Real Estate Info and Home Search

• County Residential Land – Far From Recovery

  Land Prices are 15-30% too high in Cache County, and there is over three years of active inventory based on last years sales pace.

  tags: land, cache, county

• Buying a Home: Why You Should Use a Buyer’s Agent « UtahCornerstone Video Blog

  Video Blog of why you should use a buyers agent when buying Utah Real Estate.

  tags: buying tips, home buying

• Ten Inexpensive Ways to Wow Buyers

  Tips for Selling your Home for Top Dollar

  tags: selling, selling tips, staging tips

  • Here are 10 cheap ways to make a property more attractive to shoppers.
    1. Improve first impressions. Touch up the paint on the front door and other areas that buyers see first.
    2. Clean up the landscaping. Trim the hedges and trees and plant some annuals in the flowerbeds.
    3. Paint the interior. A coat of light yellow or cream with contrasting white woodwork looks fresh and clean.
    4. Refurbish the floors. Buff the hardwoods. Install new carpets – or at least get them professionally cleaned.
    5. Take care of the big problems. If the house needs a roof or the front stoop is crumbling, get them fixed.
    6. Buy warranties. Putting appliances under warranty gives homebuyers a secure feeling.
    7. Improve energy efficiency. New windows or improved insulation tell a potential buyer the seller is on top of things plus they come with tax benefits.
    8. Replace light fixtures. Updated fixtures, especially at the entrance way and in the foyer, create a good first impression.
    9. Buy a stove. Home owners whose kitchen isn’t top of the line can jazz it up for a few hundred dollars by buying a new stove, which gives the room a fresh feel.
    10. Tidy up the bathrooms. Get rid of mildew, replace caulking and replace stained sinks.

    Source: U.S. News & World Report, Luke Mullins (01/21/2010)

• Cornerstone Video Released « Logan Utah Real Estate Blog

  How not to show a house. Home Boyz

  tags: cornerstone, real estate video

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Ten Inexpensive Ways to Wow Buyers

  Tips for Selling your Home for Top Dollar

  tags: selling, selling tips, staging tips

  • Here are 10 cheap ways to make a property more attractive to shoppers.
    
    1. Improve first impressions. Touch up the paint on the front door and other areas that buyers see first.
    2. Clean up the landscaping. Trim the hedges and trees and plant some annuals in the flowerbeds.
    3. Paint the interior. A coat of light yellow or cream with contrasting white woodwork looks fresh and clean.
    4. Refurbish the floors. Buff the hardwoods. Install new carpets – or at least get them professionally cleaned.
    5. Take care of the big problems. If the house needs a roof or the front stoop is crumbling, get them fixed.
    6. Buy warranties. Putting appliances under warranty gives homebuyers a secure feeling.
    7. Improve energy efficiency. New windows or improved insulation tell a potential buyer the seller is on top of things plus they come with tax benefits.
    8. Replace light fixtures. Updated fixtures, especially at the entrance way and in the foyer, create a good first impression.
    9. Buy a stove. Home owners whose kitchen isn’t top of the line can jazz it up for a few hundred dollars by buying a new stove, which gives the room a fresh feel.
    10. Tidy up the bathrooms. Get rid of mildew, replace caulking and replace stained sinks.

    Source: U.S. News & World Report, Luke Mullins (01/21/2010)

I’d pay special attention to #10. It’s not really a tip to help sell a house, it’s really a necessity if you don’t want to scare buyers off. Something moldy or smelly can outweigh all the positives of a house.

• Logan Short Sales about the Same as Last Month

  The number of Short Sale Homes in Cache County about the same as last month.

  tags: short sales

• FHA lifts 90-day waiting period for Flippers

  This ban on the required “90-day” waiting period is an effort to get investors to buy more foreclosures.

  tags: foreclosures, fha, 90-day

  • Starting Feb. 1, housing regulators will suspend for one year a 90-day waiting period on property resales that it says has put FHA borrowers at a disadvantage in bidding on foreclosed properties.

