By Dennis Norman, on August 24th, 2010 Dennis Norman
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has announced yet another new plan to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. This plan targets homeowners that are struggling with unemployment and offers two foreclosure-prevention programs to help them.
The first program will be through the existing Housing Finance Agency (HFA) Innovation Fund for the Hardest Hit Housing Markets (the Hardest Hit Fund). Through this program the U.S. Department of the Treasury will make $2 billion of additional assistance available for HFA programs for homeowners struggling to make their mortgage payments due to unemployment.
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By Dennis Norman, on August 23rd, 2010 Dennis Norman
1 in 3 Think Worst Is Yet to Come, While 38% Think Local Home Values Have Reached Bottom
According to the second quarter 2010 Zillow Homeowner Confidence Survey, one-third (33 percent) of homeowners feel home values in their local market have not reached bottom, while 38 percent believe their market has in fact hit bottom.
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By Dennis Norman, on August 20th, 2010
Dennis Norman
Just as we are talking more about home prices “stabilizing” there is yet another cause for concern as to just where the market is headed. Last week Celia Chen, senior director of the Moody’s Economy.com research staff, issued a report stating that the odds of a near-term “double-dip recession” have increased from about one in five to closer to in in four.
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By Dennis Norman, on August 19th, 2010 Dennis Norman
A new study released by Bankrate, Inc. shows that the costs associated with buying a home are on the rise. Bankrate’s 2010 Closing Costs Survey states the average origination and title fees on a $200,000 mortgage this year totaled $3,741, up 37 percent from $2,732 in 2009.
The good news for us Missourians is that our state had the ninth LOWEST costs associated with buying a home. Missouri’s average cost is $3,356 which is over 10 percent below the national average. New York, with average costs of $5,623, had the highest costs in the nation.
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By Dennis Norman, on August 19th, 2010 Dennis Norman
For some time now I’ve been saying the precursor to the housing market recovering is for the mortgage delinquency and foreclosure rates to fall from the present, near-record levels, down to closer to historical norms. The current mortgage loan delinquency report from TransUnion shows that, for the second consecutive quarter, things are headed the right direction. Granted the decline in loans that are 60 or more days past due declined only 1.48 percent to 6.67 percent but at least it is going the right diretion. The loan delinquency rate for the 2nd quarter of 6.67 percent Continue Reading →
By Paul Collins, on August 18th, 2010 Editor’s note – Last month we published an article about HVCC which drew quite a few comments and responses….one such response was from veteran appraiser Paul Collins in which he shares his frustration with the state of the industry and the impact of lenders and legislation on his industry. Our thanks to Paul for allowing us to publish his thoughts..
The good ole days of direct communication and the new day we are “living” both have the same problem. Appraisers are not a valued part of the process because there are no consequences for bad lending decisions. The last Continue Reading →
By News Desk, on August 18th, 2010 State Treasurer Clint Zweifel today called on the Missouri Housing Development Commission to pass a multi-million dollar package to provide housing for Missourians suffering from a mental illness at its meeting on August 20 in Jefferson City. According to information from Treasurer Zweifel’s office, this plan would not require new spending, it would instead re-allocate $127 million (33 percent) of affordable housing resources for fiscal year 2011 to create housing that addresses mental illness and chronic homelessness issues.
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By Robert Fishel, on August 18th, 2010
Every borrower’s situation is different. My goal is to provide various options/loan programs that are available to meet the borrower’s needs. When considering a refinance, the following are typical situations borrowers face:
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By Dennis Norman, on August 17th, 2010
The U.S. Census Bureau and US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a their report on New Residential Construction for July 2010 showing a decrease in single-family home building permits and a decrease in new home starts from June.
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By Dennis Norman, on August 16th, 2010
Dennis Norman
According to a report issued today by CoreLogic, home prices in St. Louis increased in June by 1.4 percent over June 2009. This ends the four-month streak of increasing year-over-year home prices which for May was 3.49 percent.
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By News Desk, on August 14th, 2010 For Immediate Release August 12, 2010 United States Attorney’s Office District of New Jersey Contact: (973) 645-2888
Alleged Schemes Defrauded Investors in Multiple States and Abroad
NEWARK, NJ—Eliyahu Weinstein, aka “Eli Weinstein,” was arrested at his home this morning by federal agents on charges that he ran an investment fraud scheme causing losses of at least $200 million, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Weinstein, 35, of Lakewood, N.J., was charged with one count of bank fraud and one count of wire fraud in connection with the alleged scheme. Vladimir Siforov, 43, of Manalapan, N.J., was also charged with Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 13th, 2010 Dennis Norman
I remember, not that long ago, when 300,000 foreclosures in a month would have seemed unreal. However, July now marks the 17th consecutive month that there have been foreclosure filings exceeding 300,000 for the month.
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By Dennis Norman, on August 12th, 2010 Dennis Norman
Today the Federal Housing Finance Agency announce proposed guidance that would prohibit Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks from investing in mortgages with private transfer fee covenants. Considering that covers the lenders that originate, invest in or, or insure over 90 percent of the homes in the U.S. that pretty much puts the kibosh on financing a home with such a transfer fee.
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By Jim Carr, on August 12th, 2010 Ever wonder why one home will sell for more than a similar home in the same neighborhood? You’ll hear all sorts of reasons. One house has this feature or that feature while the other one doesn’t. That’s part of it but certainly not all.
