CalHFA mortgage aid program for jobless begins

On Monday, more than two months behind schedule, the California Housing Finance Agency will begin taking applications for a federally funded program that will give some unemployed homeowners up to $18,000 each over six months to pay their mortgage.

To qualify, homeowners must meet income and other restrictions and their loan servicer must participate in the program. As of Friday, only three servicers had signed up, but CalHFA expects to have up to 10 by the end of this week.

Read the full article here

A very controversial topic right now… what is the benefit to stay current on your mortgage? What happens if the borrower is unable to get a job thereafter? The challenge that I have is that there are no principle reductions or streamline refinance programs available for those that are in good standing, or those on the edge or becoming late or behind due to job curtailment, loss of income, reduced bonuses, changes in interest rates… etc. Very unique times we are experiencing right now. I’m curious, what are your thoughts?

Home seizures by banks decline in state

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.

When will housing come back in California? Five experts offer their views

In Mission Crest, 373 homes — nearly 40% of those in the housing development — had been lost at one point to foreclosure, the San Bernardino County assessor's office said. About 100 lots had been left graded and bare. (Katie Falkenberg, For The Times / May 18, 2010)

A Great Article about market recovery as seen in the LA Times. – By Alejandro Lazo

Foreclosures in the state are still high. Sales of new homes are at historic lows. And millions of homeowners are underwater on their mortgages. So what’s the outlook for 2011 and beyond?

In Mission Crest, 373 homes — nearly 40% of those in the housing development — had been lost at one point to foreclosure, the San Bernardino County assessor's office said. About 100 lots had been left graded and bare. (Katie Falkenberg, For The Times / May 18, 2010)

As housing recoveries go, this one is in need of a cure.

Homeownership — and the buying and selling of residences — is an economic keystone that carries overwhelming weight in Californians’ personal sense of financial well-being.

But the momentum of the state’s housing rebound has faltered, with sales falling and prices softening despite bargain-basement interest rates. Foreclosures in California are still high. Sales of new homes are at historic lows. The construction sector is in the doldrums. And millions of the state’s homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth.

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Real estate historically has helped give a boost to economies exiting a recession, but the severity of this bust is nearly unprecedented: Californians have lost $1.73 trillion worth of equity in their homes since prices peaked in 2007, according to Moody’s Economy.com.

Although California’s housing market free-fall ended in spring 2009, the weakness after the expiration of federal tax credits for buyers last year has called into question the sustainability of the recovery.

The Times asked five California experts for their take on the state of real estate and what they think is needed to get the housing market moving again. They range from the pessimism of a foreclosure specialist to the decidedly more upbeat view of a Realtor association economist.

• Richard Green, director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, predicts home prices will remain flat in 2011.

California’s recovery will hinge on location, said Green, who held professorships at several universities and worked as a principal economist at Freddie Mac before becoming director of the Lusk center.

“Draw a line from El Centro up to Sacramento and think of all the towns up and down that line. Unless we have hyperinflation in general in the economy — prices going up a lot — I would guess that in my lifetime we will not see a return to the prices that we had at the peak,” Green said.

“Now, places like La Jolla, Malibu, Laguna, Huntington Beach, Atherton, Palo Alto, the city of San Francisco, Marin County, those are places where within the next five years I could easily imagine prices returning to their peak.”

“The markets in the Central Valley were much more bubbly than the markets on the coast,” he said. “You have very few people who make a lot of money in these places.”

“Whereas a place like Silicon Valley, or a place like West Los Angeles, there is a critical mass of very high-income people.… That means you have a large number of people who can afford to spend in the neighborhood of $1 million on a house, and these are desirable places.”

“The more a property is a commodity that you can easily substitute for something else, the less the chance it will ever come back to its peak. The rarer a property is, the more likely it’s going to come back quickly.”

• Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the California Assn. of Realtors, predicts home prices will rise 2% in 2011.

There are few professionals who would like more to see the housing market bounce back to the heady days of old than Realtors. Real estate agents made a killing when the housing market soared and then took a pounding when it tanked.

