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By Dennis Norman, on May 24th, 2013  The fastest moving housing market in the U.S. in April was San Jose, CA with almost two-thirds of their new listings selling within the first two weeks of hitting the market, according to a report just released by Redfin. The slowest moving housing markets in the U.S. in April were Triangle NC and Philadelphia, both of which saw only 10 percent of their homes for sale go under contract within 2 weeks.
Highlights from the fastest selling housing markets report: Continue reading Fastest moving housing market in U.S. is San Jose, CA
By News Desk, on May 23rd, 2013
Sales of new single-family houses in April 2013 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 454,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 2.3 percent (±12.8%)* above the revised March rate of 444,000 and is 29.0 percent (±20.7%) above the April 2012 estimate of 352,000.
The median sales price of new houses sold in April 2013 was $271,600; the average sales price was $330,800. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of April was 156,000. This represents a supply of 4.1 months at the current sales rate.
By Dennis Norman, on May 23rd, 2013  Slightly more than 1 in 4 homeowners (25.4 percent) with a mortgage were in a negative equity position during the first quarter of 2013, according to the Zillow Negative Equity Report. In addition, 18.2 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage were in a near negative equity position during the quarter.
Of the 30 largest metro areas covered by the report, Las Vegas had the highest rate of underwater homeowners at 71.5 percent, followed by Atlanta (64.1 percent) and Riverside, CA (59.7 percent). The complete table is below; Continue reading Over 1 in 4 Homeowners Still In Negative Equity Position
By Dennis Norman, on May 22nd, 2013  Texas appears to be leading the nation in population growth with eight of the 15 fastest-growing large cities in the U.S. found in the state of Texas, according to information just released by the U.S. Census Bureau. While one could argue the various reasons behind this attraction to the state, I doubt many would argue that population growth is music to the ears of real estate developers and investors.
Texas is also home to five of the 10 cities in the U.S. that added the most people to it’s population in the past year. Continue reading Over Half Of The Fastest Growing Cities Are In Texas Census Data Shows
By Dennis Norman, on May 22nd, 2013 Existing Home Sales in April rose slightly (0.6 percent) from March to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.97 million homes, which is an increase of 9.7 percent from a year ago, according to the National Association of REALTORS (NAR).
The median sales price of existing homes sold in April was $192,800, and increase of 4.8 percent from March and an increase of 11.0 percent from a year ago when the median sales price of existing homes sold was $173,700.
Highlights from the report: Continue reading Existing Home Sales and Prices Rise In April
By Dennis Norman, on May 21st, 2013 Mansfield Ohio was the most affordable housing market during the first quarter of 2013 with 97.5 percent of all new and existing homes being affordable to families with a median income, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). At the other end of the spectrum was San Francisco, CA with only 28.9 percent of their new and existing homes being affordable to a family with a median income.
The complete list of the top 10 most affordable cities as well as the top 10 least affordable cities is below.
Continue reading Most, and Least, Affordable Housing Markets
By News Desk, on May 21st, 2013 Two Alabama real estate investors and their company were sentenced today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama in Mobile, for their participation in conspiracies to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in southern Alabama, the Department of Justice announced. Continue reading Two Alabama Real Estate Investors Get Prison Time for Foreclosure Bid-Rigging
By Dennis Norman, on May 20th, 2013  Two cities in Texas made the list of the top 10 cities offering the best home value along with great schools, according to a report just released by ZipRealty. According to the report, a school district in Minneapolis was at the top of the list with a school score of 9.6 (out of a possible 10) and a median price per foot for homes of $112.
The top 10 places offering the best schools for the most affordable home prices are: Continue reading Texas Offers Best Home Value and Schools
By Dennis Norman, on May 16th, 2013 Home builders are doing what they like to do, build homes again and at a pace that hasn’t been seen in years. Granted, we have a long way to go to get back to historic normal levels for new home construction, but we have to start somewhere. In April, permits were issued to build new homes at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 617,000 homes, a 3 percent increase from the and a 27.5 percent increase from a year ago. Construction began in April at a pace equal to 610,000 homes a year, a slight (2.1 percent) decrease from March but a 20.8 percent increase from April 2012.
To view the complete report,[wpsharely] click here.[/wpsharely]
By Dennis Norman, on May 16th, 2013
New home construction activity is heating up and on the rise in many parts of the country as builders rush to fill a void in the market left by new home construction basically ceasing to existing for the past 5 years. In addition to the lack of new homes built over the past few years, RealtyTrac just reported that there are significantly fewer foreclosures entering the market with foreclosure starts for the 1st quarter of 2013 being down 27 percent from a year ago. During the same period however, building permits issued for new homes rose 27 percent, according to the report. Continue reading New Home Construction Heating Up In Some Markets
By News Desk, on May 16th, 2013
The Justice Department today announced a settlement with the architects and civil engineers involved in the design and construction of multifamily housing complexes located in Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee. The department’s lawsuit alleges that nine multifamily housing complexes with more than 800 units covered by the Fair Housing Act’s accessibility requirements were designed and built without required accessible features. No settlement has been reached with the developer, builder or former owners of these properties, who are alleged to have violated not only the Fair Housing Act, but also the Americans with Disabilities Act. Continue reading Justice Department Reaches Fair Housing Settlement with Design Professionals in Disability Lawsuit
By Dennis Norman, on May 14th, 2013 San Francisco had 474 homes sell for $1 million or more in the 14 month period ended March 31, 2013, according to a newly released report by Redfin. According to the report, the market for $1 Million+ homes has rebounded even better than the normal market, largely because people in this price range generally have the financial resources to sell their current homes at a loss if necessary to take advantage of an opportunity on a nicer home.
