Real estate news update: 5-26

Written by Federal Title | 26 May 2010

A daily dose of headlines for real estate agents, mortgage lenders and consumers.

Home sales raise more questions than answers
Seeking Alpha: Some have speculated that the tax credit was just pulling future home sales forward and that once it expired we would probably see a slump.
Think housing has recovered? Think again.
Fortune: One critical obstacle to a housing recovery remains intact: supply. Until the number of empty homes starts to shrink, prices could still fall further.
The market vs. Bernanke
Forbes: Who should investors listen to: the financial markets or the Fed? One says we're in for a double-dip recession, the other just raised forecasts for gross domestic product growth.
First-time buyers fade in April
Real Estate Economy Watch: New survey results show that first-time homebuyers were reducing their activity even before hitting that April 30 deadline.
Inflation is overblown
Newsweek: By almost every measure observed inflation and inflation expectations have remained remarkably contained since the fall of 2008.
New apartments to surface on Georgia Avenue
DC Mud: Estimates have the building delivering in early 2012. The project will have a green roof, with solar panels that power some of the common area lighting.

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Headlines compiled by Strategic Research.

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Real estate news update: 5-25

Written by Federal Title | 25 May 2010

A daily dose of headlines for real estate agents, mortgage lenders and consumers.

5 ways for buyers to outsmart the market
The New York Times: The recession has brought about many of the biggest changes, like lower prices, tighter lending standards and historically low interest rates.
MD green version of historic tax credit becomes law
Washington Business Journal: The credit encourages rehabilitation projects around transit lines and projects are tied to the federal Base Realignment and Closure plan.
Anger at the root of mortgage default problem
Washington Post: A study finds that despite mortgage modifications homebuyers walk anyway, in large part because they are at the end of their emotional rope.
Mortgage rates decline
Wall Street Journal: The financial turmoil in Europe is providing an unexpected windfall for American home buyers, pushing domestic mortgage rates back near 50-year lows.
Metro area to see new wave of foreclosures
Washington Examiner: The number of Washington-area foreclosures are falling, but there will be more to go before the market is fully recovered.
Three fatal flaws of real estate negotiation
Inman News: In today's tough market, powerful negotiation skills are important. Are you undermining your negotiation success with scripts and strategies that contain a fatal flaw?

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Headlines compiled by Strategic Research.

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Real estate news update: 5-24

Written by Federal Title | 24 May 2010

A daily dose of headlines for real estate agents, mortgage lenders and consumers.

10 fastest growing foreclosure swamps
Forbes: Both Virginia and Maryland have cities that made the list of the fast growing foreclosures in the country. Find out which cities from this slideshow.
Improving values discourage property tax appeal
Real Estate Economy Watch: A study found most appeals were sought in census tracts with high median home values and larger or newer homes.
Most (and least) affordable places to buy a house
CNN Money: Helping keep home prices depressed is a fairly virulent foreclosure plague: There were more than 18,400 properties with foreclosure filings during 2009.
Mortgage delinquency rate vs. unemployment rate
Calculated Risk: There definitely is a relationship between delinquency rates and the unemployment rate, although a couple of states really stand out, including Florida.
Improved due diligence is key to second market revival Housing Wire: Recovery in the market for private residential mortgage-backed securities continues to be held up by continuing concerns about the underpinnings of these deals.
New partnership to develop DC's Southwest waterfront
Washington Post: The project remains one of the city's largest and most anticipated development sites and was one of many projects stalled by tumultuous financial markets.

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Headlines compiled by Strategic Research.

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Real estate news update: 5-21

Written by Federal Title | 21 May 2010

A daily dose of headlines for real estate agents, mortgage lenders and consumers.

How bad is the housing situation?
Washington Post: One in every 10 mortgage holders is now officially "delinquent" -- that is to say, late on at least one payment. That's an all-time high.		10% of homeowners missed a payment in Q1
USA Today: The number of homeowners who missed at least one payment on their mortgage surged to a record in the first quarter of the year.
Two major issues can derail your mortgage loan
Boston Herald: Attorney Richard D. Vetstein. writes today about why people with good incomes and good credit can see their mortgage loans go bad.		100,000+ Marylanders late on mortgage payments
Baltimore Business Journal: Adding in loans that are already in foreclosure, and 9.21 percent of mortgages are either more than three months late or foreclosed.
Mortgage purchase applications plummet
Mortgage Bankers Association: The Refinance Index increased 14.5 percent and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 27.1 percent from one week earlier.
After condo crash, Miami market rebounds
National Real Estate Investor: Clouds are lifting over Miami’s beleaguered condo market following a boom-and-bust cycle of epic proportions.

