Tag Archives: Waccabuc NY Real Estate

Top Subprime Mortgage Firm Accused of Abuses | #WaccabucRealEstate

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The nation’s largest servicer of subprime mortgages has engaged in abuses that could potentially harm hundreds of thousands of borrowers, according to the New York Superintendent of Financial Services.

The state regulator issued a letter Tuesday to Ocwen Financial Corp., documenting many of the same kinds of abuses that worsened the housing crisis and the Great Recession.

Ocwen inappropriately backdated foreclosure warnings and letters that denied mortgage loan modifications, making it nearly impossible for borrowers to appeal the company’s decision, according to the letter from Benjamin Lawsky, New York’s Superintendent of Financial Services.

Many borrowers who had fallen behind on their payments also received warning letters months after the deadline for avoiding foreclosure had already passed.

The agency also determined that Atlanta-based Ocwen failed to investigate the backdating of its letters to borrowers nearly a year after an employee raised questions about the practice.

“The existence and pervasiveness of these issues raise critical questions about Ocwen’s ability to perform its core function of servicing loans,” Lawsky wrote in the letter.

The letter refrains from saying whether the backdating was intentional or the result of poor oversight by Ocwen.

In a statement Tuesday, Ocwen blamed software errors in the company’s correspondence systems for the improperly dated letters to at least 281 of its borrowers in New York who received letters with incorrect dates.

The company added that it is investigating two other cases and cooperating with New York’s Financial Services department.

“We believe that we have resolved the letter-dating issues that have been identified to date, and we continue our investigation as to whether there are additional letter-dating issues that need to be resolved,” the company said.

Lawsky launched a probe into Ocwen in August amid allegations that Ocwen overcharged struggling homeowners on a product called force-placed insurance, which servicers force borrowers to buy if they don’t maintain voluntary homeowners’ insurance.

If mortgage borrowers don’t pay up for newly purchased insurance, Ocwen forecloses on their homes.

 

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http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/top-subprime-mortgage-firm-accused-abuses-26348931

Third quarter homes sales slow but steady | #Waccabuc Homes

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If you suspect there were fewer home sales this summer you are correct. But that is not necessarily a bad sign for the real estate market.

Homes sales are returning to a more stable market, say Realtors, noting that a lower number of closings recorded this third quarter compared with the same time period last year is actually a reflection of the long bad-weather winter that held down showings and inventory.

“There is not a lot of volatility in the current market. We are clearly in a stable recovery. And stability is good for the real estate market,” said J. Philip Faranda, president of the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service, part of the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors, which released its quarterly report Tuesday.

Home sales in all four counties serviced by the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service was 4,545 units, just 90 units or 1.9 percent fewer than in 2013.

Westchester, the largest county in the MLS region, posted a sales decrease of 2.7 percent, to 2,863 units. Rockland followed closely with a 2.4 percent decrease. In Putnam sales actually increased by 3.1 percent, although that was measured against a small base of a few hundred units, according to the association.

“The pace of real estate sales in the third quarter of 2014 was just a shade slower than it was in 2013 when there was a very strong post-recession recover under way,” says the realty group.

By contrast in the first quarter of the year sales soared with a roughly 10 percent jump, but have clearly quieted down.

“Even though sales are down, prices are up — which is a very good sign of the recovery,” said Joseph Rand, manager partner of Better Homes & Gardens Rand Realty.

His high-end condominium in Nyack recently sold at just under $1.3 million.

“We are seeing growth and the market is getting stronger,” he said. “Don’t read too much into one quarter. Now the trajectory is very good and well paced.”

Nationally, there was a decline in existing home sales this summer with analysts seeing it as part of a larger market reset over the past seven or so years.

National Association of Realtors’ Chief Economist Lawrence Yun says one possible reason for the slight decline in sales this summer are modest price appreciations in homes and a lower inventory. The market is less appealing to investors, he said.

Another example of stability in the market is that mortgage interest rates remained relatively low. The average rate for a 30-year conventional mortgage hovered between 4.4 and 4.2 percent during the quarter.