  • Some sellers of foreclosed properties have been reluctant to enter into contracts from potential FHA buyers because of the cost of holding a property for 90 days, and the risks that a vacant property would be vandalized, HUD said.

    Lifting the waiting period “will allow homes to resell as quickly as possible, helping to stabilize real estate prices and to revitalize neighborhoods and communities,” HUD said.

• Why Interest Rates Will Rise in 2010 | HousingStorm.com Honest Local Real Estate

  tags: no_tag

  • The only way to increase demand will be to raise interest rates, which will then spread to all layers of the economy. All interest rates will rise, including mortgages.

    There really is no escape from this conclusion. And this isn’t just about 2010–it’s about 2010 through 2035, as bond rate cycles tend to run between 18 and 26 years. Just as interest rates fell for 26 years, now they will rise for a generation or so.

• Construction jobs down 23% in Cache Valley

  Cache Valley ranks 16th nationally for biggest decline in construction related jobs.

  tags: construction

  • The Logan area lost 23 percent of its construction jobs from November 2008 to November 2009, according to a new report from the Associated General Contractors of America (ACG).

    The decline ranks Logan 16th among metropolitan areas in the U.S. that have lost the most construction jobs. As for actual numbers, Logan’s employed construction workforce dropped from 3,100 workers in late 2008 to 2,400 workers in late 2009.

  • Chris Nelson with the University of Utah’s Metropolitan Research Center said this week that by 2030 the Wasatch Front, including Logan, would need 450,000 additional housing units — 50 percent more than now — and 1.1 billion feet of commercial space, more than double what’s out there now.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Foreclosures top record in 2009, no end in sight – MarketWatch

  Foreclosures in The US were the worst they’ve ever been last year. Double what they were in 2007.

  tags: foreclosures

  • The number of U.S. residential properties receiving at least one foreclosure filing jumped 21% in 2009 to a record 2.82 million
  • 2.21% of all U.S. housing units (1 in 45) received at least one foreclosure filing during the year, up from 1.84% in 2008, 1.03% in 2007 and 0.58% in 2006.
  • Saccacio said that monthly foreclosure filings peaked in July at 361,000, then declined for four months before rebounding in December. He said short-term factors, including trial loan modifications, state legislation extending the foreclosure process and an overwhelming volume of inventory clogging the foreclosure pipeline contributed to the second-half declines.
  • Just four states — California, Florida, Arizona and Illinois — accounted for more than half of the nation’s 2009 total, with more than 1.4 million properties receiving a foreclosure filing.

• December Home Prices UP for Salt Lake

  Home prices in December were up compared with the last few months.

  tags: salt lake, salt lake county

• Q4 Home Sales up for Davis County Again

  For the second straight Quarter, Year over year home sales are up in Davis County Utah

  tags: q4, davis county

• More Luxury Homes are Selling in Davis County

  Davis County Sold Prices Were Way up During December, and the gap between list and sold prices is seriously narrowing.

  tags: davis county, december 2009

• New RESPA Rules Regarding Good Faith Estimates

  RESPA is doing things to give more transparnacy to the real estate industry.

  tags: good faith estimate, hud, real estate

• Utah outlook on housing is improving – Deseret News

  Home prices in Salt lake will likely decline this year, but the market bottom is past us, and prices will start going up in 2010 as there will be increased demand for Utah Real Estate

  tags: salt, lake, market, predictions, home, sales, trends

  • In Salt Lake County, we’ve probably touched bottom in 2009 and we’re going to see a slight improvement in 2010,” Jim Wood, director of the University of Utah’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research
  • In 2009, only 900 new single-family homes were built in Salt Lake County — the lowest level since the war years of the 1940s
  • Salt Lake County home sales this year will show some slight improvement over last year, he said
  • median housing prices in the Salt Lake metropolitan area peaked during the third quarter of 2007 at $246,600, dropping just over 11 percent over a two-year period to $218,900.
  • Wood predicted that home values along the Wasatch Front would continue to decline this year, falling another 3 percent to 5 percent.
  • This will bring the decline in median sales price of homes in Salt Lake County to 15 percent through 2010,” he said in the report. “By then, the price declines should be over, replaced by stable to slightly improving prices in 2011.

