Home Price Reductions Level Off

The share of homes on the market with price reductions declined to an average of 21 percent as of Feb. 1, according to Trulia.com, which has been tracking the information since April 2009.

This is a significant decrease compared to November 2009, when 26 percent of homes had at least one price reduction

The total dollar amount cut from home prices dropped to $22.6 billion as of Feb. 1, down from $28.1 billion in November, a 19 percent decrease.

The average discount for price-reduced homes is holding steady at 11 percent off the original listing price.

Here are the cities with the largest decrease in listings with price reductions between last November and this month, according to Trulia.

San Francisco, -46
Oakland, Calif., -43
Sacramento, -42
San Jose, -40
Indianapolis, -39
Seattle, -37
San Diego, -33
New York, -33

Source: Trulia.com (02/16/2010)

IRS Clarifies What’s Needed to Claim Tax Credit

The Internal Revenue Service has clarified which documentation taxpayers need to submit to claim the first-time and move-up homebuyer tax credit.

While the IRS is still requiring the filing of Form 5405, it is not demanding that all parties’ signatures be on the HUD-1 settlement document in areas where requiring both the buyer and the seller to sign the document isn’t common.

The IRS clarification says: “In areas where signatures are not required on the settlement document, the IRS has clarified that it will accept a settlement statement if it is completed and valid according to local law. … The IRS encourages those buyers to sign the settlement statement prior to attaching it to the tax return.”

For repeat buyers, the IRS is seeking documentation that home buyers have lived in the previous property for a consecutive five of the past eight years. Proof can include property tax records, home owner insurance records, or mortgage interest statements.

Source: Washington Post (02/20/2010)

Bankers: The End of Foreclosure Crisis is Near

The Mortgage Bankers Association is seeing signs that the foreclosure crisis is ending.

“The continued and sizable drop in the 30-day delinquency rate is a concrete sign that the end may be in sight,” says Jay Brinkmann, MBA’s chief economist, in a published statement.

Brinkmann said that normally there is a large spike in short-term mortgage delinquencies at the end of the year because of high heating bills and holiday expenditures. This year, there was not only no spike, but the 30-day delinquency rate actually fell from 3.79 percent to 3.63 percent.

Thirty-day delinquencies have historically been a leading indicator of serious delinquencies and foreclosures, Brinkmann said.

“[This] gives us growing confidence that the size of the problem now is about as bad as it will get,” he said.

Source: Mortgage Bankers Association (02/19/2010)

Seattle, U.S. home prices rise: Case-Shiller report

Home prices across the U.S. rose for the seventh straight month in December, and were also up in Seattle, a sign of price stability as the housing market continues its bumpy road to recovery.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home-price index released Tuesday rose 0.3 percent from November to December to a seasonally adjusted reading of 145.87.

In the Seattle market, which includes King, Snohomish and Pierce counties, the seasonally adjusted index was 148.37, up 0.2 percent from November and 0.8 percent from its bottom in September.

The 20-city index was off 3.1 percent for the year from December 2008, while in Seattle, prices were down 7.9 percent over that same period. But that was an improvement over the one-year drop of 10.6 percent from November 2008 to November 2009 in the Seattle area.

The national figure nearly matched analysts’ estimates that it would fall by 3.2 percent.

Only five of 20 cities in the index showed declines from November to December. The index is now up more than 3 percent from its bottom in May, but still 30 percent below its May 2006 peak.

Prices peaked a year later in Seattle. The index is down 22 percent since then.

Los Angeles and Phoenix posted the largest December price increases. The worst performer was Chicago with a 0.6 percent decline.

Rising prices are a key to the nation’s recovery because they make homeowners feel wealthier and more comfortable to spend money. Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of all economic activity.

Price increases also help rebuild equity for homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth. Roughly one in three homeowners with a mortgage are in that position, according to Moody’s Economy.com.

The housing market is seeking stability as it bounces back from a four-year recession. Sales of previously occupied homes fell almost 17 percent in December, the largest monthly drop in 40-years of record-keeping, the National Association of Realtors said.

Data for January will be released Friday, with analysts forecasting a 1 percent rise.

Source: Seattle Times & Associated Press, Seattle Times desk editor Bill Kossen and business reporter Eric Pryne contributed to this report (02/23/2010)

Construction Up Along With Builder Confidence

Construction of new homes rose to an annual rate of 591,000 in January, up 2.8 percent from December when the revised rate was 575,000, the Commerce Department announced Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the monthly home builder confidence scale rose two points in February to 17.