During the boom years, Appleton-Young said, she espoused the theory that rising prices mattered more than making solid loans. That theory appeared correct as long as values kept rising.

“What happened this time was prices plummeted and everyone was in trouble,” she said.

These days, the economist sees little chance of the market returning to its previous heights anytime soon.

“We are in a very slow-moving recovery with prices stabilized at the moderate and low end,” Appleton-Young said. “We are still seeing price attrition and price softening at the upper ends of the market.”

2011 will be lackluster, she said, but that does not mean California is not improving.

“We are almost two years into a price recovery. The problem is not to look at 2007 as the normal market that you are moving back up to, because it wasn’t a normal market. We are back in an underwriting environment that actually makes sense.”

“You are seeing prices recovering throughout the state,” she added. “It is just going to take time.”

• Bruce Norris, president of Norris Group in Riverside, expects home prices to fall 5% in 2011.

The real estate slump has been good to Norris, an investor in foreclosed homes. But he believes the market is being artificially boosted by government programs and is set to fall further this year.

“We are in an artificial recovery,” Norris said. “It’s government controlled and manipulated. We have extremely favorable interest rates that we really should not have, based on our debt. We have supported real estate with tax rebates, and we have prevented inventory from showing up by allowing people to be two and three years behind on their mortgages.”

Foreclosed homes, in particular, are being kept off the market through loan modification attempts and other policies.

“You’ve had a slew of programs trying to prevent inventory from showing up, and that prevents reality from happening,” Norris said. “It’s definitely standing in the way of the natural process.”

What does the housing market need most?

“Demand for houses,” Norris said. “Somebody able to qualify for a loan and actually being able to get it. And that’s why it is not going to happen.”

• Emile Haddad, chief executive of FivePoint Communities Inc., expects home prices to “stabilize” in 2011 but declined to make a specific price prediction.

Determining whether the housing market is on steady footing is essential to developers such as Haddad, the former chief investment officer for Lennar Corp. Haddad, along with Lennar, is now part owner of FivePoint, which is managing the development of the Valencia community in Los Angeles County and other high-profile projects. He believes a recovery has yet to take hold in California.

“We are bumping along the bottom,” Haddad said. “And that is a good thing, because that is the first thing that you need in order to start seeing a housing recovery. You need to have a period where values are not going down and the trend is moving in a different direction.”

California’s coastal markets will come back once the job market returns, he said, lifting consumer confidence. But California’s inland areas are more likely to lag behind, and builders will have to reconsider the kind of product they offer in such places.

“In the Central Valley, values have changed a lot,” Haddad said. “You are not going to be able to really have enough depth in the market to sell large, expensive homes, because the ceiling of value is way down.”

“If you pick on a market like Orange County,” he said, “it is still a place that once people feel confident…. I believe people will be out buying homes.”

Affordability is working in the market’s favor.

“We have a mortgage environment that is more favorable — the rates are down — but people are not able to get mortgages, and that is not helping. The most important thing we need is jobs and job creation.”

“Affordability is something I look at, and obviously that is a very attractive metric right now…. There is a value proposition out there right now that is very attractive, that we haven’t seen in four decades.”

• Christopher Thornberg, founding principal of Beacon Economics, predicts home prices will remain flat in 2011.

Once a senior economist for the UCLA Anderson Forecast, Thornberg was one of the first to predict the housing crash, pointing to prices that were way out of line with what people earned.

In that vein, he views the plunge in home values as its own recovery of sorts “because that is when prices went from stupid-high levels to levels that made sense again,” Thornberg said. “Now we are in a post-recovery recovery, if you will.”

“This is not the bust. A bust implies that prices have fallen to levels that are too low. And I would argue that prices today are relatively high. It’s interest rates that have given us this degree of affordability, and from that perspective that is why I don’t expect prices to come down.”

Since helping found Beacon in 2006, Thornberg has become chief economist for state Controller John Chiang and chair of the Controller’s Council of Economic Advisors. He serves on the advisory board of New York hedge fund Paulson & Co. He has been a forceful critic of the Obama administration’s policy attempts to right the market.

