Welcome to the "Z" Team!

“Good News” to share with you! The number of home owners behind on their mortgage payments dropped to the lowest level in three years, according to a report of data from the fourth quarter of 2011 released by the Mortgage Bankers Association. 

“Mortgage performance is also improving faster than the overall economy,” says Jay Brinkmann, MBA’s chief economist. (We’re finding this is not true with some lenders.)

According to MBA, 7.6 percent of residential mortgages were at least 30 days past due on their payments in the fourth quarter of 2011. Last year, the percentage was 8.3, and the peak of 10 percent was reached in early 2010. Mortgage delinquencies usually hover around 5 percent in more stable markets. Let’s hope this trend continues.

Still, while the lower delinquencies serve as an important sign needed for a healing housing market, MBA still cautions that the number of loans in foreclosure remains high. About 4.4 percent of all loans were in foreclosure in the fourth quarter. The peak reached one year earlier was 4.6 percent.

Source: “Mortgage Delinquencies Hit Three-Year Low,” The Wall Street Journal (2/16/12)

Here’s the “good news” from the weekly mortgage market survey. Rates continue to hover at record lows, with the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage staying at the record low of 3.87 percent since the first week of February, Freddie Mac reports. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, the most popular choice among home buyers, has been below 4 percent for the past 11 weeks. 

A closer look at mortgages rates for the week ending Feb. 16: 

30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.87 percent, with an average 0.8 point, matching last week’s average. A year ago at this time, 30-year rates averaged 5 percent. 

15-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.16 percent, with an average 0.8 point, also matching last week’s average. Last year at this time, 15-year rates averaged 4.27 percent. 

5-year adjustable-rate mortgages: averaged 2.82 percent this week, with an average 0.8 point, dropping slightly from last week’s 2.83 percent average. Last year, 5-year ARMs averaged 3.87 percent. 

Source: Freddie Mac

Thought these points would be of interest to home sellers and their real estate agent to coordinate? We believe, marketing a home is a mutual effort of todays home selling! 

Do you want to increase buyer traffic at an open house? Instead of just a flyer or e-mail blast announcing the event, try to give buyers more reason to come out and tour?

A recent article at RISMedia offers some of the following ideas: 

1. Host a speaker:A guest speaker, such as a general contractor or home stager, may draw more of a crowd. Potential buyers may also be looking to sell their own homes, so a stager can offer tips to spruce up a home for sale. 
2. Offer a gift: Hold a raffle, such as by raffling off a gift certificate. Plus, with a raffle, buyers will have to share their contact information with you, which you can then use to follow up. If there’s ever a price change on the house, be sure to notify them. 
3. Involve the community:Invite the neighbors to come to the open house and share their thoughts about the school system or current events in the community, the RISMedia article suggests. You’ll not only be raising awareness about your listing but also helping “to unite the community on important issues,” the article notes. Just be sure to avoid political issues, which can polarize a crowd.

 Source: “5 Ways to Increase Open House Traffic,” RISMedia (Feb. 14, 2012)

A $25 billion mortgage settlement announced between major banks and state and government officials is supposed to bring aid to troubled home owners, but it could also bring a wave of new foreclosures, CNNMoney reports. 

During the year long negotiations, some banks slowed down repossessing homes, and now they may have a backlog of troubled loans on the books — loans that can’t be saved by the deal’s aid on refinancing or mortgage principal reduction. 

“The bottom line is that 2012 will see a lot of foreclosures that should have taken place in 2011 and didn’t,” Rick Sharga, executive vice president for Carrington Holdings, told CNNMoney.

Last year, foreclosure filings dropped 34 percent. This year, Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac, estimates that new foreclosure filings will increase to between 2.2 million and 2.5 million compared to last year’s 1.9 million filings in 2011. 

The mortgage deal is aimed at helping home owners avoid foreclosure. One million struggling home owners may see their mortgage principal reduced as part of the deal. But the home owners must be able to afford new, lower payments. The banks will have no choice but to foreclose on home owners who stop making payments altogether or cannot afford a new payment structure on their loan.  

The backlog of foreclosures may not be all bad for the housing market, some experts say. We believe the “Short Sale” trend may come to the rescue? What do you think?

 Source: “Mortgage Deal Means More Foreclosures,” CNNMoney (Feb. 10, 2012)

We would like to share this weekly update! Rates ticked up slightly this week, but still hovered around record lows compared to historical standards, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey. Hope this may be of interest to you or a friend.

“A strong January employment report added upward pressure to most mortgage rates this week,” Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said. The unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent as the economy gained 243,000 jobs last month, the largest gain since April 2011. 

