Just Listed! 4847 E. Kirkland Phoenix, AZ 85054

July 29th, 2010 3:58 PM

Existing home sale numbers

July 23rd, 2010 7:20 AM

Sales of existing homes fell further in June but still remained notably higher than year-ago levels, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Thursday.

According to NAR’s report, existing-home sales came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.37 million units in June, down 5.1 percent from 5.66 million units in May. However, sales were still 9.8 percent higher than the 4.89 million-unit pace of one year ago.

On a regional basis, existing-home sales tumbled 9 percent in the West, dropped 7.5 percent in the Midwest, and fell 6.5 percent in the South from May to June. However, sales in the Northeast soared 7.9 percent from one month to the next.

The overall decline in existing-home sales in June marked the second consecutive month-to-month drop and left sales 7.3 percent below April’s peak, a separate report by Capital Economics noted. The macroeconomic research consultancy said June’s fall was smaller than the consensus forecast of a decline to 5.1 million units and the drop to about 4.2 million units implied by the pending home sales index.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the market showed uncharacteristic yet understandable swings as buyers responded to the homebuyer tax credit. He said June home sales still reflected a tax credit impact, as some sales had still not closed due to delays. Due to the extension of the closing deadline for this government incentive, Yun said these closings will show up in the next two months.

“Broadly speaking, sales closed after the home buyer tax credit will be significantly lower compared to the credit-induced spring surge,” Yun said. “Only when jobs are created at a sufficient pace will home sales return to sustainable healthy levels.”

As sales fell, total housing inventory increased. According to NAR, inventory jumped 2.5 percent to 3.99 million existing homes available for sale. At the current sales pace, this represents an 8.9-month supply, up from an 8.3-month supply in May. However, raw unsold inventory remained 12.7 percent below the record of 4.58 million units in July 2008.

“The supply of homes on the market is higher than we’d like to see,” Yun said. “But home prices are still holding their ground because prices had already overcorrected in many local markets.”

According to NAR, the national median existing-home price for all housing types was $183,700 in June, coming in 1 percent higher than a year ago. Distressed homes were 32 percent of sales last month, compared with 31 percent in May and 31 percent in June 2009.

Regionally, existing-home prices fell 1.2 percent in the Northeast and inched down 0.1 percent in the Midwest from June 2009 to June 2010. During this same period, the median price in the South held steady, and prices in the West edged up 1.5 percent.

Freddie Mac auction in Phoenix

July 19th, 2010 10:11 AM

Freddie Mac said Friday that it has teamed up with real estate auction specialist REDC and the asset management firm New Vista to sell off 135 homes the GSE has repossessed through foreclosure at an auction event in Phoenix, Arizona.

The HomeSteps REO homes will be auctioned off to individual homebuyers at the Phoenix Convention Center

on August 7. Almost a third of the homes are being set-aside specifically for first-time borrowers participating in the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP).

NSP was designed to help eligible first-time homebuyers purchase foreclosed or abandoned homes in designated areas by providing closing cost and downpayment assistance. NSP funds supporting the Freddie Mac auction are being provided through the State of Arizona Department of Housing.

“The August 7 community homebuyer auction will provide first-time buyers and other Phoenix home shoppers with an outstanding opportunity to buy affordable homes to live in at a time when mortgage rates are at a 50-year low,” said Chris Bowden, VP of HomeSteps, the real estate sales unit of Freddie Mac that markets a nationwide selection of Freddie Mac-owned homes.

Freddie Mac held similar community auctions in Las Vegas and Riverside/San Bernardino counties in April that drew thousands of bidders and sold 207 HomeSteps homes to first-time buyers and other owner-occupants.

courtesy of DS News

Just Listed! 4423 E. Thorn Tree Cave Creek, AZ 85331

July 15th, 2010 7:35 AM

A third of home closings were foreclosures

July 15th, 2010 7:30 AM

Thirty-one percent of all residential properties sold in the first quarter of 2010 were foreclosure properties, according to data released Tuesday by Foreclosure Deals, an online resource of foreclosure listings from across the country.

Experts at the Miami-based company believe the statistic shows that people are continuing to turn to the foreclosure market as a plentiful source of low cost homes.

With 232,950 foreclosure homes sold during the first quarter of this year, that total is down slightly from the final quarter of 2009, and 33 percent below the total foreclosure homes sold in the first quarter of 2009, Foreclosure Deals reported.

The decline in total sales could be an indication of a shrinking market, but falling prices over the same period show that foreclosure homes can still be purchased at prices far below the national average.

According to Foreclosure Deals, the price of a foreclosure during the first quarter was 27 percent below the average sale price of a traditional home sale. That’s up from an average discount of 21 percent in 2006.

