The Obama administration is holding a conference today to discuss ways to overhaul Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying that doing so will be important to fixing the country’s broken housing finance system. The conference will focus on a review of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the FHA, Ginnie Mae, the Federal Home Loan Banks and… CONTINUE
New Website Launched to Educate Borrowers About Foreclosure
KnowYourOptions.com is the new Fannie Mae website launched last week to help distressed borrowers understand more about mortgage financing and prepare them for dealing with lenders in the foreclosure process. Available in both English and Spanish, the new site aims to help struggling homeowners find alternatives to foreclosure. According to a Fannie Mae press release,… CONTINUE
Fannie Mae Relaxes Broker REO Limit
Fannie Mae has relaxed the limit of 30 REO listings per broker from any one Fannie Mae source, according to a report from REO Insider. In June, Fannie imposed a strict limit of 30 REO listings per broker at any one time, and imposed a 25-mile restriction as well. The new rules elicited an immediate… CONTINUE
Housing Market Leaders in 2014
Bloomberg Businessweek has listed the top 10 markets that will lead the housing market recovery by early 2014 from data provided by Fiserv Case-Shiller Indexes and Moody’s Economy.com. The housing forecast is based on factors that include income growth, unemployment rates, demographic trends, construction costs and foreclosure rates. There were 384 markets surveyed, and the… CONTINUE
A Condo or a Car?
CNNMoney.com reports that several condo markets in the U.S. are seeing units priced “lower than a Toyota Corolla”, at or even below $25,000 in nice neighborhoods. Median home prices have fallen about 23 percent during the housing market collapse, but condo prices have suffered even more. According to NAR, nationwide condo prices have fallen about… CONTINUE
Foreclosures: There’s an App for That
In early July, ForeclosureRadar, the online service that provides market information on foreclosures in California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state, released an iPhone app to make all its information available to subscribers in a mobile format. Now Foreclosure Radar has released another technology tool: an alert service that sends an email or text to… CONTINUE
DRE Revokes Record Number of Licenses
The California Department of Real Estate (DRE) said that it revoked a record number of real estate licenses over the past year – a total of 633, for a 10 percent increase over the previous year. For its fiscal year ended June 30, DRE also said that it suspended another 163 real estate licenses and… CONTINUE
The FTC 8
The Federal Trade Commission has banned eight mortgage relief and foreclosure prevention marketers from plying their trade and fined them over $23 million for deceptive advertising. The eight individuals involved in three companies – two of them in California — have also been ordered to return over $30 million in fees to fleeced consumers. The… CONTINUE
Foreclosure Worse Than Death
Foreclosure is worse than death – at least when it comes to home values, according to a new MIT study. The study done by an MIT economist and researchers from Harvard says that foreclosures reduce home values by an average of 27 percent. Comparatively, a home sold because of an owner’s death only reduces the… CONTINUE
Reasons for No Recovery Yet
Glimmers of hope for the housing market battle daily with predictions of a double dip. So why hasn’t the housing market recovered yet, four years after the bubble burst? U.S. News & World Report listed these six reasons in this week’s issue: 1. Unemployment. Job growth is key to housing recovery and with the national… CONTINUE
Real Estate Psychology
Recently, an article in Smart Money talked about the psychology of real estate and how large a role it plays in buyers’ home purchase decisions. Among the findings: Attractive real estate agents sell more. A study at Old Dominion University showed that men tend to pay more for a home if it’s being sold by… CONTINUE
Hey Fannie, Is That a Suggestion or a Requirement?
Complaints from lenders about a new Fannie Mae policy that requires lenders to secure a borrower’s “refreshed” credit report just prior to a home purchase has resulted in the lending giant pulling the new rule from its website. According to a Washington Post report, Fannie Mae introduced a new policy this summer that “encourages” lenders… CONTINUE
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