OUR MARKET IS IMPROVING-THE NUMBERS DON'T LIE!!
According to several residential and commercial real estate experts the Phoenix real estate markets are expected to return to normal in 2013 or 2014 who presented their opinions at Real Estate Forward, a forum sponsored by the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service in conjunction with the Phoenix Business Journal.
The event drew a crowd of more than 170 participants and was held Wednesday, July 20, at the Camelback Inn.
ARMLS CEO Bob Bemis said he wanted to combine the expertise of both the commercial and residential communities so that everyone could get a better picture of what truly is going on across the real estate spectrum.
Michael Orr, creator of the Cromford Report, placed a few bets on the next three or four months, which look modestly positive for home sales except when it comes to prices, which are, “definitely not going up, but they’re not going down either,” Orr said. Prices are not going to turn around quickly, but they could next year.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Robo Signing- Were You Wrongfully Foreclosed??
Mortgage ‘robo-signing’ goes onPosted by Glozal on July 20, 2011 at 10:13am
.WASHINGTON – July 20, 2011 – Mortgage industry employees are still signing documents they haven’t read and using fake signatures more than eight months after big banks and mortgage companies promised to stop the illegal practices that led to a nationwide halt of home foreclosures.
County officials in at least three states say they have received thousands of mortgage documents with questionable signatures since last fall, suggesting that the practices, known collectively as “robo-signing,” remain widespread in the industry.
The documents have come from several companies that process mortgage paperwork, and have been filed on behalf of several major banks. One name, “Linda Green,” was signed almost two dozen different ways.
Lenders say they are working with regulators to fix the problem but cannot explain why it has persisted.
Last fall, the nation’s largest banks and mortgage lenders, including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and an arm of Goldman Sachs, suspended foreclosures while they investigated how corners were cut to keep pace with the crush of foreclosure paperwork.
Critics say the new findings point to a systemic problem with the paperwork involved in home mortgages and titles. And they say it shows that banks and mortgage processors haven’t acted aggressively enough to put an end to widespread document fraud in the mortgage industry.
“Robo-signing is not even close to over,” says Curtis Hertel, the recorder of deeds in Ingham County, Mich., which includes Lansing. “It’s still an epidemic.”
In Essex County, Mass., the office that handles property deeds has received almost 1,300 documents since October with the signature of “Linda Green,” but in 22 different handwriting styles and with many different titles.
Linda Green worked for a company called DocX that processed mortgage paperwork and was shut down in the spring of 2010. County officials say they believe Green no longer works in the industry. Why her signature remains in use is not clear.
“My office is a crime scene,” says John O’Brien, the registrar of deeds in Essex County, which is north of Boston and includes the city of Salem.
In Guilford County, N.C., the office that records deeds says it received 456 documents with suspect signatures from Oct. 1, 2010, through June 30. The documents, mortgage assignments and certificates of satisfaction, transfer loans from one bank to another or certify a loan has been paid off.
Suspect signatures on the paperwork include 290 signed by Bryan Bly and 155 by Crystal Moore. In the mortgage investigations last fall, both admitted signing their names to mortgage documents without having read them. Neither was charged with a crime.
And in Michigan, a fraud investigator who works on behalf of homeowners says he has uncovered documents filed this year bearing the purported signature of Marshall Isaacs, an attorney with foreclosure law firm Orlans Associates. Isaacs’ name did not come up in last year’s investigations, but county officials across Michigan believe his name is being robo-signed.
O’Brien caused a stir in June at a national convention of county clerks by presenting his findings and encouraging his counterparts to investigate continued robo-signing.
The nation’s foreclosure machine almost came to a standstill when the nation’s largest banks suspended foreclosures last fall. Part of the problem, banks contended, was that foreclosures became so rampant in 2009 and 2010 that they were overwhelmed with paperwork.
The banks reviewed thousands of foreclosure filings, and where they found problems, they submitted new paperwork to courts handling the cases, with signatures they said were valid. The banks slowly started to resume foreclosures this winter and spring.
The 14 biggest U.S. banks reached a settlement with federal regulators in April, in which they promised to clean up their mistakes and pay restitution to homeowners who had been wrongly foreclosed upon. The full amount of the settlement has not been determined. But it will not involve independent mortgage processing firms, the companies that some banks use to handle and file paperwork for mortgages.
