County home foreclosures surge, likely to be high for months, years
The number of Clark County houses in foreclosure surged to 553 in August, an 88 percent rise over last year and a 10.6 percent climb in just one month. The increase is not as severe as the numbers suggest, because August 2009 foreclosures were artificially low. But local foreclosure rates are likely to stay high for months or years until employment rebounds and property values start climbing …
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Business news in brief
N.J. jobless rate fell in Aug. New Jersey's unemployment rate dipped 0.1 percentage point in August to 9.6 percent of the workforce, the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development said Wednesday. Private businesses added 3,700 jobs during the month, the third straight monthly increase.
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For Sale: Philly area's biggest bank
ING Direct, the largest US savings bank, is profitable again
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HUD focuses on foreclosures
South Bend, Elkhart and Elkhart County have the chance to seek extra federal money to target foreclosed and abandoned homes
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Workshop to offer info on how to buy a home
BY CLARE MARIE CELANO Staff Writer FREEHOLD — In what they say is a buyer’s market for housing, Freehold Borough officials are trying to make that market more accessible and more understandable to people who may be thinking about buying a home in the borough. read more
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Why You Should Only Use The Best Flipping Houses Lists of Foreclosures
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A house flip business, while profitable, should be done properly if you want to ensure a good return on your investment. The common notion that by merely buying cheap houses entitles you to a huge profit should be taken with caution. While it is true that there are many quality homes that you can buy for ultra low prices, care should be exercised when choosing the right property to flip. To do this, you should consult only the best flipping houses lists of foreclosures.
Why Use Only The Best
Real estate foreclosure investing is not without risks. Hence, you should employ strategies that will minimize or eliminate altogether these risks and avoid any future problem. Since you will be paying for your investment, it is only wise to be prudent and careful when exercising your capacity to decide.
A foreclosure list is a very powerful tool that you can use to your advantage. However, just like any tool, it must possess certain qualities that get the job done and enable you to do what you have set out to do, in the first place. This is particularly important in a house flip business since you are practically choosing properties that you can sell for a heavier profit. Using only the best flipping houses lists of foreclosures will allow you to do your search within a list of quality, affordable homes.
When you use a good list of foreclosures, you also save a lot of time, money and effort in the process. These are factors that can also determine your rate of success in house flipping. The real estate market remains competitive and there are many investors like you who are also utilizing effective business strategies to gain an edge in the business. Having the right kind of tool in your possession will enable you to carry out your investing goals more efficiently.
To get quality flipping houses lists, you should devote enough time to research and understanding how organizations come up with their listings. This will give you an idea of what to look for in a foreclosure listings provider. Be wary of too generous offers like free listings. Scrimping on an investment tool will not help your cause. There are many foreclosure listings provider that offer low subscription rates without compromising the quality of their service.
Joseph B. Smith has been educating buyers on the finer points of Flipping Houses Lists at ForeclosureDeals.com for over ten years. Contact Joseph B. Smith through ForeclosureDeals.com if you need help finding information about Flipping Houses Lists.
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Filed under News by on Sep 9th, 2010. Comment.
Where to Find Cheap Foreclosures for Sale
There are thousands of cheap foreclosures for sale being offered in various areas of the U.S. But for a market-savvy home buyer, these prices can be even lower. Using certain negotiation tactics and doing some good research can go a long way towards cutting down the price of an already cheap property.
Doing Good Research
Before making an offer for a property, a buyer should research the prevailing market value of similar properties in the neighborhood to find out whether it is possible to make an offer even lower than the initial selling price for the property. In neighborhoods where a lot of vacant houses can be found, prices of homes are sure to be even lower than other areas despite similarities in the types of houses being sold.
A buyer should also find out how long the property has been on the market and whether it has already been auctioned but failed to be sold. These are the types that can bring in a lot of savings. The longer the seller has failed to sell off the property, the more eager they would be to unload it and the better a buyer's chance of negotiating for a lower price.
