Some rental investments don't pay off
Inman News

Buying foreclosed, or otherwise inexpensive, residential units with the game plan of renting the property for as many years as it takes until real estate appreciation returns has proven to be a time-tested and generally successful investment strategy.

Unfortunately, it's not as easy as it appears. Just because a residence, whether a condominium or a single-family residence, can be acquired cheaply doesn't mean that a home-rental scheme can be operationally profitable.

With F.H.A. Help, Easy Loans in Expensive Areas
The New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — In January, Mike Rowland was so broke that he had to raid his retirement savings to move here from Boston.

A week ago, he and a couple of buddies bought a two-unit apartment building for nearly a million dollars. They had only a little cash to bring to the table but, with the federal government insuring the transaction, a large down payment was not necessary.

"A Truly Extraordinary Slump": Reports of Robust Recovery Premature, James Galbraith Says
tech/ticker

Disappointing reports this week on housing starts and foreclosures, as well as the index of leading economic indicators, have cast a bit of a pall on the "robust recovery" story, putting a crimp in the stock market's ascent in the process.

University of Texas professor James Galbraith was never a believer in the V-shaped recovery and says it's going to take a very long time for the U.S. to recover from a "truly extraordinary slump."

Homeowners Predict a Full Recovery in Next Six Months: Zillow
DSNews

Homeowners in the United States were more optimistic about the future of the housing market last quarter than they have been in 18 months, according to the Zillow Q3 Homeowner Confidence Survey.

According to the Seattle-based company’s study, 41 percent believe their home’s value will increase in the next six months. An additional 43 percent say their home’s value will remain the same, with only 17 percent expecting their home’s value to drop.

Citi Reports Success in Florida Foreclosure Prevention Rates
DSNews

After a preliminary review of third quarter foreclosure prevention data, Citigroup Inc. announced Monday that its efforts produced nearly three times the success rate in helping distressed homeowners avoid potential foreclosure in the Florida housing market, compared to last year.

According to the data, Citi’s loss mitigation success in the Sunshine State outnumbered foreclosures completed by a ratio of almost 16 to one, compared to a six to one ratio during the same period last year.

Fannie: 'Recovery is here'
Inman News

The deepest and longest recession since the Great Depression appears to be over, Fannie Mae economists say, projecting sales of new and existing homes will jump 11 percent next year and that national home prices will stabilize, remaining essentially flat.

The mortgage guarantor's monthly housing forecast projects 5.96 million home sales in 2010, with sales of existing homes growing by 10 percent, to 5.46 million. New-home sales are expected to rebound even more sharply in 2010, growing by 24 percent to 498,000.

National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program Clients Are Sixty Percent More Likely to Avoid Foreclosure than Homeowners Who Don’t Seek Counseling
Business Wire

WASHINGTON — Today NeighborWorks America, the administrator of the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling (NFMC) Program announced that NFMC clients who receive foreclosure counseling are 1.6 times more likely to avoid losing their homes to foreclosure than homeowners who do not receive foreclosure counseling, according to findings in a report released today. As a result of NFMC Program funding, families who sought and received foreclosure counseling were provided much needed information, assistance and guidance to address their risk of foreclosure, which helped them find a solution to foreclosure.

The report, which analyzed NFMC Program activity during the first year of the program (January 1-December 31, 2008), also found that NFMC Program clients were more likely to receive a loan modification than homeowners who did not receive counseling, and NFMC Program clients who received loan modifications lowered their mortgage payments significantly more than homeowners who received loan modifications without NFMC Program counseling.

Foreclosure Spat Brews in Chicago
The Wall Street Journal

While many banks are taking pains to work out troubled commercial-property loans rather than foreclosing, Bank of America Corp. has lost its patience with a developer who took on a notoriously stubborn slice of downtown Chicago.

The Charlotte, N.C., bank, as lead bank for a group of lenders, has filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court alleging that affiliates of Joseph Freed & Associates LLC of Chicago have defaulted on a $205 million construction loan to build an urban mall on the site known as Block 37. The bank is seeking to foreclose on the project just as Joseph Freed is planning to open the property's first stores.

Mortgage delinquencies hit another record in 3Q
Associated Press

NEW YORK — The pace at which people fell behind on their mortgages slowed during the summer for the third consecutive quarter, but the overall delinquency rate hit another record, a new report shows.

For the three months ended Sept. 30, 6.25 percent of U.S. mortgage loans were 60 or more days past due, according to credit reporting agency TransUnion. That's up 58 percent from 3.96 percent a year ago.

Construction of new homes drops a surprising 10.6% in October
Los Angeles Times

Builders curtailed construction of new homes sharply in October, according to a government report released this morning.

The pace of new residential construction fell unexpectedly by 10.6% to a seasonally adjusted 529,000 annual rate compared with the prior month and a 30.7% drop from October 2008, the Commerce Department said.

HSBC Sees Improvement in U.S. Home Market
The Wall Street Journal

When the subprime-mortgage crisis hit in the U.S., HSBC Holdings PLC's U.S. unit foreclosed on thousands of homes, many of which it then couldn't unload. Now, there are modest signals that the bank is having an easier time reselling those homes and recouping losses.

The signals are positive for HSBC, the London-based banking giant that has been dragged down by billions of dollars in losses in its U.S. unit as it seeks to expand in emerging markets, especially Asia. Yet the progress may be short-lived, as selling distressed properties could again become more difficult when government foreclosure-protection programs and other measures come to an end.

NAR OKs indexing of listings
Inman News

SAN DIEGO -- The National Association of Realtors' board of directors adopted a new policy Monday making it clear that real estate brokers can allow search engines like Google to index property listings displayed on their Web sites under data-sharing agreements with other brokers.

