 |
| Register Now To Become a Short Sales Specialist! |
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Short Sales Speed Ahead Causing 5-Year Low in Foreclosure Activity
A stronger economy and housing market and an increase in short sales brought foreclosure activity in California down to the lowest level since 2007, according to a report from San Diego-based DataQuick.
The number of residential properties entering the foreclosure process, or that received a Notice of Default (NoD), totaled 49,026 in the third quarter of this year, down from 10.2 percent and a steep 31.2 percent drop from the 2011 third quarter, DataQuick revealed.
The most recently quarterly figure is the lowest since the first quarter of 2007, when 46,760 NoDs were recorded. NoDs reached a high of 135,431 in the first quarter of 2009.
Short sales in California were up, accounting for 26 percent of resale activity in the third quarter, up from 24 percent in the previous quarter and 22.9 a year ago.
“[D]uring the past year, we’ve seen short sales overtake the foreclosure process as the procedure of choice to deal with homeowner distress. That may change after New Year’s because the temporary ‘debt forgiveness’ feature in the tax code is set to expire as part of the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’,” explained John Walsh, DataQuick president.
Foreclosure resales were down in the third quarter, accounting for 20 percent of all resale activity in the state. In the second quarter of this year, foreclosure resales accounted for 27.8 percent of all resale activity and 34.2 percent a year ago. At its peak, foreclosure resales reached 57.8 percent in the first quarter of 2009.
If you have any comments or questions about short sales, please email Anna Mikaelyan at azshortsales@gmail.com or visit her website at http://www.advancedshortsales.com/
Anna's team negotiates Short Sales nationwide.
Would you like to become a Short Sales Speciliast?
Visist Anna's website to register for the next class:
Article Resource:
2013 is the Year of Short Sales!
Even though the number of foreclosure filings has risen dramatically in recent months in some parts of the country—specifically in judicial states—the ratings agency DBRS expects total foreclosure filings to show evidence of a steady decline in 2013 when compared to 2012.
This is due to “the record number of servicers that are using short sales as their primary loss mitigation tool to prevent delinquent loans from entering foreclosure,” the agency’s analysts said in a research note issued Monday.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) found evidence of such a shift as early as 2012’s first quarter. With the release of its Q1 mortgage performance report, the federal regulator noted that the number of home retention actions implemented over the January-to-March timeframe was down 36.7 percent from a year earlier, while the number of short sales increased 19.7 percent.
New short sale actions completed during the first quarter of this year totaled 59,996, according to the OCC’s latest report covering about 60 percent of all first-lien mortgages in the United States. Over the second-quarter period, another 63,403 short sale actions were completed by the 60-percent subject population.
While it will be another two-and-a-half months before theOCC releases its third-quarter mortgage performance data and mitigation numbers, anecdotal evidence from those in the field suggests the increase in short sales is likely to carry forward.
Rudimentary projections based on the quarter-to-quarter increase seen earlier this year would mean another 138,000 completed short sales during the second half of 2012 among the 60-percent first-lien population analyzed by the OCC.
DBRS believes short sales will be an effective loss mitigation tool for curbing the industry’s shadow inventory backlog of unsold REO properties. Short sales are an effective way to get the home sold without having to incur the cost of foreclosure, preparing the home for sale, paying a listing agent, and maintaining the property, therefore lowering loss severity, the agency’s analysts noted.
As a result, DBRS expects short sales to be one of the key loss mitigation techniques used in 2013 with more servicers delegating or automating their acceptance and counter offer process in order to be more responsive to short sale bids on properties.
If you have any comments or questions about short sales, please email Anna Mikaelyan at azshortsales@gmail.com or visit her website at http://www.advancedshortsales.com/
California's Median Home Price at Four-Year High!
If you're still wondering if you should keep waiting for more price drops, wonder again!
Interest rates are at an all-time LOW!
According to Warren Buffet, investing into Single Family Homes is the smartest decisions Americans could make right now for their future.
The California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.) continued to report a shortage of inventory in September, which is limiting home sales but seems to be pushing up median home prices.
According to C.A.R., the median home price in California is now at the highest level in more than four years.
The statewide median price of an existing, single-family home reached $345,000 in September, up 0.3 percent from August’s $343,820 median price. The gain was also a 19.5 percent increase from September 2011, the highest yearly gain since May 2010 and the biggest gain overall since August 2008, when the median price was $352,730. For seven straight months now, prices have been increasing monthly and yearly.
Sales, on the other hand, fell in September, sinking 5.2 percent from a revised 510,910 in August and declined 1.2 percent from a revised 490,280 a year ago.
“Sales in the inland and coastal markets continue to move in different directions. Low inventory – especially in distressed areas – is dampening sales activity,” said C.A.R. President LeFrancis Arnold.
LeFrancis added, “The Inland Empire and the Central Valley have experienced double-digit sales declines compared with last year. Meanwhile, sales were higher in San Diego and most Bay Area counties, where the economies appear to be growing faster than the rest of the state.”
Housing inventory in September increased, but still stayed below the norm of a six- to seven-month supply. The Unsold Inventory Index for existing, single-family homes stood at 3.7 months in September, up from a revised 3.2 months in August and 5.3 months in a year ago, according to C.A.R.
“For the state, at 3.7 months of supply, unsold inventory is still less than half what it would be in a normal market,” said C.A.R. VP and chief economist Leslie Appleton-Young.
Appleton-Young continued, explaining that a constrained supply at the moderate and lower end of the market has led to a nearly 28 percent drop in sales of homes priced under $200,000 and a more than 15 percent drop in sales for homes priced between $200,000 and $300,000.