Negotiating Tactics
Homebuyers can acquire very cheap foreclosures for sale if they knew how to negotiate with the seller. The best way to get the better of the negotiation is to hire a professional real estate agent and seek his advice on how far the offer price can be lowered.
Properties that do not have a lot of offers from other buyers are more likely to be sold off at a lower price so it is a must to find out who else or how many more buyers are making offers for certain residential properties. Knowing how much they are offering is also important.
When looking for cheap foreclosures for sale, having a pre-approved mortgage package and a good credit history will always be to one's advantage. These two factors will always bring a home buyer closer to the top of the seller's potential buyers' list.
Joseph B. Smith has been educating buyers on the finer points of cheap foreclosures for sale at ForeclosureDeals.com for over ten years. Contact Joseph B. Smith through ForeclosureDeals.com if you need help finding information about cheap foreclosures for sale.
Because of the decline in the real estate market in the country, Detroit is a gold mine if you have extra money to spend, if you want more info, contact me and I'll show you how easy it is, sometimes you have to take a chance if your going to move forward in your finacial goals
Filed under News by on Sep 5th, 2010. Comment.
Americans Split On Real Estate Agents Service
Americans are split on whether they are satisfied with their real estate agents services, according to the latest survey conducted by Housing Predictor, which forecasts housing markets in all 50 U.S. states. The online survey indicates respondents are divided on the quality of their agents services.
Forty-seven percent of the respondents said they were satisfied with their last real estate agents services, while a nearly exact number of 46% said they were not satisfied with their agents. Some seven percent were unsure.
After a national real estate boom in many states, the survey indicates that real estate agents may have a long way to go to increase the public's perception and enthusiasm of their industry. Previous studies have also shown that the public does not blame their real estate agents for paying too much for properties they have purchased in the last few years.
Housing Predictor regularly surveys visitors to the web site on a variety of issues related to the real estate industry, which is one of the largest driving forces of the national economy. Despite the slowdown in the housing market in many states, 18 states local markets are appreciating, including Texas and New Mexico, where foreclosures are just beginning to record higher numbers.
Forecasts for more than 250 local markets in all 50 states are provided on Housing Predictor, where you may also search real estate listings and foreclosures, which is becoming an increasingly active market for many home buyers and investors.
Housing Predictor has forecast that more than two million homes will be foreclosed through 2009 due to fall out from the sub-prime loan crisis as it spreads into the conventional mortgage markets. Foreclosures are at near record high levels in many areas, but are rare in the second home and vacation markets, where a large percentage of buyers pay cash for property.
Housing Predictor is a leading online resource for consumers, home owners, the real estate industry, mortgage and financial companies, which regularly consult the web site for its unbiased independent housing market forecasts.
Mike Colpitts is the Editor of Housing Predictor. Check on your markets forecast, search real estate listings and foreclosures at http://www.housingpredictor.com
Filed under News by on Aug 31st, 2010. Comment.
Foreclosures Rentals Drive Rents Down
The U.S. housing market is in a world of hurt. Bank owned homes (REOs) exploded to three-quarter of a million in the month of July, 2008.
For real estate investors, watching the number of foreclosures grow generates emotions much like those experienced while attending a slasher movie. The number of homes taken through bank foreclosures is up 184% from a year ago. Yes, a higher proportion of properties that enter the foreclosure process are ending up repossessed by lenders.
If anyone tries to tell you that the worst of the housing crisis is over point out that default notices are up 53% and notices of foreclosure auctions is up 11%.
Lenders now own over 750,000 homes and the number is climbing. They don't want those homes, they want to sell them. What happens when there is a surplus of anything? Prices go down and that holds true for foreclosed homes. Some lenders are cutting prices as often as every 20 days on their REOs.
The book value of one to four-family homes owned by lenders whose deposits are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. more than doubled to .56 billion at the end of the first quarter from .59 billion a year earlier.
Investor should understand that this ocean of vacant homes is driving down prices in many areas. Banks tend to cut prices faster than other sellers. That undercuts the value of every home in the area. What you buy today may seem like a bargain, but remember lenders will continue dumping tens of thousands of homes for months to come. That will reduce the value of your bargain home.
