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]]> http://www.danklavitter.com/michigan-homes-salehomes-sale-michigan/feed/ 0 http://www.danklavitter.com/stricter-payment-proposal-deter-homebuyers/ http://www.danklavitter.com/stricter-payment-proposal-deter-homebuyers/#comments Fri, 03 Jun 2011 18:38:12 +0000 Dan http://www.danklavitter.com/?p=1932 Among the most hotly contested ideas that bank regulators have proposed to reduce the risk of another financial crisis is a rule making a 20 percent down payment mandatory on some new home loans. Consumer advocates, civil rights groups and lending industry groups alike have said that such a rule would deter many families from ever buying a home.

A new survey by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling could shed light on the actual effects of the proposal: The survey found that half of the 1,000 people contacted thought that they would never be able to put together a 20 percent down payment to buy a home.
And the situation that would be created by the proposed rule, introduced by the the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in March, might end up being even worse than the survey suggests.

“Since prices for homes are at historic lows, the necessary down payment represents a lower dollar amount than would typically be necessary,” Gail Cunningham, a spokesperson for the NFCC, said in a statement. “Nonetheless, consumers still do not feel capable of meeting the requirements.”

]]> http://www.danklavitter.com/stricter-payment-proposal-deter-homebuyers/feed/ 0 http://www.danklavitter.com/closing-costs-surprises/ http://www.danklavitter.com/closing-costs-surprises/#comments Mon, 16 May 2011 14:43:14 +0000 Dan http://www.danklavitter.com/?p=1929 By Jane Hodges

Many homebuyers mistakenly arrive at closing unprepared for a laundry list of closing costs: major and minor fees that are a routine part of any home purchase. This can be because the lender increased fees on lender-controlled aspects of a transaction, or because a buyer chose a third party (appraiser, inspector, attorney, title company) that might charge higher prices than those estimated by the lender.

Fortunately, new rules and regulations provide more clarity on the closing costs that borrowers can expect to pay. As a rule of thumb, homebuyers can expect to pay closing costs equivalent to 3 percent to 5 percent of their loan amount, says Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance, a Bethesda, Md.-based mortgage research firm. This is money that the homebuyers will spend in addition to their down payment, and those stretching to buy should know that they’ll need to cover these closing costs in addition to the savings reserves that some lenders require. (In other words, raiding your savings on closing day to pay unforeseen closing costs may not work out!)

So how can you avoid surprises with closing costs? There are several steps you can take:

Terms and closing costs

See photos of homes for sale in your area and across the country on AOL Real Estate

last year we had the benefit of a tax credit and this year we didn’t,” Dan Murrer, vice president of Pittsburgh-based real estate information firm RealSTATs told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Murrer attributed the absence of last year’s tax credit for first-time homebuyers in part for the decline.

Home sales in Minneapolis were down 17.4 percent in March compared to a year ago. Even worse, foreclosures accounted for a large percentage of those home sales. “Foreclosure sales accounted for roughly 40 percent of [pending sales] and 43 percent of closings,” said Brad Fisher of the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors in a statement. “While those market shares are in line with recent trends, they’re still higher than what we would like to see.”

But in Charleston, S.C., there was 19 percent growth in home sales in March over last year during the same month. “The fact that we are seeing this volume of sales again this year very encouraging and certainly an indicator of a stabilizing market,” said Rob Woodul of the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors in an interview with the Charleston Post and Courier. Sure, prices are down, but Woodul doesn’t think that’s a problem, especially in local Berkeley County, which has shown a 29 percent increase in homes sales this year as compared to 2010. “I think it’s coming down to affordablilty,” he said. “The pricing there is just incredible.”

]]> http://www.danklavitter.com/1720/feed/ 0 http://www.danklavitter.com/1564/ http://www.danklavitter.com/1564/#comments Fri, 04 Mar 2011 15:54:00 +0000 Dan http://www.danklavitter.com/?p=1564  

Federal banking regulators are pushing for 20 percent down payments, according the Wall Street Journal. You see, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 — the name which draws guffaws of cynical amazement among those who know what Chris “Friend of Angelo” Dodd, pictured left, and Barney “My Boyfriend is a Fannie Mae Executive” Frank were actually up to during the Bubble Years — contains a provision authorizing federal regulators to define a “gold standard residential mortgage.” Well, the busy beavers at the FDIC, OCC, and the Fed have done just that.

What they’re pushing is for private mortgage loans that “qualify” to require 20 percent down payment for the mortgage, 25 percent equity for a refinance, and 30 percent equity for a cash-out refinance (where you take on a bigger mortgage, while liquidating the first one).

