"Servicers have modified 2,878,228 mortgages since the beginning of 2008 through the end of the third quarter of 2012," the OCC said. "At the end of the fourth quarter of 2012, 47.7% of these modifications were current or paid off. Another 7.1% were 30 to 59 days delinquent, and 14.2% were seriously delinquent. There were 7.7% in the process of foreclosure, and 7.3% had completed the
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Mortgage applications rebounded, rising 7.7% for the week ending March 22, the first recorded increase in two weeks.
The refinance share of overall mortgage activity remained unchanged at 75%, breaking 10 consecutive weeks of straight declines.
Meanwhile, the average 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage with a conforming loan balance fell to 3.79%.
The average 30-year, FRM with a jumbo loan balance sunk back to 3.90%, a position it held two weeks ago. -BrenaSwanson@BrenaSwansonHW
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TBWSDailyShow:
The average person stays in their home 5-7 years. Where will interest rates be then? Probably higher. FHA loans are assumable, so down the road when your clients put an offer down on an FHA home, they can assume the loan and get today's great rates. Think 3.5% compared to 7% interest rate.
Remember that when taking out a loan, you are required to have home insurance. If you let it lapse, the bank will get it for you and you will pay much higher rates. The banks pay kick backs to the insurance companies who write the forced insurance policies. FHFA, however, is planning to do away with the higher insurance payment requirements. This cuts out personal responsibility and will have unintended consequences raising the difficulty of home ownership sometime in the future.
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I had to include this:
"According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, monthly crude oil production in the United States is expected to exceed the amount of U.S. crude oil imports later this year for the first time since February 1995."-- From WT100 which got it from EIA Today in Energy.
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From Uncommon Wisdom: The housing market continues to pick up steam. Single-family home prices, as measured by the S&P Case/Shiller Home Price Index, saw their largest annual increase in more than six years.
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There is a sign that the investors are starting to pull back from buying. More investors are buying directly from the builders. The number of foreclosures on the market is dropping.
Despite this note of caution, the Wells Fargo Securities economists are still expecting a rise in sales and prices as well as new home construction.-David Collins and Mark Fogerty @ Orgination News
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Federal Reserve stimulus and government borrowing to meet its obligations are driving stocks to record highs on a daily basis, according to RC Peck, chief investment strategist and CEO of Fearless Wealth.
Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.moneynews.com/StreetTalk/Peck-Fed-Money-Printing-stock/2013/03/10/id/494003?s=al&promo_code=12BE5-1#ixzz2OqEUdX6K
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In the hottest markets around the nation, “for sale by owner” signs are popping up in yards as penurious owners try their hands at selling their own homes. It’s another sign of recovery that’s raising echoes of the real estate boom seven years ago.--Steve Cook for Real Estate Economy Watch
This reminds me of a guy who was practicing mortgage fraud. He was able to sucker many people before being caught. You might remind the FSBO's that they may not be equipped to protect themselves and could end up in court paying big bucks.
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TBWSDailyShow:
People should be allowed to make bad decisions and reap the consequences. However, the gov't has decided we are too stupid to make good decisions and so is making possible bad decisions illegal. This is making the possible options for small investors more and more limited. This is like outlawing the Big Gulp. If someone wants to make bad decisions, fine! Just make sure they, themselves, pay the consequences, not the rest of us
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Investors and banks are taking on more multifamily dwelling debt. I personally know that there are a number of investors who are my contacts and are actively looking for properties in the millions of dollars. If you know of any multifamily dwellings that might be for sale, contact your investors.
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Minnesota's Home Owner's Bill of Rights is all but dead.
A Homeowners' Bill of Rights — similar to one that was adopted by California last year — would require automatic mediation between banks and homeowners facing foreclosure and prohibit the practice of 'dual-tracking,' in which banks negotiate with homeowners while simultaneously moving them towards foreclosure, often without their knowledge. Activists have been hoping that the Legislature will adopt such protections to help end the foreclosure crisis but got a cold dose of political reality: Without banking industry approval, some Democrats in the Senate appear unwilling to support a Homeowners’ Bill of Rights.--from the Twin Cities Daily Planet
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Home prices are up 15.5% in Minneapolis. Sales are up 2%. Traditional closed sales jumped 21.5% year-over-year, while foreclosures and short sales dropped 23.5% and 28.5%, respectively.--from HousingWire
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TBWSDaily Show:
Is HUD taking the wrong homes off the market? The Neighborhood Stabilization Program money is being used in perfectly good neighborhoods instead of blighted neighborhoods. Non-profits are using the money to buy up the HUD homes for pennies on the dollar in good neighborhoods when investors would buy the homes for full price. So instead of using the gov't funds to lower the mortgage interest rates, the gov't is using the funds to practically give away property. This is $4 billion dollars of assistance given where it isn't needed in NSP 1 and $2 billion in NSP 2, NSP technical assistance is $3.92 billion, NSP 3 is $5 billion per state.
FHA is raising the down payment from 3.5% to 5% on loans over $625,500. HUD wants 90 days to implement this new rule.
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Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae refinanced nearly 1.1 million mortgages last year through HARP and 2.2 million since 2009. --kpanchuck@housingwire.com
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The average contract interest rate for the 30-year, FRM backed by the FHA increased to 3.53% from 3.47%.
Meanwhile, the 15-year, FRM increased to 3.01% from 2.96%, and the 5/1 ARM rose to 2.62% from 2.55%.
bswanson@housingwire.com
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Home builders are building in active markets including Georgia.
