The Worst Cities For Foreclosures In 2010

The good news is foreclosure activity is down in the U.S. cities hardest hit by the housing market crisis.   The bad news? Foreclosures in general have increased in 72% of all the other major cities across the country.

At least, that was the case in 2010, according to RealtyTrac’s “2010 MSA U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.”  As a year-end re-cap, the online foreclosure marketplace leader crunched default data for America’s 206 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), as defined by  the U.S. Census Bureau.   They counted the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing entered into RealtyTrac’s database during the 2010 calendar year.  If a property received more than one filing during the year, only the most recent was counted.

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How Banks Manage the REO Properties?

REO properties have now become the first choice of any smart home buyer. These properties are equally liked by the seasoned investors and the real estate beginners. These are those properties that have been acquired by the lender or the bank if there is no sale in the foreclosure auction. A property moves in the foreclosure process if the owner has taken loan from the lender or the bank to purchase it but is not able to make payments to the lender or the bank.

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4Q Wasatch Front Home Sales, Prices Decline

The residential real estate market remains mired in one of the worst downturns ever along the Wasatch Front, but it is showing some signs of improvement, a new report shows.

In Salt Lake County, 1,934 existing single-family homes were sold in the fourth quarter of 2010, down 21 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 2009, the Salt Lake Board of Realtors reported Thursday. The median selling price was $215,000, down 4.4 percent from the same three-month period in 2009. Median prices peaked at $256,000 in the summer of 2007.

The Realtor group attributes the declines in both sales and prices to federal home-buying incentives that boosted demand for homes in late 2009 and early 2010. Sales fell off in the second half of last year after the incentives expired.

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Why Your Best Investment Right Now is a Home

I’ve heard it over and over again for the past couple of years from friends, family, business colleagues, and even my local bartenders and baristas. The refrain is eerily similar each time, and it sounds something like this: “What are you waiting for?  Now is the time to buy that house.” I let these comments roll off my back for a long time, as I knew the metrics of large supply overhang, increasing foreclosures, slow GDP growth and anemic employment figures were liable to keep home prices down for some time.

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Foreclosure Horror: Home Filled With Dead Pets

Police on Monday arrested an elderly woman and her son on charges of animal cruelty for the starvation deaths of over 30 pets, mostly cats, whose decayed carcasses were found in their foreclosed home north of Seattle.

The remains of 29 cats and two dogs, some of which had been dead for six months and were skeletonized, were discovered on Friday strewn about the vacant home littered with animal feces, empty beer cans and trash. Three surviving but emaciated cats also were found amid the squalor.

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Buying Tips for Short Sales

With new records being set in foreclosure rates, sellers are turning to short sales more and more. How does a short sale work? The seller has to make arrangements with their mortgage lender to accept a sale for the property for an amount that is less than what is owed. This agreement typically ends up with the lender waiving the rest of the loan. This is a better option than going through a foreclosure. The result of this is that the buyer gets a good discount on the property, and the lender avoids the difficulty of having to sell the property again. Due to the exorbitant amount of losses suffered by mortgage lenders during the financial crises of 2007-2010, they are now much more willing to accept short sales than they have been in the past.

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8 Reasons To Invest In Your Home

Not long ago, you could have your big remodeling project and get your money back too. Owners recouped an average of 87% of home improvement costs at resale in 2005, according to Remodeling magazine.

But by 2010 the magazine had pegged the typical payback at just 60%. Hardly the right time to tackle the new kitchen or master bathroom you've been dreaming of, right?

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Unlicensed Mortgage Brokers Get The Boot

With interest rates and house prices at historic lows, it is the perfect time to buy a home.

But before a purchase is made, a bank loan officer or a mortgage broker has to approve a home loan for the buyer.

Bank of Utah Chief Financial Officer Branden Hansen cautions prospective buyers to make sure the person they are dealing with is reputable.

"As a bank and being involved with the mortgage industry," Hansen said, "we had to compete with a lot of people we feel are less than scrupulous."

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HUD Extends Foreclosure Anti-Flipping Rule

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that it is in the process of approving another one-year suspension of its anti-flipping rule on foreclosed properties bought with FHA loans. The suspension was first initiated on February 1st of last year to allow investors to quickly renovate foreclosed homes and selling them to first time buyers as a means to further sales of foreclosed properties.



In 2003, HUD issued a rule that prohibits the FHA from insuring a mortgage on a home that was owned by the seller for less than 90 days. HUD initiated the anti-flipping rule early last decade because the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) discovered that too many of these quick sales were made at grossly inflated prices and involved fraudulent activities.

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Bringing the Office Home

Working from home is a growing trend in Calgary, but for some entrepreneurs it involves more than just using the home PC in the kitchen.

Converting a room such as a bedroom into a home office requires a bit of planning and sometimes even a bit of bylaw navigation.

