A Look at Case-Shiller, by Metro Area

A Look at Case-Shiller, by Metro Area
February 23, 2010, Wall Street Journal

The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city home-price index, a closely watched gauge of U.S. home prices, was mostly flat in December from a month earlier. The index declined 3.1% from a year earlier. On a month-to-month basis prices fell 0.2% in December from November, but adjusted for seasonal factors the 20-city index was 0.3% higher. On a seasonally adjusted basis, just five cities posted month-to-month declines. Unadjusted, 15 regions experienced home-price drops. The housing market is particularly sensitive to seasonal factors, especially in December as the holidays depress activity. Los Angeles posted the largest jump in prices, while Chicago posted the biggest drop

Short Sales at New Peak in January
February 23, 2010, Inman News

Short sales jumped to 15.9 percent of home purchase transactions last month, according to a monthly survey by Washington, D.C.-based business research firm Campbell Surveys and mortgage industry publication Inside Mortgage Finance. That's the highest percentage of short sales since the survey first launched in July of last year, when short sales made up 12.5 percent of transactions. Before January, the peak had been 15.1 percent in October. That figure fell to 12.6 percent in November and rose to 13.7 percent in December. REO transactions were higher at 27.2 percent. Sales of damaged real estate owned (REO) properties and move-in ready REO properties made up 13.4 percent and 13.8 percent of January home purchase transactions, respectively. Also, read this DSNews.com story on short sales.

Ohio Man Bulldozes $350K Home to Avoid Foreclosure
February 23, 2010, Washington Post

An Ohio man says he bulldozed his $350,000 home to keep a bank from foreclosing on it. Terry Hoskins says he has struggled with the RiverHills Bank over his home in Moscow for years and had problems with the Internal Revenue Service. He says the IRS placed liens on his carpet store and commercial property and the bank claimed his house as collateral.

Vegas House Bargains Dry Up
February 23, 2010, Wall Street Journal

Jonathan Griffin, Michael Pawlak and Chris Iuso all are chasing bargains on foreclosed homes here. It should be easy. Las Vegas is one of the foreclosure capitals of the U.S., with about one in four households behind on house payments or in mortgage foreclosure. Yet all three of these shoppers—a professional real-estate investor, a county official with federal funds designated for stabilizing neighborhoods and an installer of security systems who needs a new place to live—are frustrated.

Equity Lenders Using Newfound Leverage in 'Short Sales'
February 23, 2010, North County Times

Completing a "short sale" was hard enough in 2009, but since the New Year, some lenders have begun making last-minute demands for more money, real estate agents and analysts say.As the housing crisis has matured from sour milk to stinky cheese, the market for homes has been shifting from a heavy dose of foreclosed properties to a higher percentage of short sales, in which a borrower sells a property for less than is owed on the mortgage But many of these short sellers have multiple loans on their property. Growing demand for short sales in recent months has allowed holders of second loans to become more aggressive in their demands and put the deals at risk