All-cash sales remained popular in closing a deal, said RealtyTrac in noting that almost half the homes sold in the New York metro area in the first half of 2014 had no loan situation.

Price levels appear to be emerging from the recession with increases in median home prices in Westchester and Rockland counties.

The median sale price of a single-family house in Westchester was $682,500, up by 4.7 percent over 2013. In Rockland, the median house was $415,000, up by 2 percent.

However, in Putnam County there was a decrease in single-family houses with the current median price at $320,000, down 3.8 percent from last year but with a relatively low sales volume.

 

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http://www.lohud.com/story/news/2014/10/16/

 

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard’s getaway home in Palm Springs selling for $2.2 million | Waccabuc Homes

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Frankly, my dear …

A Spanish Colonial estate well-known among Hollywood film followers has come on the real estate market in Palm Springs’ coveted Old Las Palmas neighborhood for nearly $2.2 million.

It was the home of Clark Gable, the heartthrob in “Gone With the Wind,” and the American film actress he married in 1939, Carole Lombard.

Restored to its glory days, the Gable-Lombard House near O’Donnell Golf Club is still in the hands of a Hollywood luminary: film producer Joel Douglas, the younger brother of actor Michael Douglas and son to mid-century movie idol Kirk Douglas.

The Douglas family calls the estate Casa Del Corazon.

“It’s a beautiful home with a rich history and a wonderful feel,” Realtor Gregg Fletcher said of the rose-colored gem at 222 W. Chino Drive.

Fletcher calls the home one of the finest historic properties he has represented in the Palm Springs market.

“It’s got provenance,” he said. “There’s real pride of ownership in this house.”

To Joel Douglas, a co-producer of the 1980s action-adventure rom-com “Romancing the Stone” and its sequel, “The Jewel of the Nile,” Casa Del Corazon lives up to its name: “It is the House of the Heart,” he said.

“It’s been a grand old home that’s worthy of attention,” Douglas said.

The half-acre estate, laden with banana plants, decades-old palm trees, rosebushes and flowering vines, looks like a set from a Hollywood movie in the Golden Age. The home has unique details, from its weather vane to the mission bell in a portico near an iron gate.

The four-bedroom home, filled with movie posters, pictures of celebrities and fine artwork, is open and bright and has been restored such that it retains its architectural design elements.

 

 

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http://www.pe.com/articles/douglas-751854-home-lombard.html

17 Unexpected Things Converted Into Minimalist Homes | #WaccabucNY Homes

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34 images

For an architect, there’s something undeniably god-like about synthesizing the old and the new. Adaptive reuse—in this case turning non-residential buildings into houses—lessens the physical proximity of the past to the future by sublimely juxtaposing sterile white voids with, say, a primal industrial exoskeleton. Modernizing doesn’t simply mean adding a kitchen island and green roof; it often comes with the responsibility of intense and demanding site concerns. A Victorian water tower comes with six-foot-thick walls, while the façade of a medieval castle is relegated to mere ornament in the pursuit of both safety and functionality. Inspired by Curbed’s avid Pinterest community, here’s a look back on a wide array of completely insane projects that (seemingly sane) architects have chosen to take on. Intrigued? Find some examples below, and visit the Pinterest board to see the ones that didn’t make the cut.

Onward! >>
  • ↑ A Seattle boat house comes back to life as a vacation cottage.
  • ↑ Our favorite thing about this minimalist retreat by Bosworth Hoedemaker? It still serves as a boat shed.
  • ↑ This sleek home is cut From a 150-Year-Old water tower.
  • ↑ The couple had to contend with Gothic six-foot-thick walls, a veritable graveyard of pigeons, and steel water tanks. However, it was worth it because that view.
  • ↑ Former Netherlands church reborn as svelte modern home.
  • ↑ The main spatial void is broken up into miniaturized rooms with pristine wide modular volumes that create a ghost-like presence within the church.
  • ↑ A Run-down garage is reborn as an illuminated lakeside cabin.
  • ↑ Seattle firm Graypants, Inc. describe the task as, “reinvigorating a tired, post World War II structure (aka: shitty garage).”
  • ↑ This minimalist open-plan abode was once a drab cabin. Third-generation architect Takaaki Kawabata subtly transforms an upstate N.Y. log cabin into a sublime meditation on Japanese communal living.
  • ↑ Revamping a Montreal storefront into a peekaboo apartment.
  • ↑ The pristine white surfaces of this former storefront juxtapose purposefully with exposed I-beams and unrefined brick walls.
  • ↑ There’s a glossy home inside this Netherlands church.
  • ↑ Ruud Visser Architects build a generic single family home and delicately place it within the gutted exoskeleton of a former church.