Those owning homes today are also suffering. Many bought at the peak of the real estate price bubble and have been underwater every since. With falling home values their situation grows worse every day. What little equity they had vanished some time ago. That will result in more owners walking away from there homes and another increase in foreclosures and REOs.
Rents Crash
The bad news continues. With hundreds of thousands of homeowners losing their homes through foreclosure the rental market has been flooded with potential tenants. That should be good for apartment owners, right? That seems logical until you remember the tens of thousands of vacant homes that can't find buyers.
Landlords are desperate to rent their homes to raise cash that can be applied to mortgage payments. With so many homes offered for rent they are asking for almost anything they can get. For apartments rent growth has flattened, vacancies in many areas are at record highs and rent concessions are near record highs.
Renters can lease a home for the same price as a 990 sq ft apartment. That's tough competition for apartment owners.
To make matters worse is the number of condo conversions that have been converting back into rentals. More rental units coming on a distressed markets means continued downward pressure on residential rents.
Oh sure, all of these problems will be overcome with time. If you are a real estate investor there are big profits ahead, but keep a tight hold on your buying power until there is not the slightest doubt that the housing market has hit a real bottom and is starting up the other side.
Keep This In Mind…
In November of 2002 an event was held to honor economist Milton Friedman on his ninetieth birthday.
Then Federal Reserve Governor Ben S. Bernanke (now Fed head) gave a talk. Here are the last lines of that speech…
"Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression. You're right, we did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again".
Mark Walters is a third generation real estate investor and founder of CreatingWealthClub.com. For a limited time Mark is offering his big guide to finding hard money loans for real estate investing free. Free guide to private money loans. http://www.FindPrivateMoney.info
Filed under News by on Aug 30th, 2010. Comment.
To Stop House Foreclosure or Not?
It’s an epidemic that hasn’t been seen since the great depression; houses are being foreclosed at three times the normal rate in some counties across America. As a result of this sudden rise in foreclosures a new type of business has sprung up within the real estate market called the “short sell.” If you are considering bankruptcy or foreclosure it is extremely important to understand this practice that helps and hinders many at the same time.
Have you seen the ads that say “stop house foreclosure” online, in your mailbox and on billboards? Chances are these are make-shift investors offering to negotiate a short sell in lieu of foreclosure for you. A short sell is when an uninterested party negotiates with your mortgage company for a lower payoff for your home instead of foreclosure. Most of the times these people are looking to “scoop up” cheap houses or they already have an investor/buyer lined up to buy the home. The end result is that you have to move or rent from the investor.
When banks foreclose it’s rarely a profitable situation for them, very rare in today’s market. Most often the properties are in disrepair, dirty and littered with unwanted household items. The bank has to clean, repair and then discount the home to put it on the market. After the discounts, repairs, appraisers, real estate commissions and other added expenses banks are usually losing around 35% of the amount that was owed by the homeowner. This is why a lot of banks are using the short sell option more often as their foreclosure departments are maxed out to capacity.
Short sell experts simply attempt to handle all of the aforementioned headaches and skip to the discounted price. The person that negotiates the short sell will either make money by having the house pre-sold for a higher price than they negotiate or will be keeping the property as an investment and renting it. Either way they stand to earn a nice profit and while helping their clients circumvent foreclosure. If you are significantly behind on your mortgage and cannot see the light of day this may be a good avenue for you depending on your particular situation.
There are a few things you need to be aware of before executing a short sell to stop house foreclosure. The first thing is to know is if you are considering bankruptcy you definitely want to seek advice from council before executing a short sell. Selling property for a loss can sometimes be considered income by the trustee and complicate the bankruptcy. Also, if your primary goal is to avoid foreclosure to preserve your credit, it may not matter whether the bank forecloses or not. If you fall four months behind (120 days) on your mortgage this is considered to be a foreclosure by all mortgage lenders regardless of the fact.