Included in the report was a list of the top luxury home markets in the country in terms of the number of $1 million+ homes sold from January 2012 through March 2013. It doesn’t come as a surprise that San Francisco is at the top of the list with 474 sales, followed by 3 other California cities, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and San Diego. The complete list is below: Continue reading San Francisco Tops The List of Cities with $1 Million+ Home Sales
By Dennis Norman, on May 14th, 2013 According to the National Association of REALTORS (NAR), metro area home prices in the first quarter of 2013 rose on a year-over-year basis more than they have in over seven years. According to NAR, during the first quarter of 2013 median home prices on single family homes, increased in 133 out of 150 metro areas covered in the NAR report.
Continue reading Metro Area Home Prices Rise At Highest Level In Over 7 Years
By News Desk, on May 14th, 2013
Superseding Indictment Adds Obstruction of Justice to Bid-Rigging
and Mail Fraud Charges
A federal grand jury in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in Sacramento today returned a superseding indictment charging Andrew B. Katakis, of Danville, Calif., with obstruction of justice related to a federal investigation into conspiracies to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions held in San Joaquin County, Calif., the Department of Justice announced. Continue reading NORTHERN CALIFORNIA REAL ESTATE INVESTOR INDICTED ON ADDITIONAL CHARGE
By Dennis Norman, on May 9th, 2013 Foreclosures in April 2013 fell to the lowest level in 74 months according to a report just released by RealtyTrac. According to the report, there were 144,790 properties in the U.S. that received a foreclosure filing in April, a decline of 5 percent from the month before and a decline of 23 percent from a year ago.
Continue reading Foreclosures hit lowest level 2007
By Dennis Norman, on May 8th, 2013 Clear Capital released their report for April 2013 showing US home prices have increased 7.2 percent in the past year and Las Vegas is the top performing metro market in the U.S. with a 4.2 percent increase in home prices for the quarter and whopping 24.3 percent increase from a year ago. Sacramento, CA was 2nd on the list with a 3.7 percent increase in home prices for the quarter and a 20.3 percent increase from a year ago, according to the report.
Other Highlights include: Continue reading Top Performing Metro Real Estate Markets
By Dennis Norman, on May 3rd, 2013
What cities offer the best opportunities to make money flipping homes?
It’s not surprising that some of the best opportunities to make money flipping homes include many of the areas that were hardest hit by the real estate recession. At the top of the list of RealtyTrac’s top 25 markets for flipping single family homes is Orlando Florida where they cite an average gross profit of 63 percent followed by Las Vegas with a 53 percent gross profit. As anyone reading this that has flipped property knows, RealtyTrac’s method does not actually reflect the profit made on these flips as, in many cases, moderate to extensive remodeling may have been done to the property plus there are carrying costs and selling costs to pay along the way, however I still think the list does a good job of showing where there is opportunity to make money flipping homes.
Continue reading Where Can You Make The Most Money Flipping Homes?
By Dennis Norman, on May 2nd, 2013  Everyone wants a deal, but as the inventory of homes for sale, mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures decline, it is getting harder and harder for investors to find a good deal. Where in the U.S. can an investor still find big discounts on houses and great deals? According to a recent report by Radar Logic, which tracked where institutional investors (i.e., corporations, LLC’s, partnerships and trusts) were buying and what kind of discounts they were getting compared with prices homeowners were paying, it looks like Pittsburgh, PA is the best place in the U.S. to buy investment property. The table below shows the top ten metro markets where institutional investors realized the biggest discounts in January 2013.
The Top 10 Markets For Investors Based Upon Discounted Home Prices
| Metropolitan Area |
Institutional Investor Discount
|
| Pittsburgh, PA |
-64%
|
| Cleveland, OH |
-55%
|
| Detroit, MI |
-54%
|
| St. Louis, MO |
-50%
|
| Cincinnati-Middletown, OH-KY-IN |
-49%
|
| Baltimore-Towson, MD |
-46%
|
| Richmond, VA |
-42%
|
| San Francisco, CA |
-38%
|
| Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC |
-36%
|
| Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL |
-34%
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By Dennis Norman, on May 1st, 2013 HUD and the Department of Justice just published new guidelines for designing multifamily housing in compliance with the Fair Housing Act with regard to making the housing accessible to persons with disabilities.
