Welcome to the "Z" Team!

Our weekly update to share with you! For the third-straight week, fixed-rate mortgages reached new record lows, pushing home affordability even higher for those who can qualify.

“The European debt crisis overshadowed improving economic indicators for the U.S. and allowed Treasury bond yields and fixed mortgage rates to ease for another week,” Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said in explaining why mortgage rates continue to inch down.

Here’s a closer look at how rates fared for the week ending May 17, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly mortgage market survey:

•30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged a new record low of 3.79 percent this week, with an average 0.7 point, down from last week’s previous record of 3.83 percent. Thirty-year mortgage rates have been below 4 percent since December. A year ago at this time, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.61 percent.

•15-year fixed-rate mortgages: also dipped to new record lows this week, averaging 3.04 percent, with an average 0.7 point, dropping from last week’s previous record of 3.05 percent. Last year at this time, 15-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 3.80 percent.

•5-year adjustable-rate mortgages: averaged 2.83 percent, with an average 0.6 point, rising slightly from last week’s 2.81 percent average. Last year at this time, 5-year ARMs averaged 3.48 percent.

Source: Freddie Mac

Todays Fed’s update to share with you! The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to issue new rules that would limit certain fees that lenders require consumers to pay when they purchase a home. Among these fees the agency hopes to ban would be a fee sometimes referred to as “origination points” that buyers pay at closing.

The agency is proposing a ban on mortgage companies from charging origination fees, which can fluctuate with a loans amount, The New York Times reports. The fees can often get confused with upfront discount points that borrowers often pay.

The agency is also looking at implementing a new rule that would require lenders to offer a reduced interest rate when a borrower chooses to pay discount points on a loan upfront. Lenders would be required to offer a loan option to not include any points.

“Mortgages today often come with so many different types of fees and points that it can be hard to compare offers,” Richard Cordray, the director of the consumer bureau, told The New York Times. “We want to bring greater transparency to the market so consumers can clearly see their options and choose the loan that is right for them.” What are your thoughts for this being transparency for the housing recovery in your local market?

Source: “New Rules May Curtail Some Fees in Mortgage, ” The New York Times 5/9/12)

 The Federal Housing Finance Agency Federal Housing Finance Agency announced a new policy to speed up the process that mortgage servicers use to handle short sales, deeds-in-lieu, and deeds-for-lease for mortgages that are backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The FHFA, the regulator of Fannie and Freddie, says the new policy includes a revised timeline that will require mortgage servicers to respond to a request for a short sale offer within 30 days. Servicers also will be required to make a final decision on the short sale offer within 60 days.

For any short sale offer still under review after 30 days, banks will be required to provide weekly status updates to borrowers regarding the pending short sale offer.

The new policy, which will roll out in stages starting in June, aims to “prevent foreclosures, keep homes occupied, and help maintain stable communities,” says Edward DeMarco, the FHFA’s acting director. “These timeline and borrower communication announcements set minimum standards and provide clear expectations regarding these important foreclosure alternatives.”

The FHFA also says that by the end of the year there will be additional announcements from Fannie and Freddie that are aimed at addressing borrower eligibility and evaluation, simplifying documents, property valuation, fraud mitigation, payments to subordinate lien holders, and mortgage insurance. Please provide your thoughts about this policy?

Source: Federal Housing Finance Agency 

Economists have been warning that a flood of foreclosures will soon be hitting the real estate market, likely this summer. Increases in foreclosures traditionally pull down nearby home prices. So should home owners be worried? What is your guess?

As of now, housing reports continue to show month-over-month drops in foreclosures. CoreLogic released a report late last week that showed completed foreclosures fell from 71,000 in January to 65,000 in February.

But as more banks look to clear a backlog of defaulting home loans from their books, economists say the public should expect a turn with foreclosures and the numbers are expected to soar in the coming months. Mark Fleming, CoreLogic’s chief economist, expects the wave to hit this summer.

However, Fleming doesn’t view the increase as a bad thing for the overall housing market. “I would like to see the pace increase, because that means we’ll be able to work off the inventory faster,” Fleming told AOL Real Estate. He says that recent improvements in the real estate market and economy may mitigate any traditional downward pressure seen on overall home prices by foreclosures.

In fact, despite an increase, Fleming still expects home prices to rise in some markets.

“All of this will result in more foreclosure pain in the short term as some of the foreclosures that should have happened last year instead happen this year,” Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac, said in February.

Source: “Home Prices May Withstand Foreclosure Wave,” ”AOL Real Estate (3/30/12)

Two-thirds of renters — across educational and demographic levels — say they want to purchase a home in the future, according to a quarterly national housing survey of 3,000 Americans conducted by Fannie Mae. But they’re spooked about the mortgage process.

“In spite of the impact of the housing crisis on home values and home ownership rates across the country, Americans by and large still hope to become home owners,” says Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae’s chief economist. “Some may not be financially positioned to own a home in the near future, but Americans may begin to revisit that aspiration as employment and household balance sheets improve over the coming years.”

Realtors ease the homebuying process of qualifying and navigating the mortgage process. Coordinating and informing buyers about financing their home is the key!   

“If potential home owners avoid the process because they believe it to be too complex, we will likely see a continued impact on home ownership rates,” Duncan says.

