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Investor Report: 20 Percent Limit

Foreclosure and REO investors have begun taking a closer look at the Obama administration's recent loosening of rules on property "flips"… . And they're seeing some potential complications.

Click here for the entire story:  Realty Times - Investor Report: 20 Percent Limit

Fannie Mae offers help to buyers of foreclosed homes - South Florida Business Journal:

With a large inventory of foreclosed homes acquired during the housing slump, Washington, D.C.-based Fannie Mae is offering up to 3.5 percent in closing-cost assistance to potential buyers.

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Fannie Mae offers help to buyers of foreclosed homes - South Florida Business Journal:

REALTOR® Magazine-Daily News-Banks Seek Payback from Walkaways

Increasingly aggressive mortgage lenders are seeking to collect deficiencies from former home owners who walked away from their properties or sold them in short sales.

Click here to read entire story:  REALTOR® Magazine-Daily News-Banks Seek Payback from Walkaways

Washington Report: GFE Rules

HUD officials say they plan to conduct a review of the growing use of “worksheets” and “fee estimate” forms by mortgage lenders providing quotes to home buyers and refinancers since the first of January.

The worksheets are a reaction by the mortgage industry to HUD's tough new “good faith estimates” (or GFE) rules that went into effect on New Year's.

Click here to read entire story:Realty Times - Washington Report: GFE Rules

Washington Report: FHA Tightening Standards

FHA is tightening up its standards for home buyers - but the changes are not as tough as some analysts had feared - especially on downpayments.

Click here to read entire story:  Realty Times - Washington Report: FHA Tightening Standards

Standardized Short Sale Process Will Benefit All Parties

Two years ago the National Association of Realtors® formed a task force to address the vexing issue of short sales. A multitude of members had complained of lengthy and often incomprehensible processes that – although they varied in detail from lender to lender – all seemed to share the characteristics of being inefficient and irrational. Upon completing its studies the task force issued recommendations that the short sale process be standardized among lenders, that common forms be used, and that fixed time frames be adopted for various phases of the short sale process.

Click here to read the entire story:  Realty Times - Standardized Short Sale Process Will Benefit All Parties

Real Estate Outlook: Sobering News?

You might have seen the headlines last week about an unexpected drop in housing starts, and you might have thought: Uh-oh. That's not the direction we ought to be headed in a rebounding economy.

So what does that mean for real estate in 2010?

Click here to read entire story:   Realty Times - Real Estate Outlook: Sobering News?

Miami judge grants reverse foreclosure - South Florida Business Journal:

"ALG's reverse foreclosure procedure will finally help associations force banks to take title to financially upside down units much faster than ever before,”

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Investor Report: Florida Condos

Investors in foreclosures and REOs: Get ready to rev up your business volume.

That's because starting February first, HUD is waiving its controversial 90-day anti-flipping rule for FHA financing.

Click here to read entire story:  Realty Times - Investor Report: Florida Condos

New rules designed to speed up short sales - Real Estate - MiamiHerald.com

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Financially stressed homeowners left hanging while their banks consider whether to approve the short sales of their properties may benefit from new federal guidelines that give lenders a 10-day limit in which to respond to purchase offers. 

The rules from the U.S. Treasury, which also allow financial incentives for both sellers and lenders, could figure prominently in Florida's housing market, where about one in every five existing-home purchases involves a short sale.

Click here to read the entire story:  New rules designed to speed up short sales - Real Estate - MiamiHerald.com

Washington Report: REO Discontent

Mortgage giant Fannie Mae is unhappy about the mounting thousands of REO houses it's stuck with, but now it's moving to sell off that inventory faster than it has in the past, potentially opening up some interesting opportunities for home buyers and their agents.

Click here to read the entire story:  Realty Times - Washington Report: REO Discontent

Little Known Player Helps FHA Provide Much Needed Trust-Building Guidelines for Condominiums

The latest FHA condominium guidelines eliminated the two main reasons the public quit buying condominiums,

1. They couldn’t afford the down payment

2. They lost confidence in the association’s financial status

Condominiums that received FHA approval soon learned that approval alone was not enough to draw buyers. Lack of confidence in the financial stability of association fees and reserve accounts kept buyers and Realtors away as well.

Click here to read entire story:  Realty Times - Little Known Player Helps FHA Provide Much Needed Trust-Building Guidelines for Condominiums

Real Estate Investors Returning to Market

Savvy investors are always the first to jump in a potentially profitable housing market and a new survey indicates things are heating up.Cl

Click here to read entire story:  Realty Times - Real Estate Investors Returning to Market

South Florida has $12B in troubled commercial real estate - South Florida Business Journal:

A report released Wednesday by Real Capital Analytics found that South Florida has about $12.4 billion in troubled commercial real estate, with most of it headed over to lenders.

