Las Vegas Luxury Properties Link

I just came across an interesting article talking about the mortgage deliquency rate falling.  It is a slight decline, but it's the only one since 2006! The full article is below, but you can also visit  Nuwireinvestor.com:

  It doesn't have four letters, but "mortgage" has definitely been a dirty word in the financial world the past few years. That's especially true when the word "mortgage" is paired up with such other terms as "subprime," "delinquent," and "foreclosures."

Little wonder that mortgages - along with the derivative securities backed by them and the often-unseemly practices of the people pushing them - have gotten much of the blame for precipitating the economic meltdown from which the American economy is now struggling to recover.

There's still plenty of woe in the mortgage world. But in recent months there have also been some signs that the real-estate-financing markets are at least regaining some semblance of stability, with foundations being poured for a rebuilding phase that might not be too far down the road.

So far, the most promising sign of this hoped-for mortgage-market rebound has been a late-February report from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the mortgage-lending industry's leading trade group. The recently released report shows that delinquencies on existing first mortgages for residential properties with one to four living units - we're talking about roughly 44.4 million loans - declined in the 2009 fourth quarter.

The MBA's National Delinquency Survey found that late payments on these loans fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of 9.47% of all mortgage loans during the final three months of last year. That's down from 9.64% at the end of the third quarter. But it was still well above the 7.88% level from the fourth quarter in 2008, the MBA reported.

Although the decline from the third to the fourth quarter of last year was small, it still represented the first quarter-over-quarter decrease in the number of loans potentially headed for foreclosure since mid-2006. Mid-2006 was when the rate of late payments began to rise. The rate began to increase steadily until early 2007, when a massive spike in subprime-mortgage defaults caused the late-payment rates to escalate to unprecedented levels.

The ensuing collapse of housing prices - particularly in overbuilt areas like California, Nevada and Florida - and the country's subsequent plunge into recession, which pushed unemployment rates into double-digit territory, left an even-larger number of U.S. homeowners unable to meet their monthly obligations.

Peeling Back the Layers

MBA Chief Economist Jay Brinkmann said the positive nature of the figures was bolstered by a similar drop - from 3.79% to 3.63% - in the number of borrowers who had missed only one monthly payment. Brinkmann said that was significant for two reasons:

• First, this latest development counters the historical trend for the fourth quarter, when short-term mortgage delinquencies normally rise due to holiday spending, higher heating costs and other seasonal factors.
• Second, it means the rise in short-term delinquencies stopped short of the record levels set in 1985.

The drop in 30-day delinquencies is doubly important, Brinkmann added, because those late payments have historically been a leading indicator of foreclosure actions.

"With fewer new loans going bad, the pool of seriously delinquent loans and foreclosures will eventually begin to shrink," Brinkman said. "It also gives us growing confidence that the size of the problem now is about as bad as it will get."

Of course, the size of the foreclosure problem remains at record levels nationwide - and is far worse in some of the hardest-hit areas.

Across the United States, the percentage of mortgages in some stage of the foreclosure process rose to 4.58% at the end of 2009, up from 4.47% in September and 3.30% at the end of 2009. In Florida, however, 20.4% of all mortgages are either 90 days or more past due - or are already in foreclosure. Nevada is a close second: A total of 19% of its loans are either three months or more in arrears, or are now in full-blown foreclosure. Even worse, the number of subprime mortgages in foreclosure nationwide stands at 15.58%, up from 15.35% in September.

However, even in the foreclosure category, the MBA found some positive signs in the fourth quarter.

The number of loans on which new foreclosure actions were started fell to 1.20%, down from 1.42% in September and up just 12 basis points from year-end 2008. Foreclosure starts on subprime loans also decreased slightly, dropping from 3.76% in the third quarter to 3.66% in the fourth quarter.

Not everyone agreed with the MBA's somewhat upbeat view of the foreclosure numbers. A MarketWatch commentary on the delinquency report noted that a moratorium on foreclosures had been imposed by lenders and loan regulators in many areas of the country - a restriction that could be merely delaying new foreclosure actions rather than eliminating the need for them.

In his commentary, MarketWatch Assistant Managing Editor Steve Kerch noted that many mortgage lenders are already holding large inventories of foreclosed properties and might not want to add to the list until real-estate sales actually pick up from current levels.

Ineffective Assistance Programs?

Another factor at play was the Obama administration's increased emphasis late last year on its Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), designed to help 3 million to 4 million borrowers restructure their mortgages to avoid foreclosure. That could have helped stall new fourth-quarter-foreclosure actions and undoubtedly contributed to the improved MBA numbers, although the actual impact of the HAMP program still isn't clear.

