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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.
Getting a Mortgage Before the Door Shuts
March 7, 2011 By
If you have been sitting on the fence trying to decide whether to buy a new house or refinance a mortgage, you should act soon. New loans are starting to get costlier.
The mortgage market is facing pressures from new laws and regulations, still-declining home prices and the ongoing need for government-owned mortgage players to shore up their finances. The Mortgage Bankers Association predicts mortgage originations, which reached $3 trillion in 2005, will be less than $1 trillion this year, the lowest level since 1997.
“The price of mortgage money is going to go up, and the availability of mortgage money may also be impinged,” says Keith Gumbinger, vice president at HSH Associates, which tracks mortgage data.
The silver lining is that the rate for a 30-year fixed loan is hovering around 5% for those with good credit. That is up about a percentage point from last year’s lows but is still an attractive rate by historical standards, though expected to keep climbing as the economy improves.
Home prices in some areas are still falling, but they are bottoming out or firming up in others. It may not be the perfect time to buy a home—but better mortgage options today may be a worthy trade-off to the possibility of lower prices tomorrow.
Still not convinced? Consider the following:
• New costs.Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which provide liquidity to the mortgage market by buying mortgages and selling securities backed by them, are adding new fees to loans to people with the best credit and raising existing loan fees. Freddie’s new fees start March 1, while Fannie’s kick in April 1.
Read the full article here
Why 2011 May Be the End of the Housing Crash
March 6, 2011 By
One of many relevant articles or in this case videos testifying as to why now might be a good time to buy a home. I would love to hear your thoughts…
There might finally be some good news this year about the nation’s dismal housing market. Or, at least, the bad news could stop.
Either way, it will be welcome relief for current homeowners as well as for potential real-estate investors. Reasons to be optimistic have been sadly lacking since the housing bubble burst in 2006.
For sure, last week we learned the widely watched S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index fell 1% in December, its fifth straight decline. The index tracks 20 major markets.
Read the full article here
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
Boom’s Home-Ownership Gains Lost
February 11, 2011 By
By DAWN WOTAPKA
The meltdown of the U.S. mortgage market and rising foreclosures have wiped out more homeowners than were created in the 2000-07 housing boom, some industry watchers say, the latest indication of the severity of the housing bust.
In the fourth quarter of 2010, 66.5% of Americans owned homes, down from 67.2% a year earlier and the lowest rate since the end of 1998, according the Census Bureau. During the boom, when easy credit made mortgages available with less regard for income or ability to pay, the ownership rate surged to a record 69.2% in 2004′s second and fourth quarters and stayed near that level until the recession deepened.
Some industry watchers expect the rate to slip below 65% as the housing market meltdown forces millions more Americans to give up their homes.
That “shows how big the bubble was and how catastrophic the bursting has been,” said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist with Capital Economics. “We have pretty much reversed all of the increases in the home-owner rate generated by the housing boom.”
The nation’s homeownership rate gained 0.8 percentage points from 2000 to 2007, but has lost 1.3 percentage points since 2007, erasing the boom’s gains, said Stephen East, a Ticonderoga Securities housing analyst.
Read the full article here…
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 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.
2011 housing market will be pancake flat
February 8, 2011 By
A BOLD PREDICTION…
By Les Christie, staff writerJanuary 26, 2011: 12:43 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Housing markets will remain flat, flat, flat in 2011, according to forecasts from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
The organization, which represents more than 80% of the nation’s mortgage business, predicts that overall home sales will inch down 0.1% during the year. Sales of existing homes will fall 1% to 4.82 million, and new home sale will rise 10% to 358,000.
The MBA attributes the sales decline mostly to slow economic recovery and high unemployment. Until hiring picks up, the market will continue to struggle.
The MBA has also reduced its forecast due to recent credit liability issues affecting banks, according to its chief economist, Jay Brinkmann.
Investors in mortgage backed securities have started demanding that lenders repurchase loans that are in default. The threat of having to repurchase these loans has made banks reluctant to lend, especially, Brinkmann said, to borrowers without the highest qualifications.
Read the full article here…
Curbing Closing Costs
February 7, 2011 By
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…
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…