Troyhector

Homebuyer Nirvana: Low Prices, Low Rates

This is a great opportunity for cash-rich buyers who are the main beneficiaries of this financial crisis. They can take advantage of the weak dollar value and buy properties in busy cities and centrally located areas.
Read more.
www.housingnewslive.co...

Housing Slumps Pressure Trading

Housing boosters have forecast turnarounds repeatedly since the market peaked in 2006, only to be proven wrong by plunging prices. And skeptics say they’re wrong again now. They argue that a deeply indebted consumer, a weak job market, expiring incentives and rising foreclosures spell a quick end to any housing rebound.
Read more.
www.housingnewslive.co...

The Economic Recovery Continues

I think before any meaningful recovery in real estate prices can take root, we need to overcome three major obstacles…
"Rebound Obstacle #1: Inventory Glut. Nearly 10% of all homes built this decade are sitting vacant, compared to a historical average of 2.2%. In total, we’re sitting on almost 10 months worth of inventory versus a historical average of four months.

Rebound Obstacle #2: Loan Resets. Forget subprime. We’ve already worked through 80% of those resets and written down $1.47 trillion in the process. Now we’re facing a $2.5 trillion mountain of Alt-A loan resets. The first big wave hits mid-2011, with the peak expected to come in early 2013.
Rebound Obstacle #3: Foreclosures. One in four homeowners are now underwater. If we break it out by loan type the picture gets worse – 25% of prime loans, 45% of Alt-A loans, 50% of subprime loans are severely underwater. Add in the 6.5 million Americans out of work since the recession began and it doesn’t take an Einstein to predict where foreclosures are heading.”

www.housingnewslive.co...

Seasonal Effects in Housing Cloud Market Status

I think before any meaningful recovery in real estate prices can take root, we need to overcome three major obstacles…
"Rebound Obstacle #1: Inventory Glut. Nearly 10% of all homes built this decade are sitting vacant, compared to a historical average of 2.2%. In total, we’re sitting on almost 10 months worth of inventory versus a historical average of four months.

Rebound Obstacle #2: Loan Resets. Forget subprime. We’ve already worked through 80% of those resets and written down $1.47 trillion in the process. Now we’re facing a $2.5 trillion mountain of Alt-A loan resets. The first big wave hits mid-2011, with the peak expected to come in early 2013.
Rebound Obstacle #3: Foreclosures. One in four homeowners are now underwater. If we break it out by loan type the picture gets worse – 25% of prime loans, 45% of Alt-A loans, 50% of subprime loans are severely underwater. Add in the 6.5 million Americans out of work since the recession began and it doesn’t take an Einstein to predict where foreclosures are heading.”

www.housingnewslive.co...

Southern California Real Estate Booming Again

Experts often suggest, "In some parts of the country, homeowners have had to sell their homes for 20 percent less than they could have sold for a couple years ago."This is a great opportunity for cash-rich buyers who are the main beneficiaries of this financial crisis.

Read More: www.housingnewslive.com

Bloomberg: Real Estate Expert Says Recovery Is 'Very Fragile'

Housing boosters have forecast turnarounds repeatedly since the market peaked in 2006, only to be proven wrong by plunging prices. And skeptics say they’re wrong again now.
They argue that a deeply indebted consumer, a weak job market, expiring incentives and rising foreclosures spell a quick end to any housing rebound.

Read More:
www.housingnewslive.com

Could FICO Scoring Scheme Boost Housing Market?

Defaults from borrowers with good credit contributed to much of the increase in seriously delinquent loans, echoing data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. As the recession claims more jobs, borrowers in good standing are more likely to miss their mortgage payments.
Efforts to modify home loans have been slow and easily outpaced by the number of new delinquencies. In the first quarter, loan companies modified 185,156 mortgages, up 55 percent from the previous quarter. But the number of foreclosures in process increased to 844,389, up 22 percent.

Read More :www.housingnewslive.co...

