Real Estate News
The end of a popular government stimulus program drove home sales in July to their lowest levels in more than a decade, fueling fresh concerns about the economic recovery. Home sales fell 27.2% nationwide from a month earlier, the National Assn. of Realtors reported. That was a much bigger drop than expected, as the boost [...]
Filed under: Home Prices, Housing Market Trends, La Times, Market Update on August 27th, 2010 | Comments Off
BOSTON — Homeowners who had mortgages modified recently are faring better than those who did so earlier in the housing crisis, according to a report released Tuesday, possibly debunking predictions of a huge wave of defaults to come. The State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group warned of other troubling signs, however, on the same day that [...]
Filed under: Home Buying, Housing Market Trends, Lending Info, loan modification, Market Update, Mortgage News, National Real Estate News on August 27th, 2010 | Comments Off
Mortgage lenders must now pay the difference if a loan’s closing costs come in higher than they estimated, which means no more lowballing to lure customers. Facing new penalties if they lowball estimates of upfront mortgage costs, lenders and brokers appear to be coming clean about how much borrowers will pay. As a result, the [...]
Filed under: Consumer Protection, Federal Housing Regulations, Lending Info, Market Update, Mortgage News, National Real Estate News on August 25th, 2010 | Comments Off
California home prices remained almost flat in July but sales stalled as federal tax credits for buyers expired. The median price paid for a home last month was $268,000, down less than 1% from June, and up 7.2% from July 2009, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego. The year-over-year increase was the ninth in [...]
Filed under: California Real Estate News, First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit, Home Buying, Home Prices, Home Selling, Housing Market Trends on August 23rd, 2010 | Comments Off
The folks at Esteemed Lending Services are out to teach people a lesson. Esteemed Lending isn’t a mortgage lender at all. It’s a fictitious company. If it existed, it might have taken a lot of people for a ride down the road to ruin. But it does live in cyberspace, where many scam artists lurk. [...]
Filed under: Consumer Protection, Lending Info, Mortgage News, National Real Estate News on August 18th, 2010 | Comments Off
Real estate deals in which lenders agree to take less for a property than the balance on the mortgage have tripled since 2008, a report says. Sales of homes for less than the amount of their outstanding mortgage debt have tripled since 2008, particularly in California and the Sunbelt, according to a report released Tuesday. [...]
Filed under: California Real Estate News, Economic Recovery, Foreclosures and Short Sales, Home Prices, Home Sellers, Housing Market Trends on August 11th, 2010 | Comments Off
An index of home purchase contracts fell 2.6% in June from May as the expiration of federal tax incentives for buyers continued to damp demand from home shoppers for a second straight month, according to the National Assn. of Realtors. The trade group’s pending home sales index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed for [...]
Filed under: Economic Recovery, Home Buying, Home Selling, Market Update, National Real Estate News on August 4th, 2010 | Comments Off
The average on a 30-year loan drops to 4.54%, while 15-year mortgages are down to 4%, Freddie Mac reports. This marks the sixth straight week of record lows. The Gershwin standard is “Nice Work If You Can Get It.” The refrain in today’s housing market would be: nice loans — if you can get them. [...]
Filed under: Federal Housing Regulations, Market Update, Mortgage News, Mortgage Rates, National Real Estate News on August 2nd, 2010 | Comments Off
