New mortgage applications for a home purchase declined last week 7.0 percent from the prior week, according to a report just released by the Mortgage Banker’s Association (MBA). The MBA’s Market Composite Index, which is how they track the volume of loan applications, fell to it’s lowest level for home loans for a purchase since January 2016. Continue Reading →
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For couples planning to get married before you spend the time doing the bridal registry thing at stores, picking out housewares, china and perhaps some other things you don’t really need or won’t use, consider putting a house on your list! Continue Reading → Earlier this month, General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued guidance on the “Application of Fair Housing Act Standards to the Use of Criminal Records by Providers of Housing and Real Estate-Related Transaction”. This guidance has caused concern among many landlords as many, in an effort to assure safe housing for their tenants, do criminal background checks on prospective tenants and have a policies against renting to applicants with a criminal background, a practice that, according to this guidance, may very well be considered to be discriminatory now. Continue Reading → Today, as we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I wanted to focus on the dramatic change for the good that was brought about in the area of housing as a result of the efforts of Dr. King and the movement he started. Through the efforts of the civil rights movement, Dr. King and others were able to get the attention of our nation resulting in President John F. Kennedy, in a nationally televised address on June 6, 1963, urging the nation to ” take action toward guaranteeing equal treatment of every American regardless of race.” Continue Reading → Today most, if not all, landlords are aware of the Federal Fair Housing Act with regard to making various types of discrimination illegal when it comes to housing and, even if they don’t have a thorough understanding of all of the nuances of the act, at least have a basic understanding of it. However, today, a lack of a thorough understanding of the law, as well as the risks associated with violating it, or even being accused of violating it, can be quite costly to a landlord. Therefore, if you are considering becoming a landlord, or perhaps are already in the midst of building your real estate empire, spending time studying and understanding the Federal Fair Housing Act and how it applies to you would be time well spent and it would also be a great move to align yourself with a real estate professional with a good understanding of it that can help you navigate the regulatory waters a landlord must navigate today. Continue Reading → Nearly one in every 4 home sales in St Louis (23.9%) during the 3rd quarter of 2015 were financing with an FHA loan, according to data just released by RealtyTrac. This is a slight decrease from the quarter before when 24.3% of the homes sold were financed with an FHA loan, but is an increase of 30% from a year ago when FHA financing was used on just 17.45 of the homes purchased in St Louis. Continue Reading → Since the real estate market bubble burst in 2008, the number of foreclosed homes that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has had to manage and sell to investors and new home owners has increased significantly, averaging around 100,000 homes sold per year and hitting a peak of 111,416 HUD homes sold during fiscal year 2013. Continue Reading → In case you are concerned the real estate industry is not subject to enough regulation, do not let your heart be troubled as new regulations imposed by the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which was signed into law back in 2010, affecting home mortgages go into effect October 3, 2015. Continue Reading → Within the last few days, STL Today published an article titled “The affordability crisis in the St Louis rental market”, based upon a study recently released by the Urban Institute, revealing that “there is literally no affordable, non-subsidized housing available to St. Louis low-income families.” Continue Reading → St Louis bank and government owned home sales are down as banks and government enterprises such as Fannie Mae, FHA, VA and Freddie Mac whittle down their inventory of foreclosed homes while, at the same time, new mortgage delinquencies and foreclosure rates continue to decline. While this is Continue Reading → The other day I had a client, who was planning on using FHA financing, as me if I thought she would be able to negotiate as good of a deal as if she was obtaining a conventional loan. The concern was that, as an FHA buyer, would she be perceived as a weaker buyer in the seller’s eyes since FHA’s credit and income guidelines are not as stringent as Fannie Mae, and FHA requires a smaller downpayment as well. Continue Reading → There were 437,000 new homes sold (single-family) in the U.S. last year, down from a peak of 1,283,000 in 2005. Roughly ten percent of the single-family homes sold were attached homes (44,000) and the remaining ninety-percent (393,000) were detached homes, according to data just released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Continue Reading → New home sales