When asked "Are we at the bottom of the market?" it is always impossible to tell until we are already there. But, here is a very interesting video about what one county is doing to try and move their foreclosure supply. We may still have a ways to go on this wild ride....
Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572
p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Government Launches New Mortgage Aid Effort.
from the Fox 10 website.....
Once again, the government has offered another plan to help troubled homeowners. Once again, critics say it doesn't go far enough.
The plan announced Tuesday by federal officials and mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sounds sweeping in its approach: Borrowers would get reduced interest rates or longer loan terms to make their payments more affordable.
But there's a catch. The plan focuses on loans Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee. They are the dominant players in the U.S. mortgage market but represent only 20 percent of delinquent loans.
Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., said the plan "falls short of what is needed to achieve wide-scale modifications of distressed mortgages."
With the government spending billions to aid distressed banks, "we must also devote some of that money to fixing the front-end problem: too many unaffordable home loans," Bair said in a statement.
Democrats on Capitol Hill aren't satisfied, either. "When the loan is chopped up into a million pieces and any investor can block a modification from happening, a program like this will only scratch the surface of the mortgage crisis," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
The economic crisis is still unnerving Wall Street. Stocks fell again as investors found few industries safe from the consumer spending slump. With Starbucks Corp. and luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc. both posting disappointing quarterly results, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down nearly 180 points.
The financial crisis took on a new dimension on Capitol Hill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for "emergency and limited financial assistance" for the battered auto industry and urged the outgoing Bush administration to join lawmakers in reaching a quick compromise during a postelection session of Congress.
The new mortgage assistance plan was announced by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which seized control of Fannie and Freddie in September, and other government and industry officials.
Officials say they hope the new approach, which takes effect Dec. 15, will become a model for loan servicing companies that collect mortgage payments and distribute them to investors. These companies have been roundly criticized for being slow to respond to a surge in defaults.
James Lockhart, director of the housing finance agency, urged investors to "rapidly adopt this program as the industry standard."
Still, government officials had no estimate of how many homeowners would be able to qualify. Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee nearly 31 million U.S. mortgages, or nearly six of every 10 outstanding. But they have far lower overall delinquency rates -- under 2 percent.
To qualify, borrowers would have to be at least three months behind on their home loans and would have to owe 90 percent or more than the home is worth. Investors who do not occupy their homes would be excluded, as would borrowers who have filed for bankruptcy.
Qualified borrowers would get help in several ways: The interest rate would be reduced so that they would not pay more than 38 percent of their gross income on housing expenses. Another option is for loans to be extended to 40 years from 30, and for some of the principal to be deferred, interest-free.
Though lenders have beefed up their efforts to aid borrowers over the past year, their action hasn't kept up with the worst housing recession in decades.
More than 4 million American homeowners, or 9 percent of borrowers with a mortgage, were either behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of June, according to the most recent data from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Indeed, Tuesday's announcement comes too late for Troy Courtney, a 44-year-old San Francisco police officer.
He moved out of his home in Mill Valley, Calif., earlier this month -- taking his children, three dogs and one cat with him -- after failing at several attempts to get a loan modification or a short sale. A short sale occurs when the lender agrees to receive less than the loan is worth.
Courtney worked overtime and tapped into his retirement account to try to catch up with two loans on his home. But in the end, he couldn't persuade Countrywide Financial, which managed the loan for Wells Fargo, to modify the loan.
"I feel like I missed the boat," he said of the new efforts to help more homeowners. "I'm just mad at the whole system."
One reason the problem has been so tough to solve for borrowers such as Courtney is that the vast majority of troubled loans were packaged into complex investments that have proved extremely hard to unwind.
Deutsche Bank estimates more than 80 percent of the $1.8 trillion in outstanding troubled loans have been packaged and sold in slices to investors worldwide. Most of those loans won't likely be helped by the new plan.
The rest are "whole loans," which are easier to modify because they have only one owner.
Still, after more than a year of slow and weak initiatives, there seems to be a serious effort among major retail banks to get at the heart of the credit crisis: falling U.S. home prices and record foreclosures.
Citigroup said Monday it is halting foreclosures for borrowers who live in their own homes, have decent incomes and stand a good chance of making lowered mortgage payments.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. last month expanded its mortgage modification program to an estimated $70 billion in loans, which could aid as many as 400,000 customers. The bank already has modified about $40 billion in mortgages, helping 250,000 customers since early 2007.
