Real Estate News, Realty Guide

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New home construction increased drastically to almost 41% in April, 2010 compared to last year, according to a government report released Tuesday.

Housing starts increased to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 672,000 last month, the Commerce Department said. That was a 5.8% rise over March 2010.

Economists were expecting housing starts to jump to 655,000.

New construction of single-family homes, the key sector of the housing market, rose 10.2% over the month to an annual rate of 593,000.

New construction of multi-family homes — buildings with 5 or more units — was 68,000.

April was the last month in which sales to first-time home buyers could qualify for a federal tax credit of up to $8,000. Earlier this year lawmakers extended the deadline through April 30 and added a new credit of up to $6,500 for some existing home owners who move.

“The increase in demand prompted by the tax credit has lifted construction,” wrote Ian Shepherdson, economist at High Frequency Economics, in a research note.

“But the expiration of the credit … has made homebuilders wary about continuing to add new homes during the summer,” he said.

Pressure is building up on loan servicers and investors to reduce troubled homeowners’ loan balances, but the two largest owners of mortgages aren’t not taking the bait.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are controlled by the federal government, do not lower the principal on the loans they back, instead opting for interest rate reductions and term extensions when modifying loans.

But their stance is out of synch with the Obama administration, which is seeking to expand the use of principal writedowns. In late March, it announced servicers will be required to consider lowering balances in loan modifications.

Asked whether they will implement balance reductions, the companies and their regulator declined to comment. The Treasury Department also declined to comment.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) said on Monday that it has bought into the coveted Manhattan real estate market for the first time, taking stakes in skyscrapers valued at more than $1.45 billion.

The CPPIB’s real estate arm bought a 45 percent stake in 1221 Avenue of the Americas, the McGraw-Hill building, from SL Green Realty Corp (SLG.N) for $576 million.

It also formed a joint venture with SL Green, which owns and manages Manhattan properties, to acquire a 45 percent stake in 600 Lexington Avenue for $87 million.

CPPIB, which invests funds from the Canada Pension Plan, to which almost all working Canadians contribute, was one of the world’s top private equity buyers last year.

“These are two great assets in a market that’s coming back,” Graeme Eadie, CPPIB’s senior vice-president for real estate investments, said in an interview.

“These are our first investments in the Manhattan market, and it’s an area that we think has future growth for us.”

The CPPIB was involved in three of the top five global private equity deals of 2009, including the largest leveraged buyout of the year — the $4 billion acquisition by CPPIB and U.S. private equity firm TPG [TPG.UL] of IMS Health Inc RX.N, a prescription drug sales data provider.

With deep pools of capital and long-term investment outlooks, Canadian pension funds are a new breed of financial investor, able to easily outmuscle buyout firms.

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On April 21, FHA Commissioner David Stevens told the House Appropriations Transportation-HUD Subcommittee that FHA has provided essential liquidity while also working to bring private capital back to the credit market. He plus acknowledged that the FHA proposals included in the President’s FY 2011 Budget represent a balancing of FHA’s three input responsibilities: On condition that homeownership opportunities to answerable borrowers, sustaining the housing bazaar during arduous financially viable period, and ensuring the strength of the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance (MMI) fund.

Stevens acknowledged to the Committee with the purpose of FHA’s secondary reserves bear fallen lower than the obligatory two percent level to 0.53 percent. He added, however, with the purpose of the unconstrained actuary concluded with the purpose of FHA’s funds spirit keep on affirmative save faced with the nearly all catastrophic of financially viable scenarios. Stevens supposed FHA had not as it should be managed before monitored run the risk of dressed in the history and had obsolete acclaim and run the risk of controls at the same time as well at the same time as weak enforcement. Stevens supposed with the purpose of since he took department, FHA has abruptly increased lender enforcement and has strengthened acclaim and run the risk of controls.

Mortgage rates ping-ponged within a tight range for most of the week. There wasn’t much in the way of news to motivate movement in the first three days of the week. Although several key earnings were released, the economics calendar was essential empty and the market’s general tone reflected a lack of conviction. Rates were unchanged on Monday, rose modestly on Tuesday then recovered from weakness on Wednesday only to give it back positive progress on Thursday after the Treasury announced the terms of next week’s debt auctions. This left rates a few bps higher (vs. Monday) heading into today.

The week wrapped up with two sets of economic data and some unexpected headline news.