  • demand in the Utah housing market is on the upswing, as is the state’s overall population.

    “Between 2010 and 2011, we’re going to have to build 100,000 new housing units in Utah to meet the needs of pent-up demand and growth by the end of 2011,” Nelson said.

  • The bottom has passed and we are going to be inching up, and 2011 and 2012 are going to be extraordinary years for homebuilding.

• Fewer sellers cut US home prices, for now-Trulia | Reuters

  Less price cuts are happening for real estate, this is a sign that real estate markets are improving.

  tags: price cut, home sales

• Fraud with the Federal Housing Tax Credits – eRealEstate

  tags: no_tag

  • Last year, the only things that were required on Form 5405 to receive the home buyer tax credit were: Social Security Number, Address, and Contract Price….

    Now, with only those requirements, can anybody see any problems that might arise?

    Well, thousands did.

    • 580 people filed tax returns claiming the credit for children under 18. One of these kids was just 4 years old. Yeah, I bet he really bought a house, most 4 year olds I know can qualify for mortgage financing…
    • More than 19,000 people filed tax returns claiming the credit for homes that they DID NOT purchase.
    • And 74,000 people claimed the tax credit when they were not actually first time home buyers.

• Tips to Save up to Buy A Home

  The more money you can save up to buy your home, the less your mortgage payment will be. Learning to save, is something many Americans have problems with, but now this is required for home ownership.

  tags: buying tips, saving money

• Move Down Buyers Qualify for $6,500 Tax Credit Too

  Buyers who have owned their homes for more than five years that are buying a smaller home, also qualify for the federal government tax credits.

  tags: $6, 500, tax credit, move up, homeowners

  • Move up, move down, move sideways; it just doesn’t matter. Whichever direction you move, financially, you may still qualify for the new tax credit available to current homeowners. It is unfortunate that the credit has too often been characterized as a credit for “move-up” homeowners. The phrase carries the implication that the new home must cost more than the sale price of the former one.
  • the previous home must have been occupied as the buyer’s principal residence for at least five consecutive years out of the past eight years
  • You must have purchased (that is closed on) the replacement home sometime after 11/6/2009 and before 4/30/2010. With one exception: the new home will also qualify if you had entered into a binding contract no later than April 30, 2010 and you closed no later than June 30, 2010.
  • The tax credit is for 10% of the purchase price up to a maximum credit of $6,500 for joint filers and $3,250 for those filing separately.
  • full credit for singles whose income does not exceed $125,000 and for couples whose income is no more than $225,000.
  • The cost of the new home may not exceed $800,000.
  • The new home must be used as a principal residence for a three year period subsequent to closing, or else the credit must be repaid.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Utah outlook on housing is improving – Deseret News

  Here is some information from a great article in the Deseret News about the housing market future of Northern Utah. According to Jim Wood the director of the University of Utah’s Economic and Business research. Home prices in Salt Lake will likely decline this year, but the market has bottomed. Home prices will start going up in 2010 as there will be increased demand for Utah Real Estate.

  tags: salt, lake, market, predictions, home, sales, trends

  • In Salt Lake County, we’ve probably touched bottom in 2009 and we’re going to see a slight improvement in 2010," Jim Wood, director of the University of Utah’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research

  • In 2009, only 900 new single-family homes were built in Salt Lake County — the lowest level since the war years of the 1940s

  • Salt Lake County home sales this year will show some slight improvement over last year, he said

  • median housing prices in the Salt Lake metropolitan area peaked during the third quarter of 2007 at $246,600, dropping just over 11 percent over a two-year period to $218,900.

  • Wood predicted that home values along the Wasatch Front would continue to decline this year, falling another 3 percent to 5 percent.

  • This will bring the decline in median sales price of homes in Salt Lake County to 15 percent through 2010," he said in the report. "By then, the price declines should be over, replaced by stable to slightly improving prices in 2011.

