By Dennis Norman, on December 21st, 2009 Dennis Norman
Foreclosure rates in St. Louis increased for the month of October over the same period last year according to a report released by First American CoreLogic. The report showed the St. Louis metro area to have a foreclosure rate of 1.31 percent in October, up just slightly from September’s rate of 1.25 percent, but up 61.7 percent from a year ago when the rate was 0.81 percent.
The national foreclosure rate for October was over double the rate of St. Louis at 3.02 percent and was an increase of 77.6 percent from a year ago Continue Reading →
By News Desk, on December 12th, 2009 Department of Justice Press Release
Scam Involved Lawyers, Mortgage Brokers, and More Than $14.6 Million in Loans
PHILADELPHIA—A 15-count indictment was filed today against five defendants charged in a $14.6 million mortgage fraud scheme that resulted in at least 35 fraudulent mortgage loans, announced United States Attorney Michael L. Levy, Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI Janice K. Fedarcyk, and Pennsylvania Secretary of Banking Steven Kaplan. Charged are Edward G. McCusker and John Alford Bariana, owners of Axxium Mortgage, Inc., McCusker’s wife, Jacqueline, and Jeffrey A. Bennett and Stephen G. Doherty, owners of the Doylestown law firm Bennett & Doherty, Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 11th, 2009 Dennis Norman
This week the Treasury Department issed a report which included stats on the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) which is part of the Obama administrations’ Making Home Affordable Program and “is a loan modification program designed to reduce delinquent and at-risk borrowers’ monthly mortgage payments”. The HAMP program got underway around March of this year and is set to expire December 31, 2012. According to the government website HAMP is intended to help keep “3 to 4 million Americans in their homes by preventing avoidable foreclosures.”
So is the Loan Modification plan working?
To try to Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 10th, 2009 Dennis Norman
Not surprisingly, builders in St. Louis (those that have managed to survive thus far) are not racing out to build homes. According to the latest data reported by the Home Builders Association of St. Louis, there were 228 permits issued in October for new homes in the St. Louis metro area (St. Louis City and the Counties of St. Louis, Jefferson, St. Charles, Franklin, Lincoln and Warren) down almost 19 percent from September when there were 281 permits issued.
Year-to-date, through October 31, 2009, there have been 2,321 permits issued for new homes in the Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on December 7th, 2009 Dennis Norman
For the first year or so of the real estate slump, it appeared to just be concentrated in the residential market, specifically homes and condos. However, over the past few months the attention has shifted more and more to the commerical and multi-family markets as well as the economy remains weak.
The Mortgage Bankers Association released their Third Quarter 2009 Commercial and Multifamily Mortgage Delinquency Report showing that delinquency rates on loans in this sector continued to increase. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 19th, 2009 Dennis Norman
According to a report issued by First American CoreLogic national home prices continue to decline with their HPI (Loan Performance Home Price Index) declining by 9.8 percent in September 2009 compared with the year before. If you take the distressed sales out (foreclosures, short sales, etc) the nation decline in HIP for the same period was 6.2 percent.
St. Louis home prices did better according to the report with the HPI declining 3.85 percent in Sepetember 2009 from the year before. This is an improvement over August which was down 4.09 percent from the year before. Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 12th, 2009 The Justice Department announced it has filed a lawsuit today in federal court for the Eastern District of Missouri alleging a pattern or practice of violations of the Fair Housing Act by the owner and managers of Forum Manor Apartments, a federally-subsidized apartment complex, for refusing to rent to African-Americans and males, refusing to allow tenants to have African-American visitors, sexually harassing female tenants and retaliating against tenants who complained about such discrimination.
Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 12th, 2009 Dennis Norman
Monroe and Jefferson County saw sharp increases however.
RealtyTrac® released its Foreclosure Market Reporttmfor October showing that foreclosure filings (default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions) were down 3.3 percent in October from the month before in the US and up 18.86 percent from the year before.
