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What You Need To Know About Real Estate Rebates

noreply@blogger.com (Find Foreclosures) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 21:08:00 +0000

Buying a house is exciting. It can also be stressful because you need to spend a lot of money and you need to prepare for it especially . Whether it is spot cash or financing, home buying requires every home buyer to be financially ready. The price of a home is something that most homeowners worry about, however, there is one incentive that home buyers are looking forward - real estate rebates.

Real estate rebates are just one of the many widely offered incentives in a real estate transaction. This gives a homeowner the opportunity to save money and a marketing tool for real estate agents to attract buyers to a brokerage. The rebate is a portion of the commission offered by the seller's broker to the agent who brought the buyer. Real estate rebates, along with other services, is a marketing strategy to maintain profit even on a lower revenue on both sides of the transaction.

This concept may not be that familiar among new buyers, but surely they are familiar with the commission received by real estate agents or Realtor when they sell a property so, a buyer can have some portion of that commission and that is what real estate rebates is all about. Although not all states in the country are offering rebates, this type of marketing tool contributes to the improvement of the housing market. Rebates will stop a home buyer to buy a property from a homeowner, the process by which we call FSBO or for sale by owner. Knowing that there are rebates, a home buyer will eventually go to an agent or Realtor their real estate needs.

With the condition of the housing market these days, it is really hard to buy a home. A potential home buyer might be a little wary of his investment because it might end up in the foreclosure listing. However, real estate rebates can take the pressure away from the home buyers. If the Georgia real estate property is a foreclosed one, the rebate is a good way to save for the home improvements that will be used. Finding a home can be both exciting and challenging, but it is good to know that there is an option to help you out with some of your expenses.

What an Awesome Year

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:49:00 +0000

http://kirksalisbury.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/what-an-awesome-year/

Optimism Follows February Home Sales | Denver CO Real Estate

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 17:11:00 +0000

http://onlywire.com/r/75322752

curhomes - See You Are Home! Finding the right home for you, and the information you need to know to get the best real estate in the best location.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:53:00 +0000

http://onlywire.com/r/69300550

Georgia Real Estate | Find Atlanta Georgia Homes For Sale | Georgia Real Estate

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:14:00 +0000

http://onlywire.com/r/67510717

How To Lay Hardwood On Top of Tile

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:44:00 +0000

When you purchase a new home there may be a number of things you want to renovate. Among the top of the list these days, is adding a beautiful hardwood floor. This look offers beauty, value, and extra life. But there are several things to consider when installing hardwood. Depending on the amount of time you have, you may want to try to get rid of the tile... but this isn't always plausbile or possible, so here is the best way to lay hard wood over tile.

Remove Any Obstacles

Remove any obstacles such as baseboards so you can slide the hardwood underneath, and replace the base boards at the appropriate hidth. Much of the hardwood floorboards, such as clickwood or engineered are approximately 3/8″ high, and with an extra 1/8″ for the pad underneath, you’ll want to allow for about a 1/”2 gap between the bottom of the base boards and the top floor, prior to laying your hardwood surface.

Level the Surface (Remove The Tile if Possible)

Get ready for some back breaking grueling work. Before you begin this project, make sure you’ve got plenty of patience in store, otherwise you’ll end up walking out half way through or doing the project wrong.
To lay hardwood down, you will want your surface to be as smooth as possible. If you have any drops that are close to a 1/8″ drop in the surface of your floor, it may cuase damage to your hardwood, or at the least it will creak and crack as you walk over the finished hardwood surface. Consider this – if the plan is 3 inches wide and there is an uneven surface underneath, it will teeter-totter depending on which side of the board you step on. That teeter-totter motion cause motion which will create sounds and wear your hardwood down quickly.

Divots left by the sledge hammer in tile which lies on concrete.

To level the surface the best idea is to get rid of the tile, depending on how easy that is. If the tile is installed on concrete, this may be more difficult. If it was laid in an area such as the upstairs over floorboards, this may prove easier. The reason being, you’re going to have to break the tile with a sledge hammer, and the surface underneath will need to be able to bend with the force of the sledge hammer so the tile can crack. Otherwise, you may just end up putting small divots into the tile and not actually break anything, as show with the picture on the right. The desired effect is to have long breaks up and down the tile which can be pried up. Place a spare towel over the tile as you hit it with the sledge hammer to avoid any flying tile shards

Leveling Tile in Preparation for Hardwood

If you are unable to remove the tile, let some leveling around the uneven portions of the tile, once you have leveled the surface (as pictured on the left) lay an 1/8″ foam pad which you will act as an additional leveling agent for your floor. Even though the tile absorbs water which may come from beneath your surface, this foam pad acts as an extra water barrier from moisture below.