The public-interest news organization, ProPublica, reports that only about 1.0 million homeowners have been put into the program since it started in April 2009. And only about 116,300 have received permanent loan modifications, while roughly 62,000 have already been dropped from the program for various reasons, such as failing to make their payments even after those payments were reduced.

The remainder of the 1 million participants are still in the so-called "trial period," which was supposed to last a maximum of three months. However, ProPublica says 475,000 have been in trial periods for longer than three months, and 97,000 have been stuck in loan-modification limbo for more than six months, with almost 60,000 of those having mortgages handled by Chase Home Finance, a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM).

The lengthy trial periods could have a negative long-term impact on troubled homeowners, since the reduced payments result in an increased balance on their mortgages, hurting the credit scores of the affected borrowers and leaving them with fewer alternatives if the modification ultimately falls through.

The low success rate and slow progress of the loan-modification programs also means that actual foreclosure rates could still spike higher, especially given the fact that very few of the people in trouble with their mortgages because of unemployment have been able to find new jobs - and more are still losing them, as evidenced by the rise in new weekly claims for jobless benefits in eight of the first 10 reporting periods in 2010.

The jobs situation also helps explain why about 275,000 homeowners in loan-modification trial periods are already delinquent on their payments, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, which monitors HAMP.

The housing market itself has been adding to the confusion with respect to mortgages. After rising nicely during the final quarter of 2009 - thanks in large part to a pair of government homebuyer tax-credit programs - sales of existing U.S. homes unexpectedly dropped in January.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that sales in the first month of 2010 fell 7.2% to an annual rate of 5.05 million units, down sharply from the predicted rate of 5.50 million homes - though that still represented an increase of 11.5% from January 2009. December sales were also revised downward slightly - from an annualized pace of 5.45 million to a projected 5.44 million units.

The impact of the waning federal tax credits on January sales was reflected in another NAR report. Purchases by first-time homebuyers using the credit - which was subjected to income limits in November - fell by 3.0% in January. The tax credits are scheduled to expire at the end of April.

By contrast, the report said January purchases by investors who were looking to take advantage of foreclosure bargains rose by 2.0% from December to January.

That surge in investor buying was particularly evident in some of the nation's harder-hit regions, such as the Las Vegas area, where the research firm MDA DataQuick reported that 43% of all January home purchases were made by investors or second-home buyers, who paid a median price of $101,000 for their homes, down from $109,836 in December and $125,000 in January 2009.

However, the impact of that buying on the Vegas mortgage market was less pronounced since MDA also told the Las Vegas Sun that a full 50% of January home purchases were all-cash deals, up from 39% in January 2009.

That situation prompted first-time homebuyer Chris Iuso - who's pre-qualified for a loan and looking to purchase a Las Vegas foreclosure property for as much as $120,000 - to complain to a Wall Street Journal reporter that, in spite of Nevada's No. 2 national ranking in mortgages in foreclosure, "there really isn't much inventory (of foreclosed houses) to chase."

Even worse, the bit of housing that is out there and available typically sells for cash on the barrel - putting it out of reach of the typical prospective homeowner. Iuso's agent, Bryan Mitchell of Re/Max Associates, told The Journal that some bank-owned homes have attracted more than 20 offers within just a few days.

Of course, one reason cash is suddenly king in severely depressed markets is that lenders remain reluctant to make new real estate loans - for a variety of reasons. Those reasons include:

• Jobless rates, which remain stubbornly high, and which are actually still climbing in such geographic areas as Las Vegas.
•  Low rates on fixed-rate loans - too low, in fact, for lenders to willingly take on the uncertainty of long-term loans.
• High exposure to increasingly delinquent commercial-property/commercial-real-estate (CRE) loans, which could be the focus of the next banking crisis.
• And still-declining property values, which could put even more homeowners "under water," meaning they owe more on their loans than their houses are worth.

Still-falling average home prices were confirmed by the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index, which recorded a 2.5% decline in the fourth quarter of 2009 versus the fourth quarter of 2008. There is a bright spot, however: That's a major improvement over the annualized rates reported in the first three quarters of 2009, when there were reported price drops of 19.0%, 14.7% and 8.7%, respectively speaking.

In the nation's 20 leading metropolitan areas, which are surveyed monthly, the drop in average prices for December was 3.1%.