“The administration has tried, through a variety of policy methods, to try and spike the market,” he said.

alejandro.lazo@latimes.com
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

Bank of America to resume foreclosures

By Aaron Smith, staff writer – NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) —

Bank of America said earlier last month that it was ending its hiatus on foreclosure sales, and promised to get its act together after a series of sloppy home seizures prompted the bank to back off and re-examine its process.

“We have identified areas of our process that can be improved and while we make these improvements, it’s important that we move ahead with efforts to reduce the number of abandoned properties across the country,” said Barbara Desoer, president of Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) Home Loans, in a statement. “The properties can drag home values in neighborhoods and slow the eventual recovery of the housing market.”

The bank said it plans to proceed with 16,000 foreclosures this month, though it will observe a “holiday suspension” of sales and evictions from Dec. 20 to Jan. 2. Freddie Mac (FMCC) and Fannie Mae (FNMA) have announced a similar holiday freeze.

The Bank of America action ends the “voluntary freeze” that the bank initiated in October, after a series of messy real estate mistakes. They included the foreclosure of a house that was owned outright by someone who had paid cash, without any mortgage at all, as reported by the Sun Sentinel of Florida.

In another case, the bank shut off the utilities of a Pittsburgh homeowner and seized her pet parrot, despite the fact that she was current on her payments.

“We continue to be committed to ensuring that no property is taken to foreclosure sale until our Bank of America customer is given an opportunity to be evaluated for a modification or, if ineligible for a modification, a short sale or deed in lieu solution,” said Desoer. “Foreclosure is the option of last resort.”


Last month, Desoer said the bank “deeply regrets” the way it handled some of its foreclosures.

The bank reiterated that “more than 86% of the bank’s home loans are current on their mortgage,” which means that less than 14% of home owners are not current.

The bank also reiterated that “at the point of foreclosure sale, one-third (of the) properties it services are vacant.”

Short Sales Resisted as Foreclosures Are Revived

oshua Lott for The New York Times GMAC declined a short sale for Lydia Sweetland's home.

While it’s a very long article, it’s a great read. I have to believe that the biggest challenge that we may not know is when was the offer submitted to the lender. Experience shows that if it’s too far into the foreclosure process, a lot of banks won’t consider the offer! Wells Fargo, Chase and Aurora Loan Servicing have a clearly stated and detailed policy as to when they will no longer consider offers that are presented to them.

I’m curious, do you know something or have you heard of anything new on these sales???

Published: October 24, 2010
PHOENIX — Bank of America and GMAC are firing up their formidable foreclosure machines again today, after a brief pause.

oshua Lott for The New York Times GMAC declined a short sale for Lydia Sweetland's home.

But hard-pressed homeowners like Lydia Sweetland are asking why lenders often balk at a less disruptive solution: short sales, which allow owners to sell deeply devalued homes for less than what remains on their mortgage.

Ms. Sweetland, 47, tried such a sale this summer out of desperation. She had lost her high-paying job and drained her once-flush retirement savings, and her bank, GMAC, wouldn’t modify her mortgage. After seven months of being unable to pay her mortgage, she decided that a short sale would give her more time to move out of her Phoenix home and damage her credit rating less than a foreclosure.

She owes $206,000 and found a buyer who would pay $200,000. Last Friday, GMAC rejected that offer and said it would foreclose in seven days, even though, according to Ms. Sweetland’s broker, the bank estimates it will make $19,000 less on a foreclosure than on a short sale.

“I guess I could salute and say, ‘O.K., I’m walking, here’s the keys,’ ” says Ms. Sweetland, as she sits in a plastic Adirondack chair on her patio in the Phoenix neighborhood known as Pasadena. “But I need a little time, and I don’t want to just leave the house vacant. I loved this neighborhood.”

GMAC declined to be interviewed about Ms. Sweetland’s case.

The halt in most foreclosures the last few weeks gave a hint of hope to homeowners like Ms. Sweetland, who found breathing room to pursue alternatives. Consumer advocates took the view that this might pressure banks to offer mortgage modifications on better terms and perhaps drive interest in short sales, which are rising sharply in many corners of the nation.