 

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http://curbed.com/archives/2014/09/30/for-an-architect-theres-something.php

NAR economist predicts booming sales | Waccabuc Real Estate

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With 8,000 baby boomers expected to retire daily for the next several years in the U.S., Southwest Florida stands to benefit from a massive influx of home buyers, the chief economist of the National Association of Realtors believes.

Lawrence Yun said the baby boom influx will not be just from the U.S. states, because the phenomenon was not limited to America.

“After the war, servicemen came home and started having babies,” Yun told an audience of 200 Wednesday at the annual Sarasota International Real Estate Conference.

“The same thing happened all over the world.”

Already, half of all foreigners who buy real estate in Florida are retired.

In all, foreign buyers make up about 10 percent of the state’s buyers, Yun noted, though locally that figure may be higher.

While German buyers tend to acquire property in Naples — partly because there’s a direct flight from Frankfurt to Southwest Florida International Airport outside Fort Myers — Sarasota attracts a more diverse international buyer, led by Canadians and residents from Great Britain, Yun said.

Chinese buyers may become a greater presence here, too, because that country’s economy continues to “turn out millionaires right and left,” Yun said. Economic growth there is roughly 8 to 9 percent annually, on par with America’s growth in the 1950s.

“We have seen a surge of Chinese buyers coming into the U.S., primarily on the West Coast,” Yun told the conference, which was sponsored by the Sarasota Association of Realtors’ Global Business Council. “But they will begin to see that other parts of the country are attractive.”

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http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20140925/ARTICLE/309259992/-1/todaysweb?Title=NAR-economist-predicts-booming-sales

House prices: Have UK sellers missed the top of the property market? | #Waccabuc Real Estate

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The year of frenetic house price growth in the UK is over, according to new data from the Halifax.

Despite a 0.1pc rise in house prices from July to August the monthly, quarterly and annual growth rates all slowed following an unexpectedly hot July in the housing market.

House prices rose 1.2pc from June to July – the biggest month-on-month rise since February, falling back to 0.1pc in August.

The quarterly growth rate jumped from 2.3pc in the three months to June to 3.5pc in the three months to July as the banks got to grips with new, stricter mortgage regulations.

However, the quarterly growth rate then slowed to 3pc from July to August.

Although August is traditionally a quiet month in the UK housing market, due to school holidays, the monthly growth rate grew 0.7pc in the summer of 2013, compared to 0.1pc this year.

A fall in monthly, quarterly and annual house price growth seems to indicate that the frenzied surge in values – seen in the supply-stricken yet popular areas of London and the south-east – is now coming to a halt.

 

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11081014/House-prices-Have-sellers-missed-the-top-of-the-property-market.html

 

Mortgage Rates Hold Steady | #Waccabuc Real Estate

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reddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing average fixed mortgage rates holding largely steady for the third straight week amid light economic reports.

News Facts

  • 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.10 percent with an average 0.5 point for the week ending September 4, 2014, unchanged from last week. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.57 percent.
  • 15-year FRM this week averaged 3.24 percent with an average 0.5 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.25 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 3.59 percent.
  • 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 2.97 percent this week with an average 0.5 point, unchanged from last week. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 3.28 percent.
  • 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.40 percent this week with an average 0.4 point, up from last week when it averaged 2.39 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 2.71 percent.