The bond market arose this morning to news that Greece had asked the European Union and the IMF to activate their financial rescue package. This request was seen by stock markets as a good thing as it seemed to signal the beginning of the end of a long, drawn out debate over whether or not Greece would be able to raise the funds necessary to pay their creditors. As a result, both European and U.S. stock markets rallied. This had the opposite effect on the U.S. bond market, traders sold positions in risk averse Treasuries in favor of buying stocks which pushed benchmark yields higher. Consequently mortgage rates moved up before the day even began

The continued availability of government guaranteed mortgages for rural homebuyers was virtually assured yesterday when the House Financial Services Committee voted to approve H.R. 5017.  The unanimous vote will send the Rural Housing Preservation and Stabilization Act of 2010 to the full House of Representatives where sources said it was fast tracked for a vote as early as next week.

If passed, the bill will correct the Section 502 Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program to make it self-funding.  Section 502 assists homebuyers living in rural areas to obtain affordable mortgages guaranteed by the Department of Agriculture (USDA).  These loan guarantees have become enormously popular during the financial crisis and consumer demand has tripled the annual number of loans that are typically issued each year.  The program is set to exhaust its available funds within days.   Under the new legislation, lenders will pay up to a 4 percent premium for the guarantee at the time the loan is initiated which will enable the financing of the program to move from a combination of government funding and industry fees to a self-sustaining initiative. The bill authorizes the department to guarantee up to $30 billion in loans in FY 2010.

Existing home sales increased by 6.8% in March, 2010, with home buyers surging to get a tax credit that expires in April, according to a real estate industry report released Thursday.

The National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales rose last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.35 million units, up from the revised rate of 5.01 million in February. Sales year-over-year were up 16.1%.

Home resales have been above year-ago levels for nine straight months, according to the report.

“Buoyed by the unseasonably warm weather, home owners were out en masse scooping-up bargain-priced real estate,” said Bob Walters, chief economist at Quicken Loans, in a research note.

In its February report, NAR said winter storms hurt figures for the month.

First-time home buyers can qualify for a tax credit of up to $8,000, while those who are trading up could get as much as $6,500. In both cases, buyers have to sign contracts by the end of April and close the deal before July 1 in order to get the credit.

Legislators have twice extended the deadline to obtain the tax credit, but a further extension is not expected by experts.

The NAACP has dropped its racial discrimination lawsuit against Wells Fargo.

“Wells Fargo and the NAACP have agreed to work constructively on ways to improve fair credit access, sustainable home ownership and financial literacy for communities of color and other historically disadvantaged communities,” Wells Fargo and the NAACP said in a joint press release.

The NAACP said that Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) is just one of 14 financial institutions that it has sued since 2007 over allegations that these companies violated the Fair Housing and Equal Credit Opportunity acts. The other firms include JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), Citibank (C, Fortune 500) and HSBC.

JPMorgan Chase spokeswoman Christine Holevas and HSBC spokeswoman Kate Durham both declined to comment.

Citibank spokesman Mark Rodgers said, in an e-mail, that his company considers each applicant “by the same objective criteria, which are blind to race, ethnicity, gender and any other prohibited means. These objective criteria include credit scores, loan to value ratios, debt to income and other key factors.”

He said this allows Citibank “to set rates that are consistent with the risk profile of each borrower.”

The lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court in central California, accused the financial firms of giving subprime rates — meaning higher interest rates — to African-Americans who qualified for better rates.

Last year, Twitter CEO Evan Williams tweeted “Buy my loft…It’s a steal!” at the asking price of $1.5 million. The listing went viral, and a buyer recently bought the San Francisco penthouse for just $1.25 million.  Williams and his wife, Sara Morishige, had listed their two-bedroom, two-bath San Francisco loft for sale on Sept. 25 for $1,498,000, just $2,000 less than what they paid for it two and a half years earlier.  But with prices plummeting everywhere, they had to sell the abode for 17% less than they paid.

The original asking price did include some of their furniture, including the couch, because it didn’t “necessarily fit the feeling of [their] new house,” said the loft’s listing agent, Eric Turner of McGuire Real Estate.  While the couch was not included in the final sale, the buyer did get two side-by-side parking spots and remote controlled blinds. 

The 1,792-square-foot penthouse is located in San Francisco’s SoMA district in the historic concrete Heublein Building. Real estate agents, like Turner, sell the former wine warehouse as offering a Manhattan vibe with cityscape views.  “The building is unique because it blends the old historical feel but is updated and has a really nice subtle contemporary feel,” said Turner.
The Heublein was converted in 1990 and offers two units with large private patios. The penthouse is one of them.

Downtown New York, where demand for office space has soared in last few years, could lose its spot as the best-performing commercial property market, according to a report in Bloomberg News.

