Tag Archives: South Salem Homes

Foreclosure inventory down 32.8% | South Salem Real Estate

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There were 45,000 completed foreclosures nationally, down from 58,000 in August 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 22.2%, according to the latest data from CoreLogic.

On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures were up slightly by 1.1% from the 44,000 reported in July 2014.

Before the housing crash, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide between 2000 and 2006.

“Clearly there has been a large improvement in the market the last few years, but five years into the economic expansion the foreclosure inventory remains at nearly three times the normal level,” said Sam Khater, deputy chief economist at CoreLogic. “Since homeownership rates peaked in the second quarter of 2004, there have been 7 million completed foreclosures, which account for 15% of all mortgages.”

Completed foreclosures are an indication of the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure. Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 5.2 million completed foreclosures across the country.

As of August 2014, approximately 629,000 homes nationally were in some stage of foreclosure, known as the foreclosure inventory, compared to 936,000 in August 2013, a year-over-year decrease of 32.8%. The foreclosure inventory as of August 2014 made up 1.6% of all homes with a mortgage, compared to 2.4% in August 2013. The foreclosure inventory was down 2.6% from July 2014, representing 34 months of consecutive year-over-year declines.

“The number of foreclosures completed during the last 12 months is at the lowest level since November of 2007,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “At current foreclosure rates, the shadow inventory could fall below 500,000 units by year-end which could provide a solid boost to the recovery in housing in 2015.”

 

 

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http://www.housingwire.com/articles/31575-foreclosure-inventory-down-328-from-august-2013

 

Live Like a Robber Baron in this $13M Lakeside Tudor Manse | South Salem Real Estate

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Location: Lake George, N.Y.
Price: $12,900,000
The Skinny: Built as only Gilded Age captains of industry could build ’em, this magnificent $12.9M Tudor Revival home on New York’s Lake George is a beautifully preserved example of the opulent mansions of the early 20th-century elite. Dubbed Wikiosco after the Algonquin for “Home on Beautiful Waters,” the house was built by Brooklyn Con Edison founder (and excellent name-haver) Royal C. Peabody based on a design by his son, architect Charles S. Peabody, whose firm also designed such landmarks as NYC’s Mercantile Building and portions of Vanderbilt University. The 20,000-square-foot mansion sits on almost seven acres of rolling waterfront land, with 545 feet of lake-frontage, and, per the listing, features original “carved oak doors, decorative carved built-ins, oak beams, stain-glassed windows, crown moldings and wainscoting.”

 

 

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http://curbed.com/archives/2014/09/29/live-like-a-robber-baron-in-this-13m-lakeside-tudor-manse.php

When Should You Refinance | South Salem Real Estate

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When you take out a mortgage with a fixed interest rate, you expect to be locked into the same monthly payment for the life of the loan. But that’s not necessarily the case — many homeowners can benefit by refinancing their mortgage at a lower interest rate.

Before you can decide whether it’s worth it to refinance, get a handle on the numbers involved. How many more years do you have on your current loan, and what’s your current interest rate? How much do you still owe? Will you be borrowing the same amount, or are you hoping to cash out some equity?

Now, turn your attention to the new loan you’re hoping to get. What kind of interest rate can you expect? Some say it’s not worth it to refinance unless you’re knocking off an entire percentage point (e.g. going from a 5% interest rate to 4%, for example), but that rule can be misleading. If you’re planning on staying in the home for several more years, even a small reduction in your interest rate can make a big difference. If you’re a little hazy on the math, Trulia’s refinance calculator can help demystify things.

Once you know what kind of interest rates are available now, find out how much closing costs are likely to be. That’s right. Closing costs aren’t just an issue when you buy a house. You pay closing costs again when you refinance, although they’ll be lower this time.

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http://www.trulia.com/tips/2014/09/

Investigating Florida’s parallel legal system for foreclosures | South Salem Homes

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Defense motions that disappear after 60 days, unelected judges meant to rule on a quarter of a million cases a year, original documents gone missing — these are the realities facing families caught in a year-old initiative intended to accelerate Florida‘s foreclosure process. As Florida tries to clear its courts of hundreds of thousands of pending foreclosure cases, a lingering reminder of the 2008 financial meltdown, homeowners trying to save their houses feel their rights come second in a state-sponsored, breathless rush to foreclose.