Lay The Hardwood

At this point it’s your job to put the hardwood down. Cut to size, shape where necessary, and you should be done in a matter of just a few hours! Good luck!

My name is Kirk Salisbury and I am a do-it-yourself home repairman. The tips above worked for me, and I hope they work for you. I also design websites which focus on real estate around the country so I can help people find Washington DC Homes, Charleston Real Estate, or Irvine CA Foreclosures

Tips on Shopping For Homeowners Insurance

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 21:31:00 +0000

http://mcgrawrealtygroup.com/2011/12/shopping-for-homeowners-insurance/

South Bay California Foreclosure Listings

noreply@blogger.com (Find Foreclosures) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:23:00 +0000

The South Bay area of California Is Expensive. Due to its prime location and mild climate people want to live there. Real Estate in the South Bay is always going to be expensive. One way to get a better deal on a peace of real estate in the South Bay is by purchasing a Foreclosures: Here are some links that will help you to find foreclosure listings in these individual cities in the South Bay area:

Purchasing Foreclosures can help you find bargains, but it can also be tricky. It is always recommended that one use a real estate agent when buying foreclosure homes in California.

Foreclosures in Cape Coral/Fort Myer

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:21:00 +0000

Some of the foreclosures in Cape Coral in FL are an absolutely fantastic deal. If you are looking for a beautiful home in Cape Coral, and want to spend less than what you would if you bought a home that was for sale by owner, then check all of these out.
They can be viewed at Cape Coral Foreclosures or Fort Myer Foreclosures. These homes are a great deal because they are actually in recovery from a major foreclosure crisis. There aren't many foreclosures left, so prices on these will begin to rise soon.

The Truth About Foreclosures

noreply@blogger.com (Find Foreclosures) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 13:40:00 +0000

We all know that the foreclosure problem in the country and quiet serious right now. There are actually thousands of home owners that are underwater and they owe far more than their homes could ever sell them.

Many of these homeowners have come to the conclusion that giving up their home is a better financial decision than making payments until real estate values recover. Numerous "strategic defaulters" now can afford to buy mortgage payments.

With the way the foreclosure process works, it normally takes at-least 8 months of missed payments before the bank will actually finalize the foreclosure and repossess a house. With the huge number of foreclosures, some banks are literally taking years to initiate foreclosure auctions. They don't want to add the losses to the books and so are postponing foreclosures as long as possible.

Underwater homeowners can not only eliminate thousands in debt by being foreclosed on, but with way the system works, can also save money by not making home payments for many months.

Providing what is known as "stealth stimulus is the flaw in the foreclosure process.” People who are living rent free in homes undergoing foreclosure, have a lot of extra cash, and most of this is helping the overall economy by being spent.

To be specific, some owners of underwater homes listed in the Boston MA MLS Listings are actually making money off of the foreclosure process by renting out their homes that they aren't making payments on.

Foreclosure was meant as a way to protect banks from irresponsible borrowers by using the real estate as collateral. Foreclosures are providing the opposite effect because of the the current real estate market, and unscrupulous lending practices that occurred during the housing boom. Undergoing through a foreclosure process can literally provide financial benefits to the borrower while transferring to the bank.

Strategic defaulting provides huge financial relief to insolvent borrowers but somehow might be unethical in other ways. Because of the slow foreclosure process that stimulates buyers in today's slow economy to give out extra cash to people who need money for housing repayments.

Housing Boom Leaves Salt Lake Real Estate In Decline

noreply@blogger.com (Find Foreclosures) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:06:00 +0000

The housing boom was remarkable for real estate agents, and some home owners. What happened was home values escalated and the people who sold at the right time made money effortlessly. But, those boom days are long gone, and the reality of the Real Estate in Salt Lake Utah market is one of decline. Nearly everyone now might have wished that the housing boom never happened.

If market conditions remained steady and constant, where would home sales and prices be? If they increased by exactly 2% each year, this is where annual home sales in Salt Lake City would be. If this were the case, we would have had about 4,750 single family home sales this year. This is two times the original home sales we'll see that are probably aroudn 2,400.