Source: “Fannie Mae Finds Americans Remain Committed to Homeownership,” HousingWire (3/27/12)

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reportedly are in talks with their regulator to allow principal write-downs in order to minimize losses and prevent foreclosures. Both firms seem to have concluded that giving homeowners a big break on their mortgages would make good financial sense in many cases.

“Principal reduction works,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. “If someone gets a reduction in their principal amount, it gives them a powerful hook to really fight to try to hang on to the home and not go into foreclosure.”

The Obama administration has increased incentives to lenders for write-downs, reimbursing half of what the lender writes off in some instances. Your comments?

More information at source: “ Fannie, Freddie Press for Mortgage Write-Downs,” WBUR.org (3/23/12)

This ‘Mega Force’ is becoming a growing force in the housing market, with this demographic’s purchasing power more than doubling over the past decade, according to a new report by the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals called “The State of Hispanic Home Ownership 2011.”

Reconizing the purchasing power of Latinos grew to $1.1 trillion in 2011 and is projected to reach $1.6 trillion by 2016, according to NAHREP. We assist in helping Hispanic Clients!  Hablamos Espanol, www.dougandbudzeller.com or zeller123@gmail.com

Rapid population growth (the Hispanic population more than tripled between 1980 and 2010), the population’s relatively young age, dramatic employment growth, and growing incomes are all triggering a higher rate of Hispanic home buyers, according to NAHREP. Fifty-three percent of the total U.S. population’s 545,000 new owner-occupants in the third quarter of 2011 were Hispanic home owners, according to Census Bureau data.

What’s more, about two-thirds of Hispanic renters have said they plan to purchase a home, according to a 2011 Fannie Mae survey.

“Despite recent losses suffered by Hispanics during the housing crisis, young Latino families that were unaffected by foreclosure or lost home values are ready to enter the market,” says NAHREP President Carmen Mercado. “When they do, they will have an exponential impact on housing sales.”

New household growth is projected to be greater for the Hispanic population than any other demographic, says David Stevens, president of the Mortgage Banker’s Association. “The need to recognize the most critical variables in housing type, price range, affordability, and mortgage product terms will be critical for all housing stakeholders — from lenders and [real estate professionals] to policy makers — in order to ensure that the home ownership needs of Hispanics and other Americans are met,” he says.

Source: National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals 

Interesting that nearly half of home owners recently polled in an online survey said they would walk away from their mortgage if home prices continued to fall. The poll included 1,000 visitors to HousingPredictor, a real estate Web site.

While the poll is unscientific, we question whether home owners are starting to grow more acceptance of the strategic default idea? Strategic default is when home owners walk away from their mortgage obligations, despite being able to make their payments.

In a similar poll in March 2010, HousingPredictor found that 32 percent said they would strategic default if prices fell further — compared to 47 percent in the most recent poll.

But for home owners who walk away from their mortgage obligations, they often do so with later regrets. Experts caution that home owners take a big hit to their credit score — a 30-day late payment alone could bring your credit score down by 100 points, says Glamis Haro, a lending manager who was interviewed by AOL Real Estate. Defaulters may also have to wait up to seven years to even apply for a mortgage again.

Source:“Strategic Default: Would Half of Home Owners Walk Away?”  AOL Real Estate (March 9, 2012)

Information we’d like to share! Fifty-one percent of Americans in a recent poll say that if their financial situation were to improve, they’d buy a home. Coming in second on the list of wishes, they’d make repairs or improvements to the home they already have, according to the poll of more than 1,400 Americans conducted by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling Web site, www.DebtAdvice.org 

Meanwhile, 17 percent of Americans polled said they’d upgrade their car and 9 percent said they’d take a vacation. Please comment on what would be your decision?  

“Home ownership has traditionally been a part of sound financial planning,” says Gail Cunningham, spokesperson for the NFCC, a nonprofit credit counseling organization. “With a combined total of 74 percent of respondents selecting a home-oriented option, the poll results strongly suggests that people continue to place value in owning a home, and are anxious to buy a house or improve their existing one.”

Based on data from Melissa Dittmann Tracey for REALTOR Magazine Daily News

We get these questions and would like to share our thoughts about this dilemma.  Some home owners who are underwater may not know their alternatives.

The “Cash for Keys” is a program that banks do for some home owners. The “new twist” you’ll be hearing more about is “Cash to Short Sale”. Lenders are figuring out that if there is anything they can do to make a deal happen, they need to do it. This apparently is what is starting to take place with people that are trying to “short sale” their homes. Instead of “Cash for Keys” to homeowners that lose their homes to foreclosure. This was not offered to home owners who were trying to short sale their home. Often the banks would basically give them a certain time to complete the short sale until they foreclosed.

Now because of tight lending practices, new buyers would take so long to qualify, it is often “too little, too late” to close escrow before foreclosure.  When that happens it seems everybody loses. The lenders lost a willing & able buyer and the seller because, now, not only did they lose their home to a foreclosure, but also because a foreclosure was now on their credit report instead of a short sale. (It may be better to have a short sale than a foreclosure on a credit report?) Plus, the buyer may or may not wait until the home came back on the market at a later date.

Other information at: www.dougandbudzeller.com or zteam4u@gmail.com