Senior Finance Reporter Alison Fitzgerald spent months investigating the underlying causes of Florida’s foreclosure frenzy, and we wanted to know more about the story behind that effort.

 

What I saw is that the initiative tilts the legal system in favor of banks. For that small fraction of homeowners who are defending their homes, they are now fighting not only banks, but also the state. When a court or judge tries to move a case forward, they are by default working on behalf of the bank which brought the case. And they are giving the banks leeway in terms of evidence they would never give to a homeowner.

I reviewed dozens of trial transcripts, talked to more lawyers than I can count and at least a half dozen homeowners fighting foreclosure and then I went down there to see for myself. It all pointed to this conclusion.

 

 

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http://news.yahoo.com/investigating-floridas-parallel-legal-system-140152449.html

Why the Housing Market Hasn’t Recovered From the Financial Crisis | #SouthSalem Real Estate

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This month marks the sixth anniversary of one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of the U.S. economy.

Over the course of three weeks in Sept. 2008, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were nationalized, Lehman Brothers filed bankruptcy, Bank of America agreed to acquire Merrill Lynch, the Federal Reserve bailed out AIG with an $85 billion loan, and the FDIC seized savings-and-loan giant Washington Mutual.

Had the financial crisis been a typical recession, it would have been long forgotten by now. But it wasn’t. And, as a result, we’re still living with the consequences.

Nowhere is this more apparent than the housing market. Even though soaring home prices have led some to proclaim a new bubble, the evidence is clear that the markets for both new and existing homes remain a fraction of their former selves.

The lack of demand for new homes
 The natural place to start a discussion about the state of housing is the market for new homes. There are two reasons for this. First, new home construction is intimately intertwined with the demographics of the United States, fueled in large part by population growth and household formation. And second, the homebuilding industry is a critical component of the domestic economy.

Since 1950, residential investment as a share of gross domestic product has averaged 4.7%. Last year it was only 3.1%. That equates to an annual shortfall of $288 billion. If you add this back in, it’s projected that economic growth would jump to 4%, or nearly double that of the last few years, and that upwards of 1.5 million jobs would be created.

The main problem is that fewer homes are being built than at any time since 1960. When you factor in population growth and the need to demolish 300,000 dilapidated homes each year, it’s estimated that an average of 1.5 million homes must be built on an annual basis to keep up with long-term demand. Yet, in the six years since the financial crisis, we’ve averaged 727,000.

The drop originally appeared to be the result of past oversupply. From 2002 to 2006, homebuilders turned out almost 1.9 million units a year. This generated a cumulative surplus of almost 2 million new homes. If you do the math, however, this theory only accounts for the drop in construction through the middle of 2010. Since then, a cumulative deficit has emerged to the tune of 2.6 million units.

One explanation is that homeownership has lost its appeal. At the end of 2004, 69% of American households owned their home. The same figure today is 64.7%. Another answer is that fewer households are being formed each year due to the downbeat economy. Prior to the crisis, 1.35 million new households were created on an annual basis. Since then, the figure has fallen to 569,000.

Read more: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/09/08/why-the-housing-market-hasnt-recovered-from-the-fi.aspx#ixzz3Ckjaoimg

Housing markets improve | South Salem Real Estate

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Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today released its newly updated Multi-Indicator Market Index(SM) (MiMi(SM)) showing the U.S. housing market continuing to plod along with most markets still generally weak, while those with stronger local economies and favorable demographics continue to improve at a much stronger pace. The second quarter MiMi report is also available, which includes further analysis on each of the states, plus the District of Columbia as well as the top 50 metros areas.

