Housing Blog
Being away from HP for a week might be a good thing. It could get you all used to not having HP around. And hell, not blogging for a week might get me to reconsider.We'll see.I still believe that a poetic end for this blog would be on its third anniversary, on the day after election day. This blog reads like a good book - we had a theory, we were mocked, then things started to happen, then we were proved right. And oh, things got really sucky at that point. What it's missing is redemption. After the fall. When people came to realize the error of their ways. When the corrupt went to jail. When the realtors went away. That's the final chapter of this book, and we're not there yet.I agree, the HP community needs a home, and I've still got a lot to say. Just not solely about housing (as you can tell - and which some of you don't like).So all I can say for now is... we'll see. And we'll see where America decides to go on November 4th. That'll be the deciding factor. A big, big factor.
In the meantime, I've queued up some fresh content for you this week, if you want to check in and leave comments, I'll moderate 'em if I can find a 'net cafe where I'm going which is doubtful. And let me know what I miss.
Yup, right on time.Enjoy the party. Should be a good one.Too bad they can't make home prices go back up. Even Houdini couldn't do that.
Nobody can even tell us how many hundreds of billions this is gonna cost us. Which is no surprise, given that this was the biggest Ponzi Scheme in recorded human history.
Yup, they were solvent, right Bernanke? Nope, nothing to worry about, right Bush?
Yeah, right.Why are Paulson's bailouts always on Sundays by the way?
Doesn't it make you sick that no corrupt and high-profile housing/mortgage/banking CEO who enriched himself during the bubble has been arrested yet, while the US taxpayer is now on the hook for hundreds of billions in losses?
Bonus Question: WHERE THE F*CK IS THE INDEPENDENT CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION OF THE FANNIE / FREDDIE MELTDOWN AND TAXPAYER BAILOUT? IS IT UP TO US TO FORMALLY DEMAND A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR?
9%
Over 4 million homedebtors, fraudsters and housing gamblers have chosen to stop paying.And it's just gonna get worse.Thank you realtors on commission. Thank you Bush and your "ownership society". Thank you toxic mortgage brokers. Thank you MSM. Thank you homebuilders. Thank you appraisers. Thank you NAR, NAHB and MBA. Thank you Freddie, Fannie, FHLB and FHA. Thank you Angelo Mozilo and Michael Perry. Thank you Congress. Thank you Casey Serin. And a big thank you to the millions and millions of Americans who refused to look at the economic fundamentals of housing, who treated homes like lottery tickets, and got us into this mess by 'buying' overpriced homes they couldn't afford.Mortgage delinquency and foreclosure rates hit records last quarter. And more prime borrowers are being affected. About 4 million U.S. homeowners -- including more than 65,000 Minnesotans -- were either behind in their mortgage payments or in foreclosure at the end of June, according to a second-quarter survey released Friday by the Mortgage Bankers Association.
At what point is enough enough? At what point do you completely lose trust in your elected (and unelected) officials in charge of our government and our economy? Or has that point come and gone?
At least Paulson and Bush will be gone in a few weeks. Good riddance. But Bernanke should also be shown the door.
Here's the wise Fed chairman from a few weeks back. Either the town fool and unqualified for his job, or one of the biggest liars in America. You choose.
Fannie And Freddie Are Fine, Bernanke SaysChairman Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve told Congress on Wednseday that he believes Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will make it through the storm in the U.S. housing market.
On Bernanke's second day before Congress, this time in front of Rep. Barney Frank's House Financial Services Committee,
the Fed chairman said the troubled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were adequately capitalized, and were in no danger of failing.
"They must think you're stupid."- Barack Obama, on the McCain campaign's ties to lobbyists and message of change, pretty much summing the whole thing up, September 6, 2008
The one hope America has is that people under 30 are getting their news from Comedy Central and the blogs.
Good.
Because the political "experts" infesting the MSM are worthless. Lying, spinning, deceiving, self-enriching, two-faced conmen, saying anything in order to convince an unsuspecting and gullible American public that they should buy their dog food.
We said this day would come.
And then it came.