So far, no individuals, lenders or paperwork processors have been charged with a crime over the robo-signed signatures found on documents last year. Critics such as April Charney, a Florida homeowner and defense lawyer, called the settlement a farce because no real punishment was meted out, making it easy for lenders and mortgage processors to continue the practice of robo-signing.
Robo-signing refers to a variety of practices. It can mean a qualified executive in the mortgage industry signs a mortgage affidavit document without verifying the information. It can mean someone forges an executive’s signature, or a lower-level employee signs his or her own name with a fake title. It can mean failing to comply with notary procedures. In all of these cases, robo-signing involves people signing documents and swearing to their accuracy without verifying any of the information.
Most of the tainted mortgage documents in question last fall were related to homes in foreclosure. But much of the suspect paperwork that has been filed since then is for refinancing or for new purchases by people who are in good standing in the eyes of the bank. In addition, foreclosures are down 30 percent this year from last. Home sales have also fallen. So the new suspect documents come at a time when much less paperwork is streaming through the nation’s mortgage machinery.
None of the almost 1,300 suspect documents signed by Linda Green that O’Brien’s has in his office, for example, involve foreclosures. And Jeff Thigpen, the register of deeds in North Carolina’s Guilford County, says fewer than 40 of the 456 suspect documents filed to his office since October involved foreclosures.
Banks and their partner firms file mortgage documents with county deeds offices to prove that there are no liens on a property, that the bank owns a mortgage or that a bank filing for foreclosure has the authority to do so.
The signature of a qualified bank or mortgage official on these legal documents is supposed to guarantee that this information is accurate. The paper trail ensures a legal chain of title on a property and has been the backbone of U.S. property ownership for more than 300 years.
The county officials say the problem could be even worse than what they’re reporting. That’s because they are working off lists of known robo-signed names, such as Linda Green and Crystal Moore, that were identified during the investigation that began last fall. Officials suspect that other names on documents they have received since then are also robo-signed.
It is a federal crime to sign someone else’s name to a legal document. It is also illegal to sign your name to an affidavit if you have not verified the information you’re swearing to. Both are punishable by prison.
In Michigan, the attorney general took the rare step in June of filing criminal subpoenas to out-of-state mortgage processing companies after 23 county registers of deeds filed a criminal complaint with his office over robo-signed documents they say they have received. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office has said it is conducting a banking probe that could lead to criminal charges against financial executives. The attorneys general of Delaware, California and Illinois are conducting their own probes.
The legal issues are grave, deeds officials across the country say. At worst, legal experts say, the document debacle has opened the property system to legal liability well beyond the nation’s foreclosure crisis. So someone buying a home and trying to obtain title insurance might be delayed or denied if robo-signed documents turn up in the property’s history. That’s because forged signatures call into question who owns mortgages and the properties they are attached to.
“The banks have completely screwed up property records,” says L. Randall Wray, an economics professor and senior scholar at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
In the Massachusetts case, The Associated Press tried to reach Linda Green, whose name was purportedly signed 1,300 times since October. The AP, using a phone number provided by lawyers who have been investigating the documents since last year, reached a person who said she was Linda Green, but not the Linda Green involved in the mortgage investigation.
In the Michigan case, a lawyer for the Orlans Associates law firm, where Isaacs works, denies that Isaacs or the firm has done anything wrong. “People have signatures that change,” says Terry Cramer, general counsel for the firm. “We do not engage in ‘robo-signing’ at Orlans.”
To combat the stream of suspect filings, O’Brien and Jeff Thigpen, the register of deeds in North Carolina’s Guilford County, stopped accepting questionable paperwork June 7. They say they had no choice after complaining to federal and state authorities for months without getting anywhere.
Since then, O’Brien has received nine documents from Bank of America purportedly signed by Linda Burton, another name on authorities’ list of known robo-signers. For years, his office has regularly received documents signed with Burton’s name but written in such vastly different handwriting that two forensic investigators say it’s highly unlikely it all came from the same person.
O’Brien returned the nine Burton documents to Bank of America in mid-June. He told the bank he would not file them unless the bank signed an affidavit certifying the signature and accepting responsibility if the title was called into question down the road. Instead, Bank of America sent new documents with new signatures and new notaries.
