Tag Archives: Short (finance)

Real Estate

The Best Seasons to Sell a Home

Photo courtesy of http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
Photo courtesy of http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

 

 

Spring is traditionally considered the best season to list a home, but it doesn’t inch out the other seasons by much, according to a new analysis by the real estate brokerage Redfin.

Check out our last report from Redfin’s seasonality study

Redfin’s research team analyzed 7 million homes listed from 2010 through 2014 to gauge how important the season is in listing a home. It examined how many of the homes went under contract within 30 days and how often they sold for more than their list price.

Here’s how the seasons stacked up:

  • 39% of the homes listed in the spring (between March 21 and June 20) in the past five years went under contract within 30 days, and 15 percent sold for more than the list price.
  • 38% of homes listed in the winter (Dec. 21 – March 20) sold within 30 days and 14 percent sold for more than the list price.
  • 36% of homes listed in the summer (June 21 – Sept. 20) were under contract within 30 days and 12 percent sold above the list price.
  • 34% of homes listed in the fall (Sept. 21 – Dec. 20) went under contract within 30 days and 11 percent sold at a premium.

“Just as buyer demand follows a seasonal pattern, so do home prices,” says Nela Richardson, Redfin’s chief economist. “Over the past five years prices have increased by an average of 3 percent month over month in the spring and ticked down by about 1 percent each month during the fall. To get the best of both worlds, sellers need be informed on both local buyer demand and recent sale prices in their neighborhoods before deciding when to list their homes and for what price.”
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Real Estate

Housing Inventories Are Falling

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Photo Credit: http://www.shakesville.com/2008/06/my-former-landlord.html
Photo Credit: http://www.shakesville.com/2008/06/my-former-landlord.html

Home prices are increasing across the country as the number of homes for-sale continues to fall. But at a time when buyer demand is picking up, why is inventory still so low?

Inventories fell to 1.82 million at the end of last year, a 21.6 percent drop from one year earlier, the National Association of REALTORS® reports.

The Wall Street Journal recently highlighted several reasons behind the dropping inventories, including:

  • Sellers hesitant to sell: About 22 percent of home owners with a mortgage are still underwater, owing more than their home is currently worth. Home owners don’t tend to sell unless a life-changing event occurs when they’re underwater because they don’t want to take a loss on the sale of their house. CoreLogic data shows that inventories are the most constrained in areas with the highest number of underwater borrowers.
  • Not enough equity to trade up: Often times, home owners rely on the equity from their home to make a down payment on their next home. With fewer home owners seeing equity in their houses, they may not have enough money to move into a pricier home, which is constraining the would-be “trade up” buyer from moving.
  • Investors continue to snatch up properties: Investors are snapping up properties, but they’ve changed their strategy from past years, which is also constraining inventories. Now they’re holding onto properties and turning them into rentals instead of rehabbing properties and flipping them for profit. This is keeping fewer homes on the market.
  • Banks are slowing down foreclosures: Banks have new rules to meet with the foreclosure process, and it’s causing them to move at a slower pace in foreclosing on homes. Banks also are showing a preference for short sales and loan modifications, which are curbing the number of foreclosed homes on the market.
  • Builders are doing less building: Housing starts were at record lows from 2009 through 2011 so there’s less inventory being added to the market. A rebound in the new-home market has only recently started to occur.

Source: “Six Reasons Housing Inventory Keeps Declining,” The Wall Street Journal (Jan. 22, 2013)

 

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John J. O’Dell Realtor® GRI
Civil Engineer
General Contractor
(530) 263-1091
Email jodell@nevadacounty.com

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Real Estate

Buying a Home During the Holiday?


Once Thanksgiving is over, the real estate world typically starts to wind down for the holidays and doesn’t usually reawaken until after New Year’s.  But potential home buyers who are prepared to close in today’s competitive market may want to keep house hunting while everyone else is waiting for spring.

 

  • REALTORS® especially recommend that serious home buyers continue shopping if they have repeatedly lost out on deals because of a limited and continually decreasing supply of homes.  Buying intensity typically cools down at the start of fall through early January, which could increase the odds for those with more patience.
  • Would-be buyers historically have bowed out during the winter season because they are overwhelmed by holiday spending and commitments.  There’s also the aversion of moving in the middle of a school year.  Consumer interest typically picks back up again in the New Year and peaks in the spring.
  • Certain buyers may be well-served to buy during the winter because of sellers who must move for various reasons including a job change or transfer or the possible sunsetting of the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, which lets certain home sellers get tax relief on mortgage debt forgiven by lenders.  The possible expiration has pushed home sellers to list and short sell their homes before year’s end.