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Headlines compiled by Strategic Research.

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Real estate news update: 5-20

Written by Federal Title | 20 May 2010

A daily dose of headlines for real estate agents, mortgage lenders and consumers.

Home prices projected to rebound in 2011
Washington Post: U.S. home prices will begin a gradual recovery by next year, according to a survey of 92 economists and other housing analysts by MacroMarkets LLC.		The man who reinvented the city
The Atlantic: This year marks the 30th anniversary of New Urbanism, the school urban design that highlights walkability, self-contained communities, and dense neighborhoods.
The maddening world of mortgage modifications
Wall Street Journal: Most people who want loan mods aren’t going to get them. The trouble is that it takes a long time–sometimes more than a year–to get to a yes or a no.		Homebuilding likely to fade with tax credit
Forbes: High unemployment and tight lending standards, combined with the end of the tax credits, will keep a lid on home construction.
Lead-paint law heavy on budgets
Wall Street Journal: To comply with the new regulation, those working on older sites will need to invest in lead-testing kits, plastic sheeting, respirators and other lead-safety materials.
Homebuilders overbuilt but underpriced
Forbes: Far from the turmoil of sovereign credits and the euro zone economies, the U.S. real estate market looks to be getting back on track.

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Headlines compiled by Strategic Research.

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Second credit screening could delay closing or kill the deal

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Written by Nikki Smith | 19 May 2010

Want further proof that it's a bad idea to open a new line of credit while trying to buy a house?

Beginning June 1 your lender will likely be pulling a last-minute second credit report immediately before closing. If you've taken out a new loan that's large enough to affect your debt-to-income ratio calculations used in the original mortgage approval, your deal could fall through.

Opening a new line of credit – whether for new furnishings, landscaping, appliances, a new credit card, etc. – is one of the top homebuyer mistakes to avoid.

From the Washington Post:

The June 1 changes are part of a new effort by mortgage giant Fannie Mae to cut down on slipshod underwriting by lenders and fraud by borrowers. Fannie's "loan quality initiative" will require lenders not only to pull two credit reports for each mortgage transaction but to perform additional verifications of borrower occupancy plans for the property, Social Security numbers and Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers.

The story appeared in last Saturday's edition. Read the full article.

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Real estate news update: 5-19

Written by Federal Title | 19 May 2010

A daily dose of headlines for real estate agents, mortgage lenders and consumers.

New credit screening could delay closings
Washington Post: The June 1 changes are part of a new effort by mortgage giant Fannie Mae to cut down on slipshod underwriting by lenders and fraud by borrowers.
For some brokers, location is all relative
The New York Times: These agents sometimes have to be a little more creative, a little hungrier and far more persistent, especially in a sluggish real estate market.
Groundbreaking for new Bethesda home of NRC
DC Mud: The new government building is expected to take 27 months to build and will join LCOR's residential project, Wentworth House, which delivered in 2008. 		Mortgage mods doomed by back-end debt
CNBC: The top four lenders (Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and CitiMortgage) convert less than 26 percent of trial mods to permanent mods.
The statistic behind a mortgage meltdown
Housing Wire: As complex as statistics may be, the bottom line in any mortgage-led structured financial derivative comes back to one very simple concept: prepayments.
FHA will reduce allowable seller concessions by summer
Calculated Risk: Under changes set to take effect May 20, the FHA will stop certifying mortgage brokers or tracking the individual performance of loans that they originate.

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Headlines compiled by Strategic Research.

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E-signatures valid on Maryland real estate contracts

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Written by Joe Gentile | 18 May 2010

Recently I've heard feedback from a few Maryland real estate agents who are concerned about the validity of e-signatures on Maryland real estate contracts.

As a company that prides itself on empowering real estate agents with knowledge to make their clients' closing experience as pleasant as possible, we took it upon ourselves to investigate this matter and address the concern.

After making a few phone calls, I was able to reach out to an account rep at DocuSign, one of the companies that spearheaded an industry wide effort to move the FHA to formally recognize E-signed third-party documents.

