homesmillbrae.com » Estimates

Mortgage bailout not over, FHA to draw $1.7 billion

Fri, 27 Sep 2013 20:11:21 +0000

The negatives, however, are that the FHA is making far fewer loans today due to tighter underwriting and higher fees. That means it is making less money, even though its newer loans are performing extremely well. The estimates for the insurance fund will not be updated until the end of this year, when it will likely show vast improvement.

(Read more: Mortgage alert: Borrowers change how they cheat)

“It is estimated that the improvement in recovery rates alone is worth more than $5 billion to the MMIF—which would far exceed the amount of the mandatory appropriation,” wrote Galante.

The FHA, which insures low down-payment loans, or loans with a minimum 3.5 percent down, stepped in to save the housing market. It went from about a 3 percent share of the market to almost a third of the mortgage market during the crash. But now, it’s paying the price.

“Over the years, the FHA has strayed far from its original mission. It has become the nation’s largest subprime lender,” wrote Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

(Read more: Map: Tracking the recovery)

Most of the FHA losses, around $70 billion, were from loans originated between 2007 and 2009. The biggest trouble has been in reverse-mortgages for senior citizens and seller-funded down payments; the latter was banned in 2008.

—By CNBC’s Diana Olick. Follow her on Twitter @Diana_Olick.

Questions?Comments? facebook.com/DianaOlickCNBC

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101068629

More Homeowners Become Accidental Landlords

Sat, 25 May 2013 05:02:08 +0000

Arati Patel built a house in Greenville, SC in 2007, but when she was forced to move to Washington, DC for a new job, she knew she couldn’t sell it for enough, so she put it up for rent. In the last several years, she had all kinds of trouble with tenants and even had to have one evicted.

“It was a bit of a nightmare because I don’t live in Greenville…I have no desire to go back to Greenville because my life is in DC,” says Patel. “It was a lot of coordination and I am still trying to collect over $2,000 from my tenants.”

Patel finally ended up selling the home recently at a large loss. She didn’t want to do a short sale because the process is long and risky, and she didn’t want to damage her credit.

(Read More: Record High New Home Prices to Grow)

While there are no real estimates of how many “accidental landlords” now inhabit the housing market, Realtors say they are one more cause of today’s low inventory issue. Usually a buyer is also a seller, making the transaction a wash in terms of inventory, but if the buyer is not a seller, and instead becomes a landlord, inventory takes a negative hit.

Home prices have been rising steadily, up over ten percent from a year ago, according to the latest reading from CoreLogic. Prices are still well below where they were during the housing boom, when so many people bought into the market.

As millions come above water, others are far below. Forty-eight percent of borrowers in Atlanta are underwater, 37 percent in Miami, 54 percent in Las Vegas and 37 percent in Sacramento.

(Read More: Homes Selling at Fastest Pace Since Boom)

It will take many years of price gains for these homeowners to see the light of equity.

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100764601

What to Expect From Toll Brothers Earnings

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:17:52 +0000

For fiscal year 2013, analysts are estimating earnings of 88 cents per share, but those estimates have been shrinking due to concerns over the broader economy.

“I think it will be a pretty good report for Toll. The high-end and move-up markets is where it’s at right now,” said David Goldberg, a home builder analyst at UBS. “Pricing is improving.”

(Read More: Home Builders Get Jitters for First Time in a Year.)

Toll reported very strong earnings last quarter, with big jumps in both sales and income and a drop in cancellation rates. There had been concern that the looming “fiscal cliff” would hit Toll’s higher-end customers, but that did not come to pass.

While other home builders have seen big jumps in their stock prices over the past year, Toll is up just under 3 percent from a year ago. However, it is up nearly 25 percent from last November, when it had taken it a big dip.

(Read More: Mortgage Mess Still Mires US Housing Recovery.)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100470583

Sand and Surf Help Spur Real-Estate Revival

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 06:16:40 +0000

BY JIM CARLTON

SANTA MONICA, Calif.—Office occupancy rates in this seaside city have soared in an otherwise lackluster Los Angeles market, fueled by an entertainment-industry expansion. The move is part of an uneven recovery in the property market benefiting certain pockets of cities and metropolitan areas.

Santa Monica’s office-vacancy rate fell to 11.5% in the fourth quarter, from 14.3% in the same period a year earlier, while vacancies for overall Los Angeles County remained at a recessionary peak of 17%, according to estimates by Grubb Ellis Co., a real-estate-brokerage firm based in Santa Ana, Calif.

Santa Monica’s vacancies peaked at 16.2% in …

Article source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703566504576202653863244690.html