However, Appleton-Young said homes in the upper price range, where inventory isn’t as much of an issue, saw increases. “[S]ales of homes priced $400,000-$500,000 rose more than 14 percent, and those priced above $500,000 increased more than 15 percent,” she noted.
If you have any comments or questions about short sales, please email Anna Mikaelyan at azshortsales@gmail.com or visit her website at http://www.advancedshortsales.com/
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Fast Help For Homeowners (FHFH) Act, H.R. 6153 Introduced To Speed Up Short Sales
Congressman Jerry McNerney (D-Stockton) introduced the Fast Help For Homeowners (FHFH) Act, H.R. 6153, to help speed up the short sale process, a necessary step to addressing the housing crisis. McNerney’s bill was met with broad bipartisan support and industry endorsements.
“For far too long, the housing downturn has challenged our region. My bill is one commonsense step we can take to help shore up the housing market and provide much-needed relief for homeowners. Our region has been ground zero for the housing crisis, and I am committed to fighting for folks in our communities who have been hit hard,” said McNerney.
The Fast Help For Homeowners Act requires a second mortgage lender of a federal mortgage loan to review and make a decision on a short sale agreement within 45 days. If the lender does not make a decision within that time frame, the short sale will be deemed approved on the 46th day.
Short sales can help both lenders and homeowners. Often, it is far less costly for a lender to negotiate a short sale agreement than go through the foreclosure process. A short sale is also less damaging to a homeowner’s credit score than a foreclosure.
The Fast Help For Homeowners Act has broad industry support, receiving the endorsements of the: National Association of Realtors; California Association of Realtors; Central Valley Association of Realtors; NeighborWorks Home Ownership Center, Sacramento Region; California Association of Real Estate Brokers (CAREB); and Stockton NID Housing Counseling Agency.
“The National Association of REALTORS applauds Congressman McNerney for his efforts to improve the short sale process and provide distressed homeowners an alternative to foreclosure. NAR stands ready to collaborate with Congressman McNerney and Congress to enact legislation that will help homeowners stave off foreclosure.” – Maurice “Moe” Veissi, President of the National Association of REALTORS.
“C.A.R. applauds Congressman McNerney for introducing this common-sense piece of legislation. California REALTORS® support the FHFH Act because it will require subordinate lien holders to respond to short sale offers in a fair and reasonable amount of time, ensuring distressed properties are brought to market and aiding in the recovery of the general economy.” – LeFrancis Arnold, President of the California Association of Realtors.
If you have any comments or questions about short sales, please email Anna Mikaelyan at azshortsales@gmail.com or visit her website at http://www.advancedshortsales.com/
Monday, August 27, 2012
Your Future is a Short Sale Away - Start Packing Now!
Seats are filling up for this Thursday's Short Sale Class!
Click Here to Register: http://shortsaleintro.eventbrite.com/
Click Here to Register: http://shortsaleintro.eventbrite.com/
New Short Sale Guidelines from Fannie and Freddie
The new measures announced by FHFA will have to be followed by mortgage servicers. These will consolidate the current short sale programs into one streamlined program and enable lenders and servicers to promptly and easily get eligible borrowers for short sale.
As part of the new set of rules, property owners with mortgages from either of these two GSEs will be able to short sale their homes despite making timely payments of interest and principal if they have an eligible hardship (death of a borrower or co-borrower, divorce, disability or relocation for a job). The servicers will be able to allow short sales without any additional permission from these GSEs.
Moreover, both GSEs will be lowering the number of documents required to complete a short sale, thereby aiding those homeowners who are in danger of foreclosure. Further, it would also improve the efficiency of the servicers in completing a short sale.
In addition, the servicers will make guidelines clearer and more uniform, leading to faster processing and execution of short sales. Further, the GSEs will offer a maximum of $6,000 to the holders of the second liens (once the short sale is complete), so that mortgage holders do not haggle over the proceeds of the sale.
Moreover, while approving the short sale of property, servicers would evaluate the ability of the homeowner to pay the difference between the balance loan amount and the current sale price of the home. In cases where the property owner has the ability to pay the differential amount, the GSEs will waive off the right to follow deficiency judgment.
Though the FHFA did not provide any projections related to the number of homeowners eligible for the new short sale initiative, there are about 4.6 million borrowers with mortgages backed by GSEs. Out of these, approximately 80% have not missed any loan payments.
The new short sale guidelines are a part of the FHFA’s Servicing Alignment Initiative that is expected to simplify the GSEs plan for short sales and other modes to prevent foreclosures. In framing the new streamlined short sale process, the FHFA and the GSEs worked in collaboration with the National Association of Realtors (:NAR). The NAR believes that improving the short sale procedure would help homeowners avert foreclosures and also stabilize the value of residential property going forward.
However, one of the biggest fall-outs of the additional short sales is expected to be for those banks that have provided second mortgages to the borrowers. They will have to record losses on home-equity loans. Some of the major providers of second liens include Wall Street biggies – JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Bank of America Corporation (BAC), Citigroup Inc. (C) and Wells Fargo & Company (WFC).
Nevertheless, the new short sale process is also expected to be in the larger interest of the overall housing sector and economy. In addition, the real estate agents and home owners planning to sell their property would also benefit from this simplified process.
If you have any comments or questions about short sales, please email Anna Mikaelyan at azshortsales@gmail.com.
(this article can be found on yahoo - http://finance.yahoo.com/news/short-sale-guidelines-gses-194435152.html )
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)