Buyers who put in initial offers on or after April 11, and close on the sale of a Fannie Mae HomePath property by June 30, will be eligible to receive up to 3.5 percent in closing-cost assistance.

The offer is only good for buyers who intend to occupy the home they are purchasing as their primary residence — second homes and investor properties are not eligible.

Offers submitted before May 15 have the best chance of qualifying, Fannie Mae said, as offers submitted after that “are particularly questionable for closing” by the June 30 deadline.

http://www.all-foreclosure.com/help/judicial.htm

Here is a report written by Carrie Bay. Great information about how the foreclosures are being affected by the States laws.

Standard and Poors (S&P) has released a study that delves deep into the nuances of foreclosure at the state level, namely how timelines and loan losses vary between judicial and non-judicial systems.

The ratings agency notes that differences in foreclosure proceedings by state have taken center stage as of late, particularly with the affidavit issues that came to light last fall and prompted foreclosure suspensions by several major servicers in judicial states.

Bank of America was the only servicer to also temporarily freeze foreclosures in non-judicial jurisdictions, however most servicers examined both judicial and non-judicial cases when conducting their internal reviews into robo-signing allegations.

S&P’s analysis found that foreclosure timelines are approximately twice as long in judicial states versus non-judicial states.

When comparing the average time before foreclosure begins and the average time a property spends in REO, the empirical data shows little difference between judicial and non-judicial states, S&P notes. That leads the agency to conclude that the difference in the duration of the foreclosure process between judicial and non-judicial states is primarily attributable to the nature of the foreclosure proceedings.

According to S&P, roll-rate analysis shows that approximately three times as many homes remain in foreclosure in judicial states when compared with non-judicial states 18 months after foreclosure has been initiated.

Enough already – most of the people in foreclosure are living in homes that owe them nothing. So what if the value went down – they purchased with no money down, some lied about their income and others re-fianced so many times to pay for their toys the value is not there anymore.

Get real people, when you signed your mortgage documents they say pay or they will foreclosure. Now people are living in their homes for years not paying a dime and they are whining. $21,000 to move, get a grip. Also lowering the principle – come on.

How about rewriting the loans IF they qualify to a 50 year term and if they are foreclosed on get the heck out, you have been living for free.

Some people have real problems and those issues should be addressed, but most do not.

Thanks for letting me rant!!!

The Treasury announced on Monday that it will begin selling its remaining $142 billion in agency-guaranteed mortgage-backed securities (MBS) holdings. Beginning this month, the Treasury plans to sell up to $10 billion per month, as they wind down the emergency programs put in place in 2008 during the financial crisis. The expected increase in future supply pushed MBS prices lower. Mortgage rates, which are largely based on MBS prices, moved higher. The big question now is what the Federal Reserve plans to do with its larger $944 billion MBS portfolio. A similar announcement from the Fed would have a much larger negative effect on mortgage rates.

The housing sector data released this week was weaker than expected. February Existing Home Sales fell 10% from January. The inventory of unsold existing homes rose to an 8.6-month supply from a 7.5-month supply in January. Distressed sales accounted for 39% of all sales. Median existing home prices dropped 5% to the lowest level since April 2002. February New Home Sales fell 17%. As a result of price declines and continued low mortgage rates, home affordability is at the most favorable level in years, according to data from both the NAR and the NAHB.

On the chopping block are the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Short Refi Program, and the Emergency Homeowner Relief Fund passed under the Dodd-Frank Act.

A hearing will be held on March 2 by the Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee to review the four bills addressing each federal program, followed by a full committee markup on March 3.

“In an era of record-breaking deficits, it’s time to pull the plug on these programs that are actually doing more harm than good for struggling homeowners,” said Rep. Bachus. “These programs may have been well-intentioned but they’re not working and, in reality, are making things worse.”

Rep. Judy Biggert (R-Illinois), chairman of the Insurance and Housing Subcommittee, added, “We need to break down barriers that have delayed the housing recovery, including expensive and ineffective government programs that have failed to help homeowners. Unfortunately, these programs were set up in haste, executed poorly, and have done little to restore stability in the marketplace.”

Biggert continued, “A government program that spends more to save a single borrower than it costs to buy a home is no help at all – it’s just a waste of taxpayer money. We need to stop funding programs that don’t work with money we don’t have.”

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts), ranking member and former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said he was “very disappointed” by the move that would “eliminate programs which help the victims of the financial crisis.”

Frank pointed out that the Emergency Homeowner Relief Fund, in particular, provides assistance to people who are unable to pay their mortgages not because they were imprudent or irresponsible but because they are unemployed. He notes that it is modeled after a program in Pennsylvania that has already proven successful, and he described the Dodd-Frank measure as “the single most effective anti-foreclosure program that has been put forward.”

Frank added that HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program provides funding to municipalities to cope with the blight, expense, and destabilization brought on by vacant and abandoned properties. He described Bachus’ plan for its termination as “an attack on cities.”

