Team Thayer Property Servicing

  New Home Sales were reported down 13.4% in July to a 394,000 unit annual rate, well below consensus expectations. We are  still on an upward trend, with new home sales up 6.8% and the median new home price up 8.3% versus a year ago.   Existing Home Sales grew 6.5% in July,  at a 5.39 million annual rate . That's  the strongest pace since November 2009, and sales are now up 17.2% from a year ago.  The median price dipped slightly, but is still up 13.7% versus a year ago. It was great to see sales up in all regions of the country, with single family homes leading the way, although condo/coop sales also gained.  The FHFA index of prices for homes financed by conforming mortgages gained 0.6% in June and is up 7.8% in the past year.     Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey  showed  average fixed mortgage rates edging higher   for the week ending August 22 . Remember, mortgage rates can be extremely volatile, so check with your mortgage professional for up to the minute

U.S. businesses are hiring at a robust rate. The only problem is that three out of four of the nearly 1 million hires this year are part-time and many of the jobs are low-paid. Faltering economic growth at home and abroad and concern that President  Barack Obama's  signature health care law will drive up business costs are behind the wariness about taking on full-time staff, executives at staffing and payroll firms say. Employers say part-timers offer them flexibility. If the economy picks up, they can quickly offer full-time work. If orders dry up, they know costs are under control. It also helps them to curb costs they might face under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. This can all become a less-than-virtuous cycle as new employees, who are mainly in lower wage businesses such as retail and food services, do not have the disposable income to drive demand for goods and services. Employers say part-timers offer them flexibility. If the economy picks up, they

Even with home prices marching ever upward and mortgage rates bouncing back more than a full percentage point over last year,  Capital Economics’  Paul Diggle insists housing affordability is still as good as most other experts say it is—if not better.  Explaining that affordability measures “the burden of mortgage payments relative to income,” Diggle notes that the latest data from the National Association of Realtors shows that a family earning the median income has 178 percent of the income necessary to qualify for a mortgage on a median-priced home. At the same time, typical mortgage payments currently average 17 percent of median income, up from recent months but below the long-run average of 22 percent.  In the firm’s latest US Housing Market Focus, Diggle notes that long-term trends show prices are up 15 percent below their trend level, with the ratio of Case-Shiller prices to disposal incomes per capital pointing to housing being about 16 percent below fair value.  However, whe

An an astounding decision today out of California, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Defendant/Borrowers and against Wells Fargo, finding and ruling that the homeowner who was approved for  a  trial period modification  could sue the lender when a final modification was denied.  For years now, borrowers, and the attorneys who represent them, have been dumbfounded when their clients were   offered a trial period, that went on and on and on, without end. Only to then receive a denial after payments were made timely under the trial period. When lenders were questioned, the answer was almost always, the borrower did not remit the final package back on time. Therefore, it was denied.  Not until the executive offices of the lender or other complaint procedures were explored, did the banks react and give the final modification.  “I can vouch for this in my own experience.  With modifications we have obtained on behalf of my clients, only to then have the lender change t

Kerry Fisher lost at least eight homes in the past four months to faster and more cash-rich buyers. But recently an agent called her, asking if she was still interested in a home she thought she'd lost. She expects to close on the $195,000 condominium later this month. "That was different," says the 41-year-old escrow assistant, who lives in Orange County, Calif., one of the nation's hottest real estate markets the past year. Her experience points to a slightly kinder housing market for buyers in parts of the U.S., especially the West, as more homes come on the market, asking prices show signs of slowing and higher interest rates keep more shoppers at home. "The market has become significantly more balanced," says Glenn Kelman, CEO of real estate brokerage Redfin. "There just isn't the madness we saw before." Through June this year, U.S. home values gained 10%, CoreLogic says. That's the fastest pace since 1977, but there are sig

FOR ALL THOSE WHO BOUGHT AT THE TOP OF THE MARKET IN 2006 HERE IS YOUR CHANCE TO REDEEM YOUR SELVES! Buy Soon! Do not wait for the rest of the world to totally catch on before you decide to make a move in Real Estate!   THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF  REALTORS  (NAR) REPORTED THE NATIONAL MEDIAN EXISTING HOME PRICE INCREASING AT AN ANNUAL RATE OF 12.2% IN THE 2ND QUARTER, FROM $181,300 TO $203,500. THAT'S THE BIGGEST YEARLY PRICE BOOST SINCE 4 th quarter OF 2005.   Sales up 12.3% annually in the 2 nd quarter as compared a year ago.   The 5.06 million annual rates for the quarter were the highest reached since 2007. Housing prices went up 1.9% in June, gaining for the 16th month in a row .   For the year, they had home prices increasing 11.9%, trending at the fastest upward pace since 1977. Finally, it was reported that   Fannie Mae posted a $10.1 billion profit in the second 1/4, almost double the same profit of a year ago. They will now pay a $10.2 billion dividend to t

The number of completed foreclosures in the U.S. decreased 20 percent in June from the same time last year, according to the latest data from CoreLogic. The data also showed positive signs for the foreclosure inventory in the U.S. In June, there were about one million homes in some stage of foreclosure, a 28 percent decrease from a year ago. A record decrease in June's  foreclosure inventory  was also reported by RealtyTrac.  "So far this year, distressed inventories have fallen dramatically, down 14.4 percent, and serious delinquencies are down 15.9 percent," Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic, said in the release.  There were 68,000 foreclosures in June, a 2.5 percent increase from the previous month. In comparison, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month nationwide between 2000 and 2006.   "The improvement is broad-based, with 49 states posting a year-over-year decline in foreclosure rates in June," Anand Nallathambi, president of Core