News Facts:

  • The national MiMi value stands at 73.7, indicating a weak housing market overall with only a slight improvement (0.04%) from May to June and a 3-month positive trend change of (0.16%). On a year-over-year basis, the U.S. housing market has improved by 7.67%. The nation’s all-time MiMi high of 121.87 was June 2008; its low was 59.8 in September, 2011, when the housing market was at its weakest. Since that time, the housing market has made a 23.3 percent rebound.
  • Thirteen of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia have MiMi values in a stable range, with North Dakota (96.2) the District of Columbia (94.3), Wyoming (92.3), Montana (89.7) and Alaska (88.7) ranking in the top five.
  • Six of the 50 metro areas have MiMi values in a stable range, with San Antonio (92.0), Austin (87.4), New Orleans (84.8), Salt Lake City (84.5), and Houston (83.9) ranking in the top five.
  • The most improving states month-over-month were Nevada (+1.56%), Illinois (+1.09%), Connecticut (+0.93%), Rhode Island (+0.87%) and Colorado and Kentucky (tied at +0.82%). On a year-over-year basis, the most improving states were Nevada (+23.5%), Florida (+14.8%), Illinois (+12.9%), California (12.0%) and South Carolina (+11.9%).
  • The most improving metro areas month-over-month were Las Vegas and Riverside (tied at +1.69%) followed by San Jose (+1.48%), Chicago (+1.30%) and Miami (+1.19%). On a year-over-year basis the most improving metro areas were Las Vegas (+26.5%), Riverside, (+19.2%), Miami (+17.2%), Orlando (+16.1%) and Chicago (+15.9%).
  • In June, 21 of the 50 states and 25 of the 50 metros are showing an improving three month trend. The same time last year, every state plus the District of Columbia, and every metro was showing an improving three month trend.

Quote attributable to Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft:

“As we see the economy slowly normalizing we’re starting to see its effects in the housing market as well, albeit very slowly. The good news is the big housing markets, of which some were also the hardest hit, continue to improve. For example, from the same time last year, California is up 12 percent and every market MiMi tracks in the state is improving. Meanwhile, Florida is up nearly 15 percent and Illinois is up nearly 13 percent over the past year. Likewise, the stalwarts of the recovery continue to be those states in the North Central section of the country, places like North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and then south to Texas and Louisiana. In these areas not only are markets producing jobs, but better paying jobs that translate into workers taking out applications to purchase a home and income growth that keeps homebuyer affordability strong.”

Quote attributable to Freddie Mac Deputy Chief Economist Len Kiefer:

“With this release of MiMi we’re including our first quarterly report, which provides further analysis beyond the monthly MiMi release. For example, the most improved metro and state markets over the quarter were Las Vegas and Illinois which were up nearly 5 and 4 percent respectively. Though Las Vegas has shown considerable improvement, it is still a weak market, with the lowest overall MiMi index value of 48.2 as of June. Driving the improvement in Illinois over the past three months is the Employment Indicator which is up 16.9 percent while the Current on Mortgage Indicator is up 3.8 percent since March. In fact, the Employment Indicator in Illinois (87.8) moved from Weak to its stable In Range status over the past quarter, reflecting improvements in local labor market conditions.”

With the latest release of MiMi, the index has been rescaled, making the data more transparent and easier for housing professionals and analysts to follow. The rankings of states and metropolitan areas are unchanged. The underlying data and basic methodology are also unchanged. This release also makes it easier to identify the most improving state and metro markets on a monthly basis.

MiMi monitors and measures the stability of the nation’s housing market, as well as the housing markets of all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the top 50 metro markets. MiMi combines proprietary Freddie Mac data with current local market data to assess where each single-family housing market is relative to its own long-term stable range by looking at home purchase applications, payment-to-income ratios (changes in home purchasing power based on house prices, mortgage rates and household income), proportion of on-time mortgage payments in each market, and the local employment picture. The four indicators are combined to create a composite MiMi value for each market. Monthly, MiMi uses this data to show, at a glance, where each market stands relative to its own stable range of housing activity. MiMi also indicates how each market is trending, whether it is moving closer to, or further away from, its stable range. A market can fall outside its stable range by being too weak to generate enough demand for a well-balanced housing market or by overheating to an unsustainable level of activity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 reasons mortgage apps don’t reflect housing strength | South Salem Real Estate

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Mortgage applications continue to hover around the same level, while home sales keep rising, according to an article in Business Insider.

The article uses a report from Hui Shan at Goldman Sachs, which cited three factors for why there is a disconnect between mortgage applications and home sales.

1. Things are different  

Not every mortgage application is approved and ends in an origination. “The pull-through rate, which is the origination to application ratio, can vary considerably over time,” according to Shan.

2. Reliability in question

The market share of the four large banks, Wells Fargo, Chase, Bank of America and Citi has fallen from 50% of all residential mortgages in 2011, to 31% in the first half of the year. This could skew the survey that the MBA index is based on.