By Carrie Bay

RealtyTrac has released its year-end 2010 foreclosure sales report, which shows that foreclosure homes accounted for nearly 26 percent of all U.S. residential sales last year, down from 29 percent of all sales in 2009 but up from 23 percent in 2008.

The tracking firm defines a foreclosure sale as the sale of a property that occurs while the home is actively in some stage of foreclosure, including a pre-foreclosure short sale, a home sold to a third party at foreclosure auction, or an REO sale. It does not include property transfers from the owner in default to the foreclosing bank or lender.

RealtyTrac’s report also shows that the average sales price of these foreclosure properties was more than 28 percent below the average sales price of properties not in the foreclosure process – up from a 27 percent average discount in 2009 and 22 percent in 2008.

According to the company’s analysis, a total of 831,574 U.S. residential properties either owned by banks or in some stage of foreclosure sold to third parties in 2010. That’s down 31 percent from the number of foreclosure homes sold the year prior. Meanwhile, RealtyTrac says the sales volume of non-foreclosure properties in 2010 decreased nearly 19 percent from 2009.

Foreclosure sales during the final part of last year were impacted by robo-signing issues and the foreclosure moratoriums that followed from several major servicers. RealtyTrac reports that 149,303 foreclosure sales were recorded in the fourth quarter of 2010, down 22 percent from the previous quarter and down 45 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009. That comes despite a 21 percent monthly uptick in foreclosure sales volume in December.

James Saccacio, RealtyTrac’s CEO, points out that fourth-quarter foreclosure sales volume hit its lowest level since the first quarter of 2008, and in addition to the foreclosure paperwork controversy that hit at that time, he attributes the decline to stifled demand from the expired homebuyer tax credit.

Still, Saccacio notes that foreclosures continue to represent a substantial percentage of all U.S. residential sales. “The catch-22 for 2011 is that while accelerating foreclosure sales will help clear the oversupply of distressed properties and return balance to the market in the long run, in the short term a high percentage of foreclosure sales will continue to weigh down home prices,” he said.

Breaking down foreclosure sales by type, RealtyTrac reports that a total of 512,886 REO properties sold to third parties in 2010 at an average discount of 36 percent. REOs accounted for 16 percent of all sales last year.

A total of 318,688 pre-foreclosure properties — in default or scheduled for auction — sold to third parties last year, with an average discount of 15 percent. Pre-foreclosure sales accounted for nearly 10 percent of 2010 home sales.

Nevada (57 percent), Arizona (49 percent), and California (44 percent) posted the highest percentage of foreclosure sales in 2010.

Other states where foreclosure sales accounted for at least one-quarter of all sales were Florida (36 percent), Michigan (33 percent), Georgia (29 percent), Idaho (28 percent), Oregon (28 percent), Illinois (26 percent), Virginia (25 percent), and Colorado (25 percent).

Ten states posted foreclosure discounts of more than 35 percent, led by Ohio, with an average discount of nearly 43 percent, and Kentucky, where foreclosures sold for an average discount of 40 percent. The eight other states are: Tennessee, California, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey, Michigan, Georgia, and Wisconsin.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110208/ap_on_bi_ge/us_stress_map

Commercial Real Estate Property Search: Where Do You Start?
by DUKE LONG on FEBRUARY 3, 2011

Simple quality commercial real estate search. Does it exist? What sites or platforms are available? What information do you need and is it even available? How is the data sourced? Is the data true and accurate? Lots of questions just for a simple search. Maybe it’s an investment tool that you have overlooked. Let’s take look at some basics.

What data do you need?

Location: Yes, I know this is very basic but you would be amazed at how different the location may be today compared to even a couple of years ago.
Property Type: Multi-family, office ,medical, etc.. Already filtered and defined.
Price: Well. What else can I say.
Tax: Usually a link to the to the government office of record with the tax base and costs.
Property history:
Who owns it now.
When they bought it.
What they paid.
Who has the mortgage and when it is due.
Deed and title info.
Parcel information
Building History:
When it was built
Who built it.
How many square feet total.
How many square feet is vacant and or occupied.
Current tenant info.
Current and historical rental rate info.
Multiple pictures and overlays.
GIS and Mapping.
And there is so much more.
Where the data comes from:

Well, for me this is the interesting piece of the data/search puzzle. For the most part the data and general information is keyed in by commercial real estate brokers or their admins. So, the oblivious question is…

How true and accurate is the data?

Am I questioning the commercial real estate brokerage community and their integrity? Do I think that the community itself may….skew…the information for some type of competitive advantage? Not necessarily so. The data does have a third party base. The tax records are the tax records. The mapping and parcel information is just that. Historical sale information is easily verified. Most all of the major search sites do have research verification. Now the lease data, rates and comps…..maybe a little investor caution is in order. Can it be verified through lease documents? Yes, but…how much of the documents information is (Oh, the stories I could tell) true and accurate?