According FHA loan requirements, borrowers must be out of a foreclosure for three years with little or no negative marks since the foreclosure to be approved for a new mortgage. If after three years you can prove adequate income, that you have established new credit and manage a 3% down payment you will almost certainly be approved for a new home. So if homeowners look at foreclosure from a three year perspective the picture is not quite so gloomy if they plan ahead and manage their finances well. In certain situations it becomes a viable option for many people in today’s housing market.
Your home is an investment; businesses cut their losses on bad investments every day as a cost of doing business. If you bought a home for 0k with little or no money down within the last 5 years chances are that you still owe somewhere around 5k on the home. If you are in an area where property values have dropped significantly you may find yourself upside down in your home. For example, you may still owe 5k on your home and it’s only worth 5k on the market. When this happens you need to look at the reality of the situation much as a business would and consider cutting your losses.
Consider this, if you are k upside down in the market and behind on payments, how long will it take you to catch up on your payments and at what cost? More than that, how long will it take for your house value to catch up with what you owe on it? Will you have to refinance to get out of a bad mortgage and what costs will be associated with this? By all estimations today it may take 3 years to 5 years for the housing market to catch up with today’s losses and regain momentum. In Japan’s case it took ten years when they went through a similar crisis.
A very likely scenario is that in three years you will owe exactly what your house is worth and still not have any equity in your home. In housing markets like we are in rental houses are cheap and plentiful. In fact, in Atlanta 0k homes are renting for roughly half of the cost of what that mortgage would be. If you were to accept a foreclosure and move to a rental home of equal value you could likely cut your home expenditure in half. If you were to save the difference between the payments for three years you would have a nice down payment for a new home. According to FHA loan requirements, as of today, you would be able to buy a home.
In closing, the point of this article is not to encourage foreclosure but to demystify it. Foreclosure is bad for you, the lender, and the economy. However, treading water on a bad investment for the sake of good credit or avoiding the stigma of foreclosure doesn’t make sense. In three years time you will most likely be able to buy the same home you are in now and have a lower note with more equity. Banks and businesses cut their losses on bad investments everyday while planning for their next venture, you can as well.
Aubrey Clark is a syndicated writer on financial matters and the editor for Lendfast.com. He writes extensively on lending topics like finding the best Atlanta mortgage rates and how investors obtain Georgia low mortgage rates.
This video will show you how to make a cheap, easy hair removal wax. Do not put the wax on your skin too hot…if the wax is hard and brittle at the optimum temperature it has been overcooked. Good Luck 
Video Rating: 4 / 5
Filed under News by on Aug 30th, 2010. Comment.
Overdue home loans fall in 2nd quarter
The rate of mortgages seriously delinquent or heading into foreclosure nationwide fell during the second quarter, according to Mortgage Bankers Association data released Thursday. Total delinquencies were at a rate of 9.85% of all loans outstanding as of June 30. And the percentage of loans on which foreclosures were started during the second quarter was 1.1%.
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Home loans a bridge too far
BANKS are denying funds to homeowners looking to upgrade and move into a bigger home. The stance is curtailing property markets.
Read more on News.com.au
Marquee homes languish on Calif. housing market
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Southern California's home-sale listings are beginning to resemble an index to the country's most famous mid-20th-century architects, with more marquee properties languishing on the market as the well-heeled become increasingly reluctant to buy.
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Filed under News by on Aug 28th, 2010. Comment.
South Florida Commercial Property – How Much is Too Much?
The South Florida commercial property and residential property market was once the darling of foreign investors. The housing boom saw new commercial properties go up in record numbers, the sub-prime mortgage lenders seemed to loan everyone money to buy them, and as we all know by now, the housing crisis has seemed to reverse all those prosperous trends and left most real estate markets in ruins. Investment property in South Florida isn't an exception, though it hasn't suffered as much as the residential market.
Just last month, the overwhelming amount of mortgage-rescue fraud occurring in South Florida real estate and markets across the state prompted lawmakers to take action. The Foreclosure Fraud Act went into effect on October 1st that forbids companies that claim to stop foreclosures or perform any sort of mortgage-related rescue services from performing any kind of service without first drawing up a written agreement with their clients. The Act also made it illegal for them to collect any kind of fee until the services that were agreed upon in the contract have been performed. When special laws have to be passed, the situation is grim.