The real estate market in Salt Lake has been going up and down. Because of economic recovery and home buyer's tax credit, it is still considered feeble than the average rates. For buyers, this is a an opportunity to take advantage of the low prices. This is the best time to deal with properties for investors, but they have to be careful for competition is growing. For sellers, it is best to be patient because this is still the buyer’s market.

Compared with home price averages from 1998-2001, if Salt Lake home prices increased by exactly 3% every year, they would still be too high. The yellow and red lines show what “average” home values would be, while the blue and green lines represent the median values. Under this model, average home prices in 2007 were about 28% too high. This year they are still nearly 12% above the turn of the century adjusted for inflation levels.

The SLC Real Estate market has come down a long ways over the past three years, but with the way things are looking, it looks like SLC Homes will see further price declines over the next year.

Is this a good time to try and sell?

noreply@blogger.com (Find Foreclosures) — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:35:00 +0000

At this point, Logan Real Estate is worth less than it has been at any other time in the last 4 years because there are fewer buyers and more Logan homes for sale.

If there are too many homes for sale, the rate of selling is relatively slower than expected, and homes might not sell at all. This trend results to home prices going down because there is more real estate inventory than potential buyers, which makes this period not a good time to market your home.

Hence, this is not a good time to try to sell your home because the market conditions are not in its competent state.

However, the real estate inventory might be at all time high, but lowering of home prices ensue delay of home sales. These market conditions might get worse next year and right now Northern Utah is experiencing this upshot. They observed a big decline in home sales. Compared with 2009, last quarter home sales in Cache County were down by 38%. So, the price you can get for your home now will be more than what you will be able to get next year with the current real estate trend.

But sooner or later, the prices will start rising again and the levels of inventory will level out when real estate inventory goes down. Hopefully, this will happen after 10 months if and only if something drastic sways the real estate market.

You’re probably better off selling now than you will be next year. But if you really need to sell, now is not a good time to sell if you want to get as much money as possible out of your home.

Bank of America Short Sales and their Dawdling Process

noreply@blogger.com (Find Foreclosures) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 09:32:00 +0000

Almost any real estate agent trying to work out a short sale deal with Bank of America will express frustrations with the slow and painful process. Bank of America is dealing with more short sales than any other company, in large part due to their acquisition of Countrywide Home Loans which was notorious for offering bad loans during the housing boom.

There are a couple of things Bank of America does that especially make the short sale transaction difficult. For one, Bank of America will not allow the same agent to represent both sides of the transaction. They won’t approve a short sale file unless there are two separate agents.

I’m sure they are doing this because they feel it will help them to get the best purchase price for each home they need to approve, and will help them stay out of potential legal issues. But, for real estate agents who have BOA short sales listed, this can be a royal pain when they have a buyer who is interested in a property they have listed.

Bank of America also requires that buyers get prequalified with BOA before they will accept a short sale offer. This is a pain for people who are trying to buy short sales, who are already prequalified with other banks, but it’s actually a smart move by Bank of America. For one, they know that the potential buyers are actually qualified, and they might actually get a few more loans out of the deal, helping them get business in a time of major losses.

If we step back and look at short sales from the view of Bank of America, it is a really tough situation they are in. They are losing millions every day. And while the policy’s they have are annoying for real estate agents, as a business, they have to do what they can to try and make a profit, or at least reduce their losses.

Now Bank of America has paid the attorney's fees to foreclose (estimated at a low end of $40K in my state) and will continue to face the same or worse market conditions. Not a good business move, but that's Bank of America for you. Wasting America's money!

They say that learning to do a short sale is very simple with Bank of America compared to other banks. But since they have been attacked due to their slow approval rate, short sale homes are processed painstakingly. In today's real estate world, purchasing short sales can really turn homeowners, buyers, sellers, and real estate agents upside-down.

Increased Foreclosures Could Double Real Estate Inventory

noreply@blogger.com (Find Foreclosures) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 21:47:00 +0000

I just read an article that brought up an interesting thought. According to a recent study done by CoreLogic, foreclosure homes should start flooding the market during the last quarter of the year. They say that this could DOUBLE the average time it takes for homes to sell. Right now the average time residential homes are on the market is 11 months. Can you imagine nearly 2 years before selling the AVERAGE home?

