Daily Archives: February 15, 2013

Restarting Mortgage Finance: Step 1 | Cross River NY Real Estate

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Recently the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a much anticipated rule that finally gets the ball rolling on reform of the mortgage finance industry. Investors fled the market following the housing bust, reducing the flow of financing to borrowers. Likewise, many homebuyers were sold mortgage products that were untenable, resulting in damaged credit and lost savings. Transparency, verification and documentation are keys to restoring confidence from investors and homebuyers. The majority of the market will benefit from the new QM rule, but a subset of the market will likely face higher prices or lose access to financing all together.

The Qualified Mortgage rule, or QM, lays out basic requirements for lender underwriting. In short, the originator of the loan must verify all sources of income and assets and verify that the borrower has the ability to repay the mortgage (ATR). A number of loan types are prohibited from receiving the QM statu,s including those with negative amortization (balloon payments), interest-only features, as well as those with durations greater than 30-years. Finally, there is a cap on fees that lenders can charge of 3% (with an exception for loans under $100,000) and the back-end debt to income ratio (DTI) must be less than or equal to 43%.

Mortgages that qualify as a QM will be further bisected by those that have a rate 1.5% above the prime borrowing rate and those that do not. Loans below the 1.5% will receive special legal status known as a safe harbor, where the borrower in default must first prove that their loan was not affordable when originated in order to sue the lender. If the loan is QM and above the 1.5% rate threshold, then there is a rebuttable presumption where the lender must prove that the borrower had the ability to repay. Under the rebuttable presumption, even if the lender can prove the loan met the ATR, the lender incurs legal costs making the case of $70,000 to $110,000 [1] according to some industry analysts, while others analysts argue that the incidence of claims would be extremely low [2]. However, if the lender cannot demonstrate that the borrower had the ability to repay, then the lender faces new enhanced legal fees. Furthermore, the borrower’s ability to fight the foreclosure applies for the life of the loan, which would extend foreclosure timelines, increasing costs to banks. Lending outside of either definition of a QM may be sparse as the lender would have to raise rates further to compensate for litigation risk since these would fall outside either definition of a QM loan; these higher rates might then reach HOEPA limits.

via economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org

New Home Search on Mobile Devices | South Salem NY Homes

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  • According to the Digital House Hunt, a joint report between NAR Research and Google, there is a tremendous opportunity for REALTORS® to market to home shoppers online.
  • 90% of home buyers searched online during their home buying process
  • 28% of new home shoppers used their mobile device for search while in line; 27% of new home shoppers used their mobile device for search while at a restuarant
  • Overall, real estate related searches on Google.com have grown 253% over the past 4 years
via economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org

Whether you stay in or dine out today, home is where the heart is | Katonah Homes for Sale

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  • Data from the latest NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers shows the number one reason buyers are buying today is for the plain desire to own a home of their own. They want a place where they can come home at night that is their special place in the world. The most common home purchased among buyers was a detached single-family home, with three bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and 1,900 square feet.
  • The typical buyer is satisfied with their buying process and plans to live in the perfect home for them for 15 years.
  • Data from the report show the highest share of home buyers are married couples compared to single buyers and unmarried couples. The share of married couples who purchased a home (65%) is actually at its highest share since 2001. Married couples typically have higher household incomes than single buyers and thus better purchasing power in today’s tightened financial market environment.
  • While married couples might have double the purchasing power of single females and single males when buying a home, they too are still making sacrifices to get into a home. Thirty-one percent of married couples who recently purchased a home cut spending on luxury items or non-essential goods, and 26 percent cut spending on entertainment. Perhaps the married home buying couple is dining-in tonight?
  • A sizeable amount of the market are still single females, single males and unmarried couples – more than one-third. While the married couples may be cooking in tonight, the single buyers and unmarried couples could be taking advantage of the neighborhood features that influenced their home purchase – proximity to friends and family, entertainment and leisure activities, and shopping.
  • Married, unmarried, single male, and single female, all recent home buyers will enjoy the quality of the neighborhood they picked – as it influenced the majority of all household types, and hopefully all will enjoy a good meal tonight, or at the least some tasty chocolate.
via economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org

Initial Jobless Claims Down by 27,000 – Good economic news | Bedford Hills Real Estate

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In each Economic Update, the Research staff analyzes recently released economic indicators and addresses what these indicators mean for REALTORS® and their clients. Today’s update discusses initial jobless claims.

  • Good news for the job market this week: initial unemployment insurance claims for the week ending February 9 dropped to 341,000, which is 27,000 claims lower than the previous week’s level.  Although the data is preliminary and gets revised higher nearly every week for prior week’s data, the drop in initial claims is larger than the usual weekly variation since January of about 18,000 claims.  This indicates that fewer people are starting a period of unemployment.
  • The level of weekly claims looks headed towards 350,000 from last year’s average level of about 375,000 claims. It is also a far cry from the peak level in 2009. Still, the pace of job creation has to accelerate to absorb those already unemployed into the market. As of February 2, about 3.2 million continue to receive unemployment insurance benefits.
  • The bottom line for REALTORS® is that the job market continues to make steady, if modest, gains. NAR projects 1.4 million non-farm net new jobs in 2013, one factor that can support 5.08 million existing homes sales.
via economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org

Foreclosures Re-infect Florida Markets | Bedford Hills Real Estate

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It’s deja vu all over again in Florida. In a virtual re-run of Florida’s housing economy, its foreclosure starts lead the nation, prices are falling and inventories are too big, especially on the coasts.

Florida posted the nation’s highest statewide foreclosure rate for the fifth month in a row in January, and also had the highest number of properties with foreclosure filings for the month, marking the first month since January 2007 that California has not had the highest number of properties with foreclosure filings, RealtyTrac reported today.

With one in every 223 housing units with a foreclosure filing in January, the Ocala, Fla., metro area posted the nation’s highest foreclosure rate in January among metropolitan statistical areas with a population of 200,000 or more. But that’s just the beginning of Florida’s woes.

The top 10 markets for foreclosures include five other Florida metro areas: Miami at No. 2 (one in 228 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Orlando at No. 3 (one in 241 housing units); Jacksonville at No. 8 (one in 301 housing units); Tampa at No. 9 (one in 307 housing units); and Lakeland at No. 10 (one in 332 housing units).

Florida also topped RealtyTrac’s list of best markets to buy a foreclosure. Five other Florida cities ranked among the Top 20 best places to buy foreclosures: Lakeland, Tampa, Jacksonville, Orlando, and Miami.

In 2012, Florida posted the highest foreclosure rate in the nation, eclipsing Nevada for the first time, according to RealtyTrac. Activity in Florida rose 53.5 percent in 2012 from a year earlier, as lenders stepped up activity following the Attorneys General settlement last spring. In many cases, court backlogs and faulty bank filings have drawn out foreclosures through years of delays. RealtyTrac reported a typical Florida foreclosure lasts more than 28 months, four times as long as in 2007.

Florida cities made terrific progress against foreclosures two years ago, as the “Florida Phenomenon” led the nation into recovery. But today the state is second worse behind Nevada in terms of its lack of recovery price declines since the 2007 housing crash. Including distressed transactions, Florida markets are 43.5 percent lower today than they were at the peak, according to CoreLogic.

While foreclosure inventories in markets like Phoenix and Las Vegas are so low that the foreclosure discount-the difference between full-price homes and comparable REOs-has virtually disappeared. In Miami, the discount is still 38 percent, sign that supply is outpacing supply. In Orlando, the discount is less, 19 percent, but it’s 35 percent in Tampa and 31 percent in West Palm Beach, according to data from Home Value Forecast.

via realestateeconomywatch.com