An April 8, 2010-dated FHA mortgagee letter is the first in what is expected to be a series of responses to this initiative, and it essentially says (and DocuSign confirms) it’s now official: E-signed third-party documents, including real estate contracts, are now being accepted by the FHA.

I asked specifically about Maryland real estate contracts, and here is what their legal counsel sent back:

"MD is a UETA state and nothing in their version of UETA makes them different with respect to real estate contracts. Note that they have a consent provision that takes them closer to ESIGN, but it is not to be construed as requiring any additional steps to what DocuSign already does. Please see my blog post on consent, from March/April of this year."

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Real estate news update: 5-18

Written by Federal Title | 18 May 2010

A daily dose of headlines for real estate agents, mortgage lenders and consumers.

Magazine ranks Virginia 4th for business
Washington Business Journal: Chief Executive magazine ranks Virginia No. 4 in the nation for business, with high scores for its low sales tax and college educated population.
Fear of double dip may cause one
The New York Times: Real risk of a double-dip recession exists, though it can’t be quantified by the statistical models that economists use for forecasts.
Housing inventory down, home prices rise
Washington Post: The glut of homes for sale in the Washington area has shrunk dramatically since the housing market's darkest days in 2008.
Mixed used NE DC project nixed
Washington Business Journal: Growth on the Northeast corridor, including revitalized hotels and the promise of the city’s first Costco, portend “some really big things.”
Commercial property owners may have to fund streetcars Washington Post: Commercial property owners along 37 miles of planned routes for a D.C. streetcar system may foot the bill for a quarter or more of the $1.5 billion system.
Spelling mansion tops expensive homes list
Forbes: You'd never know the country was in a recession based on the cost of these homes. In fact, pricing for this small group of properties is even stronger than last year's list.

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Headlines compiled by Strategic Research.

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Real estate news update: 5-17

Written by Federal Title | 17 May 2010

A daily dose of headlines for real estate agents, mortgage lenders and consumers.

Prices fall in wake of tax credit
Real Estate Economy Watch: NAR reports in the first quarter, 91 out of 152 metropolitan statistical areas reported increase in median prices. 		Time to become bullish on real estate?
Crain's: Economic setbacks are possible and events like the Greek debt crisis shows that events outside anyone's control could change everything.
Mortgage rates drop to lowest level this year
USA Today: The drop was caused by a high demand for U.S. government securities, which closely track mortgage rates, as investors fled risky European debt.
Economy to slip, but stocks may gain: Goldman Sach's
CNBC: A generally rosy forecast was tempered with a warning that Goldman remains under consensus for economic growth as stimulus dries up and an inventory build ebbs.
Foreclosures continue to rise as banks work on backlogs
Washington Post: More people lost their homes to foreclosure in April as banks worked through a backlog of troubled borrowers, according to data released Thursday.
Millions of cut jobs likely won't return
Forbes: Fewer construction workers will be needed. Don't expect as many interior designers or advertising copywriters, either. Retailers will get by with leaner staffs.

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Headlines compiled by Strategic Research.

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Real estate news update: 5-14

Written by Federal Title | 14 May 2010

A daily dose of headlines for real estate agents, mortgage lenders and consumers.

U.S. foreclosures fell in April, signaling
CNBC: The number of Americans receiving foreclosure notices was down 2.4 percent in April from a year before and 9 percent lower than March 2010.		Containing housing hysteria around the Gulf oil spill
Housing Wire: The damage to housing from the oil spill is minimal compared to, say, the FHA condo restrictions that have those markets so deteriorated and benumbed already.
Was there good reason for a housing boom?
The New York Times: Motivated in large part by extraordinarily high housing prices, the nation’s home builders were busy building and renovating from 2000 to 2006.
Walgreens coming to Van Ness neighborhood
DC Mud: It is the second controversial Walgreens to open on that stretch of Connecticut, the first having replaced the beloved Yenching Palace  restaurant in Cleveland Park.
Bursting the bubble about the causing of the housing bubble
Washington Post: A long run of low mortgage interest rates, loose lending and low (to nonexistent) down payment requirements are the usual culprits cited by experts.
FHA wants lenders to police brokers
Wall Street Journal: The changes will put more of the onus on lenders to make sure there is no fraud or faulty underwriting in the loans they fund, and less on the FHA.

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Headlines compiled by Strategic Research.

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