Vacancies in the towers are on track to exceed 14 percent of the area’s 87 million square feet by 2011, according to property broker Cushman & Wakefield. Open space is rising faster than demand as American International Group relocates, Bank of America shifts its headquarters to Midtown and Goldman Sachs Group moves into its new downtown building,

Lower Manhattan had withstood the commercial property slump better than any other U.S. business district.

Playa del Carmen Real Estate owners enjoy a beach life style unsurpassed anywhere in the world. Many US and Canadian citizens have retired in Playa del Carmen as they not only can enjoy a peaceful and relaxing life but also the town culture vibrancy. Playa del Carmen regularly hosts many events and cultural fest and is fast emerging a cultural hub.

Elton John concert at Chichen Itza is one such event. The concert scheduled for April 3, will kick start Elton John’s tour of nine countries, and it will include participation of the Yucatan Symphony Orchestra. This concert will be the third large-scale concert to be organized for Chichen Itza in the last couple of years.

Chichen Itza, a Mayan pyramid site, is an archaeologically important site is also one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, and provides residents from Playa del Carmen and Merida Real Estate area, an awe-inspiring visit. The recent concerts which have been planned at the site also provide one of a kind of cultural experience.

A few years ago, real-estate developers had aggressive plans to bring trendy retail and office space to inner-city communities, which were attracting a growing middle class. Now, some of those developers are having second thoughts.

The latest is Kimco Realty Corp., which is considering pulling out of a development in the heart of Harlem, the predominantly African-American and Hispanic community in upper Manhattan. Kimco and its joint-venture partner, Sigfeld Group LLC, had planned to turn the site into a mixed-use development.

 

The latest change on government-sponsored mortgage modifications, demands that home owners provide an initial package of documents before the first phase of a modification can begin.

The newest change for the ever-changeing Obama’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) also requires lenders (or servicers) to review the documentation and respond with an approval or rejection within 30 days.

The new guidance also details how lenders must convert a trial modification to a permanent one

Effective June 1, 2010, the new provisions are designed to speed up the process of getting struggling home owners into mortgage modifications they can afford. It doesn’t really change the documents required, just the process.

President Barack Obama used a campaign push for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Friday to announce a new fund to support homeowners in five states hit hardest by the U.S. housing crisis.

Housing sector was at the center of the financial crisis that threw the U.S. economy into deep recession in late 2007. While signs of stabilization are appearing, home foreclosures are still rising in much of the country.

Obama said he was assigning $1.5 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program to fund programs at local housing finance agencies in California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona and Michigan, which have seen home prices decline more than 20 percent from their peaks.

“This fund’s going to help out-of-work homeowners avoid preventable foreclosures,” Obama told a town hall-style meeting near Las Vegas. “It will help homeowners who owe more than their homes are worth find a way to pay their mortgages that works for both the borrowers and the lenders alike.”

Nevada is still struggling from the housing market crash, and Obama’s choice to make the announcement there was no accident.

The president is trying to boost Reid, a Nevada Democrat who trails potential Republican opponents by double digits in opinion polls before November elections that could change the balance of power in Congress.

Reid has helped push Obama’s agenda to boost the economy, overhaul the U.S. healthcare system and fight climate change, but Republican critics say he has neglected his home state.

Trying to limit his party’s losses in November, Obama heaped praise on Reid, saying the former amateur boxer “knows what he believes in and he’s willing to fight for it.”

The end of the foreclosure crisis may be finally in sight. For the first time in almost three years, the number of homeowners falling behind on their loans is declining. The drop means the number of people losing their homes will start to fall. But some pain from the crisis is sure to continue. Because millions of people are already in foreclosure, deeply discounted houses will continue putting pressure on home prices for years.

Though housing is on a path to recovery, It’s going to be a very long, gradual process.”

In high-foreclosure cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix and Miami, homes have lost roughly half their values from their peaks. Experts say that the figures probably mark the beginning of the end of the crisis.

However, more than 15 percent of homeowners with a mortgage have missed at least one payment or are in foreclosure, a record. Worse, nearly half of all delinquent borrowers were at least three months behind on their payments, up from a typical level of less than 20 percent.

The percentage of borrowers who missed just one payment on their home loans also fell to 3.6 percent in the October-to-December quarter from 3.8 percent in the third quarter. That decline was even more surprising because delinquencies usually rise at that time of year due to higher heating bills and holiday spending.

In another positive sign, the number of borrowers who had missed at least one payment but were not yet in foreclosure also fell for the first time since the beginning of 2007.

Real Estate prices are falling, rents are tumbling, and apartment vacancies are on a rise. So why are thousands of small investors opting to become landlords?

