Comments for

Comment on February Home Sales Up from January, Down from 2008 by Larry Mayall

Larry Mayall — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 11:39:17 +0000

Seems to me that the emphasis should be on realistic, even rational, press information which accurately provides the current conditions but focuses on the future. I think most consumer readers who following housing reports would be conflicted to read MAAR press releases and area Fed Beige Book economic reports, just as one example. Truth is housing in the Memphis market area is in a funk. Many real estate agents, seasoned and beginners, have been devastated. Everyone knows that. It isn’t a matter of the glass being half full or half empty. The future will bring a recovery. When we don’t know. To use up and down statistics on a monthly basis isn’t helping when those numbers are used to paint a glass half full. One point that isn’t even acknowledged with the inventory figures referenced is that the biggest influence is probably the foreclosure moratorium since before Thanksgiving. The trend is what it is. Not fun. Not good for any of us.

Comment on Obama Announces Plan to Help Struggling Homeowners by Walter Dunn

Walter Dunn — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:43:38 +0000

There are to many ifs and ands in this we are going to see another rash of fraud in lending with this plan as it sit right now. I don’t see that we the tax payers should be required to bear the expense of the bogas loans which were made in the past to people who knew along with their lender or mortgage broker they could not handle what they were obligating themself for.

Comment on Foreclosures: Part of the Problem or the Solution? by Shirley Vosse

Shirley Vosse — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 07:13:54 +0000

Su is correct that the government would be creating “a generation of mortgage slaves.” More important,
government intervention-takeover is the first step toward the death of the real estate industry including NAR.

Comment on Foreclosures: Part of the Problem or the Solution? by Real Estate Appraiser

Real Estate Appraiser — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:16:38 +0000

Many would agree that the current foreclosure blitz is not the same as 1980-82. Only the uninformed would see the current crisis as ‘correction’ of a housing bubble. Houses that foreclosed, not sold on the steps, once went into the REO hopper as bank-owned properties re-marketed at modest discounts. Not so in the current market. Lenders’ representatives bid on the courthouse steps to protect their liens, often at full price, to write off bad debt only to dump those properties back on the market at liquidation prices, either at auction or through agency sales. The resulting sales, often below reproduction costs, rapidly erode normal arms-length sales values. If increasing foreclosures are not limited soon, market value will be determined solely from liquidated or depressed sales, exacerbating the problem.

Appraisers use normal arms-length sales to determine value but what happens when 60-80% of sales are bank or foreclosure sales? Does this become market value? We see results of this now in several neighborhoods in Memphis, particularly in developments where existing homeowners compete with builders’ markdowns or auctions of unsold new construction. Existing homeowners in these partially completed developments can neither re-finance nor sell their homes for the price originally paid. All they can do is walk away, perpetuating the foreclosure problem as values continue to plummet in their subdivision. Exploited neighborhoods of rehabilitated houses, marketed on sub-prime loans are equally depressed.

Re-financing hit an all time high in 2006-07 as homeowners at all income levels accessed inflated equity under an impression that value would continue to escalate. With the discovery of a product, based on a flawed model structured to sell those mortgages, a global economic crash surprised everyone.

Many who purchased or refinanced now find access to home mortgage credit unavailable as qualifications tighten. As job loss increases, more foreclosures feed a deadly spiral. Immediate action is needed to mitigate the resulting damage. If initiated quickly, mandatory modification combined with a moratorium on foreclosures may help those who can still benefit. The problem originated with the housing industry. It will not begin to resolve until housing is stabilized.

Comment on Foreclosures: Part of the Problem or the Solution? by Terry Roach

Terry Roach — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:20:03 +0000

We went through the same thing in 1980-1982. The government did just the opposite of what is going on now. Rather than bail out the housing industry, they RAISED interest rates (to kill inflation) and by 1983 rates were back down in single digits, and the housing market recovered nicely.

Comment on Will Proposed Interest-Rate Buydown Make an Impact? by Joe Spake

Joe Spake — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 15:59:47 +0000

Interest rates were at 5.5% on a 30 year fixed yesterday. My phone did not ring off the hook. Any such buydown would be money down the drain, rewarding those buyers who have ALREADY committed to buy.
The problem is the lack of committed buyers. There is a lack of confidence in current and future home values and the future of the housing market in general. That confidence cannot be built by lowering interest rates or chanting, “now is a great time to buy.”

Comment on “Why is our neighborhood being marginalized by the real estate industry?” by Chuck House

Chuck House — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:48:48 +0000

I have heard the same thing from an area of Memphis also. This is totally inexcusable if any Realtors are practicing this they should stop it!

I help people find homes where they want to live. They usually have a good idea where they want to buy. In rare instances when they ask my opinion of an area and I give them links to websites about the neighborhoods they are considering and show them houses in all area they are considering until they decide on a specific area.

Steering could be illegal and it certainly can become a self fulfilling prophesy.

Comment on “Why is our neighborhood being marginalized by the real estate industry?” by Carole Ann Burns

Carole Ann Burns — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:17:57 +0000

The man is correct. Real estate agents DO talk “down” various areas in which they sell. Homeowners know this because agents talk areas down to them too. It is amazing to me the numbers of listing appointments I have attended where the homeowner says “agent says this area is not so good and if I lived in other area my house would be worth more — I want an agent who believes in my area and will work for me and not encourage people to buy in a different area.” OR a Buyer who says, “such and such agent says not to buy in__________.”
One of these days an agent is going to say something like that to the wrong person and there will be a major law suit.
The Cordova area is one for which I have particular concern since I sell and live there. Regularly I have heard agents say this is an area to “steer” away from (not that word but the same meaning).
The Cordova Coalition formed a group and this was talked about and our concern shared with one another. There were over 100 agents in attendance who knew of these concerns and that is why they attended.
Anyone who thinks agents are blind to the good and bad and in-between of areas is just not talking to other agents.

Comment on “Why is our neighborhood being marginalized by the real estate industry?” by Terry Roach

Terry Roach — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:17:37 +0000

If an agent is working for the buyer as a buyer’s agent, it’s their fiduciary duty to make their clients aware of any factors which might affect the future value of the largest investment that they’ll ever make, their home.

There are two very good means of providing clients with objective information, and it’s all in the public record.

First, determine if the homes in the neighborhood are selling at lower prices than they sold for previously, a trend which rarely, if ever, reverses itself.
Unfortunately, in a high percentage of neighorboods in the Memphis housing market, this is the case, and only a small part of it is attributable to the current economic situation. Most of the drop in value is due to the increasing crime rate.

Which leads to the second step. Go the Daily News Crime Mapper site and research the residential crime numbers for the area immediately surrounding that neighborhood.

You’ll be shocked. I did this recently for a client considering two homes, one in Bartlett, and the other in the Hacks Cross Road area, just south of 385.

Using just two crime categories, and checking the 12-month numbers for both, the combined number of incidents within 2 square miles of the home in Bartlett was 50; for the home in the Hacks Cross Road area the number of reported crimes in the same 2 categories was 320, or 500% greater than in Bartlett.

If the fellow wants to know why buyers are shying away from his neighborhood, this is probably the answer to his question.

It’s always easier to blame someone else, however, the numbers don’t lie.

Comment on “Why is our neighborhood being marginalized by the real estate industry?” by Ida Reddice

Ida Reddice — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:09:34 +0000

I would hate to think that in this day and age, we are still possibly having this problem. That is one way the economy got in this mess in the first place. As a realtor, I would never attempt to negatively portray one neighborhood over another. Most people know where they want to live when they start looking at homes. It’s our responsibility to give them all the information about a neighborhood and let them make the final choice.