A Bank of America spokesman says Burton is an assistant vice president with a subsidiary, ReconTrust. That company handles mortgage paperwork processing for Bank of America.
“She signed the documents on behalf of the bank,” spokesman Richard Simon says. The bank says providing the affidavit O’Brien asked for would have been costly and time-consuming. Instead, Simon says Bank of America sent a new set of documents “signed by an authorized associate who Mr. O’Brien wasn’t challenging.”
The bank didn’t respond to questions about why Burton’s name has been signed in different ways or why her signature appeared on documents that investigators in at least two states have deemed invalid.
Several attempts by the AP to reach Burton at ReconTrust were unsuccessful.
O’Brien says the bank’s actions show “consciousness of guilt.” Earlier this year, he hired Marie McDonnell, a mortgage fraud investigator and forensic document analyst, to verify his suspicions about Burton’s and other names on suspect paperwork.
She compared valid copies of Burton’s signature with the documents O’Brien had received in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and found that Burton’s name was fraudulently signed on hundreds of documents.
Most of the documents reviewed by McDonnell were mortgage discharges, which are issued when a home changes hands or is refinanced by a new lender and are supposed to confirm that the previous mortgage has been paid off. Bank of America declined comment on McDonnell’s findings.
In Michigan, recorder of deeds Hertel and his counterparts in 23 other counties found numerous suspect signatures on documents filed since the beginning of the year.
In June, their findings led the Michigan attorney general to issue criminal subpoenas to several firms that process mortgages for banks, including Lender Processing Services, the parent company of DocX, where Linda Green worked. On July 6, the CEO of that company, which is also under investigation by the Florida Attorney General’s office, resigned, citing health reasons.
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.WASHINGTON – July 20, 2011 – Mortgage industry employees are still signing documents they haven’t read and using fake signatures more than eight months after big banks and mortgage companies promised to stop the illegal practices that led to a nationwide halt of home foreclosures.
County officials in at least three states say they have received thousands of mortgage documents with questionable signatures since last fall, suggesting that the practices, known collectively as “robo-signing,” remain widespread in the industry.
The documents have come from several companies that process mortgage paperwork, and have been filed on behalf of several major banks. One name, “Linda Green,” was signed almost two dozen different ways.
Lenders say they are working with regulators to fix the problem but cannot explain why it has persisted.
Last fall, the nation’s largest banks and mortgage lenders, including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and an arm of Goldman Sachs, suspended foreclosures while they investigated how corners were cut to keep pace with the crush of foreclosure paperwork.
Critics say the new findings point to a systemic problem with the paperwork involved in home mortgages and titles. And they say it shows that banks and mortgage processors haven’t acted aggressively enough to put an end to widespread document fraud in the mortgage industry.
“Robo-signing is not even close to over,” says Curtis Hertel, the recorder of deeds in Ingham County, Mich., which includes Lansing. “It’s still an epidemic.”
In Essex County, Mass., the office that handles property deeds has received almost 1,300 documents since October with the signature of “Linda Green,” but in 22 different handwriting styles and with many different titles.
Linda Green worked for a company called DocX that processed mortgage paperwork and was shut down in the spring of 2010. County officials say they believe Green no longer works in the industry. Why her signature remains in use is not clear.
“My office is a crime scene,” says John O’Brien, the registrar of deeds in Essex County, which is north of Boston and includes the city of Salem.
In Guilford County, N.C., the office that records deeds says it received 456 documents with suspect signatures from Oct. 1, 2010, through June 30. The documents, mortgage assignments and certificates of satisfaction, transfer loans from one bank to another or certify a loan has been paid off.
Suspect signatures on the paperwork include 290 signed by Bryan Bly and 155 by Crystal Moore. In the mortgage investigations last fall, both admitted signing their names to mortgage documents without having read them. Neither was charged with a crime.
And in Michigan, a fraud investigator who works on behalf of homeowners says he has uncovered documents filed this year bearing the purported signature of Marshall Isaacs, an attorney with foreclosure law firm Orlans Associates. Isaacs’ name did not come up in last year’s investigations, but county officials across Michigan believe his name is being robo-signed.