Predictably, various folks are squawking in response. Inman News, a real estate industry site, is reporting that an outfit named the Center for Responsible Lending thinks it’s a horrible, horrible idea to require higher down payments. According to the CRL lobbyist cited in the story, Susanna Montezemolo, there really is no problem with low-down payment loans. The problem was with bad lending practices during the bubble years, with risky loan terms and weak underwriting standards.

Who to believe? What to think?

On the one hand, you’ve got a bunch of our feudal baronets — sorry, public servants — who know better than the banks who are risking their capital what sort of down payments they should require. Historical experience with government price controls — whether a floor or a ceiling — has not been a positive one overall, so I’m loath to credit that line of thinking.

But on the other hand, you have a “consumer advocacy organization” founded by two billionaires, Herb and Marion Sandler, who were named to Time magazine’s list of “25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis.” It appears that the Sandlers made their billions by engaging in — ready for this? — subprime lending with risky loan terms and weak underwriting standards,

See photos of homes for sale in your area and across the country on AOL Real Estate

namely the option-ARM.

How risky were their lending practices? Wachovia, the bank that bought their company, World Savings, imploded when these loans failed and was sold to Wells Fargo. To be fair, we must take into account the Sandlers’ own version of what happened, but suddenly, I’m finding myself questioning the motivations of the CRL people. I know, it’s because I’m evil and cynical.

In any event, what is even more interesting than the provenance of any particular policy position, is this “qualified residential mortgage.” Qualified? Qualified for what?

It appears that when a mortgage is “qualified,” there is a legal “safe harbor” presumption that would exempt said mortgage from a variety of unpleasantness (if you’re a bank), such as the inability to charge points, the requirement to hold 5 percent of the loan amount as “risk retention” and such. That creates a pretty significant incentive for lenders to make sure their mortgages are qualifying as otherwise, they’d have to hold 5 percent of the amount in reserves even if they sell off the mortgage notes to the secondary market to be securitized.

Here’s why we’d be lucky to end up with only 20 percent down payment requirement as one marker of a “qualifying residential mortgage”: Big banks are pushing for even higher requirements. See, if consumers find it harder and harder to get a “qualifying mortgage” because it would require 25 percent down, or 30 percent down, then banks would likely want to step in and provide mortgages that require less money down. But those loans would be “non-qualifying”, and be subject to the 5 percent risk retention rule. Big banks like Wells Fargo and Bank of America have the capital reserves to make those “non-qualifying” loans; little banks, thrifts, and S&Ls do not.

And should we take bets on whether those non-qualifying loans might carry a higher interest rate than a qualifying-loan? Any takers?

With strategic default no longer taboo in America, I would not be surprised if banks — particularly big banks — really push on as high a down-payment as possible. They cover themselves from risk on the one hand, while on the other, the big banks drive the little guys out of the market for the soon-to-be-ginormous non-qualifying mortgage market.

What of the Center for Responsible Lending? With enough lobbying and campaign contributions, I’m sure CRL can find some wiggle room over at FHA, but given this Administration’s firm stance on housing as good rentals… I’d say good luck to them.

So, be prepared for 20 percent down payments in the not-so-distant future. But don’t be surprised if that 20 percent turns out to be 30 percent…in the name of investor safety, of course.

]]> http://www.danklavitter.com/1564/feed/ 0 http://www.danklavitter.com/buying-house-time-spring/ http://www.danklavitter.com/buying-house-time-spring/#comments Tue, 01 Mar 2011 17:02:08 +0000 Dan http://www.danklavitter.com/?p=1546 Spring is near, which means the official home-buying season is upon us. But buying a house this spring might be more complicated than most. Joseph Lazzaro of our sister site, DailyFinance.com, explains why you might want to postpone your buying decsion for a couple months.

If you’re in the market for a home this season, and your real estate agent calls or e-mails saying “now’s the time to buy,” reply that you’ll get back to her in a few months or so. That’s how long it’ll probably take before we can determine if the U.S. housing sector will remain in a sluggish, uneven recovery or whether something worse is in store.

Here’s an evaluation of the latest housing reports, from the most sobering to most encouraging.

The Case-Shiller Chiller

The most distressing recent report has to be the S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Survey, whose 20-city index declined a seasonally adjusted 0.4% in December from November, and 2.4% on a year-over-year basis.

Home prices as measured by Case-Shiller have now declined for five straight months — erasing almost all of their gains since the recession ended in June 2009.

]]> http://www.danklavitter.com/buying-house-time-spring/feed/ 0 http://www.danklavitter.com/homeowner-sues-mortgage-company-wins/ http://www.danklavitter.com/homeowner-sues-mortgage-company-wins/#comments Sat, 26 Feb 2011 13:17:43 +0000 Dan http://www.danklavitter.com/?p=1537 | By Sheree R. Curry | Posted Feb 17th 2011 4:03PM 71 Comments ? Print this page|EmailShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on DiggShare on LifestreamAll Patrick Rodgers wanted was for someone at his mortgage lender to talk to him. But when the bank ignored repeated requests, the Philadelphia homeowner sued — and won.

