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Quote of the Week: If you only care enough for result, you will almost certainly attain it. Shared by Inside Lending
INFO THAT HITS US WHERE WE LIVE... We all do care a lot about keeping the housing market on its steady path of recovery and last week saw more evidence of progress in that direction. An analytics and research firm that serves the industry reported home prices throughout the country were up 12.4% year-over-year in July, the 17th month in a row of annual home price growth. Another analytical company, specializing in property values, posted home prices up 10.2% year-over-year in August. They noted that the last time they saw double-digit annual home price growth was in mid-2006.
CONSUMERS SPENDING MORE AND SO ARE THE FEDS...This Friday, the important Retail Salesreport for August is forecast to be up, as consumer spending keeps helping the economy. But federal government spending still exceeds monies coming in, so the Federal Budgetshould show a deficit for August.
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The nation found a new city to call home to the most negative equity mortgages. Rockford, Ill., now holds the title to that dubious distinction, with the highest percentage of homes underwater.
It is easy to feel some sympathy for Rockford, but the tragedy is negative equity is a widespread plague. The Sun Sentinel also reports that South Florida is equally slammed. "Although prices are bouncing back, these underwater mortgages continue to haunt the local housing market and will for at least the next few years," the article states.
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When the U.S. agreed to inject vast sums of aid in exchange in September 2008, for a new class of stock—"senior preferred" shares—that paid a 10% dividend, the GSEs entered a period of ownership limbo. In such an instance, no meaningful reform can be accomplished according to then Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. -- Jacob Gaffney in HousingWire
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Homebuilder stocks rallied Friday as jobs data sparked concern that the Federal Reserve's timeline for tapering its bond-buying program might not be as crystal clear as initially expected. -- Christina Mylenski in HousingWire
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According to Friday’s report from the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics, only 74.8% of young adults are working — the lowest number in 12 months and far below normal levels. During the recession, between 73% and 74% of young adults were employed.
Consequently, the unemployment rate for young adults rose to 7.8% in August, representing the highest level since February.
For those young adults who are able to qualify for homeownership, they are often forced to handle a smaller mortgage.
"The focus of the industry now is hopefully on sustainable homeownership," said (Mark) Palim, who added that people want a mortgage they can actually afford — something many homeowners struggled with during the recession. "Someone who doesn’t have a job and has a lot of student debt shouldn’t be buying a home," he added. -- Megan Hopkins in HousingWire
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I have been hearing from talk radio that because of the busy schedule for the fall session of Congress, housing finance reform may not get much attention. -- JP
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Towards the end of the year, lawmakers will also need to decide again on whether to extend a tax break for debt forgiven under short sales and other mortgage modifications. The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act is set to expire on Dec. 31, though several bills have been introduced in the Senate to extend the provision for one or two years. The law, passed in 2007, was most recently extended as part of the last-minute deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff at the beginning of the year.
Should Congress grant it, another extension "should be a positive for housing, as we believe there would be more foreclosures absent short sales and mortgage modifications," said Jaret Seiberg of Guggeheim Securities in a note to clients late last month. He added, however, that passage of another extension for the tax break is "far from a slam dunk."
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The U.S. federal government ran a budget deficit of approximately $750 billion in the first eleven months of the 2013 fiscal year—a reduction of more than $400 billion from a year earlier thanks in part to higher tax revenue, lower defense spending, fewer outlays for the Troubled Asset Relief Program and $82 billion in payments from the government-sponsored enterprises.
And back in 2012, the Treasury had made $5 billion in payments to the GSEs by August of fiscal 2012; however, this year, the Treasury is on the receiving end — having already taken in $82 billion in payments, mostly from Fannie Mae. Spending on unemployment benefits also declined by $22 billion, or 24%, as fewer Americans took in benefits, while expenditures tied to the Troubled Asset Relief Program – created to provide liquidity to the banks during the housing crisis – fell by $33 billion as the cost structure of the program was adjusted. -- Kerri Ann Panchuck in HousingWire
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Houston does not have a housing problem |
| Houston does not have a housing problem. In fact, the Houston area ranked No. 68 on a list of improving housing markets, with prices rising 13.9% since January 2011. |
Boston plans for 30,000 new homes by 2020 | ||
| The mayor of Boston released a plan to build 30,000 new homes in the city by 2020, using $16.5 billion in public and private investment dollars. These were headlines in HousingWire on Sept. 9 ------------------------------------------------------------ CoreLogic released data that shows approximately 2.5 million more residential properties returned to a state of positive equity during the second quarter, bringing the total number of homeowners across the country not underwater to 41.5 million. CoreLogic data includes 49 million properties with a mortgage, which accounts for more than 85% of all U.S. mortgages. -- Evan Nemeroff in Origination News. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- And finally, FHFA is going to take measures to lower the existing elevated conforming loan limits offered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They want to bring the maximum conforming loan amount back to the 2008 level of $417,000. The good news here again is it’s a motivation factor for your clients that might be sitting on the fence. Will it have a huge impact on the industry as a whole? We don’t think so. Jumbo non-agency money seems to be doing well right now and should be able to pick up the slack. In fact Jumbo rates are currently about the same or even better then conforming rates. We believe Jumbo rates will start to rise a bit soon based on this news. Frank and Brian in National Real Estate Post. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Headline in HousingWire
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- People buying homes are citing future price increases as one of the "key factors" motivating them to buy. The most recent survey by the real-estate company Redfin found that almost one third of buyers are motivated by rising prices. CNBC in HousingWire ----------------------------------------------------------- You've got to see this "Battle of the Saxes" http://matadornetwork.com/life/nyc-subway-sax-battle/ ------------------------------------------------------------ |
Here’s how. Folks within FEMA and the Federal Government have been looking at the growing costs of fulfilling flood policies with episodes like Katrina, Sandy, and Rita (remember Rita was like Katrina’s bitchy little sister that ravaged the same area just a few months after Katrina.) In short, it’s widely believed that our costs on flood policies are outpacing the money being brought in from payment on said flood policies. When you add that with the, also, wide belief that erratic storm seasons are going to become less erratic and more the norm, it left Washington and FEMA scrambling on how to make up the projected shortfalls on FEMA’s reserves.