“Buyers are attracted to foreclosures because they offer tremendous discounts,” said James Foxx, a business analyst with Foreclosure Deals. “The numbers show that each year, the total number of foreclosures sold has increased, and that’s not just a reflection of supply. They’re very popular, and for good reason, there’s no better investment value in real estate currently out there.”

According to industry statistics provided by Foreclosure Deals, foreclosure home sales did increase by 25 percent from 2008 to 2009, and over 320 percent since 2007.

During the first quarter of this year, the company found that foreclosures accounted for more than 50 percent of home sales in California, Nevada, and Arizona. Foreclosure homes accounted for at least 33 percent of all sales in Michigan, Massachusetts, Florida, Georgia, and Illinois.

Foreclosure Deals says REO properties accounted for 19 percent of all residential sales during Q1, with an average market value discount of 34 percent. Pre-foreclosure or short sales accounted for 12 percent.

Ohio had the highest average discount on a foreclosed home in the first quarter, at 39.5 percent below market value. Close behind were Kentucky and Illinois at 39 percent, and California and Tennessee at 37 percent.

“The statistics show that buyers and investors are getting some great deals,” Foxx said. “And you don’t have to buy in the really tough markets, like Las Vegas, Nevada or Phoenix, Arizona to find them.”

courtesy of DS News

Foreclosure Filings 1st half

July 15th, 2010 7:24 AM

RealtyTrac released its Midyear 2010 Foreclosure Report Thursday, which shows that 1,654,634 U.S. properties received a foreclosure filing during the first half of this year.

That figure means that one in every 78 homes received at least one foreclosure filing between January and the end of June. The midyear total represents a 5 percent decrease from the previous six months but an 8 percent increase from the first six months of 2009.

“The midyear numbers put us on pace to exceed 3 million properties with foreclosure filings by the end of the year, and more than 1 million bank repossessions,” said James J. Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac.

“The roller coaster pattern of foreclosure activity over the past 12 months demonstrates that while the foreclosure problem is being managed on the surface, a massive number of distressed properties and underwater loans continues to sit just below the surface, threatening the fragile stability of the housing market,” Saccacio added.

Foreclosure filings were reported on 895,521 U.S. properties during the second quarter alone. Default and auction notices were down, but bank repossessions (REOs) increased 5 percent from the previous quarter and 38

percent from Q2 2009. During the second quarter of this year, 269,962 homes were taken back by lenders – a new quarterly high for RealtyTrac’s report.

“The second quarter was a tale of two trends,” Saccacio said. “The pace of properties entering foreclosure slowed as lenders pre-empted or delayed foreclosure proceedings on delinquent properties with more aggressive short sale and loan modification initiatives. Meanwhile the pace of properties completing the foreclosure process through bank repossession quickened as lenders cleared out a backlog of distressed inventory delayed by foreclosure prevention efforts in 2009.”

Narrowing the scope, the numbers fare a little better. Foreclosure filings were reported on 313,841 U.S. properties during the month of June, a decrease of nearly 3 percent from the previous month and a decrease of nearly 7 percent from June 2009. June marks the third straight monthly decline in overall foreclosure filings.

Back to the midyear numbers, nearly 6 percent of all Nevada housing units, or one in 17, received at least one foreclosure filing in the first half of 2010, giving the state the nation’s highest foreclosure rate during the six-month period despite decreasing foreclosure activity. A total of 64,429 Nevada properties received a foreclosure filing from January to June.

Arizona registered the nation’s second highest state foreclosure rate in the first half of this year, with 3.36 percent of its homes, or one in 30, receiving a foreclosure filing. Florida registered the nation’s third highest rate, with 3.15 percent, or one in 32 homes, in some stage of foreclosure.

Other states with foreclosure rates ranking among the nation’s 10 highest were California (2.54 percent), Utah (1.91 percent), Georgia (1.79 percent), Michigan (1.73 percent), Idaho (1.68 percent), Illinois (1.61 percent), and Colorado (1.40 percent).

courtesy DS news

Just Listed! 13541 W. Cottonwood Street Surprise, AZ 85374

July 8th, 2010 11:50 AM

Just Listed! 9708 E. Mountain View Scottsdale, AZ 85258

July 6th, 2010 3:18 PM

Home-Buyer credit extended

July 6th, 2010 8:07 AM

It’s official—on Friday morning, President Obama signed legislation to extend the closing deadline for homebuyer tax credit recipients.

Originally, qualifying buyers who were under contract by April 30, 2010 had until June 30, 2010 to close. But as this deadline approached, concerns arose that the backlog of loan applications created by the popularity of the program would leave many buyers unable to claim the credit.