According to Rodgers, all he wanted was for the lender to answer his questions about its demand for him to purchase more home insurance.

Yet the bank still hasn’t responded, Rodgers says, even though it has paid the $1,300 judgment.

Rodgers, a concert promoter who in January 2002 purchased a 6-bedroom, 3-bath Tudor-style home for $179,000, did as all homeowners do when they obtain a mortgage: He purchased home insurance to cover its replacement value should it ever be destroyed in a fire or other catastrophe.

About seven years later, his mortgage lender, Wells Fargo, asked him to insure the home for $1 million after an insurance inspector valued it at that amount. The amount was an estimate of what the home would cost to replace, reported the Philadelphia Inquirer. Rodgers balked. Wells Fargo went behind his back and bought him a policy, so Rodgers sued when the bank refused to respond to his inquiries.

Although home values have waxed and waned since he purchased his house in the Wynnefield Heights neighborhood, there’s one thing this founder of Dancing Ferret Concerts knows for sure: The 1925-built home has never been worth $1 million.

“The area we are in is kind of close to the wrong side of the tracks,” he told AOL Real Estate in a phone interview. “It was comparable to other prices in the neighborhood at the time.” In fact, property records we dug up show that a smaller six-bedroom home across the street sold for $185,000 just seven months after Rodgers moved in.

“If you moved the house about five minutes west of here the price would go down about half and 15 minutes the other direction, it would go triple,” he said.

Wells Fargo never sent Rodgers an appraisal report showing its estimated $1 million value, he says. To substantiate a change in the replacement value, up or down, a person or entity must show proof of the changed value through an “accepted industry rebuild estimators or an appraisal with the cost to replace new on the dwelling,” says Mark Boyer, CEO of Foundation Financial Group in Jacksonville, Fla.

“The market value and the insurance coverage amount are in no way related,” says Mark D’Agostino, the owner and president of R.F. D’Agostino Insurance Agency Co., in Brockton, Mass., outside of Boston. “The coverage amount is the cost to rebuild the home in the event of a total loss; the homeowner can ask that the replacement cost be reevaluated at any time. Going up is generally easier to do than going down.”

Outside of some exterior repairs he did to the See photos of homes for sale in your area and across the country on AOL Real Estatehome a couple of years after he purchased it, Rodgers hasn’t made any other upgrades or changes that would warrant such a drastic increase in value.

So Rodgers said no to Wells Fargo’s request for additional insurance. Then Wells Fargo bought it for him, and his insurance company notified him that the new policy would cost him an additional $500 per month above his previous policy.

Rodgers wrote to Wells Fargo explaining his situation and demanding an explanation for its actions. By law under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, Wells Fargo had 20 days to respond. When it didn’t, Rodgers wrote another letter letting them know they had missed the deadline, and giving them one more chance to respond. After another 60 days had passed and Wells Fargo missed another RESPA-mandated deadline, Rodgers moved for a judgment against his lender for failure to respond. His reward: a default judgment of $1,000 since a Wells Fargo representative never appeared in court.

When the lender didn’t pay up, Rodgers contacted the Philadelphia sheriff’s department for help. The sheriff scheduled a sale of the items in a Wells Fargo office to cover the monies owed to Rodgers. That, along with media reports, got Wells Fargo’s attention and they sent Rodgers several checks totaling the approximately $1,300 they owed him for the RESPA violation, court costs, sheriff’s levy, and scheduled sale. (The sheriff’s sale has been cancelled now that the bank has paid.)

Rodgers has received the money, but no phone call or letter. “No one from Wells Fargo has reached out to me yet and that was the point for me in initiating all of this. It wasn’t that I wanted to litigate and get $1,000. I just wanted someone from Wells Fargo to talk to me.”

Sheree R. Curry, who has owned three homes and once had a Wells Fargo mortgage, is a three-time award-winning journalist who has covered real estate for six years. During her 20-year career, her articles have appeared regularly in the Wall Street Journal, TV Week, and Fortune. She’s been writing for AOL Real Estate since 2009 from a Minneapolis-area rental. She seeks a book publisher — or at least a lender who’ll give a reasonable mortgage rate to a self-employed mom.

]]> http://www.danklavitter.com/homeowner-sues-mortgage-company-wins/feed/ 0 http://www.danklavitter.com/interactive-tool-released-assist-distressed-homeowners/ http://www.danklavitter.com/interactive-tool-released-assist-distressed-homeowners/#comments Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:53:10 +0000 Dan http://www.danklavitter.com/?p=1531 By Evan Nemeroff

A Freddie Mac report concluded that six out of 10 homeowners who are in preforeclosure are not aware of the types of programs and services available to help them prevent this from taking place.

