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Foreclosures in July are 4th highest on record; delinquencies continue to decline

Dennis Norman

A report published by Lender Processing Services (LPS) analyzing homeowner’s performance on their mortgages as of July 2010 shows that mortgage delinquencies continue to decline however are still at very high levels versus historical norms. At the same time however, foreclosure starts have increased to the fourth highest level on record.

Continue reading… Foreclosures in July are 4th highest on record; delinquencies continue to decline

Pending home sales rise in July; Down 19 percent from the year before

Dennis Norman

After hitting all-time low in June, pending home sales increase 5.2 percent in July

The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for July shows an increase of 5.2 percent in the index in July (seasonally adjusted) which is 19.1 percent below July 2009.

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Dueling Economists: Home Prices Up or Down?

Dennis Norman

Naturally, no sooner than I finish writing my post this morning about the Case-Shiller report on home prices in which I actually got to report somewhat “positive” news, my bubble is burst. RadarLogic, another company that has their own home price index that I like, came out with a report saying the

Continue reading… Dueling Economists: Home Prices Up or Down?

Homeowners with negative equity declines for second consecutive quarter

Dennis Norman

After a couple of days of writing about bad reports on the housing market (existing home sales and new home sales to name two) I’m excited that I actually get to write something today that is positive! According to newly released data from CoreLogic, the percentage of homeowners in the U.S. with

Continue reading… Homeowners with negative equity declines for second consecutive quarter

HUD Publishes Proposed Fair-Market Rents for Section 8 for 2011

Dennis Norman

Annually, HUD determines “fair market rents” which become effective October 1st each year and are used to determine rent amounts under the Housing Choice Voucher program, Housing Assistance Payment Contracts, Moderate Rehab programs as well as other Section 8 programs.

Earlier this month HUD published in the Federal Register it’s proposed fair market rents

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Home Sales Plummet in July to Record LowHome Sales Plummet in July to Record Low

Dennis Norman

Beginning last November I have written several articles about the “sugar-rush” effect of tax credits and other stimulus on the housing market and voicing my concern that these things are short lived (like a sugar rush on a child) and after the sugar wears off there is a crash….Well, as expected, here it

Continue reading… Home Sales Plummet in July to Record Low

Mortgage Delinquencies Fall for Second Consecutive Quarter

Dennis Norman

For some time now I’ve been saying the precursor to the housing market recovering is for the mortgage delinquency and foreclosure rates to fall from the present, near-record levels, down to closer to historical norms.   The current mortgage loan delinquency report from TransUnion shows that, for the second consecutive quarter, things are headed

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New Home Permits and Construction Drop in July; Still outpacing new home sales though

The U.S. Census Bureau and US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a their report on New Residential Construction for July 2010 showing a decrease in single-family home building permits and a decrease in new home starts from June.

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Foreclosure Activity Increases In July; Down from a year ago

Dennis Norman

I remember, not that long ago, when 300,000 foreclosures in a month would have seemed unreal. However, July now marks the 17th consecutive month that there have been foreclosure filings exceeding 300,000 for the month.

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Private Transfer Fee Covenants Draw Fire From FHFA

Dennis Norman

Today the Federal Housing Finance Agency announce proposed guidance that would prohibit Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks from investing in mortgages with private transfer fee covenants. Considering that covers the lenders that originate, invest in or, or insure over 90 percent of the homes in the U.S. that

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Why do Some Homes Sell for More Than Others?

Ever wonder why one home will sell for more than a similar home in the same neighborhood? You’ll hear all sorts of reasons. One house has this feature or that feature while the other one doesn’t. That’s part of it but certainly not all.

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Justice Department Files Lawsuit Alleging Disability-based Housing Discrimination at Louisville, Kentucky, Apartment Complex

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit yesterday against the owners, developers, architects and civil engineers of Park Place Apartments, a 276-unit complex in Louisville, Ky., for failing to provide accessible features required by the Fair Housing Act.

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Report Shows Fraud in Short-Sales Cost Lenders $310 Million Annually

Dennis Norman

A report just released by CoreLogic estimate the financial impact of short-sale fraud to be $310 million annually.  It is estimated there is fraud in one in every 53 short sale transactions resulting in an unnecessary loss to the lender of $41,000 per transaction on average.

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U.S. Home Values Fall In 2nd Quarter; Negative Equity Declines Though

Dennis Norman

A report just issued by Zillow shows that home values in the United States continued to decline in the second quarter of 2010, with the Zillow Home Value Index falling 3.2 percent year-over-year and 0.6 percent from the first quarter to $182,500. The national rate of decline decelerated from the

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The Latest Data on the Home Affordable Modification Program

Ted Gayer, Co-Director of Economic Studies, Brookings Institute

The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development released June data for the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). HAMP is the foreclosure prevention program targeted at borrowers who are delinquent in their mortgage payment or facing imminent risk of

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Pending Home Sales Hit a new Record-Low in June

Dennis Norman

NAR Pending Home Sales Index at Lowest Level Since Index Began in 2001

At dropping 30 percent in May as a result of the rush to buy a home before the April 30th tax credit deadline, the National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for June shows a further decline of 2.6 percent in

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Gulf Oil spill could cost coastal homeowners up to $3 Billion in home values

Dennis Norman

Report looks at impact of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil spill on Florida Coastal home values

According to a report released this morning by  CoreLogic the impact of the BP DeepWater Horizon oil spill on home values in the coastal area’s along the Gulf coast is expected to range from $648 million over one

Continue reading… Gulf Oil spill could cost coastal homeowners up to $3 Billion in home values

Foreclosure and Mortgage Delinquency Rates Stabilizing

Dennis Norman

A report published by Lender Processing Services (LPS) analyzing homeowner’s performance on their mortgages as of June 2010 shows some encouraging news; there are signs that the foreclosure and mortgage delinquency rates are stabilizing, albeit at very elevated levels.

