the year before but still showing positive signs of recovery for the St. Louis housing market. Continue Reading → Maybe you’re a seller that has found yourself faced with the reality that you can’t sell your house or condo for a price today that will yield enough to pay off your loan, and you are not a candidate for, or don’t want to do, a short-sale? Or, maybe you are a seller with a house or condo that, for one reason or another, there is very limited demand for and, in fact, it seems that perhaps no one wants to buy what you have to sell? If so, maybe someone suggested, or you have considered, using a lease/option or a lease purchase to sell your home? After-all, there is a large demand for lease-options and lease-purchases by buyers but, you are just not sure if it is right for you? Continue Reading → Should I rent or buy a home in St Louis? This is a question that I’ve been asked dozens of times over the past couple of years and one that given the fact that home affordability is at an all time high and mortgage interest rates at an all time low, is generally easy to answer with “buy if you can”. I guess I many not have realized just HOW much sense that made financially, until a report came out a few days ago that looked to answer this very question and found that home ownership was 45 percent cheaper Continue Reading → There were 2,016 foreclosure filings on St. Louis properties in August, which is an increase of 8.39 percent in the St. Louis foreclosure rate from the month before and an increase of 10.22 percent from August 2011 when there were 1,829 foreclosure filings on St Louis homes, according to a report released this morning by RealtyTrac. Continue Reading → This week the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) published a report which showed selling a home was taking less time with the median time a home for sale dropping in July to 69 days, down over 29 percent from a year ago when the median time on the market was 98 days. St. Louis homes are taking less time to sell as well and, as you can see from the tables below I prepared, many St Louis areas have a lower median time on the market for homes for sale than the national median. The inventory of St. Louis homes for sale is dropping as well…does this impact price? Read on.. Continue Reading → I have good news for homeowners that are underwater on the mortgage and need to do a short sale, or for buyers looking to buy a short sale. The Federal Housing Financing Agency just issued new guidelines to lenders that service Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans that are intended to “offer a streamlined short sale approach” which will be music to the ears of anyone that has been through the process. I don’t always agree with the actions of the FHFA but I think this is a good move and will help the market. The new guidelines, which go into effect November 1, 2012, include: Continue Reading → |
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