Starting Dec. 1, Bank of America Corp. plans to modify an estimated 400,000 loans held by newly acquired Countrywide Financial Corp. as part of an $8.4 billion legal settlement reached with 11 states in early October.
Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572
p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!
from the Fox 10 website.....
Once again, the government has offered another plan to help troubled homeowners. Once again, critics say it doesn't go far enough.
The plan announced Tuesday by federal officials and mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sounds sweeping in its approach: Borrowers would get reduced interest rates or longer loan terms to make their payments more affordable.
But there's a catch. The plan focuses on loans Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee. They are the dominant players in the U.S. mortgage market but represent only 20 percent of delinquent loans.
Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., said the plan "falls short of what is needed to achieve wide-scale modifications of distressed mortgages."
With the government spending billions to aid distressed banks, "we must also devote some of that money to fixing the front-end problem: too many unaffordable home loans," Bair said in a statement.
Democrats on Capitol Hill aren't satisfied, either. "When the loan is chopped up into a million pieces and any investor can block a modification from happening, a program like this will only scratch the surface of the mortgage crisis," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
The economic crisis is still unnerving Wall Street. Stocks fell again as investors found few industries safe from the consumer spending slump. With Starbucks Corp. and luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc. both posting disappointing quarterly results, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down nearly 180 points.
The financial crisis took on a new dimension on Capitol Hill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for "emergency and limited financial assistance" for the battered auto industry and urged the outgoing Bush administration to join lawmakers in reaching a quick compromise during a postelection session of Congress.
The new mortgage assistance plan was announced by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which seized control of Fannie and Freddie in September, and other government and industry officials.
Officials say they hope the new approach, which takes effect Dec. 15, will become a model for loan servicing companies that collect mortgage payments and distribute them to investors. These companies have been roundly criticized for being slow to respond to a surge in defaults.
James Lockhart, director of the housing finance agency, urged investors to "rapidly adopt this program as the industry standard."
Still, government officials had no estimate of how many homeowners would be able to qualify. Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee nearly 31 million U.S. mortgages, or nearly six of every 10 outstanding. But they have far lower overall delinquency rates -- under 2 percent.
To qualify, borrowers would have to be at least three months behind on their home loans and would have to owe 90 percent or more than the home is worth. Investors who do not occupy their homes would be excluded, as would borrowers who have filed for bankruptcy.
Qualified borrowers would get help in several ways: The interest rate would be reduced so that they would not pay more than 38 percent of their gross income on housing expenses. Another option is for loans to be extended to 40 years from 30, and for some of the principal to be deferred, interest-free.
Though lenders have beefed up their efforts to aid borrowers over the past year, their action hasn't kept up with the worst housing recession in decades.
More than 4 million American homeowners, or 9 percent of borrowers with a mortgage, were either behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of June, according to the most recent data from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Indeed, Tuesday's announcement comes too late for Troy Courtney, a 44-year-old San Francisco police officer.
He moved out of his home in Mill Valley, Calif., earlier this month -- taking his children, three dogs and one cat with him -- after failing at several attempts to get a loan modification or a short sale. A short sale occurs when the lender agrees to receive less than the loan is worth.
Courtney worked overtime and tapped into his retirement account to try to catch up with two loans on his home. But in the end, he couldn't persuade Countrywide Financial, which managed the loan for Wells Fargo, to modify the loan.
"I feel like I missed the boat," he said of the new efforts to help more homeowners. "I'm just mad at the whole system."
One reason the problem has been so tough to solve for borrowers such as Courtney is that the vast majority of troubled loans were packaged into complex investments that have proved extremely hard to unwind.
Deutsche Bank estimates more than 80 percent of the $1.8 trillion in outstanding troubled loans have been packaged and sold in slices to investors worldwide. Most of those loans won't likely be helped by the new plan.
The rest are "whole loans," which are easier to modify because they have only one owner.
Still, after more than a year of slow and weak initiatives, there seems to be a serious effort among major retail banks to get at the heart of the credit crisis: falling U.S. home prices and record foreclosures.
Citigroup said Monday it is halting foreclosures for borrowers who live in their own homes, have decent incomes and stand a good chance of making lowered mortgage payments.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. last month expanded its mortgage modification program to an estimated $70 billion in loans, which could aid as many as 400,000 customers. The bank already has modified about $40 billion in mortgages, helping 250,000 customers since early 2007.
