Daily Archives: April 11, 2012

Lenders Get Even Tougher on Credit | Waccabuc NY Real Estate

A new report based on data from mortgage applications processed by one of the leading mortgage management software platforms suggests that over the past eight months it has been even tougher to get a loan with less than stellar credit. Average credit scores are up ten points, and both debt-to-income and loan-to-value ratios are down slightly since August.

“In February, it appears that lenders continued to be very cautious in terms of credit quality, down payments and valuations,” said Jonathan Corr, chief operating officer of Ellie Mae, Inc., a provider of mortgage management software systems. “The average credit score on closed loans was 750 last month, up from 740 six months ago; meanwhile, the average loan-to-value ratio was 76 percemt, a decrease of 3 percent from August’s average.

“Last month, if your FICO score was below 720 or you had a down payment or equity of less than 25%, there was a good chance that your refinance application for a conventional loan was denied or you were offered a significantly less attractive interest rate. The average DTI ratio for such a denial in February was 27/43,” Corr said.

The Ellie Mae Origination Insight Report also found that purchase mortgages has decreased steadily since August, accounting for only one-third of all mortgages approved in February, down from 39 percent in August. The market share of FHA loans has stayed steady since November, at 25 percent of all purchase loans. Average credit score for approved FHA purchase loans was only 701, a slight decline from 704 in August.

“The timeline from application to closing for the average loan was 44 days in February and 43 for a refinance, a 10 percent and 16 percent increase, respectively, over where the industry was six months ago,” Corr added. “This tracks with the increase in demand that we saw at year end.”

Full-Value Home Prices Begin to Rise | South Salem NY Real Estate

In a strong sign that the housing recovery has begun, the national median price of full-value homes that are not foreclosures or short sales rose each of first two months of the year.

CoreLogic today reported than home prices, excluding distressed sales, has increased 0.7 percent each month in February and January. February full-value prices were down 0.8 percent from a year ago. When foreclosure and short-sales are included, national home prices declined on a year-over-year basis by 2.0 percent in February 2012 and by 0.8 percent compared to January 2012, the seventh consecutive monthly decline.

“House prices, based on data through February, continue to decline, but at a decreasing rate. The deceleration in the pace of decline is a first step toward ultimately growing again,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Excluding distressed sales, we already see modest price appreciation month over month in January and February.”

“The continued strength of sales activity and tightening inventories in many markets are early and hopeful signs that prices will continue to stabilize and improve in the coming months. In fact, non-distressed home sale prices, which represent two-thirds of all sales, have appreciated by just over 1.0 percent since the beginning of the year,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic.

Highlights:

  • Including distressed sales, the five states with the highest appreciation were: West Virginia (+8.6 percent), Michigan (+5.8 percent), Florida (+4.7 percent), Arizona (+4.5 percent) and South Dakota (+4.1 percent).
  • Including distressed sales, the five states with the greatest depreciation were: Delaware (-11.2 percent), Connecticut (-7.9 percent), Rhode Island (-7.8 percent), Illinois (-7.1 percent) and Georgia (-6.6 percent).
  • Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the highest appreciation were: South Dakota (+5.9 percent), West Virginia (+5.6 percent), Maine (+4.5 percent), Utah (+3.7 percent) and Montana (+3.6 percent).
  • Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the greatest depreciation were: Delaware (-8.7 percent), Connecticut (-4.9 percent), Nevada (-4.6 percent), Vermont (-4.0 percent) and Minnesota (-3.3 percent).
  • Including distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI (from April 2006 to February 2012) was -34.4 percent. Excluding distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the HPI for the same period was -24.6 percent.
  • The five states with the largest peak-to-current declines including distressed transactions are Nevada (-60.2 percent), Arizona (-49.8 percent), Florida (-48.6 percent), Michigan (-44.0 percent) and California (-43.7 percent).
  • Of the top 100 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) measured by population, 67 are showing year-over-year declines in February, nine fewer than in January.

Banks and Investors Learn to Love Short Sales | Katonah NY Homes

Lenders and investors no longer give short sales short shrift, according to the latest reports on the distressed sales market.

This month’s LPS Home Price Index report from Lender Processing Services is just the latest in a list of recent marketplace findings that suggest short sales, the preferred option for defaulting homeowners seeking to avoid the stigma of foreclosure, have truly come of age.

“Banks are getting about the same price on both short sales and foreclosure sales in areas that have high levels of distressed transaction. Clearly the mortgage industry has made significant efforts to put distressed properties through the short sale process as an alternative to foreclosure,” reported Raj Dosaj, vice president of LPS Applied Analytics.

Short sales have been a relatively large part of total home sales volume after the bubble, said LPS. The lack of proper accounting for short sales has exaggerated their effect on all the major home price indices, including the LPS HPI, until now. LPS computes its HPI exclusively from differences in prices that homeowners pay on their initial purchases and what they later receive when they sell.

