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Banks Paying Homeowners to Avoid Foreclosures
Feb
09
2012
09
2012
By Prashant Gopal - Bloomberg.com
Banks, accelerating efforts to move troubled mortgages off their books, are offering as much as $35,000 or more in cash to delinquent homeowners to sell their properties for less than they owe.
Lenders have routinely delayed or blocked such transactions, known as short sales, in which they accept less from a buyer than the seller’s outstanding loan. Now banks have decided the deals are faster and less costly than foreclosures, which have slowed in response to regulatory probes of abusive practices. Banks are nudging potential sellers by pre-approving deals, streamlining the closing process, forgoing their right to pursue unpaid debt and in some cases providing large cash incentives, said Bill Fricke, senior credit officer for Moody’s Investors Service in New York.
Losses for lenders are about 15 percent lower on the sales than on foreclosures, which can take years to complete while taxes and legal, maintenance and other costs accumulate, according to Moody’s. The deals accounted for 33 percent of financially distressed transactions in November, up from 24 percent a year earlier, said CoreLogic Inc., a Santa Ana, California-based real estate information company.
Fannie Mae's Fire Sale
Feb
04
2012
04
2012
By Jim McTague, Barrons.com
Fannie Mae will soon start auctioning off foreclosed houses and pools of non-performing loans in bulk. How to buy a cut-rate rental property.
Fire sale! The Federal Housing Finance Agency has approved a big residential real-estate auction at Fannie Mae to help the mortgage giant unload its inventory of 122,616 foreclosed houses. For the first time, the regulators are permitting Fannie Mae to sell houses in bulk. The test sale also will include pools of non-performing loans.
Corporations, partnerships and non-profits with at least $5 million in assets are expected to flock to the pilot auction, which hasn't been scheduled yet. But there also will be a place for individuals with incomes exceeding $200,000; couples with combined incomes over $300,000; and individuals and couples with a net worth of more than $1 million, excluding their primary homes.
All of the bidders will have to have a proven track record as successful landlords because the properties can't be flipped. Buyers will have to rent out the houses for a yet unspecified term of years. Many of the houses to be included in the test auction are occupied by tenants. These are persons who had been renting the units when their landlords defaulted on the property's mortgage. Federal and state laws protect them from eviction.
Orlando Housing Market Report: December 2011
Jan
16
2012
16
2012
Home prices are up 12%, and inventories are down 35% year over year.
Merry Christmas
Dec
25
2011
25
2011
Zillow CEO on housing market: 'Not good'
Dec
21
2011
21
2011
Government-owned homes: For rent?
Dec
19
2011
19
2011
CNNMoney
U.S. home sales are still struggling to rebound, but the rental market has been much more resilient. And it's this narrow bright spot that may suggest one prescription for the hundreds of thousands of government-owned homes for sale at deep discounts.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is considering proposals for selling its inventory (most of which was acquired through foreclosures) to investors. The hope is that they would in turn sell or rent them out and potentially help stabilize the housing market.
Needless to say, most of these homes are concentrated in regions hit hardest by the housing crisis -- Nevada, Arizona and California. And they're in markets where the rate of vacancies for rentals is largely higher than the national average of 9.2%.
Young adults find renting a safer choice than buying
Dec
06
2011
06
2011
By Don Debat, Sun-Times Media
Rental apartments are in heavy demand among young living in the suburbs of Chicago, experts say.
A new survey by Appraisal Research Counselors Ltd. noted that young people—age 25 to 34 years—prefer the flexibility of renting, instead of buying, because renting is easier if they have to relocate in today’s tough job market.
That fact is very apparent in the Appraisal Research survey of more than 75,000 units in the seven county Chicago-area suburban market covering Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, McHenry, Lake and Will counties.
That fact is very apparent in the Appraisal Research survey of more than 75,000 units in the seven county Chicago-area suburban market covering Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, McHenry, Lake and Will counties.
Property managers busy as rental market surges
Dec
02
2011
02
2011
By Hui-yong Yu - Bloomberg, Photograph by Daniel Acker - Bloomberg
Meg McKennon’s workload has surged since the Seattle real estate agent switched to managing residential properties. Now she gets paid for finding tenants instead of buyers -- an easier task as rentals soar.
"In the past two months, my business probably came close to tripling," said McKennon, who started management company Dwellings Seattle Real Estate in 2010 after selling houses for 15 years.
When a couple moved out of a two-bedroom house managed by McKennon in August, before the lease was up, she increased the monthly rent by $200 to $1,900 -- and still had her pick of applicants. "I could have rented it 10 times over," she said.
Renters Should Be Sprinters
Nov
24
2011
24
2011
By Joseph Plambeck - NY Times, Photograph by Brian Cronin - NY Times
At first blush, it doesn’t make much sense: If you know you’ll need an apartment in New York in several months, why can’t you start a serious search now, rather than wait until your move-in date is just a few weeks away?
The short window of opportunity for an apartment hunt is a fact of life in the city. In large part, it’s a function of limited supply and high demand — landlords believe that the greater the number who see an apartment, the more rent it can command. And renters may not want to commit ahead of time, fearful of missing out on something better or cheaper.
Unfortunately, it’s not likely that renters will be able to conduct a long, leisurely search for an apartment anytime soon. Rents in the city are near historic highs, and vacancies are on the scarce side, whether in new rentals or condominium towers or prewar co-ops. The timeline is a few weeks longer for rentals in condos and co-ops. But first, the strategies for maximizing opportunities in rental-only buildings once the window is open:
Canadians eye cheap Florida real estate
Nov
23
2011
23
2011
By Susan Pigg - The Star
Joe Waddell got the best cross-border bargain of his life last year — a three-bedroom, 1,700-square-foot condo for just under $120,000 (U.S.).
The Fort Myers property is just 15 minutes from southwest Florida’s gulf beaches, within an easy drive of Miami nightlife and, better yet, about two hours from Disney World.
But Waddell, 45, his wife and 11-year-old daughter won’t actually be using their sun-and-sand getaway for a few more years.
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