housing market

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11.1M Households Underwater
 11.1M Households Underwater 
Mar 9, 2011 7:17 AM CST

11.1M Households Underwater

Number jumps to 23.1% at end of 2010, more likely on way

(Newser) - Just when it looked like the housing market might be treading water, more American homes slipped underwater at the end of 2010, reports the AP. Now 23.1% of all mortgages, or 11.1 million, outweigh the value of the house they secure—up from 22.5% in the previous...

Meet MERS: Another Real Estate Time Bomb?

The corporation says it holds title to 50% of America's home mortgages

(Newser) - If you thought America's real estate mess couldn't get any messier, brace yourself—and meet the MERS corporation. If you haven't heard of it, you're not alone. The obscure business, housed in Reston, Va., employs fewer than 50 full-time workers ... and claims to hold title to about 50% of the...

White House: Let's Kill Fannie, Freddie

Obama administration wants to get out of the mortgage market

(Newser) - The Obama administration will propose dissolving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and reducing the federal government’s role in the mortgage market, sources tell the Wall Street Journal . The White House is set to release three plans for moving forward without the government-owned mortgage giants, which originated nine out of...

11% of US Homes Vacant
 11% of US Homes Vacant 


Feb 2, 2011 2:40 AM CST

11% of US Homes Vacant

Prices set to fall even further

(Newser) - The latest census figures on the housing market make for grim reading for homeowners. Some 18.4 million homes are vacant—11% of the nation's housing supply—and home ownership rates are dropping rapidly, CNBC reports. Prices are down year-over-year in all 28 major metropolitan areas tracked by the Wall ...

Calif. Lawyer: Break Back Into Your Foreclosed Homes

Radical attorney helps clients squat in bank-owned properties

(Newser) - One California attorney isn't afraid of getting on the wrong side of the law to help clients who have been evicted from their homes. Michael T. Pines of Pines & Associates advises clients to break into their foreclosed homes and live there illegally. He has personally broken into at...

Banks Claimed a Record 1M Homes Last Year

And this year will be even worse

(Newser) - Banks repossessed a little more than a million homes last year, a record high, according to the latest report from RealtyTrac —and that’s despite a sharp drop off in the fourth quarter thanks to the robo-signing scandal . Next year will likely be even worse, one RealtyTrac exec tells...

Housing Market Headed for Double Dip

Declines could hurt broader recovery

(Newser) - The housing market is cratering again, dousing the optimism that pervaded earlier this year. Prices fell for the third straight month in October, according to the S&P/Case Shiller index released yesterday, and economists expect them to keep dropping through early spring, wiping out any progress made since the market’...

Arizona's Newest Resident: Bristol Palin

She pays cash for 5-bedroom foreclosure, no pool

(Newser) - Maybe Sarah Palin's Alaska is getting a tad too brisk this December, because Bristol Palin is taking her dancing shoes and heading to snowbird central, reports the Arizona Republic. The ex-governor's eldest daughter has bought a 5-bedroom house in Maricopa, plunking down $172,000 in cash. The house mirrors the...

Bernanke's Rationale Looks Too Rosy

Felix Salmon isn't thrilled with Fed chief's op-ed

(Newser) - The Fed's controversial plan to buy $600 billion worth of Treasuries to stimulate growth has brought the phrase "quantitative easing" out from the obscurity of financial blogs. Will it work? Two columns today on the subject from Ben Bernanke himself in the Washington Post and Felix Salmon at Reuters...

Millions of Underwater Borrowers Debate Walking Away

Mass abandonment of mortgages could trigger new economic plunge

(Newser) - A quarter of American homeowners now owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth and millions of them are thinking about just walking away. "Strategic defaults" on so-called underwater mortgages are on the rise, although abandoning mortgages is controversial and, to some, immoral. "We made a...

GMAC, BofA Restarting Foreclosures
 GMAC, BofA 
 Restarting 
 Foreclosures 
UPDATED
Oct 19, 2010 9:17 AM CDT

GMAC, BofA Restarting Foreclosures

Two vast banks at center of crisis find no significant problems

(Newser) - Bank of America and GMAC, two huge players in the mortgage crisis, are moving to resume foreclosures, effectively ending a self-imposed moratorium meant to give them time to look for errors, the Wall Street Journal reports. A BofA spokesman said the bank would resubmit paperwork for 102,000 cases by...