If the market really got this bad, I wonder if real estate agents would start declining listings. With the way the real estate industry works, real estate agents don't make money unless the home actually sells. Having an overpriced, unsellable listing is only a cost. They still have to pay for advertising, filling flyer boxes, etc.

Most listing agreements are for six month terms. If only a select few houses actually sell within the first six months of listing, then real estate agents will be wasting their time with most listings.

While there will always be the desperate and new agents willing to do anything to get their name out there, I think we will begin to see the top agents decline listing homes unless the seller is reasonable and will price their home at a sell able point. It will be interesting to see what happens for the future real estate market.

Because foreclosures in Logan Utah have been low, we hopefully won't see double the time homes are on the market. Hopefully the Logan Utah Real Estate market can avoid this possible catastrophe.

The future for areas like Arizona, Nevada, California and Florida Real Estate could be substantially bleaker if the number of foreclosure homes really floods the market.

High Income Affluent Adults Have Highest Rate of Foreclosures

noreply@blogger.com (Find Foreclosures) — Fri, 07 May 2010 20:09:00 +0000

High Income Affluent Adults Have Highest Rate of Foreclosures

I found this study really interesting. The highest percentage of foreclosures was actually among high income earners who were greedy, and aggressive with their money. Most of these didn't have large families. Their priorities in life were the show and money. They spent much more than they really should have and when times got tough, they couldn't keep up. I think this helps illustrate the importance of conservative values.

tags: foreclosures
- Researchers at the University of Arkansas found that most households in foreclosure were relatively affluent and highly educated people with few or no children, living in geographical areas that experienced extremely rapid real estate appreciation.
  
  The researchers divided U.S. households into 21 life-stage groups, using data from a variety of sources. Then they identified which groups experienced the most foreclosures. The group with the highest foreclosure percentage was one they dubbed “Cash & Careers,” affluent adults born between the mid-1960s and the early 1970s.
  
  Members of this group had high household incomes, high education levels, high home values, and none to only a few children. Also, members of this group were classified as aggressive investors, most of whom lived in areas – California, Nevada, Arizona, and Florida – with rapid real estate appreciation.
  
  “The policy implication from our results is that strong consumer protection laws, though necessary to prevent Wall Street banks from offering high-risk loans to the most vulnerable – will not be sufficient to prevent another financial crisis like the one the U.S. economy experienced in 2007 and 2008,” says Tim Yeager, associate professor of economics and lead author of the study.
  
  Source: University of Arkansas (05/06/2010)

Foreclosure Sales Expected to Increase over next few years.

noreply@blogger.com (Find Foreclosures) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 19:40:00 +0000

Foreclosure Sales Expected to Increase over next few years.

Some interesting stats about foreclosures, projections and future home prices from the Wall Street Journal. It's amazing how big a problem foreclosures really are for home values and the housing market.

tags: foreclosures, short sales
- No one can estimate with much confidence how many foreclosed homes banks need to sell or how fast they are getting rid of all that property.
  
  A huge chunk of today’s housing supply comes from homes that have been acquired by banks or mortgage investors through foreclosure, plus those that are being offered by people who hope to avoid foreclosure by doing “short sales,” selling their homes for less than the mortgage balance due.
- National Association of Realtors estimates that such “distressed” situations accounted for 35% of home sales in February and March
- Barclays Capital in New York. They estimate that banks and mortgage investors including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac owned 480,000 homes at the end of February.
- RealtyTrac Inc., another data provider and one of the few other firms that regularly makes such calculations, estimates that banks and mortgage investors own 758,000 foreclosed homes.
- all of the economic data the government tracks, the sector it appears to track the worst is…the housing market
- Inside Mortgage Finance reports that mortgages backed by government-related entities – Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the FHA and the VA – accounted for more than 96% of home loans originated in the first quarter
- Whatever the number of homes that banks, the federal agencies and private mortgage investors own now, it’s likely to increase. Barclays expects the inventory generally to rise over the next 20 months, peaking at 536,000 in January 2012, and then decline gradually.
- Barclays expects 1.6 million “distressed sales” of homes – mainly foreclosures or short sales – both this year and in 2011, then a slight decline to 1.5 million in 2012.
- Around 30% of all home sales this year and next will be foreclosure-related, forecasts Robert Tayon, a mortgage analyst at Barclays, who says that would be only about 6% in a normal housing market.
- Barclays expects U.S. home prices on average to fall another 3% to 5%
- adding to a decline of about 30% already recorded since 2006