O’Brien caused a stir in June at a national convention of county clerks by presenting his findings and encouraging his counterparts to investigate continued robo-signing.
The nation’s foreclosure machine almost came to a standstill when the nation’s largest banks suspended foreclosures last fall. Part of the problem, banks contended, was that foreclosures became so rampant in 2009 and 2010 that they were overwhelmed with paperwork.
The banks reviewed thousands of foreclosure filings, and where they found problems, they submitted new paperwork to courts handling the cases, with signatures they said were valid. The banks slowly started to resume foreclosures this winter and spring.
The 14 biggest U.S. banks reached a settlement with federal regulators in April, in which they promised to clean up their mistakes and pay restitution to homeowners who had been wrongly foreclosed upon. The full amount of the settlement has not been determined. But it will not involve independent mortgage processing firms, the companies that some banks use to handle and file paperwork for mortgages.
So far, no individuals, lenders or paperwork processors have been charged with a crime over the robo-signed signatures found on documents last year. Critics such as April Charney, a Florida homeowner and defense lawyer, called the settlement a farce because no real punishment was meted out, making it easy for lenders and mortgage processors to continue the practice of robo-signing.
Robo-signing refers to a variety of practices. It can mean a qualified executive in the mortgage industry signs a mortgage affidavit document without verifying the information. It can mean someone forges an executive’s signature, or a lower-level employee signs his or her own name with a fake title. It can mean failing to comply with notary procedures. In all of these cases, robo-signing involves people signing documents and swearing to their accuracy without verifying any of the information.
Most of the tainted mortgage documents in question last fall were related to homes in foreclosure. But much of the suspect paperwork that has been filed since then is for refinancing or for new purchases by people who are in good standing in the eyes of the bank. In addition, foreclosures are down 30 percent this year from last. Home sales have also fallen. So the new suspect documents come at a time when much less paperwork is streaming through the nation’s mortgage machinery.
None of the almost 1,300 suspect documents signed by Linda Green that O’Brien’s has in his office, for example, involve foreclosures. And Jeff Thigpen, the register of deeds in North Carolina’s Guilford County, says fewer than 40 of the 456 suspect documents filed to his office since October involved foreclosures.
Banks and their partner firms file mortgage documents with county deeds offices to prove that there are no liens on a property, that the bank owns a mortgage or that a bank filing for foreclosure has the authority to do so.
The signature of a qualified bank or mortgage official on these legal documents is supposed to guarantee that this information is accurate. The paper trail ensures a legal chain of title on a property and has been the backbone of U.S. property ownership for more than 300 years.
The county officials say the problem could be even worse than what they’re reporting. That’s because they are working off lists of known robo-signed names, such as Linda Green and Crystal Moore, that were identified during the investigation that began last fall. Officials suspect that other names on documents they have received since then are also robo-signed.
It is a federal crime to sign someone else’s name to a legal document. It is also illegal to sign your name to an affidavit if you have not verified the information you’re swearing to. Both are punishable by prison.
In Michigan, the attorney general took the rare step in June of filing criminal subpoenas to out-of-state mortgage processing companies after 23 county registers of deeds filed a criminal complaint with his office over robo-signed documents they say they have received. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office has said it is conducting a banking probe that could lead to criminal charges against financial executives. The attorneys general of Delaware, California and Illinois are conducting their own probes.
The legal issues are grave, deeds officials across the country say. At worst, legal experts say, the document debacle has opened the property system to legal liability well beyond the nation’s foreclosure crisis. So someone buying a home and trying to obtain title insurance might be delayed or denied if robo-signed documents turn up in the property’s history. That’s because forged signatures call into question who owns mortgages and the properties they are attached to.
“The banks have completely screwed up property records,” says L. Randall Wray, an economics professor and senior scholar at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
In the Massachusetts case, The Associated Press tried to reach Linda Green, whose name was purportedly signed 1,300 times since October. The AP, using a phone number provided by lawyers who have been investigating the documents since last year, reached a person who said she was Linda Green, but not the Linda Green involved in the mortgage investigation.
In the Michigan case, a lawyer for the Orlans Associates law firm, where Isaacs works, denies that Isaacs or the firm has done anything wrong. “People have signatures that change,” says Terry Cramer, general counsel for the firm. “We do not engage in ‘robo-signing’ at Orlans.”