NAR's board of directors approved several changes to the association's Internet Data Exchange (IDX) policy as it wrapped up the group's annual meeting in San Diego.

Realtors Cheer Prediction of Rising Home Prices
November 14, 2009, San Diego Union-Tribune

The National Association of Realtors' chief economist predicted yesterday that housing prices will rise for the first time in four years in 2010 as sales return to a normal pace. “Things are much better,” Lawrence Yun said to applause at the organization's annual convention in San Diego, attended by an estimated 20,000 delegates. Yun cited low interest rates, improved affordability among would-be home buyers and increased sales activity, primarily for starter homes. “We're seeing price stabilization on a month-to-month basis,” he added.

Entry-level Homebuyers Make Up Biggest Share of Market Ever
November 13, 2009, Los Angeles Times

First-time buyers made up a bigger share of the housing market in 2009 than any other year on record, according to a study released this afternoon. The number of first-time home buyers rose to 47% of all home sales from 41% of transactions in last year’s study, and was the highest on record dating back to 1981, according to the Washington-based National Assn. of Realtors.

Regulators Shut 2 Banks in Fla., 1 in Calif.
November 13, 2009, Associated Press

Regulators shut down two banks in Florida and one in California on Friday, boosting to 123 the number of U.S. bank failures this year as loan defaults rise in the worst financial climate in decades. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Orion Bank, based in Naples, Fla., with about $2.7 billion in assets and $2.1 billion in deposits, and Sarasota-based Century Bank, with $728 million in assets and $631 million in deposits. Pacific Coast National Bank in San Clemente, Calif. was also shut down. It had $134.4 million in assets and $130.9 million in deposits.

3rd Drop in Foreclosures Hints at Recovery; State-By-State Chart
November 12 2009, USA TODAY

Foreclosures fell for the third-consecutive month in October, another sign the worst of the housing crisis may be past. RealtyTrac, an Irvine, Calif., real estate firm, reports Thursday that foreclosure filings totaled 332,292 last month, down 3% from September but up 19% from a year earlier. The figure means that one of every 385 homes received a foreclosure notice in

Existing-Home Prices Slide in Most Metropolitan Areas
November 11 2009, Los Angeles Times

Prices of existing homes fell in 80% of the nation's metropolitan markets in the third quarter as distressed sales -- foreclosures and short sales -- accounted for nearly a third of all deals, a national group said Tuesday. The U.S. median sale price for an existing single-family home was $177,900, an 11.2% drop from the same period a year earlier, according to the National Assn. of Realtors in Washington. Distressed sales continued to weigh on prices despite a popular tax credit fueling the volume of deals. Still, the median was higher than in the second quarter of this year, when it was $174,200.

The Coming Civil War in Real Estate
November 10 2009, Inman News

On Nov. 6, at roughly 3:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the National Association of Realtors declared war on the rest of the real estate industry. To be fair, NAR probably did not realize that it did so. Judging by the initial responses, it doesn't appear to me that most people see what I saw. But, probably because of my twisted nature and my penchant for focusing on the dark side of human nature, I am predicting nothing short of civil war in the real estate industry going forward unless Realtors Property Resource (or RPR) in its current form is immediately scrapped.

NAR Leaps Into the Fray — In a Big Way
November 9 2009, Inman News

The Realtors Property Resource (RPR) is likely the most important technology story of the last few years. And it will probably be the most closely watched story for the next couple of years too. What is the RPR? Brian Boero from 1000Watt Blog sums it up nicely. "The NAR has taken over certain technology assets of Cyberhomes from LPS (formerly known as FNRES) in order to bring its RPR (Realtors Property Resource) project, as well as its consumer-facing play, HouseLogic, to market. To do this, they have created Realtors Property Resource LLC — a wholly owned subsidiary of the NAR."

More Lawyers in Trouble for Foreclosure Activities
November 2009, California Bar Journal

The State Bar’s loan modification task force obtained the resignations of three more California attorneys as a result of misconduct related to their loan modification activities. It also placed another attorney on inactive status, charging his work poses a substantial threat to the public, and has undertaken similar efforts against two other lawyers

Affordable Prices Draw Investors to Real Estate
November 11, 2009,   CNBC

Affordable prices and foreclosures are attracting investors to the housing markets today, and the number of consumers interested in investing in real estate has doubled since March 2009, according to the new Move.com Homeownership Survey released today. Low prices and foreclosure bargains have also become the most important reasons motivating buyers today to purchase a home. According to the Move.com survey, one out of eight (12.1%) homebuyers today plan to purchase a home as an investment property, compared to 5.6 percent seven months ago(1). Of those interested in buying a home for investment, 15.8 percent were men and 8.1 percent were women.

For 10 years, former NFL defensive end Marcellus V. Wiley menaced quarterbacks, playing for the Buffalo Bills, the San Diego Chargers, the Dallas Cowboys and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Now he may be sacked by foreclosure.

Wiley, better known as “Dat Dude,” is having a bit of financial trouble in the Los Angeles County, Calif. real estate market. Last month his lender — La Jolla Bank FSB — filed a notice of default on a $5 million construction loan made in 2007.

Wiley, who bought the six bedrooms, 5.5 bathroom estate for $1,945,000 in 2004, appears to be “under water” on the mortgage. Known as “Casa Blanca,” the 6,986 square-foot estate sits on huge 70,000 square-foot lot in the prestigious Indian Springs Estates, which is located between Simi Valley and Porter Ranch, Calif.

Wiley now joins a long — and growing list — of celebrities facing foreclosure. Keep reading ForeclosurePulse for the latest celebrity foreclosures.