  • Demand in the Utah housing market is on the upswing, as is the state’s overall population.

    "Between 2010 and 2011, we’re going to have to build 100,000 new housing units in Utah to meet the needs of pent-up demand and growth by the end of 2011," Nelson said.

  • The bottom has passed and we are going to be inching up, and 2011 and 2012 are going to be extraordinary years for homebuilding.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Fraud with the Federal Housing Tax Credits – eRealEstate

  Last year, the only things that were required on Form 5405 to receive the home buyer tax credit were: Social Security Number, Address, and Contract Price….Now, with only those requirements, can anybody see any problems that might arise?

• Well, thousands did.

• 580 people filed tax returns claiming the credit for children under 18. One of these kids was just 4 years old. Yeah, I bet he really bought a house, most 4 year olds I know can qualify for mortgage financing…
• More than 19,000 people filed tax returns claiming the credit for homes that they DID NOT purchase.
• And 74,000 people claimed the tax credit when they were not actually first time home buyers.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Move Down Buyers Qualify for $6,500 Tax Credit Too

  Buyers who have owned their homes for more than five years that are buying a smaller home, also qualify for the federal government tax credits.

  Move up, move down, move sideways; it just doesn’t matter. Whichever direction you move, financially, you may still qualify for the new tax credit available to current homeowners. It is unfortunate that the credit has too often been characterized as a credit for "move-up" homeowners. The phrase carries the implication that the new home must cost more than the sale price of the former one.

Here are some of the details regarding the $6,500 tax credit.

• • The previous home must have been occupied as the buyer’s principal residence for at least five consecutive years out of the past eight years.

  • You must have purchased (that is closed on) the replacement home sometime after 11/6/2009 and before 4/30/2010. With one exception: the new home will also qualify if you had entered into a binding contract no later than April 30, 2010 and you closed no later than June 30, 2010.

  • The tax credit is for 10% of the purchase price up to a maximum credit of $6,500 for joint filers and $3,250 for those filing separately.

  • The full credit for singles whose income does not exceed $125,000 and for couples whose income is no more than $225,000. Partial tax credits may be available for people making more money.

  • The cost of the new home may not exceed $800,000.

  • The new home must be used as a principal residence for a three year period subsequent to closing, or else the credit must be repaid.

The $6,500 tax credit has placed an interesting twist on the real estate market. It has motivated many people to buy, but in some ways is just adding to the amount of real estate inventory on the market which does nothing to improve the real estate market unless people actually do "move up" and purchase the huge glut of vacant high end homes for sale.

Moving Down, does nothing to improve the housing market, unless the person turns their prior residence into a rental. Overall this tax credit is good for real estate agents, lenders, and title companies as it will result in more real estate transactions closed, for the general public however, I question the effectiveness of this tax credit. Regardless of my opinion, it is a great time for people to buy if they’ve lived in their homes for at least five years.

• Box Elder Real Estate No Where Near Recovering

  The real estate market in Box Elder County Utah is bad, really bad. It is nowhere near recovering. Home sales were down 40% last year compared with 2009.

  tags: box elder

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• New Years Resolution: Buy Real Estate in 2010 « Logan Utah Real Estate Blog

  Are you a perennial renter, make your new years resolution to buy a home in 2010.

  tags: home, buying, new, years, resolution

• Right-sizing the American Dream | Real Estate and Technology News for Agents, Brokers and Investors | Inman News

  tags: no_tag

  • The National Association of Realtors’ 2009 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers revealed that the average seller accepted a final purchase price around 95 percent of asking. About 60 percent said they had reduced their home’s price at least once.
  • things like commute distance, proximity to extended family and “walkability” to desirable amenities have been shooting up the ladder of homebuyer priorities
  • More buyers than ever will buy below their maximum approved price.
  • Buyers will continue to buy older homes and remodel the homes themselves
  • Buyers are looking at the impact of every facet of their prospective new homes on every element of their current and envisioned lives, rather than just falling for the biggest-and-best they can afford.
  • They will be more willing than in any other time in the recent past to wait for their finances to grow before moving up to a larger home and the correspondingly larger monthly mortgage payment.