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

103 Months to Clear Foreclosure Housing Inventory

noreply@blogger.com (Find Foreclosures) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:41:00 +0000

103 Months to Clear Foreclosure Housing Inventory

This is a staggering stat about foreclosures, which shows realities of a very scary side of the housing and foreclosure market. If most of the foreclosures of people in default really happen, there are going to be lots more foreclosure homes for sale and home prices will go down.

tags: foreclosures, shadow inventory
- As of March, banks had an inventory of about 1.1 million foreclosed homes, up 20% from a year earlier, according to estimates from LPS Applied Analytics. Another 4.8 million mortgage holders were at least 60 days behind on their payments or in the foreclosure process, meaning their homes were well on their way to the inventory pile. That “shadow inventory” was up 30% from a year earlier.
  
  Based on the rate at which banks have been selling those foreclosed homes over the past few months, all that inventory, real and shadow, would take 103 months to unload. That’s nearly nine years. Of course, banks could pick up the pace of sales, but the added supply of distressed homes would weigh heavily on prices — and thus boost their losses.
- little can stop banks’ inventory of distressed homes from growing. Too many people owe too much more on their homes than they can afford. For the housing market, that could mean a long-lasting hangover.

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

First-Time Homebuyers Drive Housing Market in March: Report

noreply@blogger.com (Find Foreclosures) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 19:10:00 +0000

First-Time Homebuyers Drive Housing Market in March: Report

March was a record month for US Real Estate. There were more first time buyer sales than ever before, and there were also more distressed sales than ever before. More than half of US homes sold during march were distressed in some way. 18.6% of the homes that sold were Short Sales. Here are some notes from an article on DSnews.com

tags: first time buyers, short, sales
- The surge in first-time buyer activity in March came at the same time the volume of distressed properties in the housing market climbed to over 50 percent, according to the survey.
- The latest survey found that short sales accounted for 18.6 percent of the housing market in March.
- Campbell survey found that 48.2 percent of March’s home purchase
  
  transactions were attributable to first-time homebuyers. This eclipsed the previous peak of 46.9 percent reached last October when the November expiration of the original homebuyer tax credit sent purchases by first-time buyers soaring.
  
  “The strong participation of first-time homebuyers this spring is a welcome surprise,” said Thomas Popik, research director for Campbell Surveys. “Many observers had felt that the pool of first-time homebuyers had been depleted last fall, but this is turning out not to be the case. Instead, the normal spring-summer buying season is combining with the tax credit to produce blow-out results for first-time homebuyers.”

The number of distressed homes is absolutely incredible. It will be really interesting to see what happens to the Utah real estate market this summer, post tax credit expiration. So far the rate of Utah Foreclosures isn't nearly this high.

The Rich Are More Likely to Default

noreply@blogger.com (Find Foreclosures) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:55:00 +0000

The Rich Are More Likely to Default

Homes with values more than a Million are far more likely to default than less expensive homes. Here is some interesting information from a Wall Street Journal blog.

tags: luxury homes, default
- People who bought some of the most expensive homes in America now are far more likely to be behind on their mortgages than are ordinary Joes.
- We got this interesting data from First American CoreLogic, whose loan database covers more than 80% of the overall home-loan market. That database includes 1,700 mortgage loans with balances of $4 million or more. About 14.8% of those loans were 90 days or more overdue at the end of January, compared with 8.7% for all home loans tracked by First American.
  
  First American CoreLogic
  Percentage of home loans 90 days or more delinquent. Blue: greater than $1 m Red: less than $1m
  
  What’s going on here? Sam Khater, a senior economist at First American, said his theory is that the borrowers with huge loans may be more inclined than people of lesser means to decide it isn’t worth paying the lender any more once the value of the home crashes far below the loan balance.
  
  Another possibility is that many of those borrowers were high rollers on Wall Street who have lost much or all of their incomes and no longer can keep up their Gatsby-esque lifestyles.