Here’s a closer look at rates for the week ending Feb. 9: 

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.87 percent, with an average 0.8 points. A year ago at this time, 30-year rates averaged 5.05 percent. 
• 15-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.16 percent, with an average 0.7 point, rising slightly from last week’s record low of 3.14 percent. But 15-year rates were still far below what they averaged a year ago at this time — 4.29 percent.
• 5-year adjustable-rate mortgages: averaged 2.83 percent, with an average 0.7 point, rising from last week’s 2.80 percent average. Last year at this time, 5-year ARMs averaged 3.92 percent. 

Source: Freddie Mac other news at: www.BudZeller.com or zteam4u@gmail.com

A nonprofit organization is expanding its services to help military home owners who are at risk of foreclosure due to relocation for their jobs or other circumstances. 

Hope Now is an alliance of mortgage servicers, investors, nonprofit counselors, and others aimed at helping home owners who are struggling with their mortgage. 

The alliance recently met for a two-day conference in Washington, D.C., to brainstorm how to specifically address housing aid for military families. “The current housing crisis has created a separate set of challenges for home owners in the military,” John Dalton, president of the Housing Policy Council, said during the meeting.

A group of judges, attorneys, state housing agencies, and others created documents with contact information that finance managers and military attorneys can use when assisting military families who are at risk of foreclosure. 

Hope Now also plans to sponsor outreach events at four military bases early this year, offering more assistance to military families struggling to make their loan payments. 

Source: Hope Now,  more information for Military Families at: Twitter.com@BudZeller, Twitter.com@veteransunited, www.BudZeller.com or zteam4u@gmail.com

Blame it on distressed sales for falling home values, according to CoreLogic’s December Home Price Index. From our analysis here in the Placerville, El Dorado County, California region we concur with this study. What are your thoughts?  

Home prices nationwide dropped nearly 5 percent from 2010 to 2011, but if you exclude distressed sales, prices dropped only by 0.9 percent, according to CoreLogic.

“Until distressed sales in the market recede, we will see continued downward pressure on prices,” Mark Fleming, chief economist of CoreLogic, told AOL Real Estate.

The states that saw home prices decline by the largest amounts since the housing peak are Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Michigan, and California. All five states have a high rate of foreclosures too.

Please read more at source: “Distressed Sales Undercut Home Prices in 2011, Study Says,” AOL Real Estate (Feb. 2, 2012)

The tightened lending standards are keeping a lot of young professionals on the sidelines in home buying today. That’s where more parents are stepping in! 

More parents are taking on the role as mortgage lenders to help their kids take advantage of low home prices and record-low mortgage rates. In fact, one in three first-time home buyers either received a gift or loan from their families for a home purchase made in 2011, according to National Association of REALTORS®’ research.

But parents who enter into a gift-giver or mortgage lender role need to make sure they follow some tax guidelines. We coordinate family like this with CPA’s , attorneys, etc!  

For one, the federal government has rules on how much you’re allowed to gift. For 2012, individuals can give up to $13,000 tax free in one year without having to pay gift taxes. Married couples can give up to $26,000 a year. 

More information at source: “Become Your Kid’s Mortgage Lender,” Fortune (February 2012)

Other news from the “Sierra Foothills” of El Dorado, Placer, Amador and Sacramento Counties of Northern California at: www.sierraproperties.com or www.dougandbudzeller.com

The Appraisal Foundation’s Appraisal Practices Board is seeking public comment on a proposal about how to adjust comparable sales for seller concessions when making valuations.  

“A common tool used to help facilitate a property transaction is to have the seller provide financial assistance or incentives to the buyer,” the board’s proposal states. “Such assistance may be considered a seller concession or financing concession and this is important because it may have an influence on the contract price. The purpose of this guidance is how to identify, verify, analyze and adjust sale comparables for both seller and financing concessions.” 

You can view the appraisal board’s second draft at the Appraisal Foundation Web site, and submit public comment on the draft proposal through Feb. 29. 

We believe financial assistance or incentives often help families buy a home. Appraisers can reflect and adjust for concessions in their analysis. This has been our experience here in the “Sierra Foothills” region of Placerville, El Dorado County, California.   What comments or recommendations could you offer?

Source: REALTOR® Magazine Daily News

With Marcus & Millichap’s National Apartment Report showing that the U.S. average for asking rents in 2011 came in at $1,061 a month, housing analysts believe more tenants will look to own. 

Some expect the average monthly rent to rise to as much as $1,101 this year, which Paul Bishop of the National Association of REALTORS® says should prompt more potential home buyers to “think twice before renting.”

Plus, another reason some consider buying is that a limited supply of rentals exist fitting their needs. This has been the case in our Placerville, El Dorado County region of California for the past few years.

 Source: “High Apartment Rents Seen Pushing People to Buy Homes,” Investor’s Business Daily (Jan. 27, 2012

 More news at: www.sierraproperties.com or email: zeller@realtor.com