Monday, March 5, 2012
The Los Angeles Times
Among new Internet-based real estate ventures to pop up in recent months is one that enables house hunters to simultaneously search for just about every lifestyle criteria imaginable. Another protects would-be tenants from unwittingly renting from a struggling owner in the midst of a foreclosure.
Read the full story
http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-lew-20120226,0,7465346.story
Thursday, March 1, 2012
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has targeted Los Angeles as one of the hardest-hit areas for inclusion in its Real Estate-Owned (REO) Initiative pilot program.
Under the pilot plan, institutional investors will be able to purchase large blocks of Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-owned foreclosed properties in bulk with the requirement to rent the purchased properties for a specified period of time.
While the program may be beneficial in some parts of the country where REO inventory is high, it would not be favorable in California, where housing inventory is extremely low and demand is high, even in the state’s hardest-hit areas. REOs in California are getting multiple offers at top dollar and usually closing within 60 days on average.
C.A.R.’s Leadership Team is meeting with California Congressional members, the FHFA, and FHA in Washington, D.C., this week to voice its concern with this issue and to determine how C.A.R. can assist the housing regulators in the disposition of REOs.
See C.A.R.’s letter to California Congressional members voicing its concerns over the plan.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
On a statewide basis, the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HOI) found that a family earning the median income could have afforded 66.2 percent of the new and existing homes that were sold during the fourth quarter, up from 63.5 percent in the third quarter. It was the highest statewide affordability level recorded since the California-specific HOI began in 2007, with the previous high being set in the first quarter of 2011 at a level of 64.6 percent. In contrast, the lowest statewide level was recorded with the inaugural state index in the first quarter of 2007 with an affordability reading of 11.2 percent.
The San Francisco, San Mateo, and Marin County metro area was California’s least affordable metro area for the 13th consecutive quarter with 37.1 percent of the homes sold being affordable to a family earning the median income, up from 32.9 percent in the third quarter. Orange County was California’s second-least affordable market at 47.4 percent, followed by Los Angeles County, 48.3 percent, as the state’s third-least affordable market.
Sutter and Yuba counties were California’s most affordable metro area with 92.5 percent affordability, up from 89.3 percent in the third quarter. Stanislaus County was the state’s second-most affordable market with 91.5 percent affordability, followed by Merced County with 91.2 percent affordability.
http://www.cbia.org/go/newsroom/press-releases/statee28099s-housing-affordability-climbs-to-new-heights-in-fourth-quarter-cbia-announces/
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Calif. median home price: December 2011: $285,920 (Source: C.A.R.)
Calif. highest median home price by region/county December 2011: Marin: $693,880 (Source: C.A.R.)
Calif. lowest median home price by region/county December 2011: Madera: $106,000 (Source: C.A.R.)
Calif. Pending Home Sales Index: December 2011: 91.6, an increase from the revised 82.5 recorded in December 2010
Calif. Traditional Housing Affordability Index: Fourth quarter 2011: 55 percent (Source: C.A.R.)
Mortgage rates: Week ending 2/9/2012 30-yr. fixed: 3.87% fees/points: 0.8% 15-yr. fixed: 3.16 fees/points: 0.7% 1-yr. adjustable: 2.78% Fees/points: 0.6% (Source: Freddie Mac)
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Freddie Mac soon will increase incentives paid for completed short sales, according to a spokesman for the government-sponsored enterprise.
Through HAFA, the Treasury currently provides $1,500 for servicers and up to $2,000 for investors who allow up to $6,000 of the short sale proceeds be paid to subordinate-lien holders.
But servicers completed only 27,600 short sales and deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure through December. Of those, only 1,600 were for GSE-backed mortgages, according to Treasury Department data released Monday.
Private investors approved more than 18,300, and the rest were held on the servicer portfolio.
Nearly two-thirds of HAFA activity occurred in three states. Roughly 43 percent of these transactions occurred in California, followed by 15 percent in Florida and 6 percent in Arizona.
According to the Freddie spokesman, the upcoming incentive changes are being constructed with the hope of boosting short sale volumes. Whether these higher payments will go to servicers, investors, or the subordinate-lien holders is unknown.