here in the midwest region of the U.S. occurred in April at an adjusted annual rate of 78,000 homes, an increase of 36.8 percent from the month before when new home sales activity was at the rate of 57,000 homes per year and an increase of 20 percent from April 2014 when new homes were selling at the rate of 65,000 homes a year, according to data just released by the U.S. Census Bureau and HUD. Continue Reading → Paula Anderson, a landlord who owns a two-bedroom home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, was charged with discrimination by HUD after HUD’s investigation revealed that there was cause to believe Anderson had violated the Federal Fair Housing act as follows: As described in paragraphs 7 to 25 above, Respondent Anderson violated 42 U.S.C. §§ 3604(f)(1) and (f)(2) as defined by 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B) because she discriminated in the terms, conditions, or privileges of Complainant’s tenancy and made her dwelling unavailable by refusing to allow Complainant to live with her assistance animal and daughter at the subject property when such Continue Reading → Yesterday, President Obama announced that he will, by executive order, direct FHA to lower the mortgage insurance premium charged on FHA loans to home buyer from 1.35 percent to .85 percent, lowering home buyer’s house payments by about $900 per year on average. Continue Reading → As a result of the real estate market crash in 2008 and the subsequent downturn in the economy, many homeowners with prior stellar payment records on their mortgages ended up losing their homes in foreclosure or being forced to do a short sale to get out from under it. Most of these former homeowners then became renters but have the desire to buy a home again once back on their feet. Depending upon just how severely their credit was impacted as well as whether they had a foreclosure, short sale or bankruptcy, they may have to wait as long as 7 years to obtain a home loan again. However, thanks to an FHA program called “Back to Work”, which, surprisingly, has received little attention, there is hope for these homeowners including the opportunity to obtain a home loan again without the normal waiting period if their problems were related to a job loss and they meet certain criteria. Continue Reading → St Louis New Home Sales in November 2014 increased 12.5% from November 2013 and, as would be expected given the time of year, decreased about 8% from the month before. New home sales in St Louis out performed new home sales in the Midwest Region as a whole as the region saw 4,000 new home sales in November 2014, the same as a year ago, and a decrease of 20% from the month before, according to the latest data available from the U.S. Census Bureau and HUD. The median price of new homes sold in November 2014 was $235,900, an Continue Reading → In 2010, in an effort to “help responsible homeowners who owe more on their mortgage than the value of their property”, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) began a program that allowed lenders to offer refinancing options to underwater borrowers that included a reduction in the principal amount of their mortgage to get it more in line with the current value. This program, called the “FHA Refinance of Borrowers in Negative Equity Positions (Short Refi) Program”, has helped only about 4,000 people or so reduce their loan balances, in spite of the fact that when announced Continue Reading → St Louis New Home Sales in October 2014 slipped 3.8% behind October 2013 but increased a little over 16% from the month before. The St Louis new home sales activity followed suit with the Midwest Region of the U.S. which saw a 15.8% increase in new home sales activity in October from the month before but a decline of 2.9% from October 2013, according to data just released by the U.S. Census Bureau and HUD. As the chart below shows, the median price of new homes sold in St Louis in October 2014 was $205,000 a decline of 4.7% from Continue Reading → New Home Construction in the Midwest Region of the U.S. slowed in October with new home building permits being used at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 102,000 homes, a decline of 3.8% from September but a 4.1% increase from October 2014, according to data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau and HUD. Year to date for 2014, through October, there have been 89,100 permits issued for new homes, down very slightly from the same time last year when there had been 89,400 new home permits issued. New Home Starts Fall Dramatically In The Midwest In October- Construction began on Continue Reading → Some property owners elect to sell or lease out a home or condo without engaging the services of a professional real estate agent or broker without fully understanding all the risk they are taking on. Granted, being a licensed real estate broker, I’m a little partial here, but I can honestly say that, given all the laws, rules and regulations that pertain to the sale or leasing of residential real estate, as well as the hefty fines, or even criminal charges, that can result in non-compliance, for most owners I would not suggest to go it alone. One of the Continue Reading → Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released it’s Fair Market