That is why the Short Sale Association of America released last month their interactive Pre-Nod heat map to assist real estate professionals working with homeowners who are in preforeclosure. The system helps real estate agents identify the exact number of homeowners in their area who are 30, 60, 90 or 120 days late on a mortgage payment.

There is no cost for the homeowner to use the Pre-Nod system as an assistance tool.

“Knowing that most distressed homeowners will not seek assistance on their own, it is our responsibility to reach out and assist homeowners who are in a preforeclosure situation,” said Jonathan Bowman, founder of Short Sale Association of America. “We believe that everyone wins, including taxpayers and banks, each time a homeowner is able to avoid foreclosure. We bring qualified, local real estate professionals together with distressed homeowners and their banks to help ensure that this happens whenever and wherever possible.”

Over seven million U.S. homeowners are currently in default, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Many are reportedly in the final stages of the preforeclosure process and now have limited options to avoid bank repossession.

Based on current credit bureau data provided on the Pre-Nod map, there are over 1.5 million homeowners nationwide whose default status is new enough that it has not yet been labeled as public record. These homeowners are still in the early stages of preforeclosure and, if identified early on in the process, have a much greater chance of avoiding foreclosure and bank repossession.

Ellen Shaikun, a real estate broker at Opia Properties in Louisville, Ky., said the Pre-Nod program helps homeowners who need immediate assistance.

“The housing crisis impacts all of us,” Shaikun said. “Doing it the right way by finding homeowners in the early stages of the pre-foreclosure process is critical. The SSAA’s program is a comprehensive, thoughtful, and purposeful structure to a confusing and negative situation.”

]]> http://www.danklavitter.com/interactive-tool-released-assist-distressed-homeowners/feed/ 0 http://www.danklavitter.com/existing-homes-sales-rise-2/ http://www.danklavitter.com/existing-homes-sales-rise-2/#comments Thu, 24 Feb 2011 16:14:44 +0000 Dan http://www.danklavitter.com/?p=1527 The National Association of REALTORS (NAR) reports another steep rise in existing-home sales, which jumped for the fifth time in six months. Existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, improved 12.3 percent in December, and finished the year strong on a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.28 million units.

“December was a good finish to 2010, when sales fluctuate more than normal. The pattern over the past six months is clearly showing a recovery,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist. “The December pace is near the volume we’re expecting for 2011, so the market is getting much closer to an adequate, sustainable level. The recovery will likely continue as job growth gains momentum and rising rents encourage more renters into ownership while exceptional affordability conditions remain.”

First-time home buyers accounted for 33 percent of all transactions, up from 32 percent in November. Investors were responsible for 20 percent of the December transactions, up from 19 percent in November. The remaining purchases were made by repeat buyers. NAR President Ron Phipps said buyers are responding to good affordability conditions. “Historically low mortgage interest rates, stable home prices, and pent-up demand are drawing home buyers into the market,” Phipps said.

RATE UPDATE AND MORE TRENDS

Mortgage rates ticked upward in December to 4.71 percent, up from 4.3 percent in November, according to a report from Freddie Mac. Despite the upward interest rate trend, experts remain positive about today’s housing market and overall affordability conditions.

Responsible borrowing have helped keep interest rates in check. “In the past two years, home buyers have been very successful, with super-low loan default rates, partly because of stable home prices during that time. That trend is likely to continue in 2011 as long as there is sufficient demand to absorb inventory,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist. “The latest pending sales gain suggests activity is very close to a sustainable, healthy volume of a mid-5 million total annual home sales. However, sales above 6 million, as occurred during the bubble years, is highly unlikely this year.”

GOOD HOMES GO FAST

Even in a challenging market, good homes go fast! Smart sellers are realizing that a proactive selling strategy can go a long way in getting their home sold, even when inventories are high. Here are three tips for today’s sellers:

1.Price your home right. Markets change, so don’t be influenced by last year’s selling activity and home prices. Buyers will evaluate your home based on what others are selling for today, so make sure you know the market and price your home accordingly.

2.Make your home shine. Buyers like to envision a home they can move right into. Clean carpets, fresh paint, and a nicely landscaped yard can go a long way to make perspective buyers feel at home.

3.Anticipate the selling season. Many sellers wait for the market to pick up before they place their home for sale, but smart sellers anticipate these seasonal adjustments and list their homes early in the sales cycle. Give yourself the best opportunity by placing your home on the market before everyone else does!

Whether you’re looking to sell today or are thinking of selling tomorrow, please feel free to call and ask for a computer analysis of our recent market activity. We would be more than happy answer any questions you might have.

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