Thursday, November 29, 2012

Home Prices Rise 1.1 percent in Q3

U.S. house prices rose 1.1 percent in the third quarter compared with the second quarter, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) seasonally adjusted purchase-only house price index (HPI). The HPI is calculated using home sales price information from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages. Seasonally adjusted house prices rose 4 percent year over year. FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index for September was up 0.2 percent from August.
 
FHFA’s expanded-data house price index, a metric introduced in August 2011 that adds transactions information from county recorder offices and the Federal Housing Administration to the HPI data sample, rose 1.0 percent over the latest quarter. Over the latest four quarters, the index is up 3.3 percent. For individual states, price changes reflected in the expanded-data measure and the traditional purchase-only HPI are compared on pages 21-23 of this report.

While the national, purchase-only house price index rose 4 percent from the third quarter of 2011 to the third quarter of 2012, prices of other goods and services rose 1.5 percent over the same period. Accordingly, the inflation-adjusted price of homes rose approximately 2.5 percent over the latest

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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Four Year Old Christian Holds Court At The Top Of Bumblebee

Watch out For Christian.. He takes no prisoners!

Brought to you by: OCrider.com 

Santiago Oaks Trifecta

Saturday November 24, 2012

Trifecta: Three. Three solid climbs on this ride. And the third day of our four day Thanksgiving weekend.

The Santiago Oaks was a little quiet this morning. Maybe many were not as lucky as us to have the day off.

OC Rider rode Nov 24, 2012 Santiago Oaks Trifecta

Saturday, November 24, 2012 in Orange, CA

Distance 8.0 miles - Time 01:01:02 - Elevation 1,310ft 


Established in 2004, OCRider.com serves a group of people devoted to the enjoyment of bicycling, fitness and friendship in and around our great Orange County, California. Our members are at all levels of bike fitness, from hammerheads to pleasure riders. We don't discriminate on ability and we do enjoy our common bond; the love of cycling. If you like to bike and meet new friends then we encourage you to join us. There are no dues or fees and we are not a non-profit organization, and for that matter we are not a for-profit organization either. We just like biking (and getting our pictures on the Internet!)





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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

California's Most Affordable Counties


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Friday, November 16, 2012

New short-sale program offers relief for underwater homeowners

Freddie Mac warns of bogus landlords renting out foreclosed homes
The Fannie-Freddie program allows short sales for owners who are current on loan payments but are encountering a hardship that could force them into default.



November 11, 2012

WASHINGTON — Though there are still some snares and drawbacks for participants, one of the federal government's most important financial relief efforts for underwater homeowners started operating Nov. 1.

It's a new short-sale program that targets the walking wounded among borrowers emerging from the housing downturn — owners who owe far more on their mortgages than their current home value but have stuck it out for years, resisted the temptation to strategically default and never fell seriously behind on their monthly payments.


Industry estimates put the number of underwater owners across the country at just under 11 million, or 22% of all homes with a mortgage. Of these, about 4.6 million have loans that are owned or securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Eighty percent of these Fannie-Freddie borrowers, in turn, are current on their mortgage payments and meet the baseline eligibility test for the new short-sale effort.



Here's how the program works and where the potential snares are. Traditionally short sales, where the lender agrees to accept less than the full amount owed and the house is sold to a new purchaser at a discounted price, are associated with extended periods of delinquency by the original owner. The new Fannie-Freddie program — designed by the companies' overseer, the Federal Housing Finance Agency — breaks with tradition by allowing short sales for owners who are current on their payments but are encountering a hardship that could force them into default.


Say you are deeply underwater on your mortgage and recently lost your job or had your work hours reduced. Under the new program, you can contact your mortgage servicer and ask to participate in a Fannie-Freddie short sale for non-delinquent borrowers. You'll need to find a qualified buyer for the house, typically with the help of a real estate broker or agent knowledgeable about short sales who will list the property and obtain an offer and communicate the details and documentation to the servicer. If the proposed short-sale package is acceptable, the deal would then proceed to closing weeks — or months — later.