“It’s something I’ve done myself,” says Kurt Underwood, owner of Talon Contracting Inc. “A lot more people are bringing their work home nowadays.”

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Is It Possible That Short Sales Just Got Easier?

I just got a hold of these news from the closing attorney I use for my properties. If you are interested in doing a short sale or investing in real estate through short sales, you will want to verify the following information and see if it can help you:

Changes to HAFA make more homeowners eligible for streamlined short sales.

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Seizing an Opportunity: Housing Slump Whets Investors’ Appetite in Resale of Foreclosures

Most CEOs entered 2011 hoping the economy will soon fire on all cylinders. For one business chief, however, mortgage delinquencies and tight credit standards are a dream come true.

Sean Whalen is the CEO of Property23, an Orem-based startup that has successfully capitalized on the recent real estate meltdown, seeking out foreclosure properties across the country and prepping them for resale. Most of its clients are fellow investors who are hoping to rent or resell at double-digit profit when the recovery gathers steam. Since it was founded in 2008, the company has bought and sold no less than 4,000 properties and currently employs more than 100 people.

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4 Questions Before Buying Your First House

The decision to buy a house is about more than just mortgage interest rates, the Case-Shiller Home Price Index, and property taxes. Your home is more than just an investment, it's also shelter, security and safety. That's why you should think about more than just finances when making the decision.

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Trashed! Golf Course Home Is Called Worst Mess

A 2-story house on the Seacliff Golf Course in Huntington Beach is the worst example of "malicious vandalism'' of a foreclosed home that a top Realtor for bank-owned properties says he's ever seen in Orange County.

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Utah Lawmakers Look To Reduce Foreclosures

For the third straight year, Utah was among the worst states in the U.S. for the rate of foreclosure filings per household, according to a recently released nationwide report. Two state lawmakers now want to do something about it.


Irvine, Calif.-based research firm RealtyTrac reported this month that Utah had the nation’s 5th highest foreclosure rate in 2010, representing nearly 20 percent hike from 2009 and a 119 percent jump from 2008. The report showed that one in every 29 Utah housing units received a foreclosure filing last year.

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Hulk Hogan Still Trying To Sell Off His Florida Real Estate

 

Hulk Hogan may have gotten married at his Clearwater, Florida home in December but that doesn't mean he isn't still trying to unload it. Not only that, he is still trying to sell the Belleair, Florida home that he shared with his ex-wife Linda and his family and was featured in the reality television show "Hogan Knows Best." Back in 2006 the five-bedroom home was listed at $25 million.  

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How Accurate Are Property Records?

A Utah court case in which the owner of a Draper townhouse got clear title to the property, even though he still owed $132,000 on it, raises new legal and financial questions about a property-records database created by mortgage bankers. 

The award of a title free of liens means that whoever owns the promissory note on the Draper property — likely a group of faraway investors — no longer has the right to foreclose to collect on a delinquent loan. Indeed, the townhouse owner has sold the property and kept the money. Those who own the promissory note probably don’t even know what occurred.

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Before Shopping For A Place, Check Financial Readiness

You might be ready to buy a home, but are you armed with the knowledge you need? Do you know about credit score requirements? Are you familiar with flexible standards on Federal Housing Administration loans?

Whether you are a first-time homebuyer or an experienced owner, buying a house requires a "preflight check," in the words of Barry Zigas, director of housing policy for the Consumer Federation of America. "It's a brave, new world with respect to credit requirements for mortgages," says John Ulzheimer, founder of 2StepCredit.com and formerly of FICO, which pioneered credit scoring.

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Nicolas Cage Las Vegas Home For Sale Again

Around this time last year we heard that the Las Vegas home that once belonged to Nicolas Cage has finally been sold. Kenneth Lowman, Broker/Owner of Luxury Homes of Las Vegas announced that he sold Cage's foreclosed, now bank-owned Las Vegas home the first day it was on the market at a new low price of $4.95 million. Cage, who once had a variety of properties scattered all around the world, picked up this home in 2006 for $8.5 million. In July 2008 he listed it for $9.95 million. The 14,000-square-foot home with a 16-car garage was later discounted to $9.49 million. The seven-bedroom home is blandly extravagant with a sweeping staircase, home theater, elevator and panoramic views of Las Vegas. The home has a pool and spa and is located in a gated community for privacy.

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Why First Time Home Buyers Shouldn’t Target Their Dream Homes

People have a lot of expectations when buying their first home. Most first time home buyers probably envision opening the doors to their dream house and triumphantly walking into their mansion. The culmination of their hard work and even harder saved dollars are embodied in this perfect piece of property.

While that is a great image to strive for, a more practical approach may be to buy a starter home like a fixer-upper or condo to tide you over as your first purchase. It isn’t as pretty a setting as you’d like, but it could be a much smarter financial decision in the long run. In fact, it could help get you to that perfect home a little sooner.

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