In fact, an estimated 180,000 buyers were at risk of missing the closing deadline, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

These at-risk buyers can now breathe a sigh of relief. President Obama’s approval of the Homebuyers Assistance and Improvement Act of 2010 extends the closing date from June 30, 2010 to September 30, 2010, giving qualified buyers who signed a contract by April 30, 2010 an extra three months to complete their closing.

As DSNews.com previously reported, the road to approval of this legislation was a bumpy one.

Senate Majority Leander Harry Reid (D-Nevada) introduced an amendment to a jobs and tax bill in June that would have similarly pushed the cut-off date for the tax credit by three months. However, this larger bill failed to make its way through the Senate.

But the House bill, which was solely geared toward the extension of the closing deadline for the tax credit, was overwhelmingly approved by House lawmakers on Tuesday in a 409 to 5 vote.

The bill then moved on to the Senate, where it looked like it was going to be tied to unemployment insurance. This effort was unsuccessful, though. Late Wednesday night, just hours before the original closing deadline was set to expire, the Senate unanimously agreed to pass the tax credit extension by itself.

With approval from both the House and the Senate and a signature from President Obama, the closing deadline is officially extended.

“What a great way to begin celebrating our nation’s most patriotic holiday by opening the door to the American dream of homeownership to thousands of home buyers who would have been shut out of the homes of their dreams through no fault of their own,” said Vicki Cox Golder, president of NAR.

In addition to approving the extension of the tax credit closing deadline, President Obama signed the National Flood Insurance Program Extension Act of 2010 on Friday morning. This retroactively reauthorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency to enter into new contracts for flood insurance under the National Flood Insurance Program through September 30, 2010. The extension of this program is expected to help provide further stability to real estate markets across the nation.

 

Courtesy of DS News

Strategic Defaults on the Decline

July 4th, 2010 11:06 AM

A new study released Monday by data service provider Experian finds that nearly 1 in 5 mortgage delinquencies during the second quarter of 2009, or 19 percent, was the result of a borrower intentionally, strategically defaulting.

The company called the share of walk-aways “high,” but said “there is reason to believe the phenomenon may have peaked, or be close to peaking.”

The study, developed in conjunction with the international business consulting firm Oliver Wyman, shows that the absolute number of strategic defaulters — which the companies define as those who miss six straight mortgage payments without missing payments on other consumer debts such as credit cards or car loans — totaled 355,000 during the first half of last year.

But the data shows that strategic defaults, as well as first-time mortgage delinquencies in general, declined in successive quarters in 2009, suggesting they may have crest in Q4 2008, the companies said.

“Both delinquency and strategic default — as we define these terms — continue at high levels, but in Q2 2009 we see the first evidence of a break in the upward trend,” explained Peter Carroll, partner at Oliver Wyman.

“After a seasonal reduction in both measures from Q4 2008 to Q1 2009, the Q2 numbers then declined further, breaking the historical trend of quarter-over-quarter increases,” Carroll said, but he noted that the companies will be extending the analysis to cover data from the third and fourth quarters of last year to validate their assumption that strategic default is on the decline.

The report also noted that the incidence of “cash-flow managers” rose from 20 percent in 2008 to 26 percent in the first half of 2009. The companies refer to the term cash-flow managers as temporarily distressed borrowers whose payment behavior closely mimics strategic defaulters. However, this group of borrowers continue to make occasional payments on their mortgage, perhaps indicating their intention to get out of delinquency.

“Cash-flow managers would be better candidates for loan modification programs than strategic defaulters,” said Charles Chung, Experian’s general manager of decision sciences. “They are likely to be in temporary distress and may also have financial resources which allow them to continue to pay their non-mortgage obligations. This clearly demonstrates a willingness to pay, and a loan modification that makes their mortgage payments more affordable is likely to be very effective.”

The Experian-Oliver Wyman study also pinpointed several common characteristics of strategic defaulters, some of which may be surprising.

Borrowers with multiple first mortgages — i.e., investors — show a higher incidence of strategic default, they concluded.

In addition, in the first half of 2009, 28 percent of what the companies called “super-prime delinquents,” meaning they possessed a VantageScore credit rating between 901 and 990, became strategic defaulters. That’s a 50 percent higher rate than the share of strategic defaulters when looking at the overall delinquent population.

Customers with higher mortgage origination balances are more likely to strategically default, the report said. The study also found that incidence of strategic default is largely concentrated in areas where home price declines have been the steepest, with strategic defaults running 80 times higher in California during the first half of 2009 than they did in 2005, and the ratio in Florida 53 times higher.

The report also honed in on counterintuitive home-equity line default behavior. The companies found that strategic defaulters who also have home-equity lines are more likely to stay current on those lines prior to mortgage default.

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