Political Tide Turns Against Aggressive Mortgage-Modifications - Developments - WSJ

noreply@blogger.com (Find Foreclosures) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:30:00 +0000

Political Tide Turns Against Aggressive Mortgage-Modifications - Developments - WSJ

Republicans and Democrats are both not completely supportive of the Home Affordable Modification Program. Just 6% of American's are in default, is it the best interest of Government to make the other 94% pay for it?

tags: foreclosures, bail out, HAMP
- Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican, is:
  
  Yet another chapter in ‘America: The Bailout Nation,’ as coauthored by the President and by Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi. It takes $50 billion from taxpayers or borrows the money from the Chinese to bail out banks that made bad loans, and to bail out many who bought more home than they could afford, speculated in residential real estate or used their home equity as an ATM machine. We must remember that 94% of Americans own their home outright, rent or are current on their mortgage, and they are being asked to bail out the other 6%. It’s a policy that says to the citizens who work hard, who live within their means, who save for a rainy day, ‘You are a sucker.’ When you are struggling to pay your own mortgage, you shouldn’t be forced to pay your neighbors as well.

HUD Redefines

noreply@blogger.com (Find Foreclosures) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 22:59:00 +0000

HUD Redefines "Foreclosed" to Include 60-Day Delinquencies

Okay this is really stupid. HUD changing the definition of things will just confuse the public more. It is now calling a property behind on payments as "Foreclosed". The word, with the "ed" suffix implies that the foreclosure has happened. In reality, these properties haven't foreclosed. There hasn't been a foreclosure process yet in place, in fact there are still many months before the foreclosure auction will ever take place, that is if the mortgage loan is never made current.

tags: foreclosed, hud
- Effective immediately, HUD is classifying any property that is at least 60 days behind on the mortgage or the property owner is 90 days or more delinquent on tax payments as a “foreclosed” home.
  
  In addition, HUD is expanding the definition of an “abandoned” property to include homes where no mortgage or tax payments have been made by the property owner for at least 90 days or a code enforcement inspection has determined that the property is not habitable and the owner has taken no corrective actions within 90 days of notification of the deficiencies.

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

Twenty-Seven Million People with Mortgages Believe They Owe More than Their Homes Are Worth

noreply@blogger.com (Find Foreclosures) — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:56:00 +0000

Twenty-Seven Million People with Mortgages Believe They Owe More than Their Homes Are Worth

Many Americans are underwater on their homes and/or worried about their abilities to pay all their bills. The number of people who claim to have a hard time paying their mortgages is also very high, especially among those who have underwater mortgages.
Over two-thirds (69%) of adults who are homeowners have a mortgage that they need to pay off. People whose homes are believed to be worth less than the money owed on their mortgages are common across all income groups. Fully 26% of adults with mortgages who have household incomes of $75,000 or more believe their homes are worth less than the balance of their mortgages.

Almost a third (29%) of adults with mortgages are having some difficulty (18%) or a great deal of difficulty (11%) paying off their mortgages.

Among those who believe their homes are worth less than their outstanding mortgages, fully 26% are having a great deal of difficulty and another 23% are having some difficulty paying them off

The two-thirds (65%) of all adults who are concerned about having enough income to cover all their costs and expenses include 26% who are very concerned and 39% who are somewhat concerned.
Among those who believe that their homes are worth less than their mortgages, fully 42% are very concerned and another 38% are somewhat concerned about not having enough income to cover their costs.
Unsurprisingly, income levels make a big difference. Concerns about not having enough income to cover costs and expenses is much higher among people with household incomes below $35,000 (40% are very concerned) than among those with incomes over $75,000 (16% are very concerned).

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

Foreclosures Will Solve Housing : NPR

noreply@blogger.com (Find Foreclosures) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 22:38:00 +0000

Foreclosures Will Solve Housing : NPR

This is an interesting article that talks about the ineffectiveness of the HAMP efforts to reduce foreclosures. It claims that foreclosures are the answer to solve the housing crisis, and Government needs to stop giving incentives for irresponsible behavior.

tags: foreclosures, housing, HAMP
- Team Obama is rewarding reckless behavior, punishing the 90 percent of responsible homeowners who are making good on their mortgages, and setting up a greater moral hazard that will surely lead to an expansion of bailout nation.
  