• Deseret News | Home prices rise again in October

  For the Nation as a Whole, home prices are rising.

  tags: home, prices

  • Home prices rose for the fifth month in a row in October, but the recovery continues to be uneven with only 11 of the 20 metro areas tracked showing gains.

• Ten Reasons for Buyer Caution when Buying Foreclosures

  Some things to look out for and pay attention too when buying foreclosures.

  tags: foreclosures, buying, check, list

  • Foreclosures: Ten Reasons for Buyer Caution
    
    Foreclosed homes aren’t always the best deal in town – even if they do come with a price tag that appears to be lower than some other homes in the neighborhood.

    Here are 10 reasons why that is true, offered by Vince Mastronardi, president of On-Site Specialty Cleaning & Restoration in suburban Detroit.

    No heat in the winter. When a home has been left unheated, buyers run a risk of damaged pipes.
    Not removed but ripped. Thieves and even angry former owners can do a lot of damage when they depart with fixtures and key systems like heaters and air conditioners.
    Peeling, bubbling, and discoloration. Water incursion isn’t always obvious, but these are signs.
    Mold. Where there is water there is mold. Look inside cabinets, behind drawers, and around built-ins.
    Blocked drains and pipes. Sewer backups can be expensive to fix.
    Black cobwebs. This is the result of a malfunctioning furnace, common in properties where there hasn’t been maintenance for a long time.
    Homemade and handy. Where renovations don’t look professional, check with the municipal authority. They may have been completed without permits and that could mean they have to be redone.
    Fresh paint everywhere. What is the seller covering up?
    Check the basement. Look for discolored subflooring, which can point to mold. And search for asbestos, common in older homes that haven’t been brought up to code.
    Air quality. Include air and surface testing in a home inspection. It’s a few hundred dollars well spent.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Ogden Area Ranks 3rd Nationally for Foreclosure Recovery | Weber County Utah Real Estate

  Ogden Weber Area tops in Nation for Outlook of the Foreclosure Recovery.

  tags: ogden, foreclosure recovery

• Utah Looks to Recover from Foreclosure Crisis « Utah Homes for Sale – Real Estate Market Conditions

  Compared with other parts of the nation, recovery of the foreclosure crisis in Utah isn’t so bad.

  tags: foreclosure recovery, utah, real estate

• Collection of Utah Real Estate Blogs

  Here is a great collection of Utah Real Estate Blogs.

  tags: real estate, utah, blogs

• Logan Utah Real Estate and Homes for Sale

  Logan Utah Real Estate News and Homes for Sale

  tags: real estate, logan, utah

• Logan Real Estate Preview Feed

  Preview of Bloglines feed of Logan Real Estate Blog

  tags: no_tag

• How much does it cost to hire a Realtor when buying a home? « Logan Utah Real Estate Blog

  How much does it Cost to Hire A Real Estate Agent when buying a home? Is better than FREE a good answer….

  tags: buying, real estate, logan, utah

• Cache County Real Estate Market Conditions

  Important Real Estate Market Trends to Follow before engaging in Cache County Real Estate Transactions

  tags: cache county, real, estate, trends

• 2009 US Real Estate Profile

  Profile of the Typical Buyers in the US

  tags: 2009, home buyers, US

  • The NAR recently published a profile of US home buyers in 2009. There was some interesting info, and their is quite a difference on buyer behavior depending on the region.

    Overall, the largest demographic of home buyer are Married People. 60% of 2009 home buyers are married. Single women bought more than twice as many homes 21%, than single men 10%. Unmarried couples purchased 8% of the homes and “other” purchased the remaining 1 %. I have no idea what that means.

    The median age of US home buyers was 39 years old. 35% of buyers were between 25-34 years old and 22% were between 35-44 years old. Just 8% of US home buyers were retired people over the age of 65.