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By Robert Fishel, on August 11th, 2010
In the next few days, look for FHA to implement further changes to strengthen its financial situation. An audit in late 2009 showed that the capital ratio of its Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund (MMIF) had fallen below its statutorily mandated threshold. Over the past few months, FHA has raised premiums on its FHA insurance, prohibited seller-financed down payment assistance, stepped up enforcement of its regulations, tightened appraisal rules, banned several lenders from writing FHA guaranteed loans and brought suit against others.
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By Dennis Norman, on August 10th, 2010 Dennis Norman
A report just released by CoreLogic estimate the financial impact of short-sale fraud to be $310 million annually. It is estimated there is fraud in one in every 53 short sale transactions resulting in an unnecessary loss to the lender of $41,000 per transaction on average.
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By Dennis Norman, on August 9th, 2010 Dennis Norman
A report just issued by Zillow shows that home values in the United States continued to decline in the second quarter of 2010, with the Zillow Home Value Index falling 3.2 percent year-over-year and 0.6 percent from the first quarter to $182,500. The national rate of decline decelerated from the first quarter, marking the second consecutive quarter of slowing declines.
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By Dennis Norman, on August 6th, 2010 Dennis Norman
Fannie Mae, after losing $59.8 Billion in 2008 and then $74.4 Billion in 2009, reported yesterday that things are looking up and they lost only $1.2 Billion in the 2nd quarter of this year. This “good” news comes on the heels of documents being released two weeks ago showing that Countrywide made, what appears to be, some “below-market” mortgages to employees of Fannie Mae under a VIP loan program. There have been allegations that perhaps this was done in exchange for favors.
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By Ted Gayer, on August 5th, 2010 Ted Gayer, Co-Director of Economic Studies, Brookings Institute
The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development released June data for the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). HAMP is the foreclosure prevention program targeted at borrowers who are delinquent in their mortgage payment or facing imminent risk of default on their mortgage.
It has always been an open question whether HAMP would prevent foreclosures or whether it would just delay inevitable foreclosures. While those who qualify for HAMP receive reduced mortgage
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By Robert Fishel, on August 4th, 2010
A home mortgage is the largest debt of most consumers and is nothing to take lightly or approach without diligence and care.
Here are some tips to help guide you and help you avoid the pitfalls that are out there:
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By Dennis Norman, on August 3rd, 2010 Dennis Norman
Previously I have written about an effort supported by the Missouri Association of REALTORS (MAR) to protect Missouri homeowners from facing double taxation through a real estate transfer tax by backing an effort to amend the Missouri Constitution to prohibit such a tax. Unfortunately, after Missouri citizens supported this initiative in overwhelming numbers, the effort was dealt a blow today when effort by the Missouri Secretary of State’s office announced its conclusion that the Vote “YES” To Stop Double Taxation amendment did not receive enough signatures of registered voters to qualify for the ballot.
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By Dennis Norman, on August 3rd, 2010 Dennis Norman
NAR Pending Home Sales Index at Lowest Level Since Index Began in 2001
At dropping 30 percent in May as a result of the rush to buy a home before the April 30th tax credit deadline, the National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for June shows a further decline of 2.6 percent in the index in June (seasonally adjusted) which is 18.6 percent below June 2009. While the decrease in home sales was expected, I’m a little surprised we are running so far behind last year (which, might I remind you, wasn’t that great of Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on August 2nd, 2010 Dennis Norman
Report looks at impact of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil spill on Florida Coastal home values
According to a report released this morning by CoreLogic the impact of the BP DeepWater Horizon oil spill on home values in the coastal area’s along the Gulf coast is expected to range from $648 million over one year to as much as $3 billion over five years. This estimate is for the communities that are already impacted by the spill, if the unlikely worst-case scenario occurs and the spill reaches down to the area of the Florida Keys Continue Reading →
By Dennis Norman, on July 30th, 2010
Dennis Norman
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen), a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, released their 2009 Mortgage Loan Fraud (MLF) study which found the number of mortgage fraud suspicious activity reports (SAR’s) filed in 2009 grew 4 percent compared to 2008.
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By Dennis Norman, on July 30th, 2010 Dennis Norman
A report published by Lender Processing Services (LPS) analyzing homeowner’s performance on their mortgages as of June 2010 shows some encouraging news; there are signs that the foreclosure and mortgage delinquency rates are stabilizing, albeit at very elevated levels.
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By Dennis Norman, on July 29th, 2010 Dennis Norman
This week I attended an event at the St. Louis Association of REALTORS® in which Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist for the National Association of REALTORS® was the featured speaker and gave his take on the housing market as well as his housing market outlook.
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By Dennis Norman, on July 28th, 2010 Dennis Norman
A report released by CoreLogic showed the St. Louis metro area to have a foreclosure rate in June of 1.48 percent up slightly from May’s rate of 1.46 percent and an increase of 28.7 percent from the year prior when the rate was 1.15 percent.
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By Robert Fishel, on July 28th, 2010
Fannie Mae Rolls out New Loan Quality Initiative (LQI) Program – Tightens underwriting requirements and aims to reduce borrower fraud.
These rules could derail some closings for buyers who rack up purchases or even take out new store credit cards before their home sales have closed.
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By Dennis Norman, on July 27th, 2010 Dennis Norman
This morning S&P/Case-Shiller Index report for May was released showing that the annual growth rates in 15 of the 20 Metro Area’s their reports cover improved in May compared to April 2010. The 10-city composite is up 5.4 percent from the year before and the 20-city composite is up 4.6 percent from the year before.
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By Dennis Norman, on July 26th, 2010 Dennis Norman
Asking this question now is about like asking a newly divorced person their thoughts on marriage….nonetheless in challenging times many of us reflect upon our past investment decisions, investment philosophy, etc and see what can be learned from our past to help us in the future.
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