Your children, and their children, and their children, and their children, and their children will hate you. They'll hate this generation of Americans who rang up trillions of dollars in debt in their name without their consent in a self-centered unethical and immoral orgy of greed, consumption and fraud.
Fannie and Freddie have finally failed. And every incumbent in DC - Democrat, Republican, Independent, it doesn't matter - EVERY FLIPPING INCUMBENT IN DC SHOULD BE BLAMED FOR THIS FIASCO, AND PROMPTLY VOTED OUT OF OFFICE THIS NOVEMBER.
AND THE SCREWED TAXPAYERS SHOULD DEMAND AN INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION INTO THIS MESS - INCLUDING CORRUPTION, INCOMPETENCE, MALFEASANCE AND BRIBERY AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF POWER.
Government may soon take over troubled mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government is expected to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as soon as this weekend in a monumental move designed to protect the mortgage market from the failure of the two companies, which together hold or guarantee half of the nation's mortgage debt, a person briefed on the matter said Friday night.
Some of the details of the intervention,
which could cost taxpayers billions, were not yet available, but are expected to include the departure of Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd and Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron, according to the source, who asked not to be named because the plan was yet to be announced.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and James Lockhart, the companies' chief regulator, met Friday afternoon with the top executives from the mortgage companies and informed them of the government's plan to put the troubled companies into a conservatorship.
The news, first reported on The Wall Street Journal's Web site, came after stock markets closed. In after-hours trading Fannie Mae's shares plunged $1.54, or 22 percent, to $5.50. Freddie Mac's shares fell $1.06, or almost 21 percent, to $4.04. Common stock in the companies will be worth little to nothing after the government's actions.
Critics say the open-ended nature of the rescue package could expose taxpayers to billions of dollars of potential losses.
Supporters, however, argue the Bush administration had little choice but to support Fannie and Freddie, which together hold or guarantee $5 trillion in mortgages -- almost half the nation's total.
More late breaking details from Bloomberg here
Sellers Worry Untidy Neighbors Will Drive Away Potential Buyers
Home sellers in many markets already are having a difficult time unloading their property because of the country’s housing slump, but some have found selling their houses more difficult because of their neighbors.
How the neighbors keep their homes, including their lawns, backyards and the overall appearance of their homes, can affect the ability to sell another home in the same area as Sandy Hook, Conn., as residents Amy and Andrew Kennedy found out first hand.
The couple has lived in its 3,000-square-foot home for more than two years, in its nearly picture perfect setting. The large, two-story home sits on a well-manicured lawn in a quiet area.
The Kennedys, who thought of the home as their “dream house,” have mixed feelings now that they are making the transition from proud homeowners to nervous sellers.
“It’s not the house, it’s the neighborhood. Their houses are $300,000 and ours is $600,000,” Andrew said.
As they plan to move to California, the Kennedys worry how the upkeep of their neighbors’ houses may place a negative value on their own home.
“We wish the backyards of some of these home … you know … would just pick the trash can up,” Amy said.
“It would be great if they just mow their lawns,” Andrew added.
During a drive around her rural neighborhood, Amy pointed out homes with messy facades, overgrown lawns, dilapidated exteriors and non-functional cars sitting on the grass.
“This lovely broken-down Volkswagen, it’s never moved, never brushed off,” Amy said. “It’s very messy, a lot of dirt.”
There are some homes that are as well-kept as the Kennedys in their neighborhood, but Amy and Andrew know that many buyers don’t just look at the home they want. They also look at the houses around them.
“First impressions make or break the sale of a home,” Amy said.
She found out just how true that statement was when she drove up the dirt road leading to her house and unexpectedly walked in on a real estate agent getting ready to show her home to a Michigan couple.
After a quick tour, close inspection of every room and a sales pitch by Amy, potential buyers Dona and Doug Huwer had some reservations.
“We’re concerned about a little bit of the roads, the dirt road in the area. As you’re driving in, driving out, you want to see what the others are doing to their houses. Are they well-maintained? Are things spewed all over the yard? If you’re willing to take that risk, you can use that as a bargaining chip,” Doug said.