In February, RealtyTrac reported that it saw a similar shift toward short sales and away from REO sales in the fourth quarter of 2011.

“Nationally, pre-foreclosure sales increased 15 percent from a year ago while REO sales decreased 12 percent. Pre-foreclosure sales outnumbered REO sales in several bellwether markets, including Los Angeles, Miami and Phoenix, where REO sales had outnumbered pre-foreclosure sales a year ago. That trend will likely show up in more local markets in 2012 as lenders recognize short sales as a better option for many of their non-performing loans.” Brandon Moore, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.

The HousingPulse survey from Campbell Surveys and Inside Mortgage Finance found that the total share of distressed properties in the housing market in February, as represented by the HousingPulse Distressed Property Index (DPI), continued to climb, reaching a near-record of 48.7 percent, using a three-month moving average, and all of the growth in the distressed property share of the housing market over the past six months has been driven by an increase in short sales. Over the past six months, the proportion of short sale transactions in the market has climbed from 17.0 percent to 19.8 percent.

Investors continued to boost their activity in the housing market during the month of February, according to the HousingPulse Tracking Survey. Short sales have become a new target for investors now that other homebuyers have lost their enthusiasm for these popular but often lengthy and unpredictable transactions. The investor share of short sales likewise grew from 25.9 percent to 30.6 percent during the same six-month period. In contrast, the proportions of first-time homebuyers and current homeowners purchasing short sales have dropped since September. Investors find short sales more attractive because they do not have to deal with the complications of breaking rental leases or moving from another home on short notice, the survey said.

In its survey of real estate agents, the HousingPulse found that mortgage servicers have been using “cash-for-keys” payments to motivate delinquent homeowners to engage in short sales. Cash-for-keys payments are often $3,000 or 1 percent of home value, but can reach up to $25,000 and more for high value homes in areas with long foreclosure timelines, HousingPulse respondents reported. “The typical amount offered to homeowners with ‘cash for keys’ is $3,000. Approximately 1/3 of my short sale transactions are qualified for the cash for keys program,” commented a real estate agent in Virginia. “Short sales are definitely motivated by cash for keys. Typically they are receiving $3,000-5,000 on homes between $300k to $500k. I have seen $15,000 on $1 million homes,” added an agent in California.

How to Track, Analyze, and Improve Your SEO Strategy | Chappaqua NY Homes

This is an adapted excerpt from our new ebook, How to Unlock the ROI of Your Marketing Analytics. Download your free copy if you want to learn more about using data to make actionable improvements to your marketing. And don’t forget to join today’s #inboundchat on Twitter at 3:00pm EST, where we’ll discuss these juicy marketing analytics topics!

Continue reading

15 Things People Absolutely Hate About Your Website | Armonk NY Homes

introductory3

One of the tenets of inbound marketing is not to annoy. So why is it that many websites are still chock full of the elements that so many visitors have bemoaned over and over? Perhaps with the sheer excitement (or terror, depending on your personality) that comes with designing your own website, all of the user experience quirks that have driven you crazy over the years escape your mind. But poor user experience can cause high page abandonment rates, low visitor-to-lead conversion rates, poor organic search listing positions, and a plain ol’ bad reputation. So we compiled a list of the 15 most annoying things we’ve seen on websites to act as a sort of guide for what not to do when designing your website. Take a look at the worst offenders!

15 Things People Hate About Your Website

1) Pop-Up Ads

Let’s get the most obvious one out of the way. Pop-ups are seriously annoying. Yes, a pop-up could get you a few new email subscribers, but is that really worth all the traffic you lose when visitors abandon your site in annoyance? Convert site visitors into leads with well-written content and compelling CTAs/offers, not interruptive gimmicks.

2) Automatically Playing Multimedia Content When a Page Loads

Shhhh! I wasn’t supposed to be on this site at work! If someone’s enjoying what they thought was a silent browsing session and they’re bombarded with your theme song or a talking head on a video for which they didn’t press “play” and can’t find the button for “stop,” what do you think they’re going to do? Some might fumble for their mute button, but I can more easily locate the back button in my browser than my computer’s volume controls. Let visitors choose to play your multimedia content; don’t force it on them.

3) Disorienting Animations

You’re probably familiar with the blink test by now — the 3 seconds users have to orient themselves on any given web page before they click ‘back’ in their browser. Animations, auto-play videos, blinking and flashing paid advertisements, and other interactive entertainment may seem really cool (I’m sure it’s very well designed!) but it detracts from a visitor’s focus during those critical 3 seconds. Nix the animations, and let visitors focus on what they can do on that page with clearly written headlines and explanatory copy.