Read the full story

 

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For all your real estate needs
Email or call today:

John J. O’Dell Realtor® GRI
Civil Engineer
General Contractor
(530) 263-1091
Email jodell@nevadacounty.com

DRE#00669941

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Real Estate

New Short Sale Program Offers Relief For Underwater Homeowners

Photo courtesy: http://weburbanist.com/
Photo courtesy: http://weburbanist.com/


One of the federal government’s most-important financial relief efforts for underwater homeowners started operating Nov. 1.

Making sense of the story

  • Traditionally short sales, where the lender agrees to accept less than the full amount owed and the house is sold to a new purchaser at a discounted price, are associated with extended periods of delinquency by the original owner.  The new Fannie-Freddie program breaks with tradition by allowing short sales for owners who are current on their payments but are encountering a hardship that could force them into default.
  • Eligible hardships under the new program run the gamut: Job loss or reduction in income; divorce or separation; death of a borrower or another wage earner who helps pay the mortgage; serious illness or disability; employment transfer of 50 miles or greater; natural or man-made disaster; a sudden increase in housing expenses beyond the borrower’s control; a business failure; and “other,” meaning a serious financial issue that isn’t one of the above.
  • Homeowners who participate in this new program should be aware that although officials at the Federal Housing Finance Agency – the agency that oversees the program – are working on possible solutions with the credit industry at the moment, it appears that borrowers who use the new program may be hit with significant penalties on their FICO credit scores – 150 points or more.
  • Other factors to consider are promissory notes and other “contributions.”  In the majority of states where lenders can pursue deficiencies, Fannie and Freddie expect borrowers who have assets to either make upfront cash contributions covering some of the loan balance owed or sign a promissory note.  This would be in exchange for an official waiver of the debt for credit reporting purposes, potentially producing a more favorable credit score for the sellers.
  • Finally, participants should be aware of second-lien hurdles.  The program sets a $6,000 limit on what second lien holders – banks that have extended equity lines of credit or second mortgages on underwater properties – can collect out of the new short sales.  Some banks, however, don’t consider this a sufficient amount and may threaten to thwart sales if they cannot somehow extract more.

Read the full story

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For all your real estate needs
Email or call today:

John J. O’Dell Realtor® GRI
Civil Engineer
General Contractor
(530) 263-1091
Email jodell@nevadacounty.com

DRE# 00669941

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Real Estate

End is Near for Certain Tax Exemptions

Photo credit: www.inspirational-quotes-short-funny-stuff.com
Photo credit: www.inspirational-quotes-short-funny-stuff.com

Currently, any debt forgiven by a lender in a short sale, loan modification, or foreclosure is exempt from federal taxation.  However, that exemption is scheduled to expire Jan. 1, 2013.

Making sense of the story

  • Borrowers will have to count mortgage relief from lenders as income on their federal tax returns, if the exemption is allowed to expire.  That means, for example, a borrower would have to pay taxes on a $100,000 reduction in principal owed on a loan, or a $20,000 write-off in the amount owed after a short sale.
  • An extension of the tax exemption – established under the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 – is a strong possibility.  But given that Congress will have to grapple with serious fiscal issues after the November elections, there is no guarantee the exemption will emerge from those negotiations intact.
  • The Debt Relief Act exemption applies only to canceled mortgage debt used to buy, build, or improve a primary residence, not a second home.  The maximum exemption is $2 million.
  • Reinstating the tax would undercut the the effect of the National Mortgage Settlement reached earlier this year in the federal government’s investigation into banks’ mishandling of foreclosure documents.
  • Under the terms of the settlement, five of the biggest mortgage lenders must put some $17 billion toward debt relief that enables borrowers to stay in their homes. Smaller portions are reserved for short sales and refinancing.

Read the full story

 

For all your real estate needs
Email or call today:

John J. O’Dell Realtor® GRI
Civil Engineer
General Contractor
(530) 263-1091
Email jodell@nevadacounty.com

DRE#00669941

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