The One Place to Profit From the Mortgage Malaise

The continued decline in home prices was the major underlying reason the late-February report by real estate researcher FirstAmerican CoreLogic concluded that 11.3 million U.S. homeowners - nearly 25% of all residential-mortgage holders - owe more on their loans than their houses are worth. The report said that 620,000 new homeowners went under water in the fourth quarter, while another 2.3 million are living on the razor's edge - with less than 5% equity in their homes.

What does this all add up to for investors? The mortgage markets may be stabilizing, but uncertainty remains far too high to generate many outstanding profit opportunities in this harried market sector.

But there may be one exception: The mortgage insurance market.

The mortgage market remains a turbulent one. Property values remain questionable in many markets. And because of a "jobless recovery" and shaky employment outlook, even a borrower with a pristine credit score may end up in a financial jackpot with the loss of paycheck that's necessary to keep making mortgage payments. With such a dour outlook, you can bet that every lender will insist on mortgage insurance before making any new loan. That, coupled with even a modest decline in new delinquencies and foreclosures, could help out the insurers - and their stock prices.

Proof of that came late last month when Radian Group Inc. (NYSE: RDN) reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss - $1.12 versus a predicted $1.69 - based on a slowing in the rate of fresh delinquencies and increased liquidity to cover claims, a condition it expects to maintain through 2012.

Radian's shares rose $1.25 each, or 14.59%, to $9.83 on the news, and eclipsed the $10 level this week. Other firms in the sector - most of which will be reporting earnings in the next couple of weeks - also rose in price on Radian's coattails. Among the ones that could be worth a look, with closing prices from yesterday, are:

    * The PMI Group Inc. (NYSE: PMI) - $2.80.
    * MGIC Investment Corp. (NYSE: MTG) - $8.00.
    * MBIA Inc. (NYSE: MBI) - $5.05.

But given all the uncertainty in the mortgage market right now, make sure to investigate these companies carefully before purchasing their shares.

If you are falling behind on your mortgage, there are a lot of government programs recently created to help home owners.  HAMP and HAFA are just a few.  For more information, please visit their website at http://www.MakingHomesAffordable.gov . I'd be happy to give you a free short sale consultation just call me toll free at 1-866-589-1646.

Felipe Crook

Prudential Americana Group Realtors

Las Vegas, NV 89117

OVERVIEW ~ As now seems the usual course for the markets, sentiment among investors turned from optimistic, over the week of Feb. 16 (Feb. 15 was a holiday) to Feb. 19, to pessimistic in the week that followed. At the start of the day on Monday, Feb. 22, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) had risen to 10402.35. By the end of the week, the DJIA had declined to 10325.26. This is not a precipitous fall, but stock market indices remained somewhat sluggish over the entire week, brought down by disappointing economic indicators and worries about developments in Greece. Further, the week saw very large Treasury security auctions in which bidders pushed rates slightly higher than the Treasury had anticipated. Again, not a great deal higher, but enough to create worry, particularly over Monday's and Wednesday's auctions. The Freddie Mac average 30-year fixed-rate, meanwhile, rose from 4.93% the week prior to 5.05% on Thursday, Feb. 25. This signaled the possibility of an on-going uptrend among mortgage rates (though, as always, concerns that present events foretell future trends usually fall away as the mood among investors moves from negative to positive and back again).

 FOLLOW-UP ~ Greece remained in the news, postponing its sales of 10-year notes for one to two weeks, much to the concern of international investors.  Greece needs to borrow at least  54 billion this year to pay off existing notes and bonds; it has thus far raised  13 billion. About  22 billion of bonds mature in March and April, and so Greece is under the gun to find enough money to pay off the  22 billion. The country also currently faces the possibility that Standard & Poor's, and possibly other rating agencies, will lower its rating for Greece, which could make it still harder for Greece to sell its notes.

 Coming this spring as well, the Fed will stop helping keep mortgage rates low as its program of buying very large quantities of mortgage-backed securities (MBSs) comes to an end. Investors have had plenty of advance warning that this will happen, and it is therefore difficult to predict the reaction in the markets. More important, though, we can't know to what extent this will leave the MBS markets vulnerable to an imbalance of growing supply and lower demand, elevating the rates required by investors.

