As most of us are already familiar, distressed real estate–foreclosures, bank-owned or real estate owned (REO) properties and short sales–is taking over many neighborhoods, weighing down home prices and making it harder for homeowners to sell.
However, this very same distressed real estate can come at a steep discount, and pending the condition of the home, could be a great buy for you and your family.
A new study tells us that a lot of homeowners would be better off with cheaper homes:
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of American adults shows that 62% believe it’s better for homeowners who can’t afford to make increased mortgage payments to sell their homes and find less expensive ones. Twenty-five percent (25%) think it’s better for the government to assist those homeowners in making their payments. Thirteen percent (13%) are undecided.
The longer foreclosed homes remain on the market, the worse off we all are (simple as that). While homeowners struggle to stay afloat thanks to distressed real estate bringing down local home prices, potential buyers of these properties face different issues, seen and unseen.
As these foreclosures sit vacant, their landscaping becomes overgrown and they’re open to squatters and vandalism. However, another new problem is growing inside these homes: mold. Read the rest of this entry »
If you’ve heard people discussing the “housing recovery” or that we are seeing the recession’s end, you might reasonably wonder what they’re talking about. If so, you’re not alone.
“There never was a housing recovery,” said Scott Simon, head of the mortgage- and asset-backed securities teams with PIMCO, a massive investment management firm with nearly $1.3 trillion in assets.
For those who have not noticed, the housing mess is old news. You could argue that it started in April 2007, that’s when property values were at their peak, 19.8 percent higher than today. Or you could go back a year earlier, to April 2006, when the Association of License Law Officials was meeting in Jacksonville.
It was at the Jacksonville meeting–a time when the real estate market was boiling with good news–that one speaker said: Read the rest of this entry »
The results of RealtyTrac’s “Q1 2011 U.S. Foreclosure Sales Report“ are taking up a lot of headlines across the web. The report, providing little encouraging news to a housing market desperate for a recovery, should however, open the eyes of some prospective homebuyers sitting on the sidelines.
In the first quarter of 2011, distressed real estate–foreclosed homes, short sales and bank-owned properties (REOs)–made up 28 percent of all the existing home sales, a slight increase from the previous quarter. Also, the discount at which foreclosed homes sold at remained unchanged from the previous quarter at 27 percent (the foreclosure discount was 26 percent in the first quarter of 2010). Read the rest of this entry »
There’s interesting news on the delinquency front: by some measures, delinquency rates are falling. If the trend continues, we should see fewer foreclosures in the future. But is there a trend here, or something else?
According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, at the end of the first quarter of 2011, the percentage of loans that were seriously delinquent was 8.10 percent, 50 basis points (half a percent) lower than the fourth quarter of 2010 and 144 basis points (1.44 percent) lower than a year ago. Compared with last quarter, the non-seasonally adjusted seriously delinquent rate decreased for all loan types.
Detroit has suffered from a domino effect of declines. The city’s declining industrial base has taken away jobs, causing residents to flee what was once America’s fourth-largest city.
-Can you afford to buy a home in your city?-
The lack of jobs and declining population has triggered a massive wave of foreclosures which only served to bring home prices down further, and left already-abandoned structures to decay even more.
If you’re looking at today’s mortgage rates you know that loans never really come with one price. Instead, there are different prices depending on how you structure your loan and how you qualify.
One factor that will influence your mortgage rate is your credit score. The higher your credit score, the greater the chance you’ll qualify for a lower rate. For example, on a scale between 300 and 850, someone with a score of 700 might qualify for a 5 percent mortgage rate while someone with a score of 630 might pay 6.25 percent for the same loan.
HSH.com's daily blog focuses on the latest developments in the mortgage and housing markets. Our mission is to relate how changes in mortgage rates and housing policy, as well as the latest financial news, impacts consumers, homebuyers and industry insiders alike. Our 30-plus years of experience in the mortgage industry gives us an edge as we break down the latest changes in an ever-changing market.