    In the Northeast the average home was substantially older, built in 1969, than any other region in the US. The average age of homes purchased in the Midwest were built in 1983, 1995 for the West, and 1998 for the South.

    Nationwide, the median home price was $185,000. Homes were most expensive in the West, Median price of $240,000, followed by the Northeast, $210,000, and then the South where the median home price was $175,000. US Homes were least expensive in the Midwest with a median price of $158,000. Home buyers in the west spent more of their household income on housing than those in the East. The average household income of buyers in the west where homes are most expensive, was $74,000, whereas the average income in the Northeast was $79,500.

• Ogden and Salt Lake in Top 10 Nationally for Housing Recovery

  Ogden Utah Ranks #3 and Salt Lake 9th according to Forbes for housing recovery from the foreclosure crisis.

  tags: foreclosure recovery

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Cap and Tax Bill, Bad for Real Estate

  There’s nothing wrong with making our homes more energy efficient, however there is something wrong with government forcing homes to be more energy efficient.Here are some experts of a great article I just read on Broker Agent Social.

  tags: energy efficient, waxman-markey bill

  • This bill is downright scary, and unfortunately, very few people fully understand it, this chubby Realtor included. The bill aims to reduce greenhouse gasses, and as Obama has promised (while he was running for office no less) the bill will cause utility prices to "skyrocket"

  • The bill will give Obama and friends the right, no the mandate, to enter your home and inspect it before you’re "allowed" to sell.  This is America.

  • If we make single family home efficiency issues a federal problem, we’re going to raise the cost of selling a home. We’re going to raise the cost of building a home. Did you know that the bill specifically calls for the inclusion of an outlet in every garage that would be capable of charging your electric car? Oh, you drive an SUV because you can’t fit 4 kids in the back of a Prius? Or you actually noticed that the #1 and #2 best selling cars in the US last summer weren’t cars at all, but GMC and Ford trucks? Better call the electrician anyway.

  • Say no to Waxman-Markey, say yes to a free market, and a more affordable real estate transaction.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Hyrum Utah Homes for Sale less than $150,000

  Good information on Hyrum Utah Homes for sale for less than $150,000.

  tags: hyrum, less than $150 000

• Logan Utah Mortgage rates are at Record Lows

  Conventional mortgage rates are the cheapest they’ve been since the Primary Mortgage Market Survey started keeping track…

  tags: mortgage, loans, interest, rates

• Clarkston Utah Homes for Sale

  Shows all the listed homes for sale in Clarkston Utah, their locations on a google map, as well as great MLS search details.

  tags: clarkston

• Logan House for Lease Option « Logan Utah Real Estate Blog

  Lease Option House in Logan. $1,150 a month.

  tags: lease option

• Mortgage Managements Affect on Your Credit Score

  Here are a few things relating to Mortgage Management that will affect your FICO credit score both negatively and positively.

  tags: credit, credit score

  • Your credit score, a numerical rendition of your creditworthiness – or lack thereof – should be at 760 or above if you want the best interest rate, according to FICO,
  • Get a mortgage modification or short sale, expect some negative impact.
  • Are rejected for a loan several times, expect a small negative.
  • Get debt relief from a credit counselor, expect a ding.
  • Get a “goodwill correction” from your lender, expect a positive effect on your credit score.
  • Pay the mortgage but fall behind on other bills, expect black marks that negatively effect your credit score. FICO doesn’t weigh your payment history on one type of loan more than another.

• Should you leave your home on the market during the Holidays?

  It is best to leave your home on the market during the Holidays, even though it may be invonvenient.

  tags: selling tips

• Pets Can Be Costly for Home Selling

  Having pets lowers the value of your home, and makes it more difficult to sell.

  tags: selling tips, selling, pets

• Home Buyer Tax Credit Expanded

  Impact and Benefits of the extension of the modified Home Buying Tax Credit.

  tags: tax credit

• Logan Utah Real Estate News and Updates

  Updates of Logan Utah Real Estate News

  tags: real, estate, logan, utah

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Mortgage Managements Affect on Your Credit Score

  Here are a few things relating to Mortgage Management that will affect your FICO credit score both negatively and positively.

  tags: credit, credit score

  • Your credit score, a numerical rendition of your creditworthiness – or lack thereof – should be at 760 or above if you want the best interest rate, according to FICO,

  • Get a mortgage modification or short sale, expect some negative impact.

