Today I discusses the qualifications for a Short Sale.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Friday, April 27, 2012
New Listing! Chula Vista 3BR Home $285000
Don't pass up this opportunity! This 3 bedrooms home features newer exterior paint, updated light fixtures, beautiful wood flooring, large master bedroom, separate dining room, breakfast nook in kitchen, patio, nice size backyard. Located in a quiet neighborhood and street near downtown Chula Vista.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
Short Sale News: Short Sales Surpass Foreclosures as Banks Agree to Deals
The number of U.S. home short sales surpassed foreclosure deals for the first time as banks became more agreeable to selling houses for less than the amount owed on their mortgages, according to Lender Processing Services Inc. (LPS)
Short sales accounted for 23.9 percent of home purchases in January, the most recent month available, compared with 19.7 percent for sales of foreclosed homes, data compiled by the Jacksonville, Florida-based company show. A year
earlier, 16.3 percent of transactions were short sales and 24.9 percent involved foreclosures.
“It’s a fairly recent phenomenon that short sales have been increasing,” Jonathon Weiner, a vice president in the applied analytics division of Lender Processing Services, said in a telephone interview. “Short sales should be the dominant way of disposing of assets” in distress, he said.
Lenders are catching up to short sales after being slow to provide the staffing and incentives necessary to complete the deals, Weiner said. The transactions typically fetch a higher price for banks than sales of homes that have gone through foreclosure. In January, foreclosed homes sold for an average of 29 percent less than comparable non-distressed properties, compared with a 23 percent discount for short sales, according to Lender Processing Services. The gap has narrowed as short sales become more common, Weiner said.
Short sales accounted for 23.9 percent of home purchases in January, the most recent month available, compared with 19.7 percent for sales of foreclosed homes, data compiled by the Jacksonville, Florida-based company show. A year
earlier, 16.3 percent of transactions were short sales and 24.9 percent involved foreclosures.
“It’s a fairly recent phenomenon that short sales have been increasing,” Jonathon Weiner, a vice president in the applied analytics division of Lender Processing Services, said in a telephone interview. “Short sales should be the dominant way of disposing of assets” in distress, he said.
Lenders are catching up to short sales after being slow to provide the staffing and incentives necessary to complete the deals, Weiner said. The transactions typically fetch a higher price for banks than sales of homes that have gone through foreclosure. In January, foreclosed homes sold for an average of 29 percent less than comparable non-distressed properties, compared with a 23 percent discount for short sales, according to Lender Processing Services. The gap has narrowed as short sales become more common, Weiner said.
Distressed-Property Inventory The growing percentage of short sales, which don’t require going through the drawn-out foreclosure process, is a sign that the U.S. is making progress in working through its inventory of distressed properties, Weiner said. The increase in short sales also may help values find a floor quicker.
“Our baseline scenario is that home prices will hit a bottom at the end of this year,” he said.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency ordered loan servicers to respond to all short-sale offers within 30 days, and approve or reject them within 60 days, in an effort to expedite a process that can take months longer than conventional home sales, the agency said in a statement today.
The FHFA, which oversees mortgage companies Fannie Mae andFreddie Mac, wants to improve the short-sale process “to prevent foreclosure, keep homes occupied and help maintain stable communities,” Edward J. DeMarco, the agency’s acting director, said in the statement. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae completed 125,456 short sales last year, the most recent period for which figures are available.
Cash Incentives Banks including Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)last year began giving cash inducements as high as $35,000 to selected homeowners who agreed to a short sale as a way of speeding up the process.
Bank of America Corp. paid $19.9 million in the first two months of this year for 22,534 homeowners to relocate after short sales and deeds in lieu of foreclosure, when borrowers agree to return the property deed in exchange for debt forgiveness, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company said March 16. Its short sales rose 31 percent in January and February from a year earlier.
Banks have struggled to reduce losses from delinquent mortgages. Almost 4.4 percent of homes with loans had received a notice of foreclosure sale at the end of 2011, the 11th consecutive quarter the rate has been higher than 4 percent, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Falling Foreclosures Foreclosure filings, including notices of defaults and bank repossessions, fell 16 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier after lenders under legal scrutiny slowed actions against delinquent homeowners, RealtyTrac Inc. reported April 12.
Lender Processing Services, a 2008 spinoff from title-insurance company Fidelity National Financial Inc. (FNF), counts short sales by tallying mortgage and property transfer documents filed with county recorders, Weiner said.