Real estate experts said the bottom line is, untidy neighbors and unkempt neighborhoods could be hazardous to a home’s value.
“If they park large objects in their front yard: boats, cars, dump trucks, earth movers — that could make you nervous,” said real estate expert Ilyce Glink. “If they don’t take care of their landscaping — they’ve got knee-high grass, bushes that aren’t trimmed … that might bring down the value of your house by 10 percent or 20 percent, maybe even more.”
By BIANNA GOLODRYGA and MABLE CHAN
South Florida is seeing a big jump in the number of homeowners who are selling their properties for less than they paid, highlighting the magnitude of the region’s historic housing slump.
During the first half of this year, 23% of sellers in Broward County unloaded their homes at a loss, according to sales data analyzed by the Sun Sentinel. In Palm Beach County, the percentage was even higher-27%. That’s a significant spike from 2006, when only 2% of sellers in each county took losses.
“It’s fair to say that some people are desperate,” said Brad Hunter, a housing analyst in West Palm Beach. “But there are others who regret having bought the house at the price they paid and if they can get rid of the obligation of having to continue paying on it, they’re happy to do it.”
The winners in these fire sales are buyers who are getting houses that are much more affordable.
“There’s no way we could have afforded a house before,” said Katarina Lytle, 29, a first-time buyer who paid $205,000 for a house that had been listed a year ago at $355,000 in The Acreage. “My husband and I walked out of the closing, jumped in the truck and just screamed.”
Most people dumping properties this year bought during the peak of the housing boom in 2004 and 2005. Many strapped homeowners are negotiating so-called short sales, in which lenders take less than what is owed on the mortgages and forgive part or all of the remaining debt.
In Broward County, one in three home sales in Miramar in the first six months of 2008 went for losses, according to Sun Sentinel research, which did not include foreclosure sales. Coconut Creek, Parkland and Weston also were among the hardest-hit Broward cities.
In Palm Beach County during the same period, West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens both had 34% of sellers taking less than they paid. Also hurting were the west-central communities of Royal Palm Beach and Wellington, where property values had soared during the housing boom.
South Florida is among the leaders nationwide in homes and condominiums fetching less than the sellers paid, according to Moody’s Economy.com, an influential U.S. real estate research firm. The current climate is a stunning reversal from the housing heyday of 2000 to 2005, when thousands of short-term investors were buying and selling homes in South Florida and pocketing huge profits, seemingly overnight.
That speculation drove up prices, causing buyers to squeeze into homes by using adjustable-rate mortgages and other risky loans that now are resetting with much higher interest rates. Many of the homeowners no longer can afford the properties and are losing them in foreclosure, dropping values across the board.
That’s evident in South Florida’s shrinking tax bases. Broward’s tax base for homes and condos decreased 9% from last year, to $167 billion. Palm Beach County homes and condos are valued for tax purposes at $113.9 billion, off 7% from $122.9 billion in 2007.
“We had an awful lot of stretch buying above people’s means,” said Lewis Goodkin, a Miami-based housing consultant. “And we’re really paying the price for it now.”
By Paul Owers and John Maines
FSBO’s, get Multiple Listing Service exposure without paying the usual 6% to 7% Real Estate commission!
An MLS listing is one of the most powerful tools available to sell your home. MLS is a database used by local Realtors when searching for homes for buyers. Only Realtors have access to this database, however, all properties listed in the MLS are automatically uploaded to Realtor.com and thousands of other websites for the public to view.
Normally, when you contract a Realtor to sell your home they will list the property in the MLS with THEIR contact information. When potential buyers and other Realtors see the Listing they have no choice but to contact the sellers Agent (this is how they insure their commission). When we list your home we direct any Agents or buyers directly to you.
Using a Realtor to list and sell your home only guarantees two things. First, no matter where the buyer comes from (even if it is a close family friend) the Realtor still gets paid! Secondly, you will more than likely wind up paying the full 6% to 7% commission!!
Using our Flat Fee MLS enables you to have the exposure you want without the headaches and costs you dont need. You are not required to accept any offers, you are free to advertise your home in newspapers, websites, anywhere else you wish. If a buyer makes an offer without an Agent you are completely free to accept and you pay NO COMMISSION!