The National Association of Home Builders Chair Bob Jones said, “Builders are slightly more optimistic that the housing recovery is finally beginning to take root.”

Builder confidence was highest in the Northeast and the South, weaker in the West and lowest in the Midwest.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, Meena Thiruvengadam (02/16/2010) and CNN, Blake Ellis (02/17/2010)

Washington Home Prices and Home Values

More homeowners get long-term help

Intense pressure from the Obama administration spurred loan servicers to ramp up the amount of permanent modifications they offered to troubled borrowers.

The number of long-term adjustments completed under the president’s foreclosure prevention plan rose to 66,465 at the end of December, or 7.4% of all trial modifications started, up from 31,382 a month earlier.

Another 46,056 modifications are pending borrowers’ final signatures, according to Treasury statistics released Friday. Another 48,924 were denied permanent modifications, mainly because they did not make their trial payments on time, did not hand in the needed paperwork or did not meet the program’s criteria.

Meanwhile, the number of delinquent homeowners in trial modifications rose to 787,231, up from 697,026 a month earlier.

“Treasury is committed to working with servicers and borrowers to sustain this improved pace,” said Phyllis Caldwell, chief of Treasury’s Homeownership Preservation Office.

Administration officials increased pressure on servicers in November after the slow pace of conversions to permanent modifications raised concerns that the $75 billion plan will fall far short of its goal to help up to 4 million delinquent homeowners.

The administration ramped up its oversight of loan servicers’ conversion operations, sending in SWAT teams to break up any logjams and requiring banks to submit updates twice daily on their efforts. Officials also called financial executives to Washington to urge them to quicken the conversion rate.

Housing experts, however, remain concerned that the rate of foreclosures still outpaces the help homeowners are receiving under the program. A record three million homeowners received at least one foreclosure filing in 2009, according to a RealtyTrac report released Thursday.

“We have a lot more to do if we’re going to address the foreclosure crisis,” said David Berenbaum, chief program officer for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. “The servicers will have to step up to the plate.”

One prominent forecasting group, Moody’s Economy.com, said this week that it expects the Obama program to save only 400,000 to 1 million borrowers from foreclosure.

A lot of borrowers are too far underwater or don’t have enough income to qualify for a permanent modification, said Celia Chen, senior director at Economy.com. Others will not be able to provide all the documentation needed.

Administration officials said they continue to review the program to make sure it is helping those in need, Chen said she doesn’t think there’s anything the government can do to keep these borrowers in their homes.

And once these homeowners go into foreclosure, it will hurt the housing market, she said.

“As more of these loans fail to make it to permanent modifications, a lot will go back on the market as foreclosures and that will depress home prices,” said Chen, who expects home prices to fall another 10% by the third quarter of this year.

Trial to permanent

Under the president’s plan, delinquent borrowers are put into trial modifications for several months to make sure they can handle the new payments and to give them time to submit their financial paperwork. Once the modification becomes permanent, servicers, investors and homeowners are eligible to receive thousands of dollars in incentive payments.

Overall, about three-quarters of people are making their payments on time, said Michael Barr, Treasury assistant secretary.

Homebuyer tax credit: No e-file and 4-month delays

Loan servicers, however, have said they are having trouble getting the necessary documents from borrowers, while homeowners maintain that their financial institutions are repeatedly losing the paperwork. Once their files are complete, borrowers may be denied long-term help if they don’t meet the program’s criteria.

At Wells Fargo, for instance, a quarter of the 74,000 borrowers who had made three trial payments on time did not turn in all the required documents. Another 25% turned out not to be eligible for modification after their documents were reviewed. The remaining are expected to receive permanent modifications.

Who leads and who lags

Loan servicers efforts continue to vary widely. Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) led the pack by placing 47% of its eligible delinquent borrowers in trial modifications, while Saxon Mortgage, a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500), came in at 46%. Among the other major servicers, JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) put 36% of eligible homeowners in trial modifications, while Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) put 34% in. Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) continued to trail the pack with 19%.

In terms of longer-term assistance, Wells Fargo led the pack among the nation’s largest servicers with 2.41% of its eligible delinquent borrowers in permanent modifications. Citi placed 2.1% and Chase 1.68%.

Bank of America, by far the nation’s largest servicer, said it has implemented “extraordinary efforts” over the past two months to boost its conversion statistics. The servicer, which had converted only 98 homeowners by the end of November, increased that number to 3,183 a month later. That means only .3% of its eligible homeowners are in permanent modifications.