Other reports haven’t shown the same magnitude of short-sale growth. The National Association of Realtors reported that 13 percent of transactions were short sales and 22 percent were foreclosures in January. In February, short sales increased to 14 percent and foreclosure-related transactions declined to 20 percent, the group said March 21.
Showing an ‘Uptick’ The Realtors collect their data from transactions on the Multiple Listing Service, a database of homes on the market, and a survey of about 3,000 members, said Walter Molony, a spokesman for the association.
“The February data is showing a bit of an uptick,” he said in an e-mail from Washington. “We’re hearing the process is going a bit more smoothly now, so that comes as no surprise.”
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported a preliminary 19,600 short sales in January, compared with the Lender Processing Services tally of 48,721. An April 6 HUD report showed that the number of short sales rose 4.3 percent from a year earlier as the number of real estate owned, or REO, sales -- another name for foreclosure sales -- fell 39 percent.
Before agreeing to accept a loss on a short sale, lenders usually require homeowners to show evidence of hardship, such as inability to afford their mortgage payments or the need to relocate for a job, said Weiner of Lender Processing Services.
California, Arizona Short sales outnumbered foreclosures in states with some of the largest shares of homes facing foreclosure, such as Arizona,California, Florida, Nevada and New Jersey, Lender Processing Services reported.
In New Jersey, short sales have exceeded REO deals every month since June 2010. In January, short sales accounted for more than 15 percent of the 3,033 New Jersey homes sold, compared with 3.9 percent for foreclosures. It took 966 days for banks to repossess a home in New Jersey, second only to New York, according to RealtyTrac. Both states require judicial hearings for foreclosure approval.
In New York, where it takes 1,056 days to repossess a home, 7.9 percent of purchases in January were short sales while 2.3 percent involved bank-owned properties.
“In general, markets where larger incentives are provided usually have extended foreclosure timelines, such as Florida,”Tom Goyda, a spokesman for Wells Fargo, said in an e-mail from Ellisville, Missouri. Wells Fargo, which doesn’t disclose its short-sale totals, offers homeowners as much as $20,000 to relocate, he said.
Florida Short Sales In Florida, the number of short sales has exceeded foreclosures since July, according to Lender Processing Services. That’s about nine months after banks imposed a moratorium on home seizures amid allegations they used improper documentation and forged paperwork to claim title to properties with delinquent mortgages. The five largest loan servicers, including Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JPMorgan, agreed in February to a $25 billion settlement of the
allegations.
In California, which has the largest number of homes facing foreclosure, short sales have outnumbered sales of bank-owned homes since August. In January, 37.2 percent of homes sold in the state were short sales compared with 25.8
percent for foreclosures, according to Lender Processing Services.
Banks have sped up the short-sale approval process, requiring less paperwork to prove hardship, especially for homeowners who haven’t made a mortgage payment for months on their primary residence, said Ethan Gregory, a broker with First Coast Realty Associates in Jacksonville, Florida. Banks have offered his clients as much as $13,000 to relocate, an incentive that gets the homeowners engaged in selling the home, he said.
Banks “embraced it before the settlement, but the settlement pushed them to do more streamlining,” said Gregory, whose firm handles about 50 short sales a year. “They understand it’s really the best exit for them.”
Source: bloomberg.com
Reported by John Gittelsohn
“Our baseline scenario is that home prices will hit a bottom at the end of this year,” he said.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency ordered loan servicers to respond to all short-sale offers within 30 days, and approve or reject them within 60 days, in an effort to expedite a process that can take months longer than conventional home sales, the agency said in a statement today.
The FHFA, which oversees mortgage companies Fannie Mae andFreddie Mac, wants to improve the short-sale process “to prevent foreclosure, keep homes occupied and help maintain stable communities,” Edward J. DeMarco, the agency’s acting director, said in the statement. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae completed 125,456 short sales last year, the most recent period for which figures are available.
Cash Incentives Banks including Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)last year began giving cash inducements as high as $35,000 to selected homeowners who agreed to a short sale as a way of speeding up the process.
Bank of America Corp. paid $19.9 million in the first two months of this year for 22,534 homeowners to relocate after short sales and deeds in lieu of foreclosure, when borrowers agree to return the property deed in exchange for debt forgiveness, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company said March 16. Its short sales rose 31 percent in January and February from a year earlier.