BofA Moves to Restart Foreclosures
 BofA Moves to 
 Restart Foreclosures 
BRIEF RESPITE
Oct 18, 2010 4:29 PM CDT

BofA Moves to Restart Foreclosures

Bank resubmits affidavits in 102,000 pending actions

(Newser) - Bank of America moved to re-start foreclosures today, moving to resubmit paperwork for 102,000 cases and effectively ending the moratorium it enacted to give it time to look for errors, the Wall Street Journal reports. A BofA spokesman said that so far "no cases" of improper foreclosures have...

Foreclosure Scandal Messing Up Home Sales
Foreclosure Scandal Messing Up Home Sales
UPDATED
Oct 8, 2010 9:41 AM CDT

Foreclosure Scandal Messing Up Home Sales

Thousands of sales thrown into limbo

(Newser) - Hundreds of thousands of foreclosures have been thrown into limbo in the wake of revelations that major lenders didn’t properly review the foreclosure documents, creating a big mess for people trying to buy those homes, the New York Times reports. JPMorgan and GMAC have suspended foreclosures in the 23...

Home Prices Up 3.2% Over July 2009
 Home Prices Up 3.2% 
 Over July 2009 

but downturn looms
Sep 28, 2010 8:47 AM CDT

Home Prices Up 3.2% Over July 2009

July numbers up .6% from June, but demand weakening

(Newser) - Home prices rose in July for the fourth straight month, but many cities are bracing for declines in the year ahead. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index increased 0.6% in July from June and 3.2% from a year ago. Twelve cities showed monthly price gains. However,...

Home Repos Hit Recession High

US on track for 1M foreclosures this year

(Newser) - Lenders took back more homes in August than any month since the start of the US mortgage crisis. The increase in home repossessions came even as the number of properties entering the foreclosure process slowed for the seventh month in a row, RealtyTrac said today. In all, banks repossessed 95,...

Hands Off, Obama: Let Housing Prices Fall
Hands Off, Obama:
Let Housing Prices Fall
opinion
Aug 28, 2010 1:07 PM CDT

Hands Off, Obama: Let Housing Prices Fall

False incentives will hurt us in the long run

(Newser) - In case you missed it, be advised that home sales have fallen off a cliff. This week's grim numbers will no doubt raise the call for the Obama administration to reach into its bag of tricks (bring back that tax credit, maybe?) to encourage people to buy and thus keep...

New Home Sales Drop 12.4% in July
 New Home Sales 
 Drop 12.4% in July 




SLOWEST PACE ON RECORD
Aug 25, 2010 9:22 AM CDT

New Home Sales Drop 12.4% in July

Sales pace falls way short of 330K expected

(Newser) - Sales of new US homes dropped sharply last month to the slowest pace on record, the latest sign that the economic recovery is fading. The Commerce Department says new home sales fell 12.4% in July from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 276,600....

July Home Sales Plummet 27.2%
 July Home Sales 
 Plummet 27.2% 


LOWEST LEVEL SINCE '95
Aug 24, 2010 9:20 AM CDT

July Home Sales Plummet 27.2%

Largest drop since records began in 1968

(Newser) - Sales of previously occupied US homes fell to the lowest level in 15 years last month as the economy weakened. The National Association of Realtors says July's sales fell by more than 27% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.83 million. It is the largest monthly drop noted...

Your House Isn't Going to Appreciate Like Mad

Those days are done, say economists

(Newser) - In the good old days, a house was generally synonymous with "cash cow," a rapidly appreciating investment that all but guaranteed a comfortable retirement and paid for college tuition and vacations along the way. Those days of quick appreciation are gone, say economists, and have been replaced by...

Tax Credits Gone, New Home Sales Plunge 33%

May numbers are lowest since 1963

(Newser) - Sales of new homes collapsed last month, sinking 33% to the lowest level on record as potential buyers stopped shopping for homes once they could no longer get government incentives. The Commerce Department says new home sales fell in May from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual sales...

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