Register Real Estate Advisors

FORT WORTH (Fort Worth Star-Telegram) – Residential foreclosures last month were down 2.9 percent in Texas and 10 percent nationwide compared with a year ago, according to the latest data from RealtyTrac.

 Some 11,727 postings were filed last month in Texas, which means one in every 819 housing units received a notice, RealtyTrac said.

 Nationwide, 325,229 postings were filed, or one in every 397 housing units. Although it’s a drop from a year ago, the number was up 3.6 percent from June, the firm said.

 July was the 17th straight month that U.S. foreclosure postings topped 300,000, RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio said.

Ever wanted to find out more about Foreclosures in Spring, The Woodlands, and Houston, Texas? Check out this video from The Houston Association of Realtors to learn more. It’s part of my twice a week video blog series that helps consumers make informed real estate decisions.

Homeowners who have the ability to pay their mortgages but think it makes financial sense not to may want to think again. Fannie Mae announced a new policy directed at borrowers who choose a “strategic default.” Those who walk away from their mortgages without making a good-faith effort to resolve the situation will be barred from getting a new Fannie Mae-backed mortgage loan for seven years.

If that doesn’t get people’s attention, perhaps the policy’s other main provision will: Fannie Mae plans to take legal action against borrowers who strategically default. The secondary-mortgage giant will seek deficiency judgments to recover the outstanding balance of those loans. 

New guidance on HVCC

Fannie Mae has issued guidance regarding the Home Valuation Code of Conduct. The guidance includes a reminder to lenders that appraisers must have the appropriate knowledge and experience for a specific geographical location and particular type of property.

Other items in the guidance document:

• The HVCC does not require the use of an appraisal management company (AMC)
• Nothing in the HVCC prohibits real estate agents or brokers from contacting the appraiser about concerns or errors with the appraisal
• Appraisers may use data from short sales and foreclosures if they deem that information appropriate for the assignment.

Updated from the Texas Associations of Realtors Weekly News Email.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Yahoo News) – Bank of America will pay $108 million to settle charges against Countrywide Financial Corp., which Bank of America purchased in July 2008.
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged three top executives, including CEO Angelo Mozilo, with civil fraud and insider trading last year.
Federal Trade Commission Chairman Job Leibowitz accused Countrywide of “callous conduct, which took advantage of consumers already at the end of their financial rope.”
Settlement agreements include refunding money to approximately 200,000 borrowers and notifying bankrupt borrowers monthly about what they owe, including fees.
The bank did not deny or admit to charges; however, they agreed to pay the settlement “to avoid the expense and distraction associated with litigating the case.”

HOUSTON (Houston Business Journal) – The Bayou City’s commercial property sales dropped 50 percent in the last 12 months, according to research firm LoopNet Inc.

Last year’s cycle, ending in March 2009, had sales totaling $4.7 billion while this year’s reached $2.36 billion. However, the price per sf of industrial property improved to $65 compared with $45 last year.

The price per sf of Houston’s office and retail markets this year dropped from $172 to $110 and $143 to $69, respectively.

The city’s multifamily market showed a $3 million difference in deals closed between the two cycles and an increase of purchase price from $42.2 million to $56.3 million.

HOUSTON (Houston Business Journal) – Sales on existing single-family homes in the Houston area totaled 5,321 last month — a 26.7 percent increase over the 4,199 homes sold in April 2009.

 The largest sales jump appeared in properties priced above $500,000.

 The average price of a single-family home appreciated to $206,414, up 6.8 percent from April 2009.

 This is the second month in a row for a rise in sales and the seventh consecutive month for an increase in home prices for the Houston area.

FORT WORTH (Fort Worth Star-Telegram) – Prices of existing homes in Fort Worth-Arlington increased 0.75 percent in March compared with last year, according to the CoreLogic real estate research firm.

 Overall, Texas had a 2.2 percent increase while there was a 1.7 percent increase nationwide.

 “In more than half of the 100 markets surveyed by CoreLogic, home prices increased from March 2009. The year-over-year increase is a sign of stability,” said Mark Fleming, CoreLogic’s chief economist.

WASHINGTON (Associated Press) – The number of borrowers failing to meet the requirements of the Obama administration’s mortgage modification program is rising, almost equaling the number of homeowners who have received permanent relief.

 Over 299,000 homeowners received permanent loan modifications as of April, according to the Treasury Department. However, that’s about 25 percent of the 1.2 million borrowers who started the program since its inception in March 2009.

 By last month, about 277,000 homeowners, or 23 percent of those enrolled, dropped out during the trial phase, which requires borrowers to make at least three mortgage payments on time. This number was a 79 percent increase from the 155,000 who had left the program by March 2010.

 On average, homeowners with permanently reduced mortgages are paying $516 less each month.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of homeowners who missed at least one mortgage payment surged to a record in the first quarter of the year, a sign that the foreclosure crisis is far from over.

More than 10 percent of homeowners had missed at least one mortgage payment in the January-March period, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday. That number was up from 9.5 percent in the fourth quarter of last year and 9.1 percent a year earlier.

Those figures are adjusted for seasonal factors. For example, heating bills and holiday expenses tend to push up mortgage delinquencies near the end of the year. Many of those borrowers become current on their loans again by spring.

Without adjusting for seasonal factors, the delinquency numbers dropped, as they normally do from the winter to spring.

More than 4.6 percent of homeowners were in foreclosure, also a record. But that number, which is not adjusted for seasonal factors, was up only slightly from the end of last year.

Stocks slid Wednesday as investors remain concerned with the European debt crisis. The rising number of mortgages also drew some attention. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 160 points in early trading.

Jay Brinkmann, the trade group’s chief economist, said the foreclosure crisis appears to have stabilized. Seasonal adjustments may be exaggerating the change from the previous quarter, he added.

“I don’t see signs now that it’s getting worse, but it’s going to take a while,” he said. “A bad situation that’s not getting worse is still bad.”

The number of American homeowners who have missed at least three months of payments or are in foreclosure has surged to around 4.3 million, Brinkmann estimated.

The Obama administration’s $75 billion foreclosure prevention program has barely dented the problem. More than 299,000 homeowners had received permanent loan modifications as of last month. That’s about 25 percent of the 1.2 million who started the program since its March 2009 launch.

About 277,000 homeowners, or 23 percent of those enrolled, have dropped out during a trial phase that lasts at least three months.

Economic woes, such as unemployment or reduced income, are the main catalysts for foreclosures this year. Initially, lax lending standards were the culprit. But homeowners with good credit who took out conventional, fixed-rate loans are now the fastest growing group of foreclosures.

Those borrowers made up nearly 37 percent of new foreclosures in the first quarter of the year, up from 29 percent a year earlier.

The risky subprime adjustable-rate loans that kicked off the foreclosure crisis are making up a smaller share of new foreclosures. They made up 14 percent of new foreclosures in the January-March period, down from 27 percent a year earlier.