WASHINGTON – A real estate agent and a mortgage broker,both of Las Vegas,were found guilty today for their participation in a mortgage fraud scheme that netted nearly $2.5 million in fraudulent mortgage loans,announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division,U.S. Attorney Daniel G. Bogden of the [...]
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 | Well,I guess my wife and kids aren’t the only people that want to move to Florida! According to a report released by Trulia,house hunters from all over the country are searching for homes in Florida. In fact,of the top 10 metro areas where demand among online house hunters is strongest,seven are located in Florida! Florida also,according to the report,leads the list of states existing residents don’t want to leave as well with many times more people from outside of Florida searching for homes in Florida than searches outside the state by people living in Florida. The metro in the number 1 slot is Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville,Florida with 8.8 times more “inbound”property searches than “outbound”property searches. Wow! [...] 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 Justice’s Antitrust Division,and Benjamin B. Wagner,U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California,announced. [...] Until recently,home ownership was no bargain compared to renting,according to Paul Diggle,a housing economist at Capital Economics. Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau and published statistics from Thomson Datastream indicate that rising rents and falling mortgages are tipping the scales towards home ownership. The median monthly mortgage payment has fallen to about the same as a median monthly rent check. [...] Today,the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau released new home sales data for December 2011 showing a decrease of 2.2 percent from the month before,and a decrease of 7.3 percent from a year ago. The seasonally-adjusted new home sales rate for December was 307,000 homes,down from an [...] Foreclosure Price 34 Percent Below Average Price of Non-Foreclosures RealtyTrac,today released its third-quarter 2011 U.S. Foreclosure Sales Report,which shows that sales of homes that were in some stage of foreclosure or bank owned accounted for 20 percent of all U.S. residential sales in the third quarter of 2011,down from 22 percent of all sales in the second quarter and down from 30 percent of all sales in the third quarter of 2010. [...] Based on what we’ve heard,the settlement between major banks and states’Attorneys General (AGs),the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development,and the Department of Justice would represent an important step forward in addressing foreclosure abuses. The settlement would include key reforms to clean up unfair mortgage servicing practices. It would also provide an important template for ways banks can use principal reduction to reduce unnecessary foreclosures and put the country back on a path to economic recovery. [...] Realtor.com,which claims to have more traffic on it’s website than any other real estate website in the world,released their report for December showing how 146 metro areas in the U.S. stack up in terms of popularity for home searches. Chicago was number 1 on the list again this month,followed by Detroit,MI,and Los-Angeles-Long Beach,CA. [...] Today’s existing home sales report from the National Association of REALTORS® shows existing home sales in December were at at a seasonally adjusted-annual rate of 4.61 million units which is an increase of 5.0 percent from the month before and an increase of 3.6 percent from a year ago. The actual number of homes sold in December was 350,000 which is 4.5 percent more than the month before and 1.4 percent more than December 2010 when there were 345,000 homes sold. [...] The last couple of months I have said that,“unless something changes dramatically,2011 will hit a new record low of new home starts. Unfortunately,nothing dramatic happened,and 2011 has ended with only 428,600 new home starts setting a new record low and significantly below the prior all-time low of 445,200 starts in 2009. [...] Mortgage delinquencies in December increased to 2.24 percent of all mortgages,a slight increase from the month before when delinquencies were at 2.22 percent but a decrease of over 25 percent from a year ago when the rate was 3.01 percent. The mortgage delinquency rate is something I pay close attention to because it is the “leading indicator”of foreclosures and foreclosures and REO’s are one of the major hurdles to a recovery in the housing market. Declining delinquency rates are our first clue that the housing market is headed to a recovery. [...] This morning,RealtyTrac released their 2011 year-end U.S. Foreclosure Market Report which shows that 2,698,967 foreclosure filings (default notices,scheduled auctions and bank repossessions) we’re reported on 1,887,777 properties in the U.S. during the year,a decrease of 34 percent from the year before and marking the lowest level since 2007! [...] A report released this morning by CoreLogic,one of the nations leading providers of property information shows that home prices in the U.S. fell in November 4.3 percent from the year before and declined by 1.4 percent from the month before marking the fourth consecutive monthly decline in home prices. [...] 