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Record low interest rates coupled with low prices make buying a home more affordable than ever

This morning, Freddie Mac released the results of it’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey revealing that the interest rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 4.01 percent, which is an all-time record low and the interest rate on a 15-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 3.28 percent, also an all-time record low! [...]

Shadow Inventory Continues to Decline; Good news for the housing market

A report released this morning by CoreLogic shows that the current residential “shadow” inventory as of July 2011 declined slightly from 1.7 million units in April to 1.6 million units, and was down from 1.9 million units a year ago. This current shadow inventory represents a 5 month supply. CoreLogic includes in it’s shadow [...]

CALIFORNIA REAL ESTATE INVESTOR PLEADS GUILTY TO BID RIGGING AT PUBLIC FORECLOSURE AUCTIONS

Eighth Guilty Plea in the Investigation to Date

WASHINGTON — A real estate investor pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Sacramento to conspiring to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions held in San Joaquin County, Calif., Sharis A. Pozen, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Department of [...]

Increased foreclosure activity and potential REO inventory growth point to trouble for real estate market

Signs point to trouble ahead for the housing market as recent growth in foreclosure filings suggest REO Inventories may balloon in coming months according to the Radar Logic July 2011 Monthly Housing Market Report. On the heels of a couple of upbeat articles I’ve been able to write about the market, I get hit [...]

Restitution for victims of improper foreclosure practices

Robo-signing is one of those terms I never heard until the news of improper foreclosure practices by some of the nation’s largest lenders started hitting the news in the past year and now the word has become synonymous with bad foreclosure practices.  As a result, in April of this year the Office of the Comptroller [...]

Mortgage delinquencies decline in August; down almost 12 percent from year ago

I keep saying that, until the foreclosure rate gets back down closer to a “normal” rate and the REO inventory is absorbed to the point where they are no longer putting such immense downward pressure on home prices, we are not going to see any sort of sustainable recovery in the housing market. It [...]

REALTORS offer suggestions to the Fed on how to deal with the REO problem

National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) President, Ron Phipps, wrote a letter to Shaun Donovan, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury Department and Edward DeMarco, Acting Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency with suggestions on how to improve the Real Estate Owned (REO) asset disposition programs [...]

Alabama Real Estate Investors Agree to Plead Guilty to Conspiracy to Rig Bids for the Purchase of Real Estate at Public Foreclosure Auctions

UPDATE – Criminal Complaint against M & B Builders – click here. Criminal complaint against Harold H. Buchman – click here.

WASHINGTON – Two Mobile, Ala., real estate investors and one real estate investment company have agreed to plead guilty today for their roles in a conspiracy to rig bids for the purchase of real [...]

Foreclosure activity in U.S. increases in August but is down from a year ago

This morning, RealtyTrac released their U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for August 2011 which shows that foreclosure filings (default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions) we’re reported on 228,098 properties in the U.S. in August, a 7 percent increase from the previous month but a decrease of almost 33 percent from the year [...]

Homeowners in negative equity position declines in 2nd quarter; majority have above market interest rates

A report released today by CoreLogic shows that 22.5 percent (10.9 million) of all homeowners in the U.S. with a mortgage were in a negative equity position in the second quarter of 2011, down slightly from 22.7 percent the prior quarter. Negative equity is also referred to as being “underwater” or “upside down” and [...]

Converting REO’s to rentals could help housing recovery according to Fed Official

Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth A. Duke, while speaking at the Federal Reserve Board Policy Forum last week, discussed the effect on the housing market that properties acquired by banks and lenders through foreclosure (REO’s) and suggested that if some of this inventory was converted to rental property by the lenders, this may have a positive [...]

Three in Ten Home Sales in 2nd Quarter were Foreclosures

This morning, RealtyTrac released their U.S. Foreclosure Sales Report for the 2nd quarter of 2011 which shows that foreclosure sales accounted for 31 percent of all home that were sold in that quarter, down from nearly 36 percent in the previous quarter but up almost 30 percent from the year before when it [...]

Freddie Mac offering to pay future condo fees through HomeSteps special

HomeSteps, the home-sale division of Freddie Mac, announced “Condo Cash”, a special limited-time offer to pay up to $1,500 in future condo fees for eligible buyers purchasing a condominium being sold through the Freddie Mac HomeSteps program.

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Real Estate Investor Pleads Guilty to Bid Rigging At Foreclosure Auctions

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A real estate investor pleaded guilty last Friday in U.S. District Court in Sacramento to conspiring to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions held in San Joaquin County, Sharis A. Pozen, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, and Benjamin B. Wagner, [...]

Four Florida Men Charged in Boston with Defrauding Homeowners in Home Loan Modification Scam

WASHINGTON – Four Florida men were arrested this past week on charges that they defrauded homeowners in Massachusetts and elsewhere in connection with a home loan modification scam, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz for the District of Massachusetts and Christy Romero, [...]

July Foreclosure Rate Falls to Lowest In Almost 4 Years

Ah, some good news!