Click here to read entire story:   Study: South Florida has $12B in troubled commercial real estate - South Florida Business Journal:

Commercial Foreclosures Next Wave of Foreclosure Litigation

Although the public has most certainly been made aware of the massive amounts of residential properties being foreclosed upon, most are not aware of the amount of commercial properties that are either delinquent or soon to be so. Towards the end of the residential real estate boom, the commercial real estate market also saw a boom itself. Fueled by easy credit and new investors entering the market the commercial real estate market exploded.

Click here to read entire story:   Realty Times - Commercial Foreclosures Next Wave of Foreclosure Litigation

On Housing - Forbes.com The Big TREND

 The Big Trend

Real estate will be an attractive bet for both sophisticated and novice investors in 2010. Wealthy individuals already are defiantly giving over more of their portfolios to real estate, according to a Barclays Wealth survey.

Vulture investors, meanwhile, see opportunity in the housing market's wreckage. Distressed mortgage real estate investment trusts raised over $2 billion in public offerings in 2009. Rising unemployment and an unstable market make mortgage securities dicey buys. Investors tempted to bottom fish for speculative reasons risk being unable to flip their properties and getting stuck with them.

Click here to read the entire story:  Francesca Levy On Housing - Forbes.com

Grubb & Ellis: Commercial real estate to decline slowly

 

NEW YORK – Jan. 6, 2010 – Grubb & Ellis Co. released its annual forecast Monday, predicting that commercial real estate will decline more slowly in 2009, reaching bottom by the end of the year and starting to recover in 2011.

Click here to read entire story:   Grubb & Ellis: Commercial real estate to decline slowly

Realty Times - Investor Report: Miami and Manhattan

Real estate analysts disagree on whether the troubled condo sector has hit bottom yet in places like south Florida, Vegas and Manhattan.

But a group of nationally-known investment pros have concluded that 2010's the time, finally, to plunge in, buy up blocks of unsold units from banks, and convert them into rental apartments for at least the next four years.

Click here to read the entire story:  Realty Times - Investor Report: Miami and Manhattan

Modified loan on home can hurt

DETROIT – Jan. 5, 2010 – The last thing many troubled homeowners want to hear is that they could be denied a car loan after they get a chance to modify their home loan.
But credit scores can get dinged after a home loan modification, making it more costly or tougher to get a loan or credit card.
Hundreds of thousands of homeowners find themselves in a financial squeeze, thanks to the recession and the meltdown in the housing market. Lenders have offered trial loan modifications to more than 700,000 eligible borrowers. As of late November, about 31,000 trial loans have been made permanent, which requires at least three on-time payments under the trial program and proof of income.

Click here to read the entire story:  Modified loan on home can hurt

High court: Mediate on foreclosure

TAMPA, Fla. – Jan. 5, 2009 – Florida homeowners facing foreclosure may soon get one last chance to negotiate with lenders trying to take back their homes.
The Florida Supreme Court issued an administrative order last week that requires a third-party mediation program with all new foreclosure lawsuits involving primary residences.

Click here to read the entire story:  High court: Mediate on foreclosure

Realty Times - Real Estate Outlook: 2010 Stark Contrast to 2009

Even the grumpiest, grinchiest economist would have to admit that New Year's 2010 looks a whole lot more positive for real estate and housing than things did last year at the same time.

…………. Overall, according to the Florida Association of Realtors, sales of houses were 61 percent higher than November of 2008. Condo sales were up by an amazing 111 percent!!

Click here to read the entire story:   Realty Times - Real Estate Outlook: 2010 Stark Contrast to 2009

Realty Times - Home Value Loss Now but Increased Pricing Expected in 2010

There’s bad news and good news coming out of the housing market. Forbes Magazine released study results by Local Market Monitor that showed the cities that lost the most value are concentrated in some areas of California, Florida, Nevada, and the Northeast.

These cities were impacted by local and national factors such as increased unemployment and the rising cost of housing which resulted in homebuyers gambling on the odds of whether they could afford long-term housing.

Click here to read more:  Realty Times - Home Value Loss Now but Increased Pricing Expected in 2010

Realty Times - Washington Report: Treasury Policy Change

The Obama administration announced a blockbuster policy change over the holidays that didn't get a lot of press attention, but will affect the housing market for years.

The Treasury department said it is now committed to support Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with as many billions of dollars as is necessary to get them through the next three years. There'll be no limit whatsoever anymore.

Click here to read more:  Realty Times - Washington Report: Treasury Policy Change