While investment property in South Florida isn't hit as hard as the residential market by the foreclosure crisis, there are still problems. The credit crunch still makes it hard for the average buyer, and even the above-average buyer in some cases, to get credit to invest in the available commercial property in South Florida.
The supply and demand are a bit out of joint right now, with more South Florida commercial real estate available and not enough buyers. This causes huge problems for those wanting to sell commercial property in South Florida. Anyone who purchased a property right before the housing crash hoping it to flip it quickly for a profit probably got a nasty surprise, as the only way they're likely to be able to sell it now is to sell it at a loss, getting much less than they paid for it just two months ago.
But this oversupply serves to make it a buyers' market, with lower prices and better terms because sellers want to move the property. Unfortunately, the heavy hitters are the ones most likely to be able to buy, given the credit problems plaguing not just the country, but the world. But with the recent bailout, this should start to improve, and buying quickly before things improve enough to raise the South Florida commercial property prices will let you see the best return on your money.
If you think that buying investment properties in South Florida won't be a good investment because of the oversupply, consider it a longer term investment. Eventually the US will pull out this crisis, lines of credit will get moving again and people will start spending on large items like vehicles and real estate. Once that happens, your commercial property in South Florida will once again be in demand by other buyers, and you'll be able to make a profit.
Travis McCormick is a real estate agent, specializing in South Florida commercial properties. He has sold South Florida commercial real estate for over 20 years.
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Filed under News by on Aug 25th, 2010. Comment.
Washington, D.C. (PRWEB) May 23, 2008
This May, Builder Magazine's annual Builder 100 report examines how the industry's largest home builders fared during last year's housing market recession. The report includes lists of the 100 largest home building companies, the next 100 largest builders, the top 50 multifamily builders and more.
According to the Builder 100 story, the 2007 housing market saw new-home sales fall 23.96 percent, while closings by America's top 100 home builders declined 28.16 percent. Seven of the 10 largest building companies reported revenue declines of 32 percent or more.
"This year's Builder 100 list marks a painful time for the home building industry," said Builder Editor in Chief Denise Dersin. "While some in the media predict a fast-approaching end to the housing market crunch, home building companies still face extremely trying times."
The article accompanying the BUILDER 100 list explains how building companies plan to gird themselves for future housing market declines. Builder's 30th anniversary feature, "BUILDER 100 Over the Years," takes a look back at the largest home building companies over the past three decades.
Amid the housing market's mounting foreclosures and timid buyers, some home builders have developed a hungry band of followers with a simplified menu. Builder's " Get Niche Quick " illustrates how other home building companies can succeed in these niche markets.
In "Master Closers," Builder highlights four salespeople from different backgrounds who all boast outstanding conversion rates. The article identifies five qualities that drive performance with tips on how builders' sales teams can stay motivated and improve sales despite the building industry's troubled economic conditions.
Builder Online complements Builder 100 coverage with the relaunch of its Web site with many new features. Users can search the 100 largest home building companies and the next 100 largest builders by project type and region. Thirtieth anniversary coverage continues with online articles featuring the housing market's best building products and projects over the past 30 years.
For more Builder features, past Builder issues and other information, visit Builder Online.
About Hanley Wood:
Hanley Wood, LLC, is the premier media and information company serving housing and construction. Through four operating divisions, the company produces award-winning magazines and Web sites, marquee trade shows and events, rich data and custom marketing solutions. The company also is North America's leading publisher of home plans. Hanley Wood Business Media (Washington, D.C.), publishes 36 award-winning residential and commercial construction titles, including Builder, remodeling, custom home, concrete construction and residential architect. Hanley Wood Business Media also offers the construction industry's foremost collection of Web sites, including Builder online, remodeling online, and ebuild, the comprehensive online guide to building products, as well as the largest collection of house plans online through eplans.com and Dream Home Source.
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Filed under News by on Aug 25th, 2010. Comment.
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