Asked repeatedly about the laggards during a conference call with reporters, Treasury officials declined to say what measures they would take to force servicers to improve their modification efforts or whether the banks had met their goals.

Source: CNNMoney.com By Tami Luhby, senior writerJanuary 15, 2010

Homebuyer tax credit: No e-file and four-month delays

Good news homebuyers: You can file for your $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit again.

Bad news: You still can’t e-file your taxes if you want the cash. And there are long delays.

On Thursday, CNNMoney revealed that buyers who purchased their properties after Nov. 6 were unable to claim the refund because the Internal Revenue Service had yet to release a new form and instructions. But on Friday, the IRS finally posted the new form 5405.

The two-month delay was frustrating to Florida resident Charles Teschke. “We are not broke or anything, but nevertheless we were still counting on getting the tax refund to help pay for the appliances and stuff we needed for our new home,” he said. “The IRS told me they estimate it will take four months for me to get my refund!”

First-time buyers were able to immediately file for the tax credit after Congress approved it last February as part of the stimulus program. All they had to do was file an amendment to their 2008 tax returns (the ones they filed last April) and claim the promised refund of 10% of the purchase price, up to $8,000.

What I did with my $8,000 tax credit

They were able to e-file, and they received their refunds promptly. One reader filed a claim the first week of August, and had the check by the third week in September.

But on Nov. 6 the rules changed. That’s when Congress extended — and expanded — the tax credit, which was originally scheduled to expire on Nov. 30.

Now, the deadline is April 30, by when all contracts must be signed. (Closings must happen by June 30.) Plus, existing homeowners looking to trade up (or down) can qualify for a $6,500 refund.

And these new buyers can no longer file electronically. They have to mail in paper forms, including the new 5405, whether they are amending their 2008 taxes or claiming it on the 2009 taxes that are being filed this spring.

That is going to dramatically slow refunds, but taxpayers can’t blame the IRS. Instead, it’s people scamming the system who are at fault.

For example, in October tax preparer James Otto Price III was the first person convicted of this crime. He falsely claimed the credit for 15 clients.

So buyers must now file documentation with their taxes — including proof of residency, a signed mortgage statement and drivers license — which the e-file system is not equipped to handle.

“Because of the scams, the IRS started sending back the amended returns and asking for proof,” said Mary Mellem of David & Mary Mellem, EAs & Ashwaubenon Tax Professionals. “The system has no way of sending along the documents they’re requiring. Taxpayers must file a paper return instead.”

The IRS points out that taxpayers can still use the electronic forms available on its Web site or consumer sites such as TurboTax; they just have to print them out, attach the proof and mail everything in. And that can take quite a while.

“Taxpayers are looking at another three months before they get their returns,” said Mellem.

Source: CNNMoney, By Les Christie staff writerJanuary 16, 2010

Consider Live-In Stagers for Vacant Homes

Showhomes, a Nashville, Tenn.-based home-management and staging company with eight offices in Florida, provides live-in stagers for vacant homes that are up for sale.

Live-in stagers reduce the chances that the property will be vandalized, and they ensure that the listing is kept in show condition and ready for buyers to tour with just 30 minutes’ notice. They also must vacate the home when it sells; but in return, they pay dramatically reduced rents. Don Vanderhoef, who owns Showhomes’ Fort Lauderdale franchise, says, “A big part of it is psychology. Buyers see food in the refrigerator, clothes in the closet. They see all the signs of life of a regular home.”

While some real estate agents worry that live-in stagers will not keep the home clean or cause problems when asked to move out, Vanderhoef says in-home managers sign contracts and submit to background checks.

In the company’s 24-year history, he says it has worked with only one problem manager. The program’s properties generally spend less time on the market and fetch more money than other vacant listings. The company collects a “success” fee of 1 percent of the list price when a sale is completed and only the upfront money if the home is not sold.

Source: Charlotte Observer, Paul Owers (01/17/2010)

Housing Economists: Sales Are on the Rise

The housing recovery should gain moment in 2010, but the improvement will still be slow, according to a panel of economists speaking at the International Builders Show in Las Vegas.

“It won’t be a strong recovery, but it will be a recovery,” said David Crowe, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders.

Crowe forecast that sales of new homes will rise by about 33 percent while resales will go up 7 percent. He expects prices to remain stable in most areas, but some cities may see some slight declines.

“I believe we’ve seen the worst of the house price declines … The stage is set for the consumer to return,” Crowe said.

Source: Associated Press, Alex Veiga (01/19/2010)