But some major lenders took a quick inventory of their foreclosure practices and insisted their processes were sound. They now seem intent on resuming foreclosures. And that could have a profound effect on many homeowners.

In Arizona, thousands of homeowners have turned to short sales to avoid foreclosures, and many end up running a daunting procedural gantlet. Several of the largest lenders have set up complicated and balky application systems.

Concerns about fraud are one of the reasons lenders are so careful about short sales. Sometimes well-off homeowners want to portray their finances as dire and cut their losses on a property. In other instances, distressed homeowners try to make a short sale to a relative, who would then sell it back to them (a practice that is illegal). A recent industry report estimates that short sale fraud occurs in at least 2 percent of sales and costs banks about $300 million annually.

Short sales are also hindered when homeowners fail to forward the proper papers, have tax liens or cannot find a buyer.

Because of such concerns, homeowners often are instructed that they must be delinquent and they must apply for a modification first, even if chances of approval are slim. The aversion to short sales also leads banks to take many months to process applications, and some lenders set unrealistically high sales prices — known as broker price opinions — and hire workers who say they are poorly trained.

As a result, quite a few homeowners seeking short sales — banks will not provide precise numbers — topple into foreclosure, sometimes, critics say, for reasons that are hard to understand. Ms. Sweetland and her broker say they are confounded by her foreclosure, because in Arizona’s depressed real estate market, foreclosed homes often sit vacant for many months before banks are able to resell them.

“Banks are historically reluctant to do short sales, fearing that somehow the homeowner is getting an advantage on them,” said Diane E. Thompson, of counsel to the National Consumer Law Center. “There’s this irrational belief that if you foreclose and hold on to the property for six months, somehow prices will rebound.”

Homeowners, advocates and realty agents offer particularly pointed criticism of Bank of America, the nation’s largest servicer of mortgages, and a recipient of billions of dollars in federal bailout aid. Its holdings account for 31 percent of the pending foreclosures in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and Scottsdale, according to an analysis for The Arizona Republic.

The bank instructs real estate agents to use its computer program to evaluate short sales. But in three cases observed by The New York Times in collaboration with two real estate agents, the bank’s system repeatedly asked for and lost the same information and generated inaccurate responses.

In half a dozen more cases examined by The New York Times, Bank of America rejected short sale offers, foreclosed and auctioned off houses at lower prices.

“When I hear that a client’s mortgage is held by Bank of America, I just sigh. Our chances of getting an approval for them just went from 90 percent to 50-50,” said Benjamin Toma, who has a family-run real estate agency in Phoenix.

Bank of America officials also declined interview requests. A Bank of America spokeswoman said in an e-mail that the bank had processed 61,000 short sales nationwide this year; she declined to provide numbers for Arizona or to discuss criticisms of the company’s processing.

Fannie Mae, the mortgage finance company with federal backing, gives cash incentives to encourage servicers, who are affiliated with banks and who oversee great bundles of delinquent mortgages, to approve short sales.

But less obvious financial incentives can push toward a foreclosure rather than a short sale. Servicers can reap high fees from foreclosures. And lenders can try to collect on private mortgage insurance.

Some advocates and real estate agents also point to an April 2009 regulatory change in an obscure federal accounting law. The change, in effect, allowed banks to foreclose on a home without having to write down a loss until that home was sold. By contrast, if a bank agrees to a short sale, it must mark the loss immediately.

Short sales, to be sure, are no free ride for homeowners. They take a hit to their credit ratings, although for three to five years rather than seven after a foreclosure. An owner seeking a short sale must satisfy a laundry list of conditions, including making a detailed disclosure of income, tax and credit liens. And owners must prove that they have no connection to the buyer.

Still, bank decision-making, at least from a homeowner’s perspective, often appears arbitrary. That is certainly the view of Nicholas Yannuzzi, who after 30 years in Arizona still talks with a Philadelphia rasp. Mr. Yannuzzi has owned five houses over time, without any financial problems. When his wife was diagnosed with bone cancer, he put 20 percent down and bought a ranch house in North Scottsdale so that she would not have to climb stairs.

