Sep 06
Banks Open to Short Sales. To meet the terms of the $26 billion mortgage settlement, the nation’s five largest banks are becoming more agreeable to short sales, Inman News reports. The five banks — Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, Ally Financial, and Wells Fargo — have issued most of their relief from the settlement …
Sep 05
Buyer Pet Peeves When Touring Homes. What makes home buyers grimace when they tour a home for-sale? Don’t let one of your listings fall prey to one of these common buyer pet peeves. A recent article at Zillow highlights some of the following turn-offs: Pets: Dirty kitty litter boxes or dog toys scattered in a …
Sep 04
Foreclosure Prices Rise, Highest Increase Since 2006. Foreclosure sales prices rose 6 percent in the second quarter and were up 7 percent year-over-year, RealtyTrac reported this week. This marks the largest annual increase in foreclosure -related sales prices since 2006. During the second quarter, the average foreclosure -related sales price was $170,040. Still, foreclosure and …
Sep 04
Mortgage Rates Reverse Course. Mortgage rates fell across the board this week, after having inched higher the last few weeks from all-time lows, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey. Here’s a closer look at Mortgage rates for the week ending Aug. 30. 30-year fixed-Mortgage rates: averaged 3.59 percent, with an average 0.6 point, …
Aug 31
Foreclosed Homes to Blame for Spread of West Nile Virus? A home owner living in the Los Angeles area says that the abandoned, foreclosed home next door gave her the West Nile virus. Debbie Davis says the foreclosed home has had an algae-green pool for months, and despite her numerous calls to the city code-enforcement officials …
Aug 31
Mortgage Debt cut by more Home Owners. Mortgage debt is on the decline, according to a new report by the New York Federal Reserve Bank. The New York Fed credits the decrease, as well as the fact that fewer Americans are late on their mortgage payments, to an increase in home owners who have refinanced …
Aug 30
Low Mortgage Rates Spark Serial Refinancing. Mortgage rates have been hovering at record lows, causing more home owners to lock-in the Low Mortgage Rates by refinancing their mortgages again … and again. Nearly 2.2 million home owners have refinanced at least twice since 2009, according to research compiled for The Wall Street Journal. Besides the low-rate …
Aug 29
Home ownership drops to lowest rate in 50 years. The U.S. Home ownership rate is at a 50-year low with another 3.8 million borrowers closer to losing their properties, a report from John Burns Real Estate said Monday. The real estate research firm claims the true Home ownership rate is 62.1%, with that number including all borrowers …
Aug 28
Housing Market Shows ‘Sustainable’ Improvement. Housing Market and prices are ticking up, despite a sluggish economy. In fact, the rebound has economists predicting that housing will likely add to economic growth this year for the first time in seven years. Existing Housing Market sales increased 2.3 percent in July and are up more than 10 percent compared …
Aug 27
First time Home Buyers, Where are they? Fewer first time home buyers are jumping into the housing market nowadays, accounting for 34 percent of all buyers in July. While that percentage has inched up slightly as of late, it still remains far from the 40 percent levels first-time home buyers generally account for in the …
Aug 24
Short Sales to Get Faster With Fannie, Freddie. The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Tuesday that it is issuing new guidelines that set out to more quickly qualify borrowers and speed up the short sales process. Among the new guidelines, home owners with a mortgage backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac will be able to …
Aug 23
Real Estate Investors Top 8 College Towns. Real Estate Investors increasingly are eyeing college towns to snag properties at discounts and turn them into rental properties that could potentially offer steady cash flow with student tenants. But which college towns offer some of the best returns? Realtor.com recently released its second annual list of the …
