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May

21
2009

High jumbo rates freeze housing

By Inman News, Thursday, May 21, 2009.

Re: 'Jumbo lending crunch killing high-end sales' (May 18)

Dear Editor:

Great article on the impact of jumbo mortgages in the housing sector. However, we need to go beyond just the "high-cost" markets. Every market has pockets of affluent communities ... North Florida has several and we are not a "high-cost" market.

Without affordable jumbo mortgages in all markets, consumers cannot refinance or purchase. The result is a freeze in the housing market, which will only lead to significant price reductions in the existing inventory.  more...

Questions on new NAR Code of Ethics policy

By Notorious R.O.B., Thursday, May 21, 2009.

According to Ben Martin of the Virginia Association of Realtors over at VARBuzz.com, NAR has revised its Code of Ethics:

"Standard of Practice 15-2 was amended and a new Standard of Practice was approved to strengthen members' obligations to refrain from making false or misleading statements about competitors, including in use of social media tools.

"The new amendment includes the duty to publish a clarification about, or to remove statements made by, others on electronic media the Realtor controls once the Realtor knows the statement is false or misleading. For example, if you're publishing a blog and someone posts a false or misleading comment about a fellow Realtor on it, it's your duty to remove the post or publish a clarification when you become aware of it."  more...

May

20
2009

Homeownership not a cure-all

By Inman News, Wednesday, May 20, 2009.

A story at Inman News caught my eye because after 31 years of homeownership, I'm once again a renter.

The May 18 story (click here to read), by Inman News columnist Jack Guttentag, calls renters "NOHOs" and suggests that renters are living for the moment -- paycheck-to-paycheck folks who lack the long-term perspective of homeowners.

Guttentag starts off being provocative and gets more so throughout the story:  more...

May

19
2009

The dire state of jumbos

By Inman News, Tuesday, May 19, 2009.

Re: 'Jumbo lending crunch killing high-end sales' (May 18)

Dear Editor:

As a Realtor working in one of those high-end markets, we are seeing homes languish on the market for months on end. Prices are dropping but not by much, so someone, somewhere, hasn't gotten the message just yet. Sure there are a few local banks loaning jumbo loans at more reasonable rates, but they are far and few between.

I must say I am delighted to see NAR realize that we need help here. I love the idea of lifting the limits for certain areas (the San Francisco area is one of those) and reducing the inventory. What concerns me is that this idea could take months and months to float up to the powers that be in Washington.  more...

May

15
2009

Favoring brokers over consumers

By Inman News, Friday, May 15, 2009.

Re: 'NAR to revisit IDX indexing policy' (May 13)

Dear Editor:

Enforcement of this policy is crazy. How can a broker's or an agent's Web site move toward equal footing with Realtor.com, Trulia and Zillow without being able to provide the information that the consumer is looking for on our sites?

It continues to amaze me that once again we are choosing not to put the consumer's wants and needs first and are more concerned about a broker's right regarding display of their listings.  more...

May

12
2009

Don't lose short sales to foreclosure

By Inman News, Tuesday, May 12, 2009.

Re: 'Seeking closure on short-sale holdups' (May 7)

Dear Editor:

I support a position of being proactive. The lenders simply MUST get involved at the beginning. They need to obtain broker price opinions (BPOs) from agents not involved in the listing and also order an appraisal to provide the listing agent a target for list price. Today, agents are simply pulling numbers from the area to use as list price.

Often these prices are too low, which causes the homes to be sold for less than actual market value. This damages the seller and the lender. It can also damage the purchaser because the sale may NEVER close after everyone has spent months working on the transaction.  more...

May

11
2009

The long and short of a short sale

By Inman News, Monday, May 11, 2009.

Re: 'Failed short sales take heavy toll' (May 8)

Dear Editor:

I sold a house on a short sale when this whole epidemic first started. I had a ready and willing buyer for my house, which had a note of $1.05 million at the time -- this was spring 2007.

I had lost my job and had no way of keeping my home, so we listed it at the price owed and didn't get any action for about six months.  more...

May

8
2009

Failed short sales take heavy toll

By Inman News, Friday, May 8, 2009.

Re: 'Seeking closure on short-sale holdups' (May 7)

Dear Editor:

Finally, this huge problem is being looked at and openly discussed. What is taking so long? Because of the lack of lender cooperation we have lost billions of dollars in property values, caused additional unemployment, strain on local tax revenues and more homes going into foreclosure.

There are billions of dollars' worth of short-sale contracts sitting in lender offices, for properties they are foreclosing on. We are being told by the lenders that they do not care if the property is going in foreclosure because they are insured. What insanity is going on? Lenders turn down short-sale contracts and sell properties eight months later for 40 percent to 50 percent less.  more...

Rental model offers alternative to REO

By Inman News, Friday, May 8, 2009.
Image by <a href="http://www.lumaxart.com" target=blank>lumaxart.com</a>.

When foreclosures started increasing in number, the top reason was that lenders were giving too much to too many without proper checks and balances -- sometimes fraudulently, but more often within the lax underwriting practices at that time.

The second reason was that buyers were using their home as ATM machines, borrowing more and more because they could, and in some cases with no intention of ever making the first payment, let alone subsequent payments. They even flipped homes with no value added -- right at the closing table -- with no controls imposed. With ever-rising unemployment rates and devalued investments, that picture has changed dramatically.  more...

May

7
2009

Menlo Park's foreclosure safety net

By Curbed.com, Thursday, May 7, 2009.

Menlo Park, a city of 30,000 located south of San Francisco, is going to be a guinea pig in a plan to keep foreclosures from churning its housing market too badly.

The idea: The city takes a 30 percent stake in homes that are in danger, and the owner then gets a "silent second mortgage" at 70 percent of the home's fair market value. The family gets to keep their home, the kids get to stay in the same ZIP code, and the neighbors foot the bill. Let the grumbling begin!  more...

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