In the last few years, his wife died, he lost his job and he used his retirement fund to pay his mortgage for five months. His bank, Wells Fargo, denied his mortgage modification request and then his request for a short sale.

The bank officer told him that Fannie Mae, which held the mortgage, would not take a discount. At the end of last week, he was waiting to be locked out of his home.

“I’m a proud man. I’ve worked since I was 20 years old,” he said. “But I’ve run out of my 79 weeks of unemployment, so that’s it.”

He shrugged. “I try to keep in the frame of mind that a lot of people have it worse than me.”

Back in Phoenix, Ms. Sweetland’s real estate agent, Sherry Rampy, appeared to receive good news last week. GMAC re-examined her client’s application and suggested it might be approved.

But the bank attached a condition: Ms. Sweetland must come up with $2,000 in closing costs or pay $100 a month for 50 months to the bank. Ms. Sweetland, however, is flat broke.

A late afternoon desert sun angles across her Pasadena neighborhood.

“After this, I’ll never buy again,” Ms. Sweetland says. “This is not the American dream. This is not my American dream.”

A version of this article appeared in print on October 25, 2010, on page A1 of the New York edition.

Banks seize 288K homes in Q3, but challenges await!

In this March 24, 2009 file photo, a sign lies on the ground in front of a foreclosed home in Homestead, Fla. Officials in 49 states have launched a joint investigation into allegations that mortgage companies mishandled documents and broke laws in foreclosing on hundreds of thousands of homeowners.

By ALEX VEIGA, AP Real Estate Writer
Thursday, October 14, 2010 – J Pat Carter / AP

In this March 24, 2009 file photo, a sign lies on the ground in front of a foreclosed home in Homestead, Fla. Officials in 49 states have launched a joint investigation into allegations that mortgage companies mishandled documents and broke laws in foreclosing on hundreds of thousands of homeowners.

Lenders seized more U.S. homes this summer than in any three-month stretch since the housing market began to bust in 2006. But many of the foreclosures may be challenged in court later because of allegations that banks evicted people without reading the documents.

A total of 288,345 properties were lost to foreclosure in the July-September quarter, according to data released Thursday by RealtyTrac Inc., a foreclosure listing service. That’s up from nearly 270,000 in the second quarter, the previous high point in the firm’s records dating back to 2005.

Banks have seized more than 816,000 homes through the first nine months of the year and had been on pace to seize 1.2 million by the end of 2010. But fewer are expected now that several major lenders have suspended foreclosures and sales of repossessed homes until they can sort out the foreclosure-documents mess.

On Wednesday, officials in 50 states and the District of Columbia launched a joint investigation into the matter.

Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac, noted that legal challenges are likely. But he doubts many will be successful in overturning foreclosures. He said he expects foreclosures to resume and predicts about 1 million homes will be taken back this year.

“The bottom line is not that those properties won’t be repossessed,” Sharga said. “They simply won’t be repossessed as quickly. We’re simply delaying the inevitable.”

Experts say if lenders resume foreclosures in a couple of months or so, the delay will amount to a temporary lull followed by a spike in home repossessions early next year.

But if the crisis drags on for months and more lenders stop seizing homes, the foreclosure delays could last well into next year. That could have a severe effect on home sales and prices.

A freeze in foreclosure sales between now and December by a majority of lenders could amount to removing 30 percent of all home sales for that period, Sharga suggests.

“You would virtually guarantee that tens of thousands of properties would miss going to market in time for the spring, which is the peak buying season for real estate,” Sharga said.

Nearly 600,000 bank-owned homes are not yet on the market, according to RealtyTrac.

The states most affected by the foreclosure freeze accounted for 40 percent of all foreclosure activity in the third quarter and 36 percent of homes taken back by lenders, the firm estimates. Sales of homes by lenders made up 18 percent of all U.S. home sales in September, the firm said.

Other experts say delays from the foreclosure documents problem won’t end up having a huge impact on home sales or housing values.

Foreclosed homes that would have been sold by lenders now will be sold seven or eight months from now, and prices will start going declining about 3 percent to 4 percent nationally, on average, when those sales take place, said Andres Carbacho-Burgos, an economist at Moody’s Economy.com.

