Mark Daya- Foreclosure Prevention/ Short Sale Specialist

• Contracts for deeds, also known as land contracts and installment sale agreements, are arrangements where a home seller provides the financing for a buyer.  Over the last few years, this unconventional type of financing has gained popularity.
• However, with the rapid growth has come an increasing amount of complaints about the terms of such deals.  While a popular last resort for house hunters who cannot get approved for a traditional mortgage, contracts for deeds are largely unregulated and are ripe for abuse.
• The most common problems are associated with terms that favor the sellers, including high interest rates and short repayment terms.
• Typically, a contract for deed is offered by a seller who doesn’t have a mortgage on the property.  The sales price is paid in installments, and often the interest rate is a couple of percentage points higher than market rate and the term is usually five to seven years.  This requires the buyer to refinance or make a large balloon payment when the contract expires.  Once all the payments have been made, the owner gives the buyer the deed to the property.

CalHFA has announced it will end its School Facility Fee Down Payment Assistance Program, which has been responsible for providing more than 14,000 grants totaling more than $61 million. Associated with this down payment assistance was more than $3.3 billion in first mortgage loans for people purchasing newly constructed homes throughout California. The program currently has approximately $700,000 left in funds, and CalHFA anticipates the final funds being expended by the end of April.

CalHFA will continue to accept applications for SFF until funds are exhausted. Applications will be accepted on a first come, first served basis.

CNNMoney
To help struggling homeowners, Bank of America recently launched a test initiative that will give some a chance to rent the very homes they risk losing.

Read the full story
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/03/26/bank-of-america-foreclosure-rental/?iid=HP_River

The Wall Street Journal
A report by the Inspector General for the Federal Housing Finance Agency says that the FHFA hasn’t done enough to oversee mortgage-servicing companies used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to collect payments on home loans despite widespread attention to problems in the industry.
Read the full story
http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2012/03/07/report-criticizes-housing-regulator-on-mortgage-servicing/

Calif. median home price: November 2011: $280,960 (Source: C.A.R.)
Calif. highest median home price by region/county November  2011: Marin: $736,410 (Source: C.A.R.)
Calif. lowest median home price by region/county November 2011: Madera: $103,330 (Source: C.A.R.)

Calif. Pending Home Sales Index: November 2011: 109.8, an increase of 11 percent compared with the prior year.

Calif. Traditional Housing Affordability Index: Third quarter 2011: 52 percent (Source: C.A.R.)

Mortgage rates: Week ending 1/5/2012 30-yr. fixed: 3.91% fees/points: 0.8% 15-yr. fixed: 3.23 fees/points: 0.8% 1-yr. adjustable: 2.80% Fees/points: 0.6% (Source: Freddie Mac)