What happens if a buyer comes to you through an Agent? When you sign up for our service you decide what you would be willing to pay a buyers Agent. This commission will normally be 3% or less.
The cost of our Flat Fee MLS is $349,95. We never charge any hidden fees or commissions!
What are you waiting for? Let us help you get that house SOLD!
With a glut of distress sales having flooded the market, even in the luxury sector, making selling even non-distress real estate a highly competitive and often disheartening endeavor, any competitive edge a seller can garner can mean the difference between closing escrow on a property or it languishing on the MLS in perpetuity.
One such competitive edge not commonly considered as part of a home’s marketing strategy is to sell a property either fully or partially furnished. Consider these findings on sold furnished Las Vegas-area residences: for 2008 YTD 16% of homes $1 million-plus and 20% of homes $2 million-plus were successfully sold fully or partially furnished. When compared to YTD sales data for unfurnished residences, these numbers represent a 10% increase in the incidence of homes sold with contents over those without. In 2007 15.5% of homes $1 million-plus and a whopping 37.5% of homes $2 million-plus were successfully sold fully or partially furnished.
While bundling furnishings with a home sell is a viable strategy, sellers should not force a home’s contents onto prospective buyers, which can work against them. Instead, give buyers the option to procure the property with or without furnishings, and have a pre-established sale price set for either scenario. Also be prepared to put together a bill of sale for the furniture, separate from the home’s sale price.
In a marketplace where lenders have tightened their proverbial belts, forcing many home buyers to come to the closing table with more cash, a partially furnished or fully turn-key home can be a very attractive proposition…and the all important deciding factor in choosing one property over another.
People today are making home buying decisions with the help of the Internet. With most of home shopping done on the Web, sellers are vying to know what attracts them and how to sell their homes faster online.
If you are a home seller and want to sell your home faster, then you may want to include a floor plan in your marketing information. Home buyers are increasingly looking beyond the home pictures that buyers usually provide, and are keen on knowing more about the kind of home they are buying. This is because, unlike home photos that reveal only parts of a home, a floor plan gives the entire picture. There are several features that a floor plan reveals which a home buyer would like to ascertain before he decides on the house. A home buyer can check out if the home has the features he/she requires, whether it is split bedrooms, or a kitchen with a window, or its convenient location near the dining room.
So whether it is an apartment that goes on the market or a listing that is being placed online, home buyers need one important thing to decide - the home plan. According to one real estate agent, home buyers are so particular about seeing floor plans of the homes on the Internet that many request for the home plan to be faxed to them even at the initial stages of home buying process.
Home plans are popular requests from people who are downsizing too. These prospective home buyers would like to see how exactly their furniture would fit into a house with much smaller space.
No more “browse” button: Fizber.com to offer the easiest photo upload interface.
Fizber.com has redesigned their photo upload interface in a radical way. Through the use of Java, Fizber.com boosted upload speeds for property photos, enabling their customers to complete photo uploads and manage photos more effectively and efficiently.
New image uploader simplified Fizber photo’s solution architecture and shortened the photo uploading process time. Fizber users can select and upload multiple photos in just one click, the raw photos can be shrunk and resized on the client side which reduces photo size significantly before uploading.
“New image uploader at Fizber delivers a user-friendly interface for uploading multiple files,” says Julia Foster of Fizber.com. “Now to upload, say, 20 property images, you don’t need to click the Browse button 20 times. With image uploader, you navigate folders directly in browser, select necessary files, and start uploading them in only a few clicks. Our users are very happy with it. The statistics shows that it boosted the number of photos uploaded about 20%.”
About Fizber.com
With home listings throughout the United States, Fizber.com strives to connect buyers and sellers more effectively. The site offers to list for-sale properties on a multiple listing service for a $349.95 flat fee, to submit property ads to a variety of property search engines for a $299.95 flat fee, and a package of both services for $499.95. Prospective homebuyers can browse property database, available at www.fizber.com, at no charge.
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