Where should you look?

Let’s start with the big boys and a few interesting players.

1. Loopnet.com: Maybe the biggest, best, and most well know commercial real estate property search site there is today. Love them or hate them? They have an incredible database of property dating back into the 1990′s

2. Commercial.realtor.com: The National Association of Realtors Commercial site. Realtor.com is the biggest and most hit on real estate site. Now they go commercial.

3. ePropertyData.com: ePropertyData is partially owned by the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR). The little tech-based company is constantly digging and drilling commercial data on a regional level with broker and researched assisted platforms.

4. Catylist.com: CIE Platform. Organizing communities, social platform, marketing engine, robust search and in over 30 markets.

5. Realup.com: 200,000 registered members; 300,000 property listings and all marketing rolled into one membership plan.

6. Tacquire.com: Part of ePropertydata and maybe the most tech edge commercial property search out there. Just look at their features. Are they way ahead of the curve? I think so. It is definitely worth a look.

10 Real Estate Stats From This Week
by DOUGLAS LAZOVICK on FEBRUARY 5, 2011

Busy week planning your Super Bowl party? Not enough time to catch up on this week’s real estate articles? No worries, I’ve compiled some real estate stats I ran across this week:

18.4 Million – The number of U.S. homes vacant in the 4th quarter of 2010. Of the nearly 131 homes in the U.S., only 112.5 million are occupied. About 75 million of those occupied homes are owned and about 38 million are rented. Furthermore, home ownership fell from 66.9% to 66.5% in the 4th quarter as well.

4.8 % – Average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage. That’s up from 4.74% last week and the second week in a row that rates have risen

2% – Percent increase in contracts signed on U.S. homes in December. This follows a 3.1% increase in November. Every region experienced an increase in contract signings except for the West. The South experienced an 11.5% increase, the Midwest an 8% increase, the Northeast a 1.8%. Contracts signed in the West fell 13.2%. Since June 2010, contract signings are up 24%.

$162 Million – The amount in legal fees spent defending Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and their former executives. That includes $24 million spent to defend former Fannie executive Franklin Raines.

$ 5 Billion – Hedge Fund manager John Paulson’s 2010 payday. Paulson, who made a name for himself in 2007 betting against sub-prime mortgages, made the majority of his money this time around betting on the economy recovering.

$22 Million – Listing price on a privately held 4.114 acre island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. That’s correct, for less than a quarter $100 million, the exclusive Red Rocks Island near the Richmond/San Rafael bridge can be all yours.

$500,000 – The price of a green card. Through a 20 year-old federal program, a foreign national can obtain a green card by investing at least $500,000 in a U.S. real estate development project.

1.08% – Foreclosure rate in the New York metro area. 1.08% foreclosure rate represents the lowest of any of the top 10 metro areas. Foreclosure rates are low in New York due to the fact that there has only been a 13% drop in value, there are many more renters in New York than most other cities and condo and co-op boards were very selective in approving sales and often required large down payments.

10.88% – Foreclosure rate in the Las Vegas metro area. 10.88% foreclosure represents the highest of any metro in the U.S.

$4683 – Average price for a Super Bowl ticket. Hope everyone enjoys the game.

I am a licensed auctioneer in 4 States and in 3 of those States we do the Auction on the front lawn of the property.

We have been postponing the foreclosure auctions on the same homes for 6 months, then the auction is cancelled and the foreclosure process is restarted. Some of these homes are vacant, and have been for years.

No one is making these payments. I know of many high end properties owners who have not paid the mortgage for years, but the children are attending private schools, riding their horses, have ski passes and are going on expensive vacations a few times a year.

In some of the middle class areas we see 5 cars in the driveway on weekdays, and most of them are not older models. No one is working, but they are driving!

The Investment properties also have their stories. Landlords collecting the rents and not paying the mortgage. Most of the time when we pull up to the properties the tenants have no idea that the home in is foreclosure. Some of their stories are horrific. There are many instances when we get to the property we see moving trucks, and they are not moving out, they are moving in. The landlord took 3 months of payments from them and never told them about the foreclosure.

I believe that the only way to recovery is to allow the mortgage contracts to be honored and foreclose on these properties.

The government is only postponing the inevitable at the expense of the people who are currently paying their financial obligations.

I do understand that unemployment is at the highest point ever and people do have health issues but those are not the people who are creating this problem and crashed this market.

The people I hear complain the most are the ones that used the 80/20 mortgages, no doc loans with no money down and interest only mortgages. What were they thinking????

Property values in the 90′s were escalating so fast the bottom had to fall out.

The ailing Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) may be coming to an end. Three congressmen, Reps. Jim Jordan, Patrick McHenry, and Darrell Issa have proposed a bill to end the program. If this happens it should speed up the foreclosure process.