Banks have struggled to reduce losses from delinquent mortgages. Almost 4.4 percent of homes with loans had received a notice of foreclosure sale at the end of 2011, the 11th consecutive quarter the rate has been higher than 4 percent, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Falling Foreclosures Foreclosure filings, including notices of defaults and bank repossessions, fell 16 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier after lenders under legal scrutiny slowed actions against delinquent homeowners, RealtyTrac Inc. reported April 12.
Lender Processing Services, a 2008 spinoff from title-insurance company Fidelity National Financial Inc. (FNF), counts short sales by tallying mortgage and property transfer documents filed with county recorders, Weiner said.
Other reports haven’t shown the same magnitude of short-sale growth. The National Association of Realtors reported that 13 percent of transactions were short sales and 22 percent were foreclosures in January. In February, short sales increased to 14 percent and foreclosure-related transactions declined to 20 percent, the group said March 21.
Showing an ‘Uptick’ The Realtors collect their data from transactions on the Multiple Listing Service, a database of homes on the market, and a survey of about 3,000 members, said Walter Molony, a spokesman for the association.
“The February data is showing a bit of an uptick,” he said in an e-mail from Washington. “We’re hearing the process is going a bit more smoothly now, so that comes as no surprise.”
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported a preliminary 19,600 short sales in January, compared with the Lender Processing Services tally of 48,721. An April 6 HUD report showed that the number of short sales rose 4.3 percent from a year earlier as the number of real estate owned, or REO, sales -- another name for foreclosure sales -- fell 39 percent.
Before agreeing to accept a loss on a short sale, lenders usually require homeowners to show evidence of hardship, such as inability to afford their mortgage payments or the need to relocate for a job, said Weiner of Lender Processing Services.
California, Arizona Short sales outnumbered foreclosures in states with some of the largest shares of homes facing foreclosure, such as Arizona,California, Florida, Nevada and New Jersey, Lender Processing Services reported.
In New Jersey, short sales have exceeded REO deals every month since June 2010. In January, short sales accounted for more than 15 percent of the 3,033 New Jersey homes sold, compared with 3.9 percent for foreclosures. It took 966 days for banks to repossess a home in New Jersey, second only to New York, according to RealtyTrac. Both states require judicial hearings for foreclosure approval.
In New York, where it takes 1,056 days to repossess a home, 7.9 percent of purchases in January were short sales while 2.3 percent involved bank-owned properties.
“In general, markets where larger incentives are provided usually have extended foreclosure timelines, such as Florida,”Tom Goyda, a spokesman for Wells Fargo, said in an e-mail from Ellisville, Missouri. Wells Fargo, which doesn’t disclose its short-sale totals, offers homeowners as much as $20,000 to relocate, he said.
Florida Short Sales In Florida, the number of short sales has exceeded foreclosures since July, according to Lender Processing Services. That’s about nine months after banks imposed a moratorium on home seizures amid allegations they used improper documentation and forged paperwork to claim title to properties with delinquent mortgages. The five largest loan servicers, including Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JPMorgan, agreed in February to a $25 billion settlement of the
allegations.
In California, which has the largest number of homes facing foreclosure, short sales have outnumbered sales of bank-owned homes since August. In January, 37.2 percent of homes sold in the state were short sales compared with 25.8
percent for foreclosures, according to Lender Processing Services.
Banks have sped up the short-sale approval process, requiring less paperwork to prove hardship, especially for homeowners who haven’t made a mortgage payment for months on their primary residence, said Ethan Gregory, a broker with First Coast Realty Associates in Jacksonville, Florida. Banks have offered his clients as much as $13,000 to relocate, an incentive that gets the homeowners engaged in selling the home, he said.
Banks “embraced it before the settlement, but the settlement pushed them to do more streamlining,” said Gregory, whose firm handles about 50 short sales a year. “They understand it’s really the best exit for them.”
Source: bloomberg.com
Reported by John Gittelsohn
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Short Sale News: Fannie and Freddie Set Timeline Requirements for Short Sales
Beginning June 15, real estate agents working with distressed homeowners whose loans are backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should expect to receive a decision on a short sale offer within 30-60 days.
The GSEs issued new guidelines Tuesday that fall under the Servicing Alignment Initiative rolled out last fall and aim to bring greater transparency to the short sale process and expedite decisions related to these
pre-foreclosure sales.