To combat the stream of suspect filings, O’Brien and Jeff Thigpen, the register of deeds in North Carolina’s Guilford County, stopped accepting questionable paperwork June 7. They say they had no choice after complaining to federal and state authorities for months without getting anywhere.
Since then, O’Brien has received nine documents from Bank of America purportedly signed by Linda Burton, another name on authorities’ list of known robo-signers. For years, his office has regularly received documents signed with Burton’s name but written in such vastly different handwriting that two forensic investigators say it’s highly unlikely it all came from the same person.
O’Brien returned the nine Burton documents to Bank of America in mid-June. He told the bank he would not file them unless the bank signed an affidavit certifying the signature and accepting responsibility if the title was called into question down the road. Instead, Bank of America sent new documents with new signatures and new notaries.
A Bank of America spokesman says Burton is an assistant vice president with a subsidiary, ReconTrust. That company handles mortgage paperwork processing for Bank of America.
“She signed the documents on behalf of the bank,” spokesman Richard Simon says. The bank says providing the affidavit O’Brien asked for would have been costly and time-consuming. Instead, Simon says Bank of America sent a new set of documents “signed by an authorized associate who Mr. O’Brien wasn’t challenging.”
The bank didn’t respond to questions about why Burton’s name has been signed in different ways or why her signature appeared on documents that investigators in at least two states have deemed invalid.
Several attempts by the AP to reach Burton at ReconTrust were unsuccessful.
O’Brien says the bank’s actions show “consciousness of guilt.” Earlier this year, he hired Marie McDonnell, a mortgage fraud investigator and forensic document analyst, to verify his suspicions about Burton’s and other names on suspect paperwork.
She compared valid copies of Burton’s signature with the documents O’Brien had received in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and found that Burton’s name was fraudulently signed on hundreds of documents.
Most of the documents reviewed by McDonnell were mortgage discharges, which are issued when a home changes hands or is refinanced by a new lender and are supposed to confirm that the previous mortgage has been paid off. Bank of America declined comment on McDonnell’s findings.
In Michigan, recorder of deeds Hertel and his counterparts in 23 other counties found numerous suspect signatures on documents filed since the beginning of the year.
In June, their findings led the Michigan attorney general to issue criminal subpoenas to several firms that process mortgages for banks, including Lender Processing Services, the parent company of DocX, where Linda Green worked. On July 6, the CEO of that company, which is also under investigation by the Florida Attorney General’s office, resigned, citing health reasons.
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Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Investment Potential Over the Top
SAY IT ISN'T SO...........................
Man pays $16 to take over $330,000 house
The neighbors are outraged, but the Texas resident says his takeover is legal and will eventually give him title to the suburban Dallas home.
Posted by Teresa at MSN Real Estate on Monday, July 18, 2011 1:59 PM
We all dream of scoring a great deal on a house.
But a $330,000 house for $16?
Want a mansion? Just take one
Kenneth Robinson of the Dallas suburb of Flower Mound, Texas, says he sealed just such a deal, taking over a vacant house by simply moving in and paying $16 to file documents with the court claiming ownership.
"This is not a normal process, but it is not a process that is not known," he told WFAA-TV in Dallas. "It's just not known to everybody."
Robinson said he invested months in research to find the house. The property had been in foreclosure for more than a year, and the owner walked away. In the meantime, the lender that held the mortgage went out of business.
To squat or not: Can you take over the abandoned home next door?
Robinson says he can take legal title to the house after he lives there for three years through a provision in the law called "adverse possession." Exactly how that works varies state to state.
Man pays $16 to take over $330,000 house
The neighbors are outraged, but the Texas resident says his takeover is legal and will eventually give him title to the suburban Dallas home.
Posted by Teresa at MSN Real Estate on Monday, July 18, 2011 1:59 PM
We all dream of scoring a great deal on a house.
But a $330,000 house for $16?
Want a mansion? Just take one
Kenneth Robinson of the Dallas suburb of Flower Mound, Texas, says he sealed just such a deal, taking over a vacant house by simply moving in and paying $16 to file documents with the court claiming ownership.
"This is not a normal process, but it is not a process that is not known," he told WFAA-TV in Dallas. "It's just not known to everybody."