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TBWSDailyShow:
600,000 seniors are in foreclosure or are delinquent. If a senior is 62 yrs old, they would need a 62% LTV to get a reverse mortgage. The LTV depends on the senior's age. HECM, home equity conversion mortgage, loans are ALL adjustable starting April 1. Seniors can be behind on their loans or facing foreclosure and still get the HECM loan. Then the foreclosure or delinquency would go away-there would be no payments to the bank! The bank would be paying them from an equity line of credit. If the value of the home goes up, the senior can refinance into another HECM. Let your seniors know.
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Four Senators are crossing party lines to propose a GSE reform bill that would prevent the government from using guarantee-fee hikes at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to cover other spending initiatives.
The bill, titled ‘Jumpstart GSE Reform Act,' pulled in four well-known sponsors: CFPB architect and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; Republican Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and David Vitter, R-La.; as well as Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. -kpanchuck@housingwire.com
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Home listing inventory increased 1.15% from February. The average time a house sits on the market now is 98 days down 9.26% from January.
Berkowitz added, "Looking ahead, we can expect the amount of inventory to increase this spring along with higher list prices as sellers become more comfortable with the market conditions." The Ticker at HousingWire
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The home mortgage sector in the world’s largest economy has been “effectively nationalized,” says George Melloan, former deputy editor of the editorial page for The Wall Street Journal.
Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/FinanceNews/Melloan-Fannie-Freddie-banks/2013/03/14/id/494678?s=al&promo_code=12CDB-1#ixzz2OrD5rNY1
Urgent: Should Obamacare Be Repealed? Vote Here Now!
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JPMorgan raises home price forecast, sees long road to recovery
• March 15, 2013 • 7:34am
The fastest growing cities are the ones which the recession hit the hardest. That is because they have the most affordable housing and good weather. --The Ticker for HousingWire
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TBWSDailyShow:
87% want to own a home, 66% say owning a home is a good idea and 75% say owning a home is essential to raising a family. These numbers are twice as high as a year ago. Inventory is down, but our collective national equity is up $500 billion in the last quarter and up $1.7 trillion since spring 2011. Currently we have a collective national equity of $8.5 trillion. Short sales and foreclosures are less probable due to the rise in home equity. So, Realtors, call your data base and find those who are ready and able to sell now. This includes the loan officers who have clients, too. Interest rates are still low to attract new and move up buyers. Interest rates are up slightly. They will continue to rise when the stock market starts to pull back.
Thomas Jefferson, "The harder I work, the luckier I get."
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There are fewer home builders in the market now than there were in 2007. Therefore, those who are left are starting to make money again. Lennar Corp has revenue from home sales up 40% from the first quarter of last year. Their backlog of homes incomplete or in the process of completion is up 82%. --Megan Hopkins with HousingWire.
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Congressman Elijah Cummings, D-MD, ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, published the report on his website, saying "mortgage companies that service loans backed by Freddie Mac have largely failed to implement requirements to resolve escalated cases of serious homeowner complaints alleging abuses such as improper foreclosures and fraudulent servicing practices."
--------------------------------------------------------Sales of previously owned homes rose 0.8% in February from the prior month as single-family sales were flat and condominium sales jumped 9%. --Brian Collins for Origination News
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Average home prices are up over 10% from a year ago. The demand for materials to build home is also up. (Finally!)
The median home price rose to $173,600. Home supply is 4.7 months, which is well below the accepted healthy balance of 6.00 for supply and demand. --Brad Hoppman of Uncommon Wisdom Daily.
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Available home inventory is down 19.2% from last year which is a bad thing.
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TBWSDailyShow:
Freddie Mac suing many banks for the Libor scandal among which are Bank of America, Citi, UBS, Lloyds Banking Group, Credit Suisse, RBS, Chase and more. Today banks are about twice as big as they were a year ago. US bank earning jumped 37% from Oct to Dec. The problem is that the federal gov't tells the banks to do something and then sues them for doing that thing. Remember the scripture "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways." That is the federal gov't. The federal gov't and the banks may be joined at the hip, but the gov't keeps punishing the banks for doing exactly what they are told to do. This is insane. The federal gov't will sink our economy for sure. (My opinion).
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If you are a move up buyer, the time to sell your present home is now. The reason is because the price on the home you want to move into will increase faster than the price of your home. Also, the interest rates are very low right now. It is spring, put your house on the market and sell. --Megan Hopkins for HousingWire
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The housing rebound is creating a shortage of vacant lots in Seattle. How is the market in your city?
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The Census Bureau reported this week that single-family housing starts rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 618,000 in February, the highest level since June 2008, months before the collapse of Lehman Brothers turned a recession into a global credit crisis.
The last time housing construction contributed so little to the economy was during World War II.
Floyd Norris comments on finance and the economy at nytimes.com/economix.
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NASA Federal Credit Union and Navy Federal Credit Union are offering members mortgages that do not require a down payment or mortgage insurance. (Here we go again.)
brenaswanson@brenaswansonhw
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Karl Smith in Forbes says the housing bubble is back. It is only a matter of time before the credit standards for homebuyers will fall. This will allow homebuyers to make larger offers and it will allow young people to buy a home even when they lack a down payment. (Here we go again.)
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Because FHA is raising the mortgage insurance premium this spring and interest rates are low, first time home buyers are trying to get in on home buying. However, repeat home buyers are buying less.
http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/03/fear-motivates-first-time-homebuyers/
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1.5 million properties in the US are in the foreclosure process or are bank owned as of the first quarter of 2013. --RealtyTrac--mhopkins@housingwire.com
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TBWSDailyShow:
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In January, five states – Florida, California, New York, Illinois and New Jersey – held 44% of all distressed properties in the U.S.
Florida alone houses 16% of the shadow inventory.
kpanchuck@housingwire.com---------------------------------------------------------
Zillow introduced Spanish-language support for its Zillow Rentals Android App. --The Ticker by HousingWire
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