Eligible hardships under the new program run the gamut: job loss or reduction in income; divorce or separation; death of a borrower or another wage earner who helps pay the mortgage; serious illness or disability; employment transfer of 50 miles or greater; natural or man-made disaster; a sudden increase in housing expenses beyond the borrower's control; a business failure; and a you-name-it category called "other," meaning a serious financial issue that isn't one of the above.

Borrowers who take part in the new program can expect to rid themselves of the money-devouring albatross their mortgage has become — without going through the nightmares of foreclosure or bankruptcy — and to get a chance to start anew, better equipped to deal with the financial hardship that caused them to sell their house in the first place.


What about the snares in the program? There are several that participants need to consider.

•Credit score impact. Though officials at the Federal Housing Finance Agency are working on possible solutions with the credit industry, at the moment it appears that borrowers who use the new program may be hit with significant penalties on their FICO credit scores — 150 points or more. This is because under current credit industry practices, short sales are lumped in with foreclosures. According to Laura Arce, a senior policy analyst at the agency, the government is in discussions with the credit industry to institute "a special comment code" for servicers who report the new Fannie-Freddie short sales to the national credit bureaus that would treat participants more fairly on FICO scores.


•Promissory notes and other "contributions." In the majority of states where lenders can pursue deficiencies, Fannie and Freddie expect borrowers who have assets to either make upfront cash contributions covering some of the loan balance owed or sign a promissory note. This would be in exchange for an official waiver of the debt for credit reporting purposes, potentially producing a more favorable credit score for the sellers.


•Second lien hurdles. The program sets a $6,000 limit on what second lien holders — banks that have extended equity lines of credit or second mortgages on underwater properties — can collect out of the new short sales. Some banks, however, don't consider this a sufficient amount and may threaten to torpedo sales if they can't somehow extract more.


Distributed by Washington Post Writers Group.

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Thursday, November 15, 2012

Foreclosure Cancellations Surge in Golden State


A foreclosure notice hangs in the window of a home on Sand Pine Trail in the gated Willow Walk community in Hemet. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The number of foreclosures canceled by banks surged 62% across California last month, the same month major mortgage servicers were required to comply with new rules outlined by this year’s National Mortgage Settlement.

Banks in the Golden State canceled 15,539 scheduled auctions last month, according to a report by website ForeclosureRadar.com. That was a 36.7% drop from the same month last year.

Sean O'Toole, founder of ForeclosureRadar, wrote in the October report that the increase was most likely due to the effective banning of dual tracking in the state. Dual tracking refers to the practice by banks of pushing a borrower through the foreclosure process while at the same time negotiating a loan modification.
“This is another example of where changes in foreclosure trends are driven by government intervention, and not necessarily economic recovery. While the impacts are still unclear, the elimination of dual tracking may avoid some unnecessary foreclosures, but will lengthen the foreclosure process and delay ultimate recovery. Expect further impacts to foreclosure trends in the months ahead.”

There has not been a comparable spike in California foreclosure cancellations since December 2011, when banks were under heavy scrutiny by state and federal regulators for improperly foreclosing on troubled borrowers. That scrutiny resulted in the big mortgage settlement earlier this year — of which California was the biggest beneficiary.

The settlement, and a series of California laws backed by State Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris, resulted in effectively banning dual tracking. O’Toole said banks are probably canceling foreclosure sales so that they will not be in violation of any laws.

Before the ban on dual tracking, a bank would often give a homeowner a trial loan modification and continue to postpone the foreclosure auction. By keeping the trustee sale in place, but postponing it, the bank could foreclose immediately if a trial modification did not work out.

But consumer activists railed against this practice, saying that it confused homeowners, strung them along and in some instances resulted in unnecessary foreclosures. Consumer activists had tried to pass legislation banning the practice in California, but the measures had failed until Harris put her weight behind them.

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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Where Are Rents Headed?


