A report from the Ritz Herald. “More home sellers have started slashing their prices—another sign of softening seasonal homebuyer demand. ‘The housing market has clearly become slightly more favorable to buyers,’ said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. ‘Homes are taking longer to sell, which gives buyers more time to make thoughtful decisions about whether to make offers. Home prices have plateaued, so buyers shouldn’t feel rushed to buy before prices rise further. And the fact that more sellers are dropping their list price is a sign that sellers have to be realistic about their price expectations.’”
From Boston 25 News in Massachusetts. “Realtor Marie Presti, who has offices in Stoneham and Newton, expects a brisk fall, but not a frenetic one. ‘We also do have some buyers who think it’s the top of the market, so they’re getting to the point where they’re saying I may not want to buy right now.’”
The Bend Source in Oregon. “The housing market has been on fire. This opportunity let sellers price homes outrageously high and multiple buyers were competing, hoping to not lose out again. It was common to have showings lined up over a weekend resulting in sellers having to wade through multiple offers, usually looking for the highest sales price. However, inventory has increased, in turn offering buyers more options and ability to be selective without too much competition. A clear indicator is reflected with homes accumulating more days on market and numerous price reductions.”
“The uptick in inventory is forcing sellers to become more realistic with their pricing. It’s still a great time to sell and anyone who has owned a home for a few years has generated considerable equity—however, homes aren’t flying off of the shelves right now and pricing strategy is becoming very important again.”
From Yahoo Finance. “Among those who have voiced concern over the rental assistance program is one small landlord in Montclair, New Jersey who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Like many other landlords, the situation is getting dire for this Montclair property owner. The person’s tenant owes more than $33,000 in unpaid rent dating back to April 2020. The landlord was forced to put a mortgage loan in forbearance in order to get by; meanwhile, the tenant has not applied for rental relief.”
“Some have already been forced to sell their property as debts mount, and the impact of having tenants live for free — for over a year — may linger. ‘But I’ll still have that nut at the back end of my mortgage, if I decide to refinance, it’ll end up costing me a lot more money or I’ll have to pay off a balloon payment at the end or I’ll have to refinance it,’ the New Jersey landlord explained. ‘So either way I still have to pay more in finance charges.’”
The Business Journal in California. “A client of Fresno real estate agent Don Scordino reached out to him with concerns about a daughter who had fallen behind on her mortgage during the pandemic. The homeowner was 10 payments behind. So, Scordino went through her paperwork and payment history. He found the homeowner had built $175,000 in equity into her home. He assured the homeowner that while she might not make all that back, even if foreclosure proceedings began, the value of her home had grown enough that she could sell it, pay off the remaining debt and walk away with a little cash.”
“But while consensus from experts says increased home equity levels and forbearance will prevent mass foreclosures as seen during the Great Recession, some are carefully watching for a bubble should speculation on the hot housing market continue. ‘Not even during the worst of the Great Recession have so many borrowers been so far behind,’ a press release in June from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau stated.”
“‘We should not have a foreclosure crisis like we had before because this time, most sellers have equity in their home, which gives them the option to sell or refinance to avoid foreclosure,’ Scordino said.”
From Socket Site in California. “Purchased for $1.945 million in April of 2018, the two-bedroom, two-bath unit #27B in the Lumina tower at 201 Folsom Street, with high-end finishes and city views, returned to the market listed for $2.099 million in February of 2019. Subsequently reduced to $1.999 million while being offered for rent at $9,000 a month, the unit was then delisted in April of 2019.”
“Listed anew for $1.999 million in January of last year, the list price for the 1,189-square-foot unit was reduced to $1.899 million, and then to $1.795 million, after a month. And having been relisted for $1.749 million last month, the sale of 201 Folsom Street #27B has now closed escrow with a contract price of $1.749 million, which is officially ‘at asking’ and with only ’53 days on the market’ according to all industry stats and aggregate reports but down 10.1 percent ($196,000) on an apples-to-apples basis from the second quarter of 2018.”
The Sequim Gazette in Washington. “As of last Friday, 434 Clallam County homes await foreclosure, according to Patti Morris, a real estate broker through JACE Real Estate in Port Angeles. ‘I would say once foreclosures do start to go, we will see homes coming on the market,’ Morris said. ‘All federal agencies want them to be 30-day quick closures.’”
“Homes range from manufactured homes to single-family homes to larger, more expensive homes, she said. ‘From my experiences, it’s a whole variety of people living in the homes, and often it’s reverse mortgage homes where one of the heirs of the owner or squatters are in the homes, and it’s not necessarily someone who is in trouble with their mortgage,’ Morris said.”
“She’s been tracking the foreclosures since the federal moratorium on evictions went into place March 2020. ‘The homes may be occupied, but I don’t think it’s going to be a mass dump of homes on the market,’ she said. However, Morris said she’s unsure just how soon these homes could go on the market. ‘The eviction process could take a few months,’ she said.”
“She said other homes facing foreclosure not through U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) would go through banks and other real estate agents and/or auction houses. As for helping Clallam’s low housing inventory, she said it could help, but ‘it just depends on how quickly they are foreclosed on.’”
The Nevada Current. “Nevada leads states in the nation and Southern Nevada tops metro areas in mortgage fraud risk, thanks to rapidly increasing home prices, an increase in loans for purchase rather than refinance, and the potential for occupancy misrepresentation, according to CoreLogic’s second quarter risk report. ‘Frankly, I am not surprised as loan applications have to record income and the Las Vegas economy has jobs where there is a lot of undocumented income which are quite volatile, unpredictable and also maybe overstated,’ says Vivek Sah, Director of UNLV’s Lied Center for Real Estate. ‘Those factors always increase fraud risk especially when housing prices are rising at such a fast rate.’”
“The Mortgage Fraud Risk Index is calculated from ‘loan application fraud risk scores during the previous quarter,’ according to CoreLogic. Refinances, which pose less risk to lenders than purchase loans, saw ‘a significant drop’ in the second quarter, but were offset by record purchases. ‘While refinances still accounted for 53% of transactions, they are down from 68% the prior quarter,’ Core Logic reported. ‘This shift in volume towards purchase loans is reflected in the increased risk indicated by the national index.’”
“The analyst also warned against buyers who may be misrepresenting their intentions. Since government-sponsored lenders ‘limit financing availability for non-primary occupancy, it seems quite likely to increase motivation for occupancy misrepresentation, already one of the most common mortgage fraud risks,’ says CoreLogic. Nevada is among the states with the lowest share of homes (56.6%) occupied by owners, ranking 48th in the nation.”
“But what homebuyers report to their insurance company when they’re insuring their property, and what they report to a mortgage broker when they’re seeking a loan, may not always coincide. Between August 30, 2020 and the same date this year, Las Vegas Realtors reported selling 26,052 homes with mortgages. About 85 percent of buyers indicated they intended to occupy the properties. The previous year, owners said they intended to occupy 89 percent of the 16,473 units sold.”