  I’m talking about an add-on to HAMP, the $75 billion Home Affordable Modification Program, which has been a dismal failure. In fact, the entire foreclosure-prevention effor—-- including forgiveness of mortgage-loan principa—-- has been a failure.
- The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency reports that nearly 60 percent of modified mortgages re-default within a year.
- Team Obama would actually subsidize people making up to $186,000 a year who have a mortgage balance of over $700,000
- It’s an upper-middle-class entitlement. Actually, at $186,000, it’s virtually a top-earner entitlement, according to Team Obama's definition of rich people eligible for tax hikes.
- Why should the 90 percent of folks who make good financial decisions on their homes have to pay for the 10 percent who did not?
- Just because a home loan is "underwater" — meaning its value is lower than today’s current market pric—-- why should a responsible person whine about it and walk away? Why not service this loan for the longer term and wait for prices to improve? That’s called personal responsibility.
- Bloomberg financial columnist Caroline Baum argues that lower home prices are the key to solving the housing problem. Popular blogger Barry Ritholtz says we need more foreclosures, not fewer, to solve housing.
- Bouncing from pillar to post, the White House has unsuccessfully tried mortgage modifications, foreclosure abatements, and tax credits. None of it has worked. But the price tag so far for these failed government interventions in the housing market is $75 billion and rising.

Mortgage delinquencies rise to nearly 14 percent | Reuters

noreply@blogger.com (Find Foreclosures) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 22:28:00 +0000

Mortgage delinquencies rise to nearly 14 percent | Reuters

According to the US Treasury Department. Delinquent Mortgages are Substantially Up, especially for prime loans, but somehow newly initiated foreclosures dropped during the fourth quarter of 2009.

tags: foreclosures, delinquencies
- The percentage of current and performing mortgages fell to 86.4 percent at the end of the fourth quarter of 2009
- down 0.9 percent from the previous three months
- down 3.9 percent from a year earlier.
- 21.1 percent jump in mortgages 90 or more days past due
- 4.7 percent of all mortgages
- The increase in seriously delinquent mortgages was most pronounced among prime borrowers
- The jump in seriously delinquent mortgages is likely to lead to a rise in foreclosure actions
- mortgages accounted for 68 percent of all home loans within the portfolio
- Home forfeiture actions -- foreclosure sales, short sales, and deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure actions -- increased by 8.6 percent from the previous quarter to 163,224. That is up 44.5 percent from a year earlier.
- newly initiated foreclosures, however, dropped by 15.4 percent from the previous quarter
- up 19.0 percent from a year earlier

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Government Moves to Assist Underwater Homeowners

noreply@blogger.com (Find Foreclosures) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:43:00 +0000

Government Moves to Assist Underwater Homeowners

The government is trying to encourage lenders to reduce principal amounts owed for borrowers who are "underwater." Personally, I think this is a mistake. It is giving free rides to people who used their home equity as piggy banks and can still actually afford their homes. Government needs to stop spending tax payer money rewarding the irresponsible. Here are a few notes from an article about it in the New York Times:

tags: foreclosures, administration, underwater
- New initiatives to help troubled homeowners, potentially refinancing millions of them into fresh government-backed mortgages with lower payments.
- Temporarily reduce the payments of borrowers who are unemployed.
- Encourage lenders to write down the value of loans held by borrowers in modification programs to make their mortgages more affordable.
- The new initiatives could well spur protests among those who have kept up their payments and are not in trouble
- White House briefing, officials emphasized that no new taxpayer money would be used for the programs. Instead, funds to provide incentives for loan servicers to participate would be drawn from the $50 billion allotted to housing in the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
- The administration’s earlier efforts to stem foreclosures have largely been directed at borrowers who were experiencing financial hardship. But the biggest new initiative, which is also likely to be the most controversial, will involve the government, through the Federal Housing Administration, refinancing loans for borrowers who simply owe more than their houses are worth.
- About 11 million households, or a fifth of those with mortgages, are in this position, known as being underwater. Some of these borrowers refinanced their houses during the boom and took cash out, leaving them vulnerable when prices declined. Others simply had the misfortune to buy at the peak.
- If successful, however, the plan could pose a different type of problem: it could put taxpayers at increased risk. If many additional borrowers move into F.H.A. loans, a renewed downturn in the housing market could send that government agency into the red.
- The new initiatives will expand the government’s current mortgage modification plan, announced a year ago with great fanfare. It has resulted in fewer than 200,000 people getting permanent new loans. As many as seven million borrowers are seriously delinquent on their loans and at risk of foreclosure.
- fewer people are beginning default, the number of borrowers who are seriously distressed is rising. In the fourth quarter, the number of households at least 90 days past due on their mortgages swelled by 270,000
- The government is seeking to persuade people to stay in their homes by aligning the mortgage debt with the asset value, which is the only viable path to real housing stability