3. Cash still remains

Tight lending standards continue to cause the share of cash transactions to stay close to peak levels, even as their share in distressed sales continues to fall.

Business Insider also repurposes a graph from the note to highlight the points, but this one is better at outlining the growing gap between starts and mortgage applications, click to enlarge:

 

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3 reasons mortgage apps don’t reflect housing strength

Mortgage rates tick up slightly | South Salem Real Estate

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Borrowers seeking a mortgage through Zillow’s Mortgage Marketplace saw a slight increase in the interest rates they were quoted from last week to this week.

Current rate borrowers were quoted a fixed 30-year rate of 4.08% this week, up from 4.03% last week.

“Mortgage rates were subdued last week as ongoing geopolitical concerns and economic softness in Europe encouraged investors to buy U.S. mortgage-backed securities as a safe haven,” said Erin Lantz, vice president of mortgages at Zillow. “This week, we expect international headlines, rather than U.S. economic data, to drive any meaningful changes to mortgage rates.”

In Zillow’s weekly look at interest rates, the 30-year rate peaked at 4.17% last Thursday before trending back down to its current level. During the remaining period, the interest rate was mostly between 4.1% and 4.15%.

Additionally, the 15-year fixed mortgage rate as of Tuesday was 3.12%, and for 5/1 adjustable rate mortgages, the rate was 2.77%.

Zillow also posted a prediction for Wednesday’s announcement of the mortgage application data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. “Zillow predicts tomorrow’s seasonally adjusted MBA application index will show purchase loan activity to decrease by 2% from the week prior,” the company posted on its blog.

 

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Zillow: Mortgage rates tick up slightly

 

Mortgage applications tick up 1.6% for week as refis grow | South Salem Real Estate

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Mortgage applications increased 1.6% from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 1, 2014.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 1.6% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 1% compared with the previous week.

The Refinance Index increased 4% from the previous week.

The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 1% from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 2% compared with the previous week and was 14% lower than the same week one year ago.

“Last week was a volatile week for interest rates, but it also proved to be a positive one as refinance applications increased,” said Quicken Loans Vice President Bill Banfield. “More Americans are realizing that they need to take advantage of the low rates before they start climbing. Even underwater homeowners can still refinance, as millions have yet to take advantage of the HARP program.”

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 55% of total applications, the highest level since March 2014, from 53% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity remained unchanged at 8% of total applications.

 

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http://www.housingwire.com/articles/30930-mortgage-applications-tick-up-16-for-week-as-refis-grow

Barbados Real Estate Market Improving | South Salem Real Estate

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After six years of sluggish activity, the Barbados luxury homes market is picking up according to the latest report from Knight Frank.

Christian de Meillac, Knight Frank’s Head of Caribbean sales said that he has seen a marked increase in buyer inquiries and this is backed up by the number of online property viewings being generated via Knight Frank’s Global Property Search Website which have increased 56.7% in the year to June 2014.

Barbados‘The sun seems to be rising again on the Barbados property market as the traditional selling season is extending into summer. Buyers are back and we are seeing regeneration in the market with more and more sales along the premium west coast from Bridgetown to Speightstown,’ he explained.

‘With the positive signs coming from the UK economy, price discounts and a new impetus amongst buyers, we have seen a marked increase in sales and interestingly, this is continuing into the summer months when things traditionally quiet down,’ he added.

In terms of the nationalities buying, UK buyers still lead the market accounting for around 70% of all prime sales, followed by Canadians but the presence of European buyers is also on the increase.

‘Demand varies according to price. The most popular spot seems to be those properties located along the west coast and priced between US$1 million and US$3 million. Beachfront apartments and standalone villas are generating the most interest with a sea view and privacy the two key prerequisites,’ de Meillac pointed out.

‘However, this has also been a year of record deals at the top end of the market, with two deals circa US$20 million and one deal rumored to be in excess of US$40 million, a sign that things are looking up,’ he explained.

An analysis of applicant numbers now with a year ago shows that not only are more applicants registering their interest in a Barbados home but a greater proportion of them are buying.

 

 

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http://www.nuwireinvestor.com/articles/barbados-real-estate-market-improving-61984.aspx