Here in St Louis, overall the picture is much better. For the 16 counties and 1 city included in the RealtyTrac® report for the St Louis metro area foreclosure filings in October were down 29.47 percent from the month before and down 30.39 percent from the year before. Included Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on November 10th, 2009 Dennis Norman
Foreclosure rates in St. Louis increased for the month of September over the same period last year according to a report released by First American CoreLogic. The report showed the St. Louis metro area to have a foreclosure rate of 1.26 percent in September, up just slightly from August’s rate of 1.24 percent, but up over 59 percent from a year ago when the rate was 0.79 percent.
The national foreclosure rate for September was over double the rate of St. Louis at 2.93 percent and was an increase of 75 percent from a year Continue Reading →
By Charles Hugh Smith, on November 4th, 2009 Loose lending standards in government-backed mortgages is setting up the next wave of defaults and sharp declines in housing prices.
Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds
Beneath the hype that housing has bottomed is an ugly little scenario: lending standards are still loose and the low-down payment, high-risk loans being guaranteed by government agencies are setting up the next giant wave of defaults and foreclosures.
You might have thought that the near-demise of risky-mortgage mills Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would have cooled the supply of highly leveraged Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 20th, 2009 Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
Yesterday the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s trial mortgage loan modifications under the Obama Administrations Home Affordable Modification Plan (HAMP) were up more than 40 percent in September 2009 from the previous month. According to the report, mortgage loans that are 60-plus-days delinquent increased to 1,401,000 borrowers in July, up a whopping 147 percent from July, 2008 when there were 566,000 borrowers 60 plus days delinquent.
Here are highlights from the report (all the data, unless noted otherwise is from July 31, 2009):
Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 8th, 2009 Dennis Norman
By Dennis Norman
Foreclosure rates in St. Louis increased for the month of August over the same period last year according to a report released today by First American CoreLogic. The report showed the St. Louis metro area to have a foreclosure rate of 1.24 percent in August, up just slightly from July’s rate of 1.20 percent, but up over 63 percent from a year ago when the rate was 0.76 percent.
As bad as the foreclosure rate for St. Louis sounds we are still doing better than the national rate of 2.86 percent for Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 7th, 2009 To alleviate some suffering by homeowners, the Obama Administration introduced the “Making Homes Affordable” plan last March. Unfortunately, the plan has not yet had the intended effect.
Article by the Grand Law Firm
Economists debate whether or not the country is actually currently in a recession. Some say that there are positive signs that we have reached the bottom and the economy is turning around. Others, however, suggest that the country still has a long way to go and it may be years yet before we truly reach financial recovery. Regardless of who is right though, one thing is clear: Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on October 6th, 2009 Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
According to a report prepared by the Federation of Tax Administrators (FTA) in 2006, thirty-five states plus the District of Columbia impose a real estate transfer tax. What a transfer tax amounts to is when you sell or transfer a house (or other real property) you pay a tax to the state on the sale ranging from a low of 0.01 percent in Colorado to a high of 2.2 percent in the District of Columbia.
In addition, in some states (Delaware, Maryland, Michigan, New Hersey, Pennsylvania, Washington and West Virginia) some of Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 17th, 2009 The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is launching an initiative to help consumers and the banking industry avoid unnecessary foreclosures and stop foreclosure “rescue” scams that promise false hope to consumers at risk of losing their homes.
This initiative includes outreach, referral services, and an information tool kit. Arming consumers with information will heighten consumers’ awareness of foreclosure “rescue” scams and give them more confidence in knowing they are working with legitimate counselors and servicers to obtain a loan modification that could help them avoid foreclosure.
Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 15th, 2009 Dennis Norman
Before the sub-prime mortgage implosion Karen Weaver warned of the coming crisis. Karen Weaver, the Global Head of Securitization Research for Deutsche Bank, said last month that she expected home prices to continue to drop through the 1st quarter of 2011. She also predicted that nearly half of the homeowners with mortgages would end up being underwater on their mortgages.
