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Home resales fall 9.6% in February and prices are near 9-year low – LA Times Online

March 26, 2011 By

By Jeffry Bartash – LA Times online – March 21, 2011, 2:33 p.m. view the entire article here
The National Assn. of Realtors data reflect a continued slump in the real estate market. One bright spot is that first-time buyers accounted for 34% of home sales last month, up from 29% in January.

Washington —— Sales of previously owned homes dropped 9.6% in February and prices fell to their lowest level since 2002, reflecting a continued slump in the U.S. real estate market.

The National Assn. of Realtors on Monday said home resales dropped to an annual rate of 4.88 million from an upwardly revised 5.4 million in January. The data is seasonally adjusted.

Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected sales to drop to a rate of 5.1 million.

Sales of new and used homes have been down in the dumps since a housing market bubble burst during the recession. High unemployment, combined with stricter lending standards, have made it harder for Americans to buy homes despite low interest rates.

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IRS eases rules on property liens for delinquent taxpayers

March 5, 2011 By

The amount of back taxes a person can owe before facing a possible lien will be doubled to $10,000. Small firms with up to $25,000 in delinquent tax bills will be eligible for two-year payment plans.
Associated Press- February 24, 2011, 2:21 p.m.

The Internal Revenue Service says it’s trying to help people who are struggling to pay delinquent tax bills, so it’s reducing the number of property liens and easing rules for small businesses to enter into installment agreements.

As the economy has soured, the agency has filed an increasing number of liens on property owned by delinquent taxpayers. The IRS filed nearly 1.1 million liens in the fiscal year that ended in September, compared with 426,000 in 2001.

The steps announced Thursday will double the amount of back taxes a person can owe to $10,000 before facing a possible lien. Previously, taxpayers who owed at least $5,000 and ignored numerous IRS notices would get an automatic lien placed on their property.

The change will make it easier for people to have liens withdrawn once tax bills are paid or they start paying under certain installment plans. More taxpayers can settle their tax debt for less than they owe, if they meet certain income and debt requirements.

Small businesses with larger delinquent tax bills will be eligible for 24-month payment plans. Previously, the tax bill had to be less than $10,000; now it’s up to $25,000.

The agency believes the changes “will help people trying to get right with their taxes and we think it strikes the right balance to protect the interests of the government,” said Doug Shulman, the IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said.
Read the original article here

Filed Under: Short Sale Updates, What's New? Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

U.S. Home Prices Slump Again, Hitting New Lows

February 9, 2011 By
A home in Atlanta, one of the metropolitan areas where prices fell

A home in Atlanta, one of the metropolitan areas where prices fell to new lows in this economic cycle.


By DAVID STREITFELD
Published: January 25, 2011

A new slide in housing prices has begun in earnest, with averages in major cities across the country falling to their lowest point in many years.
Multimedia

Prices in 20 major metropolitan areas slid 1 percent in November from October, according to the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index released Tuesday. The index has fallen 1.6 percent from a year ago.

Nine of the 20 cities in the index sank in November to new lows for this economic cycle: Chicago; Las Vegas; Detroit; Atlanta; Seattle; Charlotte, N.C.; Miami; Tampa; Fla.; and Portland, Ore. Only a handful of places — essentially, California and the District of Columbia — went counter to the trend and had rising prices over the last year.

Whether the long-predicted double dip is looming or has already arrived is a quibble of semantics.

David M. Blitzer, chairman of S.& P.’s Index Committee, does not count a downturn as a double dip until it exceeds the previous low. The index is still 3.3 percent above the low it reached in April 2009. Mr. Blitzer thinks a double dip could be confirmed before spring.

“We shouldn’t kid ourselves,” he said. “The last few months have been weak.”

Cities that were never mainstays of the boom are suffering unduly in this latest bust. Atlanta, Chicago and Portland have dropped more than 7 percent over the last year, with much of the tumble in October and November.

By this point, the problems in the housing market are well known. Builders built too much, lenders lent too much, and people bought too much. The binge was epic and so is the hangover.

Click here for the full article.

Filed Under: first time home buyers, Selling your Home, What's New? Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Curbing Closing Costs

February 7, 2011 By
30mort-graphic-articleLarge

By Lynnlee Browning – NYTimes
Published January 27, 2011

BORROWERS have some weapons for keeping closing costs down, the result of recent guidelines requiring lenders to disclose certain fees, but perhaps the most underutilized consumer tool simply involves old-fashioned haggling.

Good-faith estimate rules, part of a tougher Truth in Lending Act that emerged from the mortgage crisis, mean that lenders must provide a clear picture of the costs involved in buying or refinancing a home. Yet consumers may not realize that some of those numbers are actually negotiable, mortgage experts say.

“There’s a lot of room for negotiation in the costs of closing,” said Barry Zigas, the director of housing policy at the Consumer Federation of America, a consumer advocacy group, “and consumers should examine every charge and not hesitate to challenge them and try to bring them down.”

Closing costs can run a borrower 3 to 6 percent of the price of a property, according to the Federal Reserve. In 2010, the average cost for a $200,000 purchase rose by nearly 37 percent, to $3,741, according to Bankrate.com, a financial data publisher; the average in New York State was $5,623.

Read the full article here…

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5 steps to first-time-buyer happiness

February 5, 2011 By

Finding best home depends on preapproval, agent
By Dian Hymer, Inman News
Posted: 01/27/2011 11:13:51 AM PST
Updated: 01/27/2011 11:43:05 AM PST

The first step in the homebuying process is to find out what you can afford to pay for a house, condo or co-op. This will depend on the amount of cash you have available for a down payment, your credit, income, assets and overall financial situation.
Mortgage qualification is easier for buyers who work as employees whose income can be easily verified. Self-employed individuals or buyers with income from investments may find the qualification process more difficult.