Robinson said he invested months in research to find the house. The property had been in foreclosure for more than a year, and the owner walked away. In the meantime, the lender that held the mortgage went out of business.
To squat or not: Can you take over the abandoned home next door?
Robinson says he can take legal title to the house after he lives there for three years through a provision in the law called "adverse possession." Exactly how that works varies state to state.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Investors driving Phoenix area home sales to record levels!!
According to DataQuick, Phoenix-area home sales rose in May, when resales of single-family houses hit the highest level for that month in six years amid near-record levels of investor purchases.
The region's median price remained at essentially the same level - $120,000 - it's been at the past six months as distressed property sales continued to account for around two-thirds of the resale market. The median price dropped sharply from a year earlier, however, as the number of homes selling below $100,000 shot up nearly 41 percent year-over-year, a real estate information service reported.
A total of 9,837 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow during May in the combined Maricopa-Pinal counties metro area. That was up 0.8 percent from the month before and up 4.9 percent from a year earlier.
On average, Phoenix-area sales have risen 5.2 percent between April and May since 1994, when DataQuick's complete Phoenix region statistics begin.
May's total sales were the highest since 2007, when 10,112 homes sold, and were 8.6 percent short of the average number of May sales since 1994. However, the number of existing (not new) resale single-family detached houses that sold in May was the highest for that month since 2005, while resales of condos were the highest for a May since 2006. The new-home market remained troubled, however, with sales at the lowest level for a May in 14 years.
Sub-$100,000 home sales, which rose 40.8 percent from a year earlier, represented 39.7 percent of all May transactions, compared with 28.8 percent a year earlier.
In May, buyers paid a median $120,000 for all new and resale houses and condos that closed escrow in the two-county Phoenix area. That was the same as the month before but down 13.7 percent from a year earlier. The median has fallen year-over-year for 11 consecutive months.
The May median was 14.2 percent below the highest median recorded over the past year -$139,900 last June - and it stood 54.6 percent lower than the all-time peak of $264,100 in June 2006.
The region's median price remained at essentially the same level - $120,000 - it's been at the past six months as distressed property sales continued to account for around two-thirds of the resale market. The median price dropped sharply from a year earlier, however, as the number of homes selling below $100,000 shot up nearly 41 percent year-over-year, a real estate information service reported.
A total of 9,837 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow during May in the combined Maricopa-Pinal counties metro area. That was up 0.8 percent from the month before and up 4.9 percent from a year earlier.
On average, Phoenix-area sales have risen 5.2 percent between April and May since 1994, when DataQuick's complete Phoenix region statistics begin.
May's total sales were the highest since 2007, when 10,112 homes sold, and were 8.6 percent short of the average number of May sales since 1994. However, the number of existing (not new) resale single-family detached houses that sold in May was the highest for that month since 2005, while resales of condos were the highest for a May since 2006. The new-home market remained troubled, however, with sales at the lowest level for a May in 14 years.
Sub-$100,000 home sales, which rose 40.8 percent from a year earlier, represented 39.7 percent of all May transactions, compared with 28.8 percent a year earlier.
In May, buyers paid a median $120,000 for all new and resale houses and condos that closed escrow in the two-county Phoenix area. That was the same as the month before but down 13.7 percent from a year earlier. The median has fallen year-over-year for 11 consecutive months.
The May median was 14.2 percent below the highest median recorded over the past year -$139,900 last June - and it stood 54.6 percent lower than the all-time peak of $264,100 in June 2006.
Monday, July 11, 2011
The Power of An HOA? Beleive it or Not!
Some HOAs Foreclosing on Residents
While banks are usually the ones who go after delinquent home owners, more homeowners’ associations (HOAs) around the country are deciding to take on that power too in fighting against home owners who have stopped paying their HOA fees.
For communities governed by a homeowners’ association, which one in five communities are, more HOAs are discovering they have a power they have ever rarely acted upon until now — the right to foreclose on residents who stop paying fees.
For example, a condo complex in Fort Pierce, Fla., for 55-and-older residents was once a desirable area with condos once fetching nearly $80,000 four years ago but now sell for as little as $3,000. The HOA levied $6,000 assessments on its residents for much-needed repairs in the complex and when some residents didn’t pay, the HOA foreclosed on them, even if they didn’t owe the bank anything.