That’s good news if you’re a homeowner looking to sell in the near term, because there won’t be as much competition from deeply discounted foreclosed properties, Carbacho-Burgos said.

“But if you were looking to sell further down the line, that’s not so good news,” he said.

Economic woes, such as unemployment or reduced income, continue to be the main catalysts for foreclosures this year.

While bank repossessions rose in the third quarter, new defaults continued to decline.

Some 269,647 properties received default notices, the first step in the foreclosure process, down 1 percent from the second quarter and down 21 percent from the same period last year, according to RealtyTrac, which tracks notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions and home repossessions.

In all, 930,437 homeowners received a foreclosure-related warning between July and September, up nearly 4 percent from the second quarter but down 1 percent from the same period last year, RealtyTrac said. The latest tally translates to one in 139 U.S. homes.

AP Real Estate Writer Alan Zibel contributed from Washington to this report.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/10/13/financial/f210144D21.DTL#ixzz12khYnT1L

C.A.R. 2011 California Housing Market Forecast

FOR RELEASE – Monday, Oct. 4, 2010

CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® releases its California Housing Market Forecast for 2011:
Small increases projected in both home sales and median home price

LOS ANGELES (Oct. 4) – A weaker-than-expected economic recovery will result in a projected decline in California home sales for 2010, although home sales are expected to edge up slightly in 2011, according to the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) “2011 California Housing Market Forecast” released today.

California home sales for 2010 are forecast to decline 10 percent from the 2009 sales figure of 546,500 homes sold. Sales in 2011 are projected to increase a lackluster 2 percent to 502,000 units compared with 492,000 units (projected) in 2010. After two consecutive years of record-setting price declines, the median home price in California will climb 11.5 percent in 2010 to $306,500 and increase another 2 percent in 2011 to $312,500, according to the forecast.

“California’s housing market will see small increases in both home sales and the median price in 2011 as the housing market and general economy struggle to find their sea legs,” said C.A.R. President Steve Goddard. “The minor improvement in the housing market next year will be driven by the slow pace of recovery in the economy and modest job growth. Distressed properties will figure prominently in the market next year, but we also expect to see discretionary sellers play a larger role,” he said.

“As the U.S. economy continues its tepid recovery, we’ll see some improvement in California’s economy,” said C.A.R. Vice President and Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. “We expect a net jobs increase of approximately 1.4 million jobs in California for the year to come and an improvement in unemployment figures,” she said.

“The situation in the California housing market continues to be a tale of two housing markets,” said Goddard. The segment of the market under $500,000 has been driven by distressed sales, while higher-priced areas of the state have been constrained by restricted financing options, and increasingly have experienced an increase in the number of distressed properties. Sales in the low end have been constrained by a lack of inventory, putting upward pressure on prices. Multiple offers on lower-end homes have been very common, according to Goddard.

“A lean supply of available homes for sale will drive prices up at the low end, but larger inventories and limited, less attractive financing will cause continued softness at the high end,” said Appleton-Young. “There’s some indication that lenders will accelerate the number of foreclosures coming on market, further adding to the housing supply, but we do not anticipate that lenders will flood the market with distressed properties,” she said.

“The wild cards for 2011 include federal housing policies, actions of underwater homeowners, and the strength of the economic recovery,” said Appleton-Young. “What is certain is that favorable home prices and historically low interest rates will continue to make owning a home in California attractive for those who are in a position to buy,” she said.

An expanded forecast presentation will be presented Wednesday afternoon during the CALIFORNIA REALTOR® EXPO 2010 (http://expo.car.org/), running from Oct. 5-7 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif. The trade show attracts nearly 7,000 attendees and is the largest state real estate trade show in the nation.