FOCUS ~ The Federal Reserve Board Chairman, in testimony before Congress on Wednesday, Feb. 24, once again reassured the markets that the Fed would continue to help keep rates low for an "extended period." His comments appeared to briefly help lift the stock index nearly a full percent, but investors remain skeptical, worried that interest rates may turn higher before the Fed Chairman currently predicts they will. The rate the Fed charges at its "discount window," after all, was nudged higher last week. And purchases of MBSs will cease in March. What we can see here is an anxiety among investors which cannot be salved by the Fed chief (surely assuring continued market volatility) as rates and indices climb and fall unpredictably

The Las Vegas Housing Market continues to see high buyer traffic

The month of February saw 3,178 properties change hands of buyers looking to capitalize on the First Time Home Buyers Tax Credit.

• 23% of those sold properties were short sales
• 54% of those sold properties were foreclosures
• 23% of those sold properties were regular sellers

The available inventory has dropped dramatically from a year ago:

• There are currently 10,724 condos, townhouses, and single family residences on the market.
• 45% of those properties are listed as Short Sales (where the bank has to approve the sales price and take a loss)
• 38% of those properties are regular sellers
• 15% of those properties are foreclosures.  This is a HUGE drop in available foreclosures.

If you are interested in short selling your home, visit http://www.LasVegasShortSaleConnection.com or call me toll free at 1-866-589-1646.  You can also do your own home search below for FREE. 

Felipe Crook Prudential Americana Group Realtors, Las Vegas NV 89117 

We're number 1, we're number 1....in up-side-down mortgages. Again, not the thing you really want to be leading the nation with, but that's our market right now.  There is a great report just released from First American CoreLogic on the Fourth Quarter housing statistics.  Over 11.3 million mortgages are under water.  Nevada seems to be the epicenter of the housing meltdown, even though prices have stabilized, the numbers are surprising. Here's an excerpt from the report:

 Negative equity continues to be concentrated in five states: Nevada, which had the highest percentage negative equity with 70 percent of all of its mortgaged properties underwater, followed by Arizona (51 percent), Florida (48 percent), Michigan (39 percent) and California (35 percent). Among the top five states, the average negative equity share was 42 percent, compared to 15 percent for the remaining 45 states. In numerical terms, California (2.4 million) and Florida (2.2 million) had the largest number of negative equity mortgages accounting for 4.6million, or 41 percent, of all negative equity loans.

The blog "Calculated Risk Blog" reported:

These homeowners are far more likely to default.

The rise in negative equity is closely tied to increases in pre‐foreclosure activity and is a major factor in changing homeowners' default behavior. Once negative equity exceeds 25 percent, or the mortgage balance is $70,000 higher than the current property values, owners begin to default with the same propensity as investors.

 Here is figure 4 from the report.

The default rate increases sharply for homeowners with more than 20% negative equity.

This graph fits with figure 2 above and suggests a large number of future defaults in Nevada, Arizona, Florida and California.

The aggregate dollar value of negative equity was $801 billion, up $55 billion from $746 billion in Q3 2009. The average negative equity for an underwater borrower in Q4 was ‐$70,700, up from ‐$69,700 in Q3 2009. The segment of borrowers that are 25 percent or more in negative equity account for over $660 billion in aggregate negative equity.

Because Nevada is SO upside down, loan modification programs, and short sales have taken over our market.  Out of the 10,135 Single Family Homes, Townhouses, and Condos that are currently available on the multiple listing service in Las Vegas/Henderson, 4900 are short sales, and 1550 are foreclosures or bank owned properties.    Banks are now on board the short sale wagon.  They want to work with sellers to avoid foreclosure.  Bank of America, one of the most notorious banks in the short sale world, is the first large bank to sign on for the Second Lein Holders program-H.A.M.P. (Housing Affordable Modification Program).  If you'd like more information regarding a loan modification, please visit Making Home Afforable.   These programs also facilitate the short sale process.  Some of these programs do seem to be making a difference.  Short sale closings have increased to 22% of all home sales in January 2010.

If you would like a FREE, confidential short sale consultation, please give me a call toll free at 1-866-589-1646.  We're here to help you avoid foreclosure, get a loan modification, or assist you to short sale your home.  Certified Short Sale Professional and Certified Distressed Property Experts handle every aspect of your short sale.