Not only is a short sale an effective foreclosure alternative when home retention is no longer an option, but it keeps homes
occupied and helps to maintain stable communities, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).
Addressing real estate practitioners’ No. 1 complaint about short sales, FHFA directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to
establish a new uniform set of minimum response times that servicers must follow in order to facilitate more efficient short sale transactions.
The GSEs’ new short sale timelines require servicers to make a decision within 30 days of receiving either an offer on a property under the companies’ traditional short sale programs or a completed Borrower Response Package (BRP)
requesting short sale consideration, whether it’s through the federal government’s Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative (HAFA) program or a GSE program.
f more than 30 days are needed, servicers must provide the borrower with weekly status updates and come to a decision no later than 60 days from the date the BRP or offer was received. According to the GSEs, this 30-day add-on will provide some leeway for servicers who may need more time to obtain a broker price opinion (BPO) or a private mortgage insurer’s approval for a short sale. All decisions must be made within 60 days.
In the event a servicer makes a counteroffer, the borrower is expected to respond within five business days. The servicer must then respond within 10 business days of receiving the borrower’s response. The GSEs plan to use the new short sale timelines to evaluate servicer compliance with the Servicing Alignment Initiative.
Edward DeMarco, acting director of the FHFA, says the GSEs new borrower communication and timeline requirements for short sales “set minimum standards and provide clear expectations regarding these important foreclosure
alternatives." GSE servicers must comply with the new minimum communication time frames for all short sale evaluations conducted on or after June 15, 2012, although servicers are encouraged to begin implementing the new requirements
sooner.“ I applaud Fannie and Freddie for finally coming out with real guidance with real world timelines for their servicers,” commented Anthony Lamacchia, broker/owner of McGeough Lamacchia Realty Inc., which specializes in short sales. “There is no question that this will help short sales and the market as a whole.”
Last year Freddie Mac completed 45,623 short sales, a 140 percent increase since 2009. Fannie Mae’s short sale completions shot up by 101 percent over the same period, totaling around 79,800 in 2011.
Source: DSNews.com
Reported by Carrie Bay
The GSEs issued new guidelines Tuesday that fall under the Servicing Alignment Initiative rolled out last fall and aim to bring greater transparency to the short sale process and expedite decisions related to these
pre-foreclosure sales.
Not only is a short sale an effective foreclosure alternative when home retention is no longer an option, but it keeps homes
occupied and helps to maintain stable communities, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).
Addressing real estate practitioners’ No. 1 complaint about short sales, FHFA directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to
establish a new uniform set of minimum response times that servicers must follow in order to facilitate more efficient short sale transactions.
The GSEs’ new short sale timelines require servicers to make a decision within 30 days of receiving either an offer on a property under the companies’ traditional short sale programs or a completed Borrower Response Package (BRP)
requesting short sale consideration, whether it’s through the federal government’s Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative (HAFA) program or a GSE program.
f more than 30 days are needed, servicers must provide the borrower with weekly status updates and come to a decision no later than 60 days from the date the BRP or offer was received. According to the GSEs, this 30-day add-on will provide some leeway for servicers who may need more time to obtain a broker price opinion (BPO) or a private mortgage insurer’s approval for a short sale. All decisions must be made within 60 days.
In the event a servicer makes a counteroffer, the borrower is expected to respond within five business days. The servicer must then respond within 10 business days of receiving the borrower’s response. The GSEs plan to use the new short sale timelines to evaluate servicer compliance with the Servicing Alignment Initiative.
Edward DeMarco, acting director of the FHFA, says the GSEs new borrower communication and timeline requirements for short sales “set minimum standards and provide clear expectations regarding these important foreclosure
alternatives." GSE servicers must comply with the new minimum communication time frames for all short sale evaluations conducted on or after June 15, 2012, although servicers are encouraged to begin implementing the new requirements
sooner.“ I applaud Fannie and Freddie for finally coming out with real guidance with real world timelines for their servicers,” commented Anthony Lamacchia, broker/owner of McGeough Lamacchia Realty Inc., which specializes in short sales. “There is no question that this will help short sales and the market as a whole.”
Last year Freddie Mac completed 45,623 short sales, a 140 percent increase since 2009. Fannie Mae’s short sale completions shot up by 101 percent over the same period, totaling around 79,800 in 2011.
Source: DSNews.com
Reported by Carrie Bay
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