Some new foreclosure information

Florida is one of the worst hit states for foreclosures and the government is sending money to help. It will take some time to see what happens but initially the market could smooth itself out but the money will only help a few. The money will be used to help those that have lost their jobs and need to keep their house.

Foreclosure Laws in Florida

There was an article in the Florida Realtor today about the new legislation on foreclosures. This specific legislation was about the banks efforts to speed up proceedings for the foreclosure process. In Florida the foreclosure process is handled by the courts and in today's world that means that the process could take 12-24 months. The banks want to speed up the process by taking it out of the courts and in to a proceeding that could get people out of their homes in 90 days.

Obviously this is a tough issue because no lawmaker thinks it makes sense to get half a million defaulted homeowners out of their homes faster when a lot of them want to work something out. Homeowner and condo associations are missing out because dues are not paid and neighbors are upset about the foreclosed homes that are abandoned and not kept up.

It is an issue that won't be resolved anytime soon. It is disconcerting that nothing has been done to help the homeowners situation. I have seen and met with many homeowners who would rather settle and the banks won't even answer a simple call about what could be done. It costs banks more money to go through the court proceedings than just settling or short selling homes so it doesn't make sense that they don't move. The first thing that crosses my mind is that they don't care since most have been bailed out anyway but a short sale would seem to be a better option. I have personally seen auctioned homes go for 40 to 50 percent less than a bank would have gotten through a short sale and they don't have to hire a lawyer to go through the process.

Most likely no significant bill will go through to help present situation. They will pass something after the fact and it will prevent this from happening in the future. Only time will tell.

Update on Mortgage Lending

This is a good article focusing on what could happen if the government pulls back some of their investing in the home market. This is the test that the Fed is worried about. They could stop buying the mortgage backed securities in March as planned leaving open a market to investor money that still does not have faith in the market. The biggest worry is inflation.

This also will show how much the market can hold up on its own. I always question when the government gets involved because if the market does not stay afloat, and that is if the governemnt pulls out fully, then it shows that the housing growth of the past year was fake. If it holds up then the investment the government made in mortgages worked to boost the private sector's confidence in these securities.

Only time will tell and it is most likely the government will not fully stop the money because they are scared the market is not ready.

Esisting-Home Sales

Well it seems as though existing home sales went down in December as reported by the Wall Street Journal. The reason is because a lot of the Federal Money in the form of tax credits helped the spike to begin with and December is a slow month as it is for real estate sales. The tax credit should help to keep homes sales steady until it expires in April so there will be some better numbers for the next few months. The tax credit is a good thing for people but it will be interesting to see what happens after they expire and if sales go down dramatically then we will know what the impact is.

According to the National Association of Realtors the price of homes did rise year over year for the first time for two years. That is good news. It is important to remember that the market is still struggling and here in Southwest Florida the homes will stay at the current level because inventory is still high compared to what the rest of the country is showing. Overall the inventory levels for the nation have shrank which indicates that homes are selling.

First time buyers should jump on this opportunity to purchase an affordable home.

Here are some stats from the local MLS about our area.

Members of the Association closed 1,340 single family home sales in December, bringing the total for 2009 to 16,789; this is a 91.4% increase vs. 2008 when 8,768 homes were sold. Of the December sales, 48.3% were bank-owned, 18.2% were short sales and the remaining traditional sales made up 33.4% . The median price was $89,929, which is 8.0% lower than the prior December; however, the median price continues to be influenced by the number of bank-owned and short sales, which continues to drive down the overall median price. During Quarter 4, the median price for traditional sales was $135,000 (a 3.5% decrease from the prior quarter), for bank-owned sales it was $69,900 (up 2.7%) and the median price for short sales was $94,950 (up 6.6% from last quarter).

Foreclosure Numbers

I don't think that it is too surprising to see the number of foreclosures reported in this article but it is important to note that this means plenty of opportunity for people in Southwest Florida. It is not the best situation for those neighborhoods that lose their property value because of a few foreclosed homes but the opportunity for buyers has never been better. It will take some time for the number of inventory to be sold but people seem to forget the hype of a few years ago and almost no one I talked to then thought the rising values would ever end. People just need to be patient and things will turn around.

Terry Manos

Short Sale Help

This is an article that covers something new the government will be doing in April. This will help to speed up the response time from the bank when they get an offer from a short sale. Presently I have seen banks taking between 30 - 90 days to respond to an offer. This will not cover Fannie and Freddie loans for now but it is a start. It doesn't make sense why banks wouldn't have responded fast to begin with since it is cheaper for them to go through a short sale than a foreclosure. Hopefully it will work out as planned.
Terry Manos

Good Faith Estimate (GFE)

There are some things that the Government is doing to help buyers at the closing table. The intent is to lower some of the fees that a buyer would see at closing. This article covers some of those fees. It is important to note that the government involvement in this matter does not always lower the fees as much as they claim.

It is crucial for buyers to be aware of what the fees would be and the Good Faith Estimate (GFE) covers most of them but often fees are added in the end which could be a burden for the buyer. These extra fees are what the governemnt is trying to stop and will succeed to minimize them a little. It is helpful for the realtor to direct buyers to do their due diligence on the subject. Some of the forms are even difficult to understand for Lawyers so it is important to take the proper time to understand what issues could arise at the closing.

It will be a tough recovery

Overal it will be a tough recovery for the real estate market. This article covers some issues to for in 2010. Government programs have helped the small progress we have so far but that will change as many of these end soon. The $8,000 tax credit for 1st time buyers will end in April, March will see the end to a program that has been buying mortgage debt which could lead to rising rates, and only 31,000 of 728,000 borrowers have recieved modifications on their loans. The result will be a slow recovery for 2010 overall.

It is difficult for a lot of people but things will come back eventually and so far it is proven that the government intervention only helps for the short term. The market will have to work itself out and may be people will learn from the mistakes of the past.

Terry Manos
239-560-4043

Cape Coral and the media

Yes, it has been a rough two years for Cape Coral in the press. I remember a few years back when they were raving about how beautiful it was down here and the great opportunities there were. Most of the articles are negative, yes, but there is opportunity even with the market like it is. Homes have never been this affordable and many people are benefitting from the prices. It will take some time but people from up north still want to be in the heat through winter and the weather won't change so there is still a market down here.