- The CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®’ (C.A.R.) Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI)* fell from a revised 108.7 in November to 91.6 in December, based on signed contracts. The index was up from the revised 82.5 recorded in December 2010, marking the eighth consecutive month that pending sales rose from the previous year. The decline follows a normal seasonal drop that usually occurs in November and December.
- Pending home sales are forward-looking indicators of future home sales activity, providing information on the future direction of the market.
- C.A.R. also reported that sales of distressed properties increased in December, as lenders pushed to close REOs and short sales to move them off their balance sheets before the end of the year.
- The total share of all distressed property types sold statewide rose to 47.3 percent in December, up from November’s 44.9 percent but down from 48.3 percent in December 2010.
- Of the distressed properties sold statewide in December, 22.2 percent were short sales, up from the previous month’s share of 21 percent and up from last December’s share of 19.6 percent.
The share of REO sales rose in December to 24.6 percent, up from November’s 23.5 percent, but down from the 28.3 percent recorded in December 2010.
The Wall Street Journal
Converting home equity into cash has been a challenge for homeowners since the real-estate downturn, but a growing number of lenders are quietly reviving a loan for seniors that does just that: The reverse mortgage.
Read the full story:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204542404577158990079313270.html?mod=WSJ_RealEstate_LeftTopNews
MSNBC
It’s a tarnished silver lining for people at risk of losing their houses and homeowners in neighborhoods blighted by bank-owned properties, but the robosigning scandal that slowed the foreclosure process to a crawl appears to have increased lender interest in short sales.
Read the full story:
http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/29/9779389-increase-in-short-sales-give-market-a-little-breathing-room
A study by the Mortgage Bankers Association shows that prospective home buyers believe that given today’s affordable home prices and low interest rates, now is a good time to buy. However, potential sellers are nearly unanimous in reporting that it is not a good time to sell a home, citing difficulty in finding buyers at desired sales prices.
The study utilizes 30 years of data from the University of Michigan’s Survey of Consumer Attitudes to examine consumer attitudes toward homeownership before, during, and after the most-recent recession to see if consumer sentiment changed toward home buying and selling.
Key findings from the study include:
- Despite high unemployment, slow economic growth and other problems plaguing the economy, almost 80 percent of American households believe that now is a good time to buy a home.
- Negative home-selling sentiment is strongly related to difficulty in finding buyers at desired sales prices, as well as the large overhang of mortgages past due or on foreclosure.
- Over the next five quarters, positive home-buying sentiment is forecast to remain around current and long-run average levels. In contrast, positive home-selling sentiment is forecast to remain around current, historic-low levels. This suggests that selling sentiment and, hence, market activity, will remain sluggish in the near term.
To obtain a copy of the report, visit www.housingamerica.org.
More info
Housingwire
Pending home sales in California declined from October to November, but grew over last year, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® reported last week.
Read full story
http://www.housingwire.com/2011/12/21/california-pending-home-sales-drop-in-november-2
USA Today
The Obama administration’s initial foreclosure-prevention programs were intended to help 7 million to 9 million people. So far, they’ve aided about 2 million, and not all of those are out of foreclosure danger.
Read the full story
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/story/2011-12-11/foreclosure-aid-program-what-went-wrong/51815400/1
Home values nationwide declined 0.3 percent in October compared with September, according to this month’s Zillow Real Estate Market Reports. However, the rate of monthly depreciation has stabilized as the housing market heads towards the bottom. On a year-over-year basis, the Zillow Home Value Index declined 5.1 percent to $147,900. Home values have fallen 23.7 percent since their peak in May 2007.
Regionally, 95 of the 156 of the metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) covered by Zillow experienced monthly home value depreciation and 39 metros showed monthly home value increases. Twenty-two metros remained flat.
The foreclosure liquidation rate continued to decline in October with 8.1 out of every 10,000 homes in the country being liquidated. This is down significantly from the all-time high of 10.7 out of every 10,000 in October 2010 — just prior to the robo-signing controversy.
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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced they will suspend all evictions involving foreclosed occupied single family and 2-4 unit properties with mortgages owned by the GSEs from Dec. 19, 2011-Jan. 2, 2012.
The suspension will apply only to eviction lockouts related to Freddie Mac- and Fannie Mae-owned REO properties and will not affect other pre- or post-foreclosure processes. During this period, legal and administrative proceedings for evictions may continue, but families living in foreclosed properties will be permitted to remain in the home.
Mercury News
The most likely first-time homeowners, young professionals and couples starting a family, won’t buy these days. Or they can’t. Or they already did during the housing boom. And their absence helps explain why the housing industry is still depressed.
Read the full story
http://www.mercurynews.com/real-estate/ci_19440876
Beginning Dec. 7, Fannie Mae will launch the HomePath Online Offers Program to collect offers and manage the offer-submission process on properties listed on HomePath.com. Agents and brokers representing buyers are now required to submit offers exclusively on HomePath.com. All properties listed in California and Florida are eligible on the designated launch date.
The HomePath Online Offers Program is designed to ease and create transparency during the offer submission process with the following features:
An easy to use, self-service offer submission system that can be assessed through HomePath.com
A transparent offer process that keeps Selling Agents informed of the status of their clients’ offers on HomePath properties listed on HomePath.com
Improved communication between the Selling Agent and the Listing Agent regarding offers on HomePath properties listed on HomePath.com
http://www.homepath.com/offerQuestion.html