Felipe Crook

Prudential Americana Group Realtors

Las Vegas, NV 89117

1-866-589-1646

With the majority of all of our sales being foreclosures or short sales,  few people consider new homes, and I keep telling them they are missing out.  I just attended a National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, NAHREP for short, luncheon last week with a huge panel of brand new home builders.  It was very informative and gave everyone a clear indication of new building trends....here's the biggest trend: GREEN BUILDING.   Many of the builders are now constructing Enery Plus which is 30% more efficient than Energy Star.   Out here in the hot summers and chilly winters, having an energy efficient home is ideal.  The builders are ramping up for the expiration of the home buyers tax credit.  Many builders offer incentives to the buyers, such as closing costs, upgrade or option credits, and some even reduce the price.   New home builders require that your Realtor accompany you on your first visit, so make sure you let your agent know you'd like to visit a new home community otherwise the builder's employee will represent you AND the builder.  If you'd like to see new construction homes in Las Vegas, you can start your search below or call me toll free 1-866-589-1646.  I have relationships with a lot of builders around town, and can usually get the latest and greatest deals available.

Felipe Crook

Prudential Americana Group Realtors

Las Vegas, NV 89117

1-866-589-1646

If you want to stay in your home, I highly recommend you apply for the HAMP program created by the Obama administration.  What is the program about?  You can visit: Making Home Affordable.  Here's an exerpt from their website:

 "The Obama Administration has introduced a comprehensive Financial Stability Plan to address the key problems at the heart of the current crisis and get our economy back on track. A critical piece of that effort is Making Home Affordable, a plan to stabilize our housing market and help up to 7 to 9 million Americans reduce their monthly mortgage payments to more affordable levels.

The Home Affordable Refinance Program gives up to 4 to 5 million homeowners with loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac an opportunity to refinance into more affordable monthly payments. The Home Affordable Modification Program commits $75 billion to keep up to 3 to 4 million Americans in their homes by preventing avoidable foreclosures.

Our consumer website, www.MakingHomeAffordable.gov, provides homeowners with detailed information about these programs along with self-assessment tools and calculators to empower borrowers with the resources they need to determine whether they might be eligible for a modification or a refinance under the Administration's program. Through this website, borrowers can also connect with free counseling resources to help with outstanding questions; locate homeowner events in their communities; find a handy checklist of key documents and materials to have ready when making that important call to their servicer as well as FAQs from borrowers in similar circumstances; and much more.

Recommended steps for homeowner to see if HAMP is a viable alternative to foreclosure:

1. Complete the quick online form on the eligibility page of Making Home Affordable 
   http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov/eligibility.html
   
2. Determine if your lender is participating in HAMP by either looking them up on this page: http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov/contact_servicer.html AND calling your lender to verify and discuss your options.
3. HAMP has a Request a Modification process - http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov/requestmod.shtml.  Recommend contacting your Mortgage Servicer first.

If your loan is NOT a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, then HAFA is the program you would use.  What is HAFA?

HAFA applies to loans not owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, which will issue their own versions of HAFA in coming weeks.

HAFA is a complex program, with 43 pages of guidelines and forms, designed to simplify and streamline use of short sales and deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure. HAFA:

• Complements HAMP by providing a viable alternative for borrowers (the current homeowners) who are HAMP eligible but nevertheless unable to keep their home.
• Uses borrower financial and hardship information already collected in connection with consideration of a loan modification.
• Allows borrowers to receive pre-approved short sales terms before listing the property (including the minimum acceptable net proceeds).
• Prohibits the servicers from requiring a reduction in the real estate commission agreed upon in the listing agreement (up to 6 percent).
• Requires borrowers to be fully released from future liability for the first mortgage debt (no cash contribution, promissory note, or deficiency judgment is allowed).
• Uses standard processes, documents, and timeframes/deadlines.
• Provides financial incentives: $1,500 for borrower relocation assistance; $1,000 for servicers to cover administrative and processing costs; and up to $1,000 for investors for allowing a total of up to $3,000 in short sale proceeds to be distributed to subordinate lien holders (on a one-for-three matching basis).
• Requires all servicers participating in HAMP to implement HAFA in accordance with their own written policy, consistent with investor guidelines. The policy may include factors such as the severity of the potential loss, local markets, timing of pending foreclosure actions, and borrower motivation and cooperation

For the full HAFA Guidlines click here. For frequently asked questions regarding the HAFA Program click here. The part about these programs which are hugely beneficial to clients considering doing a short sale is that the banks are required to release their right for defficiency judgement.  That is the number one reasons short sales don't move forward.  If we can eliminate that threat, we will be able to keep so many foreclosures from hitting the market which will greatly affect our prices and neighborhoods.  If you'd like to condifentially discuss your scenario, please contact Felipe Crook at 1-866-589-1646.

Prudential Americana Group Realtors

Felipe Crook

7475 W. Sahara Ave Ste 100

Las Vegas, NV 89117