Don’t miss “2010 Econ Panel: The Future of Real Estate Finance and Your Market in 2011” during CALIFORNIA REALTOR® EXPO 2010. C.A.R. Vice President and Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young will lead a panel of renowned economists as the experts share their predictions on what the changing economy means for real estate. Panelists include: Richard Green, professor and director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate; John Karevoll, housing analyst at Dataquick Information Systems; and Michael LaCour-Little, professor and director of the California State University, Fullerton Real Estate and Land Use Institute. The panel is scheduled to be held Thursday, Oct. 7, from 2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. at the Anaheim Convention Center.

2011 FORECAST FACT SHEET

 

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010f

2011f

SFH Resales (000s)

  625.0

   477.5

346.9

439.8

546.5

492.0

502.0

% Change

0.03%

-23.6%

-27.3%

26.8%

24.3%

-10.0%

2.0%

Median Price ($000s)

$522.7

$556.4

$560.3

$346.4

$275.0

$306.5

$312.5

% Change

16.0%

6.5%

0.7%

-38.2%

-20.6%

11.5%

2.0%

30-Yr FRM

5.9%

6.4%

6.3%

6.0%

5.1%

4.7%

5.1%

 1-Yr ARM

4.5%

5.5%

5.6%

5.2%

4.7%

3.9%

4.1%

The C.A.R. Expo is this week at Anaheim Convention Center… Make sure you check out REBarCamp and Tech Tuesday! I’m sure these will be well worth your time! On a side note… what do you think as far as the projections and information presented above? I would love to hear your thoughts… simply send me a comment below.

September consumer confidence sagged to its lowest levels since February… cont

The L.A. Times shared this great article from Reuters on September 28, 2010.

September consumer confidence sagged to its lowest levels since February, driven by deteriorating labor market and business conditions, according to a private report released Tuesday.

The Conference Board, an industry group, said its index of consumer attitudes fell to 48.5 in September from a revised 53.2 in August.

“September’s pull-back in confidence was due to less favorable business and labor market conditions, coupled with a more pessimistic short-term outlook,” said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center.

The median of forecasts from analysts polled by Reuters was for a main September reading of 52.5. Forecasts ranged from 48.0 to 55.0.

The August reading was revised down slightly from an original 53.5.

Consumers’ labor market assessment worsened. The “jobs hard to get” index rose to 46.1 from 45.5, while the “jobs plentiful” index decreased to 3.8 from 4.0.

Separately, a U.S. Business Roundtable survey found the number of CEOs who expect their companies’ sales and U.S. headcount to rise over the six months declined in September.

The group’s CEO Economic Outlook Index declined to 86 from 94.6 in the third quarter, but remained well above the 50 mark, which separates forecasts of growth from expectations of decline.

Inflation expectations eased slightly, even after the Federal Reserve has said it is ready to take action to keep yields down in an effort to stimulate growth. Consumers’ oneyear inflation expectations edged down to 4.9 percent from 5.0 percent the previous month.

The expectations index slipped to 65.4 from 72.0 last month.

The present situation index slipped to 23.1 from 24.9 in August.

Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fiw-consumer-confidence-20100929,0,3084951.story

Incredible Single Story with Amazing Improvements…

CIMG2878


span id=”ctl00_C_lblPropertyDescription”>Incredible home nestled in the heart of Anaheim Hills in the highly sought after community of “Shadow Run”. This Warmington home offers a generous free-flowing floor-plan which is nicely appointed with upgrades throughout. Some of the spectacular improvements include newer exterior paint and dual pane windows, an updated kitchen with white-washed kitchen cabinets, recessed lighting, coffered ceilings, garden window, modern appliances and custom tile flooring; a great breakfast nook with open beam ceilings and a large bay window.  In addition to a formal living room with open beam ceiling, plantation shutters and neutral paint, a stacked stone fireplace and custom French doors enhance the family room.  The master includes updated wood casement windows, his and her vanity, large soaking tub and tile flooring. The grounds are gorgeous as they offer a concrete deck with brick and wrought iron accents, block wall planters, a beautiful custom patio cover and much, much more.  


Price: $599,900

Address:399 S. Silverbrook Lane Anaheim Hills, CA. 92807

Bedrooms: 3

Bedrooms: 2

Square Feet: 1987

View additional information and photos of this property on your phone: text jsimons5 to 444888


div>For additional information, to schedule your private showing please call: 888.878.4909 ext 30


Are you or someone you know thinking about selling your home?  Request a free report, the 10 dumbest things that smart sellers do when selling their home.  Simply click here and fill out the form, your report will be sent out immediately. 