Yesterday Ms. Weaver said that in spite of the recent positive news on the housing market that she had not changed her position and is still predicting home prices to fall another 10 percent before finally reaching Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on September 11th, 2009 Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
Yesterday, on a post I did earlier on rental scams, I received a comment from Dan with RentalScams.org. I visited RentalScams.org and saw their site is a wealth of information to help tenants avoid falling victim to a rental scam. I am going to post one of their helpful posts here today but invite you to visit their site and check out all the useful information they have available. The Property “Owner” Rental Scam
Here is how the scam works.
Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 28th, 2009
Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds
By: Charles Hugh Smith:
In February 2007 I suggested a 4% mortgage delinquency rate could trigger a decline in the entire housing market. Since that proved prescient, we should revisit the analytic tool behind that call: the Pareto Principle.
There is a whiff of euphoria in the housing market, a heavily touted confidence that “the bottom is in.” It’s all roaring back–rising sales, multiple bids by anxious buyers, 3.5% down payments, low mortgage rates and the bonus of an $8,000 first-time home buyer credit (a gift from U.S. taxpayers). Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 25th, 2009 Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
The Missouri Legislature passed several bills this past session affecting real estate or property in Missouri, most of which were signed into law by Governor Nixon and go into effect August 28, 2009. Below is a brief synopsis of the new laws and their purpose based upon the bill summary. (Unless noted different the new law goes into effect August 28, 2009- For the complete bill click on the bill number): Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 19th, 2009 Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
I came across something today that, while it is very sad there is such a demand for, it is heartwarming to see this need being addressed; helping families that have lost their homes in foreclosure move and store their belongings.
There is a new non-profit organization, FreeMooves, that is offering free moving and storage services to families affected by foreclosure throughout the U.S.
Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 6th, 2009 Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
Yesterday I did part one of my E-View with Carole Baras, CRS, GRI, ePRO, the 2009 President of the St. Louis Association of REALTORS(R) to get her take on the St. Louis real estate market.
Today I’ll pick up where I left off and complete my E-View with Carole:
Carole Baras, 2009 President, St. Louis Association of REALTORS(R)
Dennis – Carole, obviously many things are affecting the real estate market at this time, many in a negative way unfortunately. What negative forces do you see working against the St. Louis real Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 30th, 2009 By: Dennis Norman
The FBI has issued a consumer alert warning of phony online rental ads. According to the alert, the scam goes like this:
You can’t believe your good fortune-you find a rental home in a nice area through a Craigslist classified ad at an unbelievably low rate. The landlord-who had to leave the country and travel to Nigeria-asks that you wire him two months worth of rent. You arrive at the home on the agreed-upon date, but there is just one small problem- the house is not actually for rent and its owners know nothing about your agreement.
Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 23rd, 2009 Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
For the past two days I have written about my E-View with Karen Vennard, the 2009 President of the St. Charles County Association of REALTORS(R) to get her take on the real estate market in St. Charles County.
Today will be the final post in this series in which Karen has been shared her insights with us on the real estate market in St. Charles County. Now we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday:
Karen Vennard, 2009 President, St. Charles County Association of REALTORS
Dennis – We hear a Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 22nd, 2009 Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
Yesterday I began my E-View with Karen Vennard, the 2009 President of the St. Charles County Association of REALTORS(R) to get her take on the real estate market in St. Charles County.
Karen’s extensive knowledge of the market was apparent in her informative answers in yesterdays E-View. Now we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday:
Karen Vennard, 2009 President, St. Charles County Association of REALTORS
Dennis – Where do you see the real estate market in St. Charles County at now?
Karen – I see the market recovering; there has Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 16th, 2009 By: Dennis Norman
Recently the The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a Consumer Advisory. The Advisory contains consumer tips for avoiding mortgage modification scams and foreclosure rescue scams.
The advisory states; “Scams that promise to “rescue” you from foreclosure are popping up at an alarming rate nationwide, and you need to protect yourself and your home. If you’re falling behind on your mortgage, others may know it too – including con artists and scam artists. They know that people in this situations are vulnerable and often desperate.”
The OCC suggests that before you do business with someone Continue Reading →
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