In the last 12 months I've had a few situations where my client's offer on a foreclosure was rejected in favor of a cash offer. In my office, I know of many others that have experienced the same thing. With the data provided by RMLS that I used yesterday to comment about FHA transactions, I am also able to dig down deeper and look at the detail at the MLS-area level. In Minneapolis-North, median sales prices have fallen from around $150,000 in 2006 to around $50,000 today - due almost entirely to the fact … [Read more...]
Vacant Houses for Sale
Dear Owners & Listing Agents of vacant relocation properties, short sales and foreclosures: Today I showed one house that was completely unshoveled and a 2nd that was partially shoveled but very icy. In both cases I and my clients almost fell a couple times each. This is not a good way to get people to buy your house. The house that hadn't been shoveled at all didn't even have any tracks - a sure sign it hadn't been looked at since before the Christmas snowstorm over a week ago. How many buyers & … [Read more...]
What Happens to Vacant Foreclosures?
Star Tribune has an article discussing how many houses in foreclosure sit in limbo between the owner that is losing it and the bank that is repossessing it. There are a few things in the story that aren't quite right but the gist is good. Worth a read. The comments from readers are just sad - it shows how little much of the public understands about the process. … [Read more...]
Foreclosures More Profitable Than Loan Modifications To Loan Servicers
The Huffington Post has a story discussing a new report by the National Consumer Law Center regarding how the compensation structure for servicers make it more financially advantageous to service the loan through foreclosure than to help prevent the foreclosure by doing a short sale or loan modification. Sad but probably quite true. NCLC Report on Mortgage Servicers - … [Read more...]
No Houses Left for First Time Buyers
In the last few months we've seen a flurry of sales as first time buyers are trying to close on a home purchase before the $8000 tax credit expires on November 30th (maybe). This has largely lead to the precipitous decline of available inventory on the under $190k and brought Months supply of homes in the 1st time buyer category down as much as 60%! This has been seen expecially strong in the Lender Mediated category, and particularly in the Bank Owned segment: � While it is quite possible that the tax … [Read more...]
Traditional Sellers Have Window of Opportunity
A while back we released the 2nd Quarter Foreclosure (REO) & Short Sales Report, which not only debuted another revision to the methodology that decreased the counts of foreclosures and short sales significantly, but also showed positive trends in this market segment. Good signs included: New Lender Mediated listing activity has remained steady over the last 5 quarters Lender Mediated sales continue their 3-year trend - going up and up each quarter Lender Mediated inventory for sale has been dropping due … [Read more...]
CNBC Gets it Terribly Wrong
On Tuesday, July 28th, CNBC Host Dennis Kneale talked with CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera and her recent experience in the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). See the video below: Dennis and Michelle got this story completely wrong. This program is meant to allow homeowners who couldn't refinance because of Loan-to-Value ratios, income, etc. The only loans that can be refinanced are those owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the borrower still has to pay all the principal of the loan (no principal … [Read more...]
Jim Cramer: Housing Market Has Bottomed
Jim Cramer on Tuesday's show stated that we're at a housing market bottom nationally (article). Below is the video of this segment. While time will tell if Jim Cramer is right, on a local level I'm not ready to call a housing market bottom. I do believe however that foreclosures have price-bottomed in our market. Unfortunately I also believe that the typical Traditional Seller has further to fall. … [Read more...]
What Does "Not Disclosed" Mean Anyway?
Over 40% of the sales in the Twin Cities currently occurring are foreclosures or short sales, what we at MAAR call "lender mediated sales." The RMLS of Minnesota recently revised their fields regarding foreclosures and short sales (after a year of much confusion over the old fields) and we now have separate fields for in foreclosure, short sale and "lender owned." This is great, but one place it really falls down is the 3rd option allowed for these fields... "not disclosed." In Foreclosure To be honest, I don't … [Read more...]
I'm P*ssed Off At Some REO(Foreclosure) Agents
I try to behave myself, I try to keep my emotions www.ered so that my opinions can be read and understood without coming off so harsh that people click away before they finish reading. Well today I just don't care. This is a list (though not comprehensive) of the reasons that I'm sick and tired of what SOME agents are doing: "I haven't seen the property so I cannot help you." If you haven't seen the property, know nothing about it, and are not offering to help me find someone who has seen the house to help … [Read more...]