"The treacherous part is that homeowners' associations are acting like a local government without restraints, and they have this extraordinary power," Marjorie Murray, a lawyer and founder of the Center for California Homeowner Association Law, told the Associated Press.
If HOAs need to do major repairs, the board can levy a “special assessment” on top of its regular dues. When a home owner fails to pay, all of the home owners then have to step up to pick the costs.
“What many people didn't realize when they bought their homes was that the fine print gave the association the right to foreclose — even over a few hundred dollars in unpaid dues,” according to an article by the Associated Press. “All the association board has to do is alert its attorney to place a lien on the property to start the process. The home can then be auctioned by the board until the bank eventually takes ownership. Home owners typically have no right to a hearing.”
About 65 percent of HOAs have reported delinquency rates higher than 5 percent, according to a September survey by the Community Association Institute.
Source: “As More Are Unable to Pay Homeowners’ Fees, Associations Pit Neighbor Against Neighbor,” Associated Press (July 7, 2011)
While banks are usually the ones who go after delinquent home owners, more homeowners’ associations (HOAs) around the country are deciding to take on that power too in fighting against home owners who have stopped paying their HOA fees.
For communities governed by a homeowners’ association, which one in five communities are, more HOAs are discovering they have a power they have ever rarely acted upon until now — the right to foreclose on residents who stop paying fees.
For example, a condo complex in Fort Pierce, Fla., for 55-and-older residents was once a desirable area with condos once fetching nearly $80,000 four years ago but now sell for as little as $3,000. The HOA levied $6,000 assessments on its residents for much-needed repairs in the complex and when some residents didn’t pay, the HOA foreclosed on them, even if they didn’t owe the bank anything.
"The treacherous part is that homeowners' associations are acting like a local government without restraints, and they have this extraordinary power," Marjorie Murray, a lawyer and founder of the Center for California Homeowner Association Law, told the Associated Press.
If HOAs need to do major repairs, the board can levy a “special assessment” on top of its regular dues. When a home owner fails to pay, all of the home owners then have to step up to pick the costs.
“What many people didn't realize when they bought their homes was that the fine print gave the association the right to foreclose — even over a few hundred dollars in unpaid dues,” according to an article by the Associated Press. “All the association board has to do is alert its attorney to place a lien on the property to start the process. The home can then be auctioned by the board until the bank eventually takes ownership. Home owners typically have no right to a hearing.”
About 65 percent of HOAs have reported delinquency rates higher than 5 percent, according to a September survey by the Community Association Institute.
Source: “As More Are Unable to Pay Homeowners’ Fees, Associations Pit Neighbor Against Neighbor,” Associated Press (July 7, 2011)
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Great News for Unemployed Homeowner's
Obama Announces More Aid for the Unemployed
Home owners who have lost their jobs will get more mortgage relief. The Obama administration has announced that two programs for unemployed home owners will extend the forbearance period on mortgages to 12 months.
For unemployed home owners with a Federal Housing Administration loan, the forbearance period will be extended from four months to 12 months. The Obama administration also said it will remove hurdles to make it easier for unemployed borrowers to qualify for FHA’s Special Forbearance Program.
“The current unemployment forbearance programs have mandatory periods that are inadequate for the majority of unemployed borrowers,” U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said in a statement. “Today, 60 percent of the unemployed have been out of work for more than three months and 45 percent have been out of work for more than six. Providing the option for a year of forbearance will give struggling home owners a substantially greater chance of finding employment before they lose their home.”
The administration also announced that it will extend the minimum forbearance period in the Making Home Affordable Program from three months to 12 months for eligible unemployed home owners, when possible under regulator and investor guidelines. Forbearance will also be available to borrowers who are seriously delinquent.
All FHA-approved mortgage servicers are required to participate in FHA’s Loss Mitigation Program, which includes the Special Forbearance program.
Home owners who have lost their jobs will get more mortgage relief. The Obama administration has announced that two programs for unemployed home owners will extend the forbearance period on mortgages to 12 months.
For unemployed home owners with a Federal Housing Administration loan, the forbearance period will be extended from four months to 12 months. The Obama administration also said it will remove hurdles to make it easier for unemployed borrowers to qualify for FHA’s Special Forbearance Program.