Starting Dec. 1, Bank of America Corp. plans to modify an estimated 400,000 loans held by newly acquired Countrywide Financial Corp. as part of an $8.4 billion legal settlement reached with 11 states in early October.
Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572
p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!
Friday, November 07, 2008
These are interesting graphs, they show data about how many homes are selling. Just as they were 2 years ago, 10% of homes are selling monthly. So, things are moving out there.
Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572
p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!
Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572
p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!
Here is a video of one of my preferred lenders, Brian Yampolsky, Co-Owner of Orion Mortgage. He talks about the 1st time home buyer tax credit in this video and I wanted to share this with you.
Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572
p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!
Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572
p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!
Monday, November 03, 2008
This is a great chart that I got from the Talon Group. It shows you home sales for the month of October and how many were bank owned properties.
This table shows you details about home sales, REO sales and their median prices.
10/1/2008-10/31-2008
City Total Sales REO Sales* % REO Sales* Median Price REO Price*
Phoenix 1274 624 49% $128,500 $99,700
Mesa 424 163 38% $157,000 $128,000
Scottsdale 319 67 21% $388,250 $270,000
Queen Creek 316 144 46% $126,000 $119,950
Glendale 294 146 50% $149,000 $120,500
Gilbert 289 98 34% $231,000 $191,000
Surprise 277 126 45% $162,500 $153,250
Chandler 240 68 28% $229,250 $179,750
Peoria 186 67 36% $217,000 $180,000
Avondale 156 90 58% $145,450 $135,900
Buckeye 137 88 64% $120,000 $114,500
Goodyear 126 54 43% $165,000 $147,500
Tempe 82 13 16% $223,000 $138,000
Tolleson 73 45 62% $139,900 $130,900
*REO = Bank owned homes
Homes are selling. And if you are in a position to buy an investment property, now is the time. Call me about what is available today!
Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572
p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!
This table shows you details about home sales, REO sales and their median prices.
10/1/2008-10/31-2008
City Total Sales REO Sales* % REO Sales* Median Price REO Price*
Phoenix 1274 624 49% $128,500 $99,700
Mesa 424 163 38% $157,000 $128,000
Scottsdale 319 67 21% $388,250 $270,000
Queen Creek 316 144 46% $126,000 $119,950
Glendale 294 146 50% $149,000 $120,500
Gilbert 289 98 34% $231,000 $191,000
Surprise 277 126 45% $162,500 $153,250
Chandler 240 68 28% $229,250 $179,750
Peoria 186 67 36% $217,000 $180,000
Avondale 156 90 58% $145,450 $135,900
Buckeye 137 88 64% $120,000 $114,500
Goodyear 126 54 43% $165,000 $147,500
Tempe 82 13 16% $223,000 $138,000
Tolleson 73 45 62% $139,900 $130,900
*REO = Bank owned homes
Homes are selling. And if you are in a position to buy an investment property, now is the time. Call me about what is available today!
Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572
p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Here is an article from Friday's paper. I thought this was interesting data and wanted to pass it on:
Here's a shocker: Almost half of Nevada homeowners with a mortgage owe more to the bank than their homes are worth. Here's another: If you add in the homeowners like them in California, Arizona, Florida, Georgia and Michigan, together they account for nearly 60 percent of all homeowners who are 'underwater' on their mortgages. Nationwide, almost one out of every five homeowners with a mortgage owes more to their lender than their properties are worth. But if you subtract those states, the rate drops to about one in 10, according to a report released Friday by First American CoreLogic. The new data underscore the staggering scope of the U.S. housing recession, but also the challenges that government officials face in designing a massive new program to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, with layoffs soaring and the economy sinking. Some experts predict the problem will get much worse.
Nationally, home prices are already down about 20 percent from their peak in mid-2006. By the time the housing market hits bottom, prices may be down 40 percent from the top, leaving 40 percent of homeowners underwater, according to Nouriel Roubini, economics professor at New York University. 'There is a huge incentive to walk away from your mortgage,' said Roubini, who has attracted attention for his gloomy — and accurate — predictions of the U.S. financial market meltdown. He gave no forecast for when the real estate market would bottom out. Another pessimistic analyst, Desmond Lachman of the American Enterprise Institute, said that 'unless there's government intervention on a big scale … we're really not going to bottom.'
The problem is much worse in far-flung suburban neighborhoods where builders flooded the market with new homes and buyers put down small, or no, down payments, said Mark Fleming, First American CoreLogic's chief economist. In desirable urban neighborhoods and close-in suburbs, 'a lot of people bought their homes years ago. It's much more difficult for them to be in a negative equity situation.' Fleming said. Rising mortgage rates are also making matters worse for prospective borrowers. The rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.46 percent this week, up sharply from 6.04 percent last week, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. Higher rates coupled with lower home values mean fewer people can tap their home equity. The percentage of U.S. homeowners who pulled cash out of their homes remained at a four-year low in the third quarter, Freddie Mac said. While some underwater borrowers certainly will lose their homes to foreclosure absent a massive — and successful — government refinancing plan, many will continue to make their payments and wait for values to recover. And of course roughly 30 percent of Americans own their homes outright.
Still, it remained unclear whether the government would be able to do much for many borrowers in trouble, especially given the amount of time to start up a new program. 'Certainly it can't hurt,' Bernard Baumohl, chief economist at the Economic Outlook Group in New Jersey. 'How much it's going to help is an open question.' On Thursday, White House press secretary Dana Perino tried to dispel reports that the Bush administration is near agreement on a plan to help about 3 million homeowners avoid foreclosure. Perino said several different ideas are on the table, and that no announcement is imminent. The plan, widely expected to be run by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., would be the most aggressive effort yet to limit damage from the U.S. housing recession.
Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572
p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!
Here's a shocker: Almost half of Nevada homeowners with a mortgage owe more to the bank than their homes are worth. Here's another: If you add in the homeowners like them in California, Arizona, Florida, Georgia and Michigan, together they account for nearly 60 percent of all homeowners who are 'underwater' on their mortgages. Nationwide, almost one out of every five homeowners with a mortgage owes more to their lender than their properties are worth. But if you subtract those states, the rate drops to about one in 10, according to a report released Friday by First American CoreLogic. The new data underscore the staggering scope of the U.S. housing recession, but also the challenges that government officials face in designing a massive new program to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, with layoffs soaring and the economy sinking. Some experts predict the problem will get much worse.
Nationally, home prices are already down about 20 percent from their peak in mid-2006. By the time the housing market hits bottom, prices may be down 40 percent from the top, leaving 40 percent of homeowners underwater, according to Nouriel Roubini, economics professor at New York University. 'There is a huge incentive to walk away from your mortgage,' said Roubini, who has attracted attention for his gloomy — and accurate — predictions of the U.S. financial market meltdown. He gave no forecast for when the real estate market would bottom out. Another pessimistic analyst, Desmond Lachman of the American Enterprise Institute, said that 'unless there's government intervention on a big scale … we're really not going to bottom.'
The problem is much worse in far-flung suburban neighborhoods where builders flooded the market with new homes and buyers put down small, or no, down payments, said Mark Fleming, First American CoreLogic's chief economist. In desirable urban neighborhoods and close-in suburbs, 'a lot of people bought their homes years ago. It's much more difficult for them to be in a negative equity situation.' Fleming said. Rising mortgage rates are also making matters worse for prospective borrowers. The rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.46 percent this week, up sharply from 6.04 percent last week, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. Higher rates coupled with lower home values mean fewer people can tap their home equity. The percentage of U.S. homeowners who pulled cash out of their homes remained at a four-year low in the third quarter, Freddie Mac said. While some underwater borrowers certainly will lose their homes to foreclosure absent a massive — and successful — government refinancing plan, many will continue to make their payments and wait for values to recover. And of course roughly 30 percent of Americans own their homes outright.
Still, it remained unclear whether the government would be able to do much for many borrowers in trouble, especially given the amount of time to start up a new program. 'Certainly it can't hurt,' Bernard Baumohl, chief economist at the Economic Outlook Group in New Jersey. 'How much it's going to help is an open question.' On Thursday, White House press secretary Dana Perino tried to dispel reports that the Bush administration is near agreement on a plan to help about 3 million homeowners avoid foreclosure. Perino said several different ideas are on the table, and that no announcement is imminent. The plan, widely expected to be run by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., would be the most aggressive effort yet to limit damage from the U.S. housing recession.
Yours to Count On,
Erika Madsen
Real Estate Consultant
Re/Max Power Realty
"Your Advisory Team" Founder/Manager
480-695-6572
p.s. if you or anyone you know is considering a move in the current real estate market- you deserve an agent who has a strong knowledge to help you succeed! Visit http://www.PhoenixAreaMls.com/ to learn more about Your Advisory Team & Our Performance GUARANTEES!!
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