A wrinkle in the financing end of the homebuying process is that it’s not as easy to get a preapproval letter from your mortgage broker or loan agent as it used to be. As of Jan. 1, 2010, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) began requiring lenders and mortgages brokers to issue a binding Good Faith Estimate (GFE) within three days of receiving a loan application.

Before then, buyers shopped around for a mortgage. When they saw a house they wanted to buy, they asked their loan agent or broker to provide a preapproval letter to accompany their purchase offer. The loan person would run a credit check and verify the buyers’ income and assets without, in many cases, taking a formal loan application. On the basis of this information, a preapproval letter was written.

Read the full article here

Additionally; this article fits in well with the Orange County Market Update Video that we shoot weekly, and it’s our tip of the week. Check out our Anaheim Hills Market Update here…

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California home sales hit 7-month high in December

January 30, 2011 By

os Angeles Business from bizjournals – by Elizabeth Kim , the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal
Date: Friday, January 21, 2011, 12:00pm PST

California home sales rose in December to their highest level since May, according to a report Friday from the California Association of Realtors, as the inventory of unsold homes dwindled.

December’s sales were up 5.9 percent from November’s revised figure of 491,590 but were down 6.8 percent from the revised 558,840 of December 2009.

The unsold inventory index for existing, single-family detached homes was 5 months in December, down from 6.2 months in November but up from 3.8 months in December 2009. The index indicates the number of months needed to deplete the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate.

Read more: California home sales hit 7-month high in December | Los Angeles Business from bizjournals – Full Story – Click Here…

Filed Under: Selling your Home, What's New? Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

When mortgage rate locks expire… New York Times

January 27, 2011 By
09mort-graphic-articleLarge

New York Times

As mortgage rates have edged higher, many borrowers have been locking in loan rates for a home purchase or refinancing.

A lock-in agreement — also called a rate lock or rate commitment — protects against sudden spikes in interest rates by freezing the terms of a loan while it is being processed, which could ultimately save a borrower tens of thousands of dollars in interest costs over the life of the loan.

Read the full story here

A hot topic in our Orange County market with the recent holidays and appraisal challenges that we continue to experience… well worth your read.

Filed Under: Financing, first time home buyers, Selling your Home, What's New? Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Home seizures by banks decline in state

January 26, 2011 By
Trash litters the front yard of a bank-owned home in Phoenix. Arizona was among the states hardest hit by the housing meltdown. (Joshua Lott, Reuters / January 13, 2011)

Los Angeles Times

While foreclosures climbed 2% nationally, California saw a 14% drop. But California’s high unemployment rate and resetting loans mean the fall in foreclosure activity could be brief.

Fewer Californians grappled with foreclosure last year, bucking a national trend and giving homeowners fresh hope that the state’s housing market could be on the mend.

Trash litters the front yard of a bank-owned home in Phoenix. Arizona was among the states hardest hit by the housing meltdown. (Joshua Lott, Reuters / January 13, 2011)

Fewer Californians grappled with foreclosure last year, bucking a national trend and giving homeowners fresh hope that the state’s housing market could be on the mend.

The 14% drop in foreclosure activity contrasted with a 2% rise nationally, according to data tracking firm RealtyTrac. Analysts noted that California’s housing market was among the first to falter and may now be among the first to recover. Home prices here hit bottom in April 2009, and have gradually risen since then.

Read the full story

If you follow my blog at all… I have a few questions for you. How can anyone know what media forum is correct? Did you see my post yesterday about 1 million homes foreclosed in 2011? While this article is more geographically specific, I would question how accurate is this data, and is it really an issue or a concern to me?

Rather than have uncertainty in the future market, ask yourself, how long am I going to live in my next home? How comfortable am I with my current job, with my current mortgage or rent payment? We have no control over the market; however we as consumers have full control over our individual plans, thoughts and actions.

Filed Under: first time home buyers, Selling your Home, Short Sale Updates, What's New? Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

1 million homes repossessed in 2010

January 25, 2011 By
chart_repo.top

CNN Money – recent post:

Foreclosures were at a record high in 2010, and more than 1 million people lost their homes, even as notices started leveling off during the end year.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Foreclosures were at a record high in 2010, and more than 1 million people lost their homes, even as notices started leveling off during the end year.

In total, there were nearly 2.9 million foreclosure notices filed during the year, according to report released Thursday by RealtyTrac. That was a record high, but just 1.7% above 2009.

read the full story

A few key comments in the article address the temporary hold on foreclosures during the 4th quarter of last year, which will lead to increased foreclosure activity 1st and 2nd quarter this year, along with the challenges the banks are experiencing with squatters moving into the vacant properties. Great information!!!

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Existing home sales jump 12 percent

January 23, 2011 By

As seen on… CNN Money – By Blake Ellis, staff reporterJanuary 20, 2011: 11:01 AM ET

Sales of existing homes jumped in December, marking the fifth month of gains in the past six months, based on an industry report released Thursday.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Sales of existing homes jumped in December, marking the fifth month of gains in the past six months, based on an industry report released Thursday.

Previously-owned home sales climbed 12.3% in December to an annual rate of 5.28 million, from 4.70 million in November, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Read the full story here

Great information; however this is not local. Experience shows that the Orange County market has one of the quietest Decembers in years past. January is off to an amazing start and it’s expected that the unit’s sold this month will be close to record highs. What does this mean to you? If you are an entry level buyer in Orange County, be prepared. Be Pre-Approved and be in a position to make a decision when the time comes. If you have specific questions about what you will need to do, simply send me a quick email and I’m happy to help you any way that I’m able.

Filed Under: first time home buyers, Selling your Home, Short Sale Updates, What's New? Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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