Team Thayer Property Servicing

The recent economic slowdowns, which include April job growth of only 160,000 and 0.5 percent Q1 GDP growth, seem to have darkened everyone’s view of the economy for the remainder of the year. Despite this, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have stood their ground on their positive outlook for housing for the remainder of 2016. The  Fannie Mae Economic & Strategic Research (ESR) Group  this week further downgraded its forecast for the full year of 2016 down to a 1.7 percent growth rate—from last month’s forecast of 1.9 percent and the 2.2 percent at the beginning of 2016. While the ESR group believes that the economy will bounce back somewhat during the remainder of the year, with consumer spending as an engine for growth, they don’t think it will be enough to make up for the weak first quarter. “Consumers and