Leading Home Price Indicators: Sacramento

"As the housing market shows signs of stabilization, home buyers are seeing their leverage over sellers dissipate, according to a new report from Zillow, a real estate information service. The report found that, nationally, buyers paid an average of 3.3 percent—or about $7,000—less than final listing prices in July, which is a substantially smaller bargain than the 4.6 percent—or $10,260—discounts they landed in January. "The strong summer selling season in 2009 has led to a decreasing difference between the last listing price and final sale price," Stan Humphries, Zillow's chief economist, said in a news release issued Wednesday."

Read More:
www.housingnewslive.com

Option ARMs: A Look at How We Got Here

Ordinary ARM loans, which are riskier than fixed-rate loans, apparently aren’t risky enough for many borrowers. The MBA says that their market share fell from 46% in the second half of 2004 to 36% in the first half of 2005. Alt-A loans are considered less risky than subprime mortgages, but usually have lower credit quality than "prime" loans. Alt-A loans were originally designed for borrowers with clean credit records, but with other issues that often meant they provided fewer documents or even no documents showing what they earned. These loans were attractive to investors in mortgage-backed securities because they offered higher yields than traditional "prime" home loans, but were underpinned by the cleaner credit records of the borrowers. However, delinquencies on Alt-A loans have risen this year, prompting action from rating agencies. Investors have become a lot less willing to buy such loans in the secondary mortgage market.

Read More www.housingnewslive.co...

What's a Home Really Worth These Days?

"Experts say this is a bad omen for residential real-estate prices and homeowners trying to sell or refinance, because the fire sales, many to cover soured subprime loans, put downward pressure on the value of nearby homes. All of this undermines federal efforts to stabilize the housing market and revive the broader economy.

"While the banks are trying frantically to get loans off their books, they face the problem of large shadow inventories of housing being dumped on the market, which would depress prices further," said Anthony Sanders, real-estate finance professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va."

Read More: www.housingnewslive.co...

Fed Manipulation of Mortgage Rates Continues

U.S. mortgage rates dipped slightly in the latest week, reaching a three-month low and remaining at levels that should continue to spur home loan demand and help the hard-hit U.S. housing market to recover.

"Interest rates on U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 5.07 percent for the week to September 10, down slightly from the previous week's 5.08 percent, according to a survey released on Thursday by home funding company Freddie Mac. That is the lowest since 4.91 percent in the week ending May 28."

Read More: www.housingnewslive.com

Foreclosures: They're Not Just for Breakfast Anymore

Foreclosures will continue to come as long as the job market does not get better. Also, borrowers who have Alt-A loan products will have those coming due in the next couple of years and many of the loans will not qualify for the current values resulting in their homes being foreclosed on. The result is that the market will be flooded with new supply, and without artificially increased demand, prices will continue to drop.

This puts forth a question whether the lawmakers are intelligently tackling the problem.

Read More: www.housingnewslive.com

Housing Bottom - Oh Really?

"The US housing market has not hit bottom and, depending on which view you take, has quite some room to move down further. The truth is that we are still in the middle of a historic crash.
There are four items in place that are tricking people into calling a bottom, when in fact three of these items are temporary. The result is an artificial restriction of supply and artificial pumping of demand.
1) It’s the seasonally strongest buying season
2) There’s a foreclosure moratorium about to end
3) Federal tax credits offered for 1st time homebuyers
4) Historically low mortgage rates (this may or may not change soon)"

Read More: www.housingnewslive.com

Slow, Albeit Favorable, Recovery

I think we’re also now at a point now where the broader economy is slowing down and unemployment is risingBut little attention has been paid to what a recession and accompanying spike in unemployment could do to a housing market already stricken by faltering sales, sinking prices, high interest rates and soaring foreclosures.

Read More: www.housingnewslive.com

Why We Should Beware Cheaper Mortgages

It is a basic premise of lending and mortgage qualification that high risk loans have higher interest rates. A golden borrower, one with excellent credit, low debt to income ratio, and a substantial down payment is a borrower who presents little risk and thus usually gets an interest rate like those that are advertised in the paper and on-line. A borrower with a sketchy credit history (and it doesn't take much to turn excellent into sketchy when it comes to credit) a combination of high debt and insufficient income, and a low down payment is going to raise lender eyebrows and lenders are going to raise the interest rates and fees charged for the loan.

Read More: www.housingnewslive.com