In addition to preventing discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, disability and familial status, The Fair Housing Act also requires that multifamily housing with four or more units, built after March 1991, contain accessible features for persons with disabilities. Continue reading HUD Releases New Guidelines For Fair Housing Compliance In New Multifamily Construction
By Dennis Norman, on April 30th, 2013 There were 55,000 completed foreclosures during the month of March 2013, a slight increase from February (6 percent), a decline of 16 percent from a year ago and a decline of 52 percent from the peak of the foreclosure crisis in 2010, according a newly released report from CoreLogic.
Highlights of the Corelogic Foreclosure Report for March 2013: Continue reading Completed Foreclosures Down Over 50 Percent From Peak of Crisis
By Dennis Norman, on April 29th, 2013 The Pending Home Sales Index by the National Association of REALTORS, which measures contracts written by home buyers, was at 105.7 in March, up 1.5 percent from the month before and up 7.0 percent from a year ago. This marks the 23rd month in a row the Pending Home Sales Index has increased on a year-over-year basis.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said “the market appears to be leveling off” and that “little movement” is expected in the short term, but contract activity should edge up modestly later in the year.
By News Desk, on April 25th, 2013
Houston businessman Tony David Maldonado, 33, of Houston, has pleaded guilty in relation to a mortgage fraud scheme to defraud residential mortgage lenders of more than $22 million in loans, United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced today along with FBI Special Agent in Charge Stephen L. Morris and Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Special Agent in Charge Lucy Cruz. Three others Continue reading Final Defendant Convicted in Multi-Million Dollar Mortgage Fraud Scheme
By Dennis Norman, on April 25th, 2013 Interest rates on a 15 year fixed rate mortgage set a new record low this week coming in a 2.8 percent, according to a weekly national survey by Bankrate.com. Interest rates on 30-year fixed rate mortgages dropped to 3.57 percent this week, a four-month low.
SURVEY RESULTS Continue reading Interest Rates On 15 Year Fixed Rates Hits Record Low
By News Desk, on April 25th, 2013
Investigation Has Yielded 12 Guilty Pleas
By Dennis Norman, on April 24th, 2013
Non-current inventory (the number of homes with delinquent mortgages and foreclosures) dropped below 5 million properties for the first time in 5 years, according to a newly released report from LPS. Mortgage delinquencies fell Mortgage delinquencies fell in March 3.13 percent from the month before and were down 3.03 percent from a year ago. Continue reading Non-Current Inventory Drops Below 5 Million; First Time in 5 Years
By Dennis Norman, on April 23rd, 2013 The sale of new homes in March 2013 was at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 417,000 units, an increase of 18.5 percent from March 2012 when new home sales were at the rate of 352,000 homes per year, according to the US Census Bureau and HUD. New home sale prices were at a median of $247,000 in March, down 6.7 percent from February’s median new home price of $264,900 but up 3 percent from a year ago when the median new home sales price was $239,800. The inventory of new homes for sale remained steady with a 4.4 month supply, the same as the month before but down from a 4.9 month supply a year ago.
By Dennis Norman, on April 22nd, 2013
Distressed home sales, foreclosures and short-sales, accounted for 21 percent of existing home sales in March, down from 25 percent in February and 29 percent in March 2012, according to the National Association of REALTORS. Total existing home sales in March were at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 4.92 million homes, down slightly from 4.95 million in February but 10.3 percent than a year ago with sales were at the rate of 4.46 million per year.
Market trends are strongly showing the housing market is headed toward a recovery with existing home sales increasing on a year-over-year basis for 21 consecutive months and home prices increasing for 13 consecutive months on a year-over-year basis. Continue reading Distressed home sales down almost 28 percent in past year
By Dennis Norman, on April 19th, 2013  Rising Home Prices Are At A Sustainable Pace Most Bankers Believe
Bankers responding to FICO’s first quarter 2013 survey, revealed that most of them (70.8 percent) feel home prices are rising at a sustainable pace. Additionally, 83.7 percent said during the next 6 months they believe mortgage delinquencies will stay at the same levels or improve. Continue reading Bankers Say Home Prices Rising At A Sustainable Pace
By Dennis Norman, on April 19th, 2013 The apartment market has improved across all areas according to the latest data from the National Multi Housing Council (NMHC). The NMHC April survey of apartment market conditions reveals that all four indexes, market tightness, sales volume, equity financing and debt financing, came in above 50 indicating improving conditions. This reverses the trend shown in the report for the prior quarter in which two of the indexes had dipped below 50 for the first time since 2010.
Highlights of the report:
Continue reading Apartment Market Resumes Growth
By Dennis Norman, on April 18th, 2013 Eighty-Seven Percent Say Americans Should Buy A House Now
Prudential Real Estate just released the results of a survey showing that 96 percent of Americans feel owning a home is still very important to them and almost 9 of every 10 surveyed (87 percent) think Americans should buy a house now while prices and mortgage interest rates are low.
Other Survey Highlights Include:
Continue reading Almost 9 out of 10 People Think Americans Should Buy a House
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