The reason is real-estate prices have fallen much faster than rents. Money invested in an apartment complex today typically generates annual returns of 7% to 8%. If your homes’ value appreciates in value or rents rise, you could end up with double-digit returns when you decide to sell it. But higher returns usually come with higher risks. You should be careful enough not to overpay for a rental property or you buy in the wrong market at the wrong time.

In general, investors should pick areas where real-estate prices and rents appear to have nearly bottomed out, and jobs are stabilizing. Some of the best deals are in places like Fort Worth, Texas, or Columbus, Ohio, where prices never went wild. Markets like Las Vegas and Phoenix, which saw overbuilding, and Detroit, hurt by auto-industry woes, still look risky.

But San Francisco or Chicago can still be attractive for landlords. But, you need good credit and plenty of cash—as much as 50% of the purchase price—because banks are still wary about lending. You need extra cash for handling repairs and vacancies, and you must have the patience to deal with difficult renters.

If you buy an investment property, you should expect to hold it for 3-5 or more. Much of the big money from quickly buying and selling  properties already has been made, and conditions now favor long-term owners who want an investment that will throw off income and slowly gain value over time.

You may have thought that after losing your house to forclosure atleast you have put behind your financial liablity behind you. Right? WRONG!! Ex-homeowners may still not be completely out of financial mess because a difference between what they owed on theri mortgage and what bank sold it for at auction. And these deficiency judgements are somethign that may plague you in future.

It can even happen to folks who got their bank approvals for selling their home for less than it’s worth.

Because of falling home prices, borrowers who have run into unforeseen circumstances like like unemployment can no longer sell their homes for what they owe. As a result, they are being forced to short sell or foreclose and are getting caught up in deficiency judgments.

The foreclosures rocked McAllen, Texas, during the third quarter. In fact, it showed the fastest growth rate of any city compared to the second quarter.

Located in one of the poorest sections of the country - the Rio Grande Valley - it is a border town which depends heavily on trade with Mexico, with 35% of its retail market derived from Mexican nationals coming to shop and dine.

Plus, the unemployment is high. The area’s rate now stands at 11.4%, compared with Texas’ overall 8.2%.

Still, until this quarter, it had counted a low foreclosure rate among its assets. In fact, that helped propel the city to No. 26 on CNNMoney’s Best Places to Launch list in 2009.

Dick Henry, president of Greater McAllen Association of Realtors, said the area didn’t start to feel the housing crunch until late 2008. The wave crested the city slowly through the first part of 2009, with July actually being a strong month. “But boy, August and September went straight to hell,” Henry explained.

He worries, too, that things will get worse because most of the region’s loans are ARMs.

“People get sucked into the lower money down, and then they can’t afford their homes once rates are jacked up,” Henry said. “I now see 110 pages of foreclosure listings per month, compared to 45 pages in the first quarter. I don’t see that slowing down anytime soon.”

The Orinda community is located near the Bay Area in California. It is a small but growing city. There are currently lot of Orinda homes for sale just waiting for a loving family to call them home. Orinda community provides a small town feel with big city benefits.

Orinda grew from a single private land establishment and was finally incorporated as its own city in 1985. This suburban paradise continues to grow and flourish. Orinda community provides good schools and beautiful weather makes for a town worth settling in. Just outside of Berkeley, and close enough to the Bay Area to enjoy all the events and activities.

Growing families have continued to make this a prime family centered community. About one third of the homes house families with school aged children. Most of these families have two kids. It is the poster community for the American dream. Nearly half the population have at the very least college degrees, so the focus on providing quality education to the youth in the city is very apparent.

A growing job market is another key attraction for the neighborhood. Though not immune from the recession, Orinda has still has a promising future with plenty of growth ahead. New businesses continue to come to Orinda and its sister cities. Close access to neighboring cities and towns make for an easy commute.

Orinda is blessed with very mild climate. This means less energy costs and wear and tear on the house. This area enjoys a very pleasant weather pattern. Though temperatures in the wintertime do dip into the 30s, snow is not something that you will have to deal with wiping off of your car. The summers are sunny, but mild, with highs in the 70s and 80s most days.

A modern city layout has managed to keep the charm of its heritage, which is not an easy thing to do. The area, originally part of Mexico, has hung onto some the architectural designs and styling of its forefathers. Market values now holding steady provide the security of a stable investment with new home prices averaging in the 630,000 range.

Here, we will leave the light on for you. Orinda homes for sale offer many benefits, including a safe neighborhood for your children to grow up in. The growing job market, excellent schools, and stable market values can give you some peace of mind. It is the picturesque place to start your future.