  • Are rejected for a loan several times, expect a small negative.

  • Get debt relief from a credit counselor, expect a ding.

  • Get a "goodwill correction" from your lender, expect a positive effect on your credit score.

  • Pay the mortgage but fall behind on other bills, expect black marks that negatively effect your credit score. FICO doesn’t weigh your payment history on one type of loan more than another.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Cache Valley Utah Real Estate

  Good information with Cache Valley Real Estate Listings

  tags: cache, valley

• Alan Barker – Logan – Real Estate Agent – Biznik

  My Profile on Biznik

  tags: networking

• Underwater Borrowers with Good Credit are Likely to walk out from Underwater Mortgage

  Borrowers with Good Credit are more likely to walk of a home that is underwater, even though it will wreck their credit.

  tags: mortgage, foreclosures, underwater

  • The Experian report looked at 24 million U.S. credit records and found that borrowers with the highest credit ratings are 50 percent likelier to strategically default than lower-rated homeowners. The defaultees often have no adverse credit history, going from a record of perfect payments to no mortgage payments at all.

• One in 7 U.S. mortgages foreclosing or delinquent | Reuters

  Nationwide Foreclosures are at their highest rate EVER, and this isn’t expected to peak until the middle of next year. The bulk of new homes in default is of conservative conventional loans, and is primarily a result of the high rates of unemployment.

  tags: foreclosures, mortgage, delinquincies

  • A record one in seven U.S.
    mortgages were in foreclosure or at least one payment past due
    in the third quarter
  • U.S. mortgage delinquency rates and the percentage of loans
    that entered the foreclosure process also jumped to records
    from July to September, the Mortgage Bankers Association said
    on Thursday.
  • Rising job losses were behind the increasingly bleak
    portrait of the housing market in a trend that will continue
    into next year, the group said in data that adds to recent
    evidence of a still-struggling housing market.
  • record foreclosures will add to the growing supply of
    unsold homes, sapping the housing market as it attempts to
    recover from the worst slump since the Great Depression.
  • The MBA said the percentage of loans in foreclosure rose to
    1.42 percent
  • “Foreclosures remain the biggest hurdle to the housing
    recovery,” said Michelle Meyer, economist at Barclays Capital
    in New York.
  • “Foreclosures will be worse in the first part of 2010 and
    we do not see a peak in foreclosures until the middle of next
    year.”
  • conservative, prime fixed-rate loans often sold to
    homebuyers with the highest credit ratings continued to
    represent the largest share of foreclosures started and were
    the biggest driver of the increase in foreclosures
  • In fact, 33 percent of foreclosures started in the third
    quarter were on prime fixed-rate loans and those loans were 44
    percent of the quarterly increase in foreclosures, Brinkmann
    said.

• US Q3 foreclosures, delinquencies hit new records – Foreclosure community blog resource powered by RealtyTrac

  tags: no_tag

  • U.S. mortgage delinquency rates and the percentage of loans that entered the foreclosure process jumped in the third quarter, with both reaching record highs, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Thursday.
  • percentage of loans on which foreclosure actions were started rose to 1.42 percent in the third quarter,

• 15-Year Rate Hits Record Low

  15 Year Mortgages at Lowest Rate, EVER

  tags: mortgage, rates

  • The average rate for 15-year mortgages reached a new bottom this week, dipping from 4.40 percent to 4.32 percent—the lowest level since Freddie Mac began tracking rates in 1991.

    Rates for 30-year mortgages approached the all-time low of 4.78 percent again last week, falling to 4.83 percent from an average of 4.91 percent a week ago.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.