“The current unemployment forbearance programs have mandatory periods that are inadequate for the majority of unemployed borrowers,” U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said in a statement. “Today, 60 percent of the unemployed have been out of work for more than three months and 45 percent have been out of work for more than six. Providing the option for a year of forbearance will give struggling home owners a substantially greater chance of finding employment before they lose their home.”
The administration also announced that it will extend the minimum forbearance period in the Making Home Affordable Program from three months to 12 months for eligible unemployed home owners, when possible under regulator and investor guidelines. Forbearance will also be available to borrowers who are seriously delinquent.
All FHA-approved mortgage servicers are required to participate in FHA’s Loss Mitigation Program, which includes the Special Forbearance program.
SCOOP UP AN INVESTMENT PROPERTY AND YOUR INCOME WILL BRING GAINS UNTIL 2013- EXPERTS SAY!
RENTAL INCOME IS UP!!!
Rents are increasingPosted by Glozal on July 6, 2011 at 7:31pm
.Sorry renters, but the days of low rents and lenient landlords are over — at least for now.
Nationwide, the average rate for apartment and home rentals is up 6.7% from June 2010, according to a new report from housing search engine HotPads.com. Prices for studio apartments are up 14.3%, and a five-bedroom home is 12.1% more. One- and two-bedrooms got off relatively easy, with average increases of 2.3% and 2%, respectively. Tenants will see the bulk of rent increases this year, predicts listing site Rent.com, but can expect another 3% jump when it’s time to renew in 2012.
At the heart of the increases: vacancy rates have dropped from about 8% to 6.2% nationwide over the past year. “That’s a really steep decline in a 12-month period,” says Christina Aragon, a spokeswoman for Rent.com. The drop indicates pent-up demand from people who made-do with roommates or stayed with family during the recession. Nearly half of property managers say they have also seen an increase in applicants moving from a foreclosed property, according to a recent survey from credit bureau TransUnion. “Landlords have the power right now,” Aragon says.
In past years, renters could negotiate a lower rent or other concessions, like a waived pet fee or free parking. That’s largely disappeared, leaving consumers little recourse but hunting around.
Renters have a glimmer of hope for better deals in coming years. Landlords are so thrilled with the market that they’re starting to take out permits to build new multi-family buildings, Aragon says. Prices may loosen somewhat once those properties come in the market, as early as 2013
Rents are increasingPosted by Glozal on July 6, 2011 at 7:31pm
.Sorry renters, but the days of low rents and lenient landlords are over — at least for now.
Nationwide, the average rate for apartment and home rentals is up 6.7% from June 2010, according to a new report from housing search engine HotPads.com. Prices for studio apartments are up 14.3%, and a five-bedroom home is 12.1% more. One- and two-bedrooms got off relatively easy, with average increases of 2.3% and 2%, respectively. Tenants will see the bulk of rent increases this year, predicts listing site Rent.com, but can expect another 3% jump when it’s time to renew in 2012.
At the heart of the increases: vacancy rates have dropped from about 8% to 6.2% nationwide over the past year. “That’s a really steep decline in a 12-month period,” says Christina Aragon, a spokeswoman for Rent.com. The drop indicates pent-up demand from people who made-do with roommates or stayed with family during the recession. Nearly half of property managers say they have also seen an increase in applicants moving from a foreclosed property, according to a recent survey from credit bureau TransUnion. “Landlords have the power right now,” Aragon says.
In past years, renters could negotiate a lower rent or other concessions, like a waived pet fee or free parking. That’s largely disappeared, leaving consumers little recourse but hunting around.
Renters have a glimmer of hope for better deals in coming years. Landlords are so thrilled with the market that they’re starting to take out permits to build new multi-family buildings, Aragon says. Prices may loosen somewhat once those properties come in the market, as early as 2013
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Home Sales Rise
Pending Home Sales Rose in May
"Pending home sales rose strongly in May with all regions experiencing gains from a year ago, pointing to higher housing activity in the second half of the year, according to the National Association of Realtors®."
"Pending home sales rose strongly in May with all regions experiencing gains from a year ago, pointing to higher housing activity in the second half of the year, according to the National Association of Realtors®."
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