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Housing Market Outlook and Forecast

Dennis Norman

This week I attended an event at the St. Louis Association of REALTORS® in which Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist for the National Association of REALTORS® was the featured speaker and gave his take on the housing market as well as his housing market outlook.

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Case-Shiller; Housing market not in any form of sustained recovery

Dennis Norman

This morning S&P/Case-Shiller Index report for May was released showing that the annual growth rates in 15 of the 20 Metro Area’s their reports cover improved in May compared to April 2010. The 10-city composite is up 5.4 percent from the year before and the 20-city composite is up 4.6 percent from

Continue reading… Case-Shiller; Housing market not in any form of sustained recovery

Closing of Tax Credit Induced Home Purchases Prop-Up Market in June

Dennis Norman

Last month I said that I expected to see some elevated numbers in the existing home sales report for May and June since this report would reflect the actual closing of the home purchases from buyers that raced to buy before the April 30th home-buyer tax credit deadline.  Even though Congress has extended

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Record-Low Interest Rates Spur Refinancing; Home Purchase Mortgage Applications Increase Slightly

Dennis Norman

Last week I said that in my real estate career I’ve not seen a time that lower interest rates didn’t spur some sort of activity in the market.  Finally, it happened, at least a little.   According to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending July

Continue reading… Record-Low Interest Rates Spur Refinancing; Home Purchase Mortgage Applications Increase Slightly

Judge Orders Iowa Landlord to Pay $52,150 To Resolve Discrimination Case

Landlord attempted to evict single mother for filing fair housing complaint

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced Friday that a HUD Administrative Law Judge has ordered an Iowa landlord to pay $52,150 in damages and civil penalties for retaliating against a single mother of three by threatening to evict her because she

Continue reading… Judge Orders Iowa Landlord to Pay $52,150 To Resolve Discrimination Case

Mortgage Fraud Trend Down; Still $14 Billion in 2009 Losses

Dennis Norman

Worst Street In America for Mortgage Fraud is In Orlando (actually they have 5 of the top 10 streets)

According to the 2010 Mortgage Fraud Trends Report released by CoreLogic this week, fraud risk in the mortgage industry has declined by 25 percent since it peaked in the third quarter of 2007.  Even though

Continue reading… Mortgage Fraud Trend Down; Still $14 Billion in 2009 Losses

One in 78 Housing Units In U.S. In Foreclosure In First Half of 2010

Dennis Norman

According to a report released this morning by RealtyTrac there were 1,961,894 foreclosure filings in the first six months of 2010 on 1,654,634 housing units in the U.S. This reflects a 5 percent decrease from foreclosure activity for the prior 6 month period but is an 8 percent increase from the same

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One in Four Sellers Have Reduced Their Prices

Dennis Norman

According to a report released by Trulia.com, 24 percent of the homes for sale as of July 1, 2010 have experienced at least one price cut. This is a 9 percent increase from the prior month. The average discount for price-reduced homes continues to hold at 10 percent off of the

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Cheap Mortgage Interest Rates Not Bringing Out Home-buyers

Dennis Norman

I’ve been in the real estate business for over 30 years now and hate to admit that I’m witnessing something now I’ve never seen before.  Throughout my career I’ve seen the real estate market struggle at times usually at the hands of a recession, stagflation, high interest rates, high unemployment or some other

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Getting the Most out of Craigslist

Think quality, not quantity.

The “common wisdom” is that you need to post to Craigslist multiple times per day for it to be effective. That, pardon my French, is a load of crap put out by Craigslist posting service companies that want you to pay for more and more ineffective Craigslist ads and reinforced by people

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'Shadow' Foreclosure Inventory is the 800 lb Gorilla

Dennis Norman

For way too long I’ve been writing about record, or near- record, levels of foreclosures and mortgage delinquencies.   My ongoing concern about this, in terms of the housing market, is that I just don’t see how we are going to have a sustainable recovery of the housing market while we have 1 in

Continue reading… ‘Shadow’ Foreclosure Inventory is the 800 lb Gorilla

Home Mortgage Purchase Applications Decrease; Rates Near Historic Lows

Dennis Norman

While near historic-low mortgage interest rates are causing homeowners to refinance their existing mortgages, it does not appear the rates are bringing out the home-buyers.  According to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending July 2, 2010, the MBA Purchase Index (a measure of the

Continue reading… Home Mortgage Purchase Applications Decrease; Rates Near Historic Lows