RealtyTrac released their foreclosure report for July this morning showing a total of 212,764 U.S. properties received foreclosure filings (default notices, scheduled foreclosures and bank REO’s) during the month, a 4 percent decrease from the prior month and a 35 percent decrease from July 2010. This is the lowest [...]

84 Percent of U.S. Metros Post Lower Foreclosure Activity in First Half of 2011

RealtyTrac released their Midyear 2011 Metro foreclosure report showing that foreclosure activity decreased on a year-over-year basis in 178 out of the nation’s largest 211 metropolitan areas which is some much needed good news!

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Mortgage delinquencies and foreclosure inventory increase in June

A “first-look” report issued by Lender Processing Services, one of the countries largest loan servicers and aggregators of loan performance data, shows mortgage delinquencies increased 2.4 percent in June from the month before and decreased 14.7 percent from the year before. According to the report, the U.S. foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate declined 0.2 percent [...]

2011 Real Estate Market Performing about as Poorly as Predicted Thus Far

Radarlogic, real estate data and analytics company that frequently disagrees with the National Association of REALTORS® view of the housing market, released their RPX Monthly Housing Market Report for May 2011 yesterday and in it had a scorecard showing how their rather bleak predictions they made at the end of 2010 for the 2011 [...]

Foreclosure rate drops in first half of 2011; shadow inventory builds

RealtyTrac released their Midyear 2011 foreclosure report this morning showing a total of 1,170,402 U.S. properties received foreclosure filings (default notices, scheduled foreclosures and bank REO’s) in the first six months of 2011, a 25 percent decrease from the prior six months and a 29 percent decrease from the first half of 2010.

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CALIFORNIA REAL ESTATE INVESTORS AGREE TO PLEAD GUILTY TO BID RIGGING AT PUBLIC FORECLOSURE AUCTIONS

Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON — Eight California real estate investors have agreed to plead guilty for their roles in two separate conspiracies to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Northern California, the Department of Justice announced.

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REO’s and Shadow Inventory are Roadblock to Recovery of Housing Market

A report issued yesterday by Equifax reveals just how severe the impact of shadow inventory (homes that have been, or should be, foreclosed on but have not been put back on the market for sale yet) and REO’s (properties owned by lenders after acquiring through foreclosure) are on a housing market recovery.

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Report shows declining foreclosure rate; lenders showing delay in foreclosing

A report issued by Lender Processing Services, one of the countries largest loan servicers and aggregators of loan performance data, shows that while mortgage delinquencies continue to decline, lenders are taking longer to foreclose resulting in a drop in foreclosure sales. In fact, there are still significantly fewer foreclosure sales than there were before [...]

Mortgage Delinquencies and Foreclosure Inventory Decrease In May

A “first-look” report issued by Lender Processing Services, one of the countries largest loan servicers and aggregators of loan performance data, shows mortgage delinquencies decreased 0.1 percent in May from the month before and down over 18 percent from the year before. Other good news in the report is the U.S. foreclosure pre-sale inventory [...]

Report shows shadow inventory continues to decline

A report released this morning by CoreLogic shows that the current residential “shadow” inventory as of April 2011 declined to 1.7 million units, down from 1.9 million units a year ago. This current shadow inventory represents a 5 month supply, same as the supply a year ago.

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Foreclosure activity in May down 33 percent from a year ago; buyer interest cools

RealtyTrac released their foreclosure report this morning for May 2011 which shows foreclosure filings (default notices, scheduled foreclosures and bank REO’s) were reported on 214,927 homes in May which is a 2 percent decrease from the month before and a 33 percent decrease from May 2010.

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Homeowners with negative-equity declined slightly in first quarter 2011

A report released today by CoreLogic shows that 22.7 percent (10.9 million) of all US homeowners with a mortgage were in a negative equity position in the first quarter of 2011, down slightly from 23.1 percent (11.1 million) the prior quarter. Negative equity is also referred to as being “underwater” or “upside down” and [...]

Foreclosures account for 28 percent of all home sales in first quarter 2011; Selling at discount of 27 percent

RealtyTrac released their foreclosure report this morning for the first quarter of 2011 showing that foreclosure homes (sales of bank-owned homes and those in some stage of foreclosure)  accounted for 28 percent of all U.S. residential sales during the quarter. This is up slightly from 27 percent the prior quarter and the highest percentage [...]

Mortgage Delinquencies Increase in April

A “first-look” report issued by Lender Processing Services, one of the countries largest loan servicers and aggregators of loan performance data, shows mortgage delinquencies increased 2.4 percent in April, changing the downward trend we have seen in the prior few months. The good news in this report is that the U.S. foreclosure pre-sale inventory [...]

45 Percent of Americans say government not doing enough to stop foreclosures; Other side of coin, over half of Americans want to buy a foreclosed home

According to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive® on behalf of Trulia and RealtyTrac, 45 percent of American adults say the government is not doing enough to prevent foreclosures. Only 17 percent think the government is doing too much and 16 percent say just the right amount is being done.

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