Average commitment rates should be reported along with average fees and points to reflect the total upfront cost of obtaining the mortgage. Visit the following links for the Regional and National Mortgage Rate Details and Definitions. Borrowers may still pay closing costs which are not included in the survey.

Quotes
Attributed to Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist, Freddie Mac.

“Mortgage rates were little changed amid a week of light economic reports. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate remained unchanged from the previous week at 4.10 percent. Of the few releases, the ISM’s manufacturing index rose to 59.0 in August from 57.1 the previous month. This was the highest reading of the index since March 2011.”

This man pretends to be a Realtor and no one can stop him | Waccabuc Real Estate

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The Real Estate Council in Alberta, Canada, seems to have a real problem on its hands with real estate agent Derek Johnson.

The regulatory authority is not bothered by his claims on YouTube.

Nor is it his system that will reportedly threaten the Multiple Listings Service in Calgary.

It’s that Derek Johnson doesn’t seem licensed to conduct business as a real estate agent and broker.

But that’s not stopping Johnson.

According to CBCnews, the Real Estate Council keeps fining Johnson for not having a license.

The penalties are growing from $15,000 to $50,000.

Furthermore, there are reports claiming Johnson is committing fraud and harming homeowners.

And, according to an email Johnson sent to CBCnews, it doesn’t look like he plans to stop:

“Johnson said in an email that the fines are ridiculous and he hasn’t been given due process by the Real Estate Council of Alberta.

 

 

 

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http://www.housingwire.com/blogs/1-rewired/post/31081-this-man-pretends-to-be-a-realtor-and-no-one-can-stop-him

 

Despite positive housing reports, officials remain cautious | Waccabuc Real Estate

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Despite overall positive trends in the housing market, officials caution that the harsh winter slowed growth while the economy continues to recover from the Great Recession, the Obama Administration said in the May housing scorecard.

This is not too far off the April scorecard, which posted similar findings.

“May’s Housing Scorecard shows that the housing market recovery is picking up after the harsh winter months,” said U.S Housing & Urban Development Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research Katherine O’Regan.

“More homeowners have positive equity, foreclosures continue their downward trend, and sales of new and existing homes are rebounding. While these are all good signs, it’s clear that we must remain committed to helping homeowners as they recover from the worst housing recession since the Great Depression,” O’Regan added.

Home Prices increased to 166.8 in March, up from 165.4 in February, according to the S&P Case-Shiller home price index. Year-over-year the index is up from 148.4 in March 2013.

Existing homes sales slightly grew to 387,500 in April from 382,500 in March, but is down from 415,800 for the same period a year prior, the latest data from the National Association of Realtors said.

In addition, new home sales climbed to 36,100 in April, up from 33,900 in March and 37,700 in April 2013, the U.S. Census Bureau and HUD posted.

 

 

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Scorecard: Despite positive housing reports, officials remain cautious

Two charts show where Americans stand on housing | Waccbuc Homes

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More than two in five adults believe that the housing market continues to be a serious problem, according to a recent survey from the MacArthur Foundation on people’s attitude toward the housing crisis.

chart 1

(source: MacArthur Foundation: click image for larger view)

The survey polled a sample of 1,355 people in April 2014.

“While economists and housing experts say that the housing crisis is behind us, large proportions of the American people are not feeling the relief. Very high proportions of the public continue to believe that we are still in the midst of the housing crisis or that the worst is yet to come,” the report stated.

And this is not the only negative news for the market.

Two-thirds of the public believes that it is less likely today than it was 20 or 30 years ago for a family to build equity and wealth through homeownership.

But it is not all bad. Some indicators suggest that the American public’s views about the housing crisis are shifting slightly toward the positive.

“We see an uptick in the proportion of the public who believe that the housing crisis is behind us and a decrease in the proportion who characterize the housing market as a serious problem,” the report said.

“However, even with these shifts, concerns about housing continue to outweigh optimism, and the public has a real sense that affordable housing is a challenge for many Americans,” it added.

 

 

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Two charts show where Americans stand on housing