Rent amounts for 2015 which are used for several purposes including computation of section 8 rents in a given area. The table below shows the fair market rents for 2015 for all Missouri Counties as well as Missouri Metropolitan Areas. (We work hard on this and sure would appreciate a “Like”)[iframe http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FStLouisRealEstateNews&send=false&layout=standard&width=50&show_faces=false&font&colorscheme=light&action=like&height=35&appId=537283152977556 100 35 ] Search St Louis Foreclosures Search St Louis Short Sales The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) just announced that Wells Fargo Home Mortgage has agreed to a $5 Million settlement to resolve allegations that Wells Fargo discriminated against women who were pregnant, or had recently given birth, and were on maternity leave. (Click HERE for settlement agreement) There have been a total of 190 maternity leave discrimination complaints filed with HUD against lenders in the past 4 years and those complaints have resulted in 40 settlements for a total of $1.5 million, prior to today’s settlement with Wells Fargo. (We work hard on this and sure Continue Reading → The City of St Louis was at the top of a list that you don’t really want to be on, the “Top 50 Counties with the Highest Prevalence of Man-Made Environmental Hazards“, just released this morning by RealtyTrac. The city of St Louis scored a 87.2, more than triple the score of Philadelphia (27.8) which occupies the number 2 spot on the list. In scoring locations for this list, RealtyTrac only looked at counties with a population of 100,000 or more and then ranked them based upon the % of bad air quality days, the number of Superfund sites Continue Reading → St Louis rents have risen 18% since the real estate bubble burst (based upon HUD fair market rents for 3 bedrooms) while median home prices have fallen 12% during the same period. Part of the reason behind has been the increased demand for rentals as a result of many homeowners who, after the real estate bubble burst, lost their homes in foreclosure or were forced to do a short sale and then had to seek a rental while they rebuild their credit. This, couple with almost no new apartment construction for several years has created the right environment for increasing Continue Reading → Tyler Frank,Paramount MortgageNMLS ID 942420 The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) has made some changes for 2014, which took effect January 1 and affect FHA home loans. First and foremost, you will see a drop in the maximum allowable loan. In the St. Louis metro area, for example, the new max loan amount for a single-family home has been lowered to $271,050 from $281,250. Other items of note regarding FHA have not changed; so as a refresher let’s look at FHA qualifications and rules: Borrower must put 3.5% down based on sales price. 100% of the buyer’s contribution Continue Reading → Tyler Frank,Paramount MortgageNMLS ID 942420 On January 10, 2014 the mortgage world is going to go through some changes. These changes will affect consumers and their ability to qualify for a home loan. Is it doom and gloom? Not really. A “Qualified Mortgage” or QM, is something we at Paramount Mortgage have been doing for a while. It is all about the consumer having the ability to repay the loan and verifying, to the best of our ability, through paperwork, all the facets of a loan approval. It is very possible additional paperwork may be requested Continue Reading → Midwest new home sales in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 63,000 homes, a 34.0 percent increase from September and an increase of 21.2 percent from a year ago, according to data just released by the U.S. Census Bureau and HUD. Nationally, new home sales in October were at an annual rate of 444,000 homes, an increase of 25.4 percent from the month before and an increase of 21.6 percent from a year ago. New homes sold during the month of October 2013 were sold for a median price of $245,800, a decrease of 4.5 percent from Continue Reading → As we enter the 7th day of the government shut down, concern grows among home buyers and sellers as to how this may affect the transactions here in St Louis. The short answer is that, fortunately, it appears the impact will be minimal for the most part. This morning at a meeting of the St Louis Industry Forum, which I chair, this topic was discussed and from the input of the real estate-related professions represented, it appears the impact of the government shutdown on real estate transactions here will be minimal. Shelly Clark, President of Cardinal Surveying, said that there Continue Reading → Agency relationships between a buyer or seller of a home and the real estate agent are probably one of the most confusing aspects of the real estate transaction for consumers and for many real estate agents as well for that matter. Dual agency takes the confusion to a whole new level though for the parties involved as the issue gets quite complex. At the very basic level, dual agency exists when the same real estate agent represents both the buyer and seller in the same real estate transaction (a bad idea in my humble opinion). At a more complicated Continue Reading → |
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