Foreclosure Trends Report from Realty Trac

This is the most recent update available directly from Realty Trac… please feel comfortable giving me a call should you have any questions about the market or if you would like a simply interpretation of the data and what it means to you!

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Nationwide Agent Network

Agent Photo
Jeffrey Simons
181 S. Old Springs Rd.,
Anaheim Hills,
CA
92808
I am available to assist you in purchasing a foreclosure property or another property best suited to your needs. Buying or selling, I am here to act as your local real estate specialist.
Phone: 714-746-8103
Email: jeff@jeffreysimons.com
September 2010
Vol 4 Issue 18
6 month California Foreclosure Trends
NOD
NTS
NFS
LIS
REO

Search for Investment Properties>

California Foreclosure Activity Slows Down in July

Foreclosure activity in California decreased 3 percent in July to 66,910 properties with foreclosure filings, 38 percent below the level reported in July 2009, according to the latest RealtyTrac® U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.

“It is easy to understand why California continues to dominate in total foreclosures even while foreclosure activity as a whole continues to decline on both a monthly and yearly basis when you consider that the state has the largest population and the most housing units in the country,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.
Complete Story

Cash Flow Crazy: A Real Estate Investor Story

By Daren Blomquist

Minneapolis-area resident Mark Kozikowski sold his business three years ago and started investing in real estate full time. He specializes in buying distressed buildings at a discount so he can renovate them and then rent them out for the long-haul with a nice monthly cash flow. Kozikowski uses RealtyTrac as his primary source for finding the distressed properties he purchases.

“A lot of people think I’m crazy when I tell them what I do, and I actually think I got into this at a good time,” he said. “Because I’m buying more toward the bottom and finding a lot of good deals on distressed properties.”
Complete Story

Here are some of the most recent Investment opportunities in the area.


Pre-Foreclosure
S Larkwood St
Anaheim,
CA 92808
  • Market Value
  • Default Amount
  • $480,342
  • $12,263
  • Beds/Bath
  • Sq. FT
  • 3/1
  • 0

Property Type Address Market Value Default Sq. Ft.  
Bank-Owned
S Glenhurst Dr,
Anaheim, CA 92808
$248,772 N/A 1,061

GET DETAILS
Auction
Auction Date: 11/15/10
E Margaret Ct,
Anaheim, CA 92808
$346,046 N/A 1,546

GET DETAILS
View more properties in Orange County

Is Mortgage Relief In Your Future?

There’s a little voice you might have heard, the one which says it’s great that the government is trying to help people facing foreclosure but what about you and me?

In July the typical borrower helped by the Making Home Affordable program was paying $513 less for their mortgage, a 36 percent decline. That’s good, and yet there’s that little voice. As much as I like my fellow citizens, why can’t the government help you and me save some mortgage money each month?

In fact, such an idea is now on the table.


Complete Story

Foreclosure Trends : June, 2010
National California Orange CTY
NODs 38,033 25,068 1,543
NTSs 93,328 31,045 1,868
NFSs 38,761 0 0
LISs 58,194 0 0
REOs 85,527 13,001 501
Search for Investment Properties
Foreclosure Terms
Notice of Default (NOD)

A non-judicial document filed by a trustee that starts the foreclosure process. More about NOD

Lis Penden (LIS)

Notification of pending lawsuit. A judicial document filed by an attorney or trustee that starts the foreclosure process. More about LIS

Auction / Notice of Trustee’s Sale (NTS)

A filing by notice announcing a public auction. More about NTS

Notice (Judgment) of Foreclosure Sale (NFS)

An order signed by a judge directing to sell the property at public auction. More about NFS

Real Estate Owned (REO)

The final step in foreclosure process in which property ownership returns to lender. More about REOs




30 yr fixed mtg 4.37% 15 yr fixed mtg 3.82% 5/1 ARM 3.54%