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 3.91 percent,matching the all-time low! Makes me want to go out and borrow some money!:) At this time last year,the interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.77 percent. [...] The National Association of Realtors’research staff recently released its comprehensive annual report:Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers for 2011. Market researcher,Paul C. Bishop,Ph. D.,Vice President and Jessica Lautz,Manager of Consumer Survey Research state that they’ve identified “trends that have not been seen in the last 10 years,”which will affect the housing market as we enter 2012. [...] OKLAHOMA CITY—DEREK CHRISTOPHER SWANN,39,of Norman,was sentenced yesterday to serve 40 months in federal prison for money laundering related to a failed Edmond commercial and residential development called “The Falls,” announced Sanford C. Coats,United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma. Earlier this year,Giovanni Bryan Stinson,38,of Edmond,pled guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud,in connection with raising investor proceeds for The Falls based on false information [...] Freddie Mac released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey®(PMMS),showing average fixed mortgage rates finishing the year near their all-time historic lows. Thirty-year fixed rate mortgages averaged 3.95 percent and have been at or below 4.0 percent for the past nine consecutive weeks keeping homebuyer affordability at a near all-time high. [...] The National Association of REALTORS Pending Home Sales Index for November shows an increase of 7.3 percent in the index from the month before (seasonally adjusted),and a 5.9 percent increase from a year ago. This is the second consecutive month that the index has increased and marks the highest level the index has achieved since April 2010 when it was at 111.5. [...] While losing $700 Billion in value in U.S. homes in a year sounds horrible,the good news is,if we end this year around this number the total loss in home values for 2011 will be smaller than the prior four years! This information is from the newly released Zillow Real Estate Market Reports,which also predicts that nine metro areas will see gains in home values this year once the final numbers are in! With all this “good”news,we have to ask ourselves…is the worst of the real estate market crash over? I think the answer is yes,at least when it comes to the housing market. [...] This morning,the S&P/Case-Shiller Index report for October was released showing US home prices decreased from the month before as well as the year before. The 10-city and 20-city composites fell by 1.1 percent and 1.2 percent respectively and the home price indexes were down 3.0 percent and 3.4 percent respectively from the year before. [...] FHA “anti-flipping”regulations prohibit lenders making an FHA loan on a home that the seller has owned for less than 90 days. However,in 2010 this regulation was waived temporarily through January 31,2011 by FHA in an effort to help the housing market conditions. Subsequently,that waiver was extended through the end of 2011. Now,FHA has extended this waiver through the end of 2012. [...] An extraordinary 18 percent of Realtors have experienced contract failures in the last few months according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). This is double the levels of a year earlier. One of the top reasons that cause these contract cancellations is credit issues. In many cases,understanding how the credit system works [...] The last couple of months I have said that,“unless something changes dramatically,2011 will hit a new record low of new home starts. Well,the actual numbers this year will still most likely be a record low,but at least the rate of new home starts for November has now inched above the record low New home starts in November were up 2.3 percent from the prior month with the seasonally adjusted annual rate inching its way up to 447,000 homes,just slightly above the all-time low of 445,200 new home starts in 2009. [...] The U.S. mortgage loan delinquency rate was 8.15 percent of all home loans in November,up 2.7 percent from the month before and down 9.6 percent from a year ago,according to the “First-Look”report issued by Lender Processing Services,one of the countries largest loan servicers and aggregators of loan performance data. The foreclosure rate,on the other hand,was 4.16 percent in November,a 3.0 percent decrease from the month before and a 2.0 percent increase from a year ago. [...] Washington,D.C.,Dec. 16,2011 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged six former top executives of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) with securities fraud,alleging they knew and approved of misleading statements claiming the companies had minimal holdings of higher-risk mortgage loans,including subprime loans. [...] | ||||
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