Where Are Rents Headed?

by THE KCM CREW on NOVEMBER 13, 2012 
When deciding whether or not to buy a home, one consideration will be the cost of alternative housing options. Renting an apartment is one such alternative. Where are rental prices heading over the next few years?
Rental prices usually increase by about 3 percent annually. Trulia just released their Trulia Rent Monitor where they revealed that rental prices have increased dramatically in the last year.
“Nationally, rent gains continued to outpace home price increases in October, rising by 5.1 percent.”
Based on the concept of supply and demand, we believe rental prices will continue to substantially increase over the next few years. The long-run 30-year average increase in multifamily rental households is 200,000 each year. Over the next few years, those numbers will more than double to over 500,000 each year. Freddie Mac in their latest report, Multifamily Research Perspectives, projects housing demand going forward.
“Given assumptions consistent with economic growth slightly slower than long run averages, multifamily demand is likely to be in the range of 1.7 million net new renter households between now and 2015.”
The cost of owning a home will begin to increase as both prices and mortgage rates are expected to inch up in 2013. Perhaps now is the perfect time to lock in your long term housing expense by purchasing your own home.

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Friday, November 9, 2012

National Housing Metrics



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Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Tax Facts Home Sellers Should Know


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Thursday, November 1, 2012

Berkshire Extends Housing Bet With Brookfield Venture

By Noah Buhayar - Oct 30, 2012 9:00 PM PT

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) is extending its bet on the U.S. housing market by forming a venture with Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (BAM/A) as low interest rates, inventory and prices spur a real-estate rebound.

Berkshire’s HomeServices of America Inc. unit will be the majority owner of the venture to manage a U.S. residential real- estate affiliate network, according to a statement on the new company’s website. The firms plan to offer a new franchise brand, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, starting next year. Brookfield’s network has operated under the Prudential Real Estate and Real Living Real Estate brands.

HomeServices Chief Executive Officer Ronald Peltier
HomeServices Chief Executive Officer Ronald Peltier said, “When you add the pieces up together with low interest rates, we see a housing market that will continue to improve.”
Photographer: Kari Goodnough/Bloomberg


Berkshire’s managers have been positioning the firm to benefit as the U.S. home market recovers from its worst slump in seven decades. The Omaha, Nebraska-based company has bought a brickmaker, won the loan portfolio of bankrupt mortgage lender Residential Capital LLC at auction and built its HomeServices unit by agreeing to acquire real-estate brokerages in states including Oregon and Connecticut.

“We have significant inventory shortage across the country” and prices have fallen, HomeServices Chief Executive Officer Ron Peltier said in a phone interview. “When you add the pieces up together with low interest rates, we see a housing market that will continue to improve.”

Berkshire Class A shares declined less than 1 percent in New York trading on Oct. 26 to $129,725 and have gained 13 percent this year. Brookfield, based in Toronto, advanced 1.9 percent yesterday to C$34.90 and has surged 24 percent since Dec. 31.

Buffett’s Outlook

Buffett, 82, said in July that the U.S. home market was beginning to improve. Berkshire’s billionaire chairman and CEO tracks economic activity, in part, by studying the results of the company’s more than 70 operating businesses including ones that build manufactured homes, make paint and sell insulation.

“It was just a question of getting households in balance with” the supply of homes, Buffett told Bloomberg Television’s Betty Liu in a July 13 interview. “That happens in different paces in different parts of the country, but you have seen a much better balance developing here in recent months. And that’s why you’re seeing some pickup in prices in places.”

Housing prices rose 2 percent in August from a year earlier, the biggest gain since July 2010, according the S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 U.S. cities. The number of homes for sale in the U.S. dropped 18 percent last month from a year earlier, according the National Association of Realtor's website.

Borrowing Costs

Federal Reserve policy makers have said they will keep borrowing costs near zero to help stimulate the economy. That’s led to near record-low interest rates on home loans. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage was 3.63 percent, the Mortgage Bankers Association said last week.

The new company, HSF Affiliates LLC, will have a combined network of more than 53,000 agents operating in about 1,700 U.S. locations and who generated $72 billion in sales last year. The network will give HomeServices exposure to markets such as New York, Boston and Northern California, Peltier said.
Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall in New Jersey this week, may decrease inventory in the Northeast as homeowners assess damage, Peltier said. The storm battered homes in coastal states that account for about one out of every five U.S. real estate sales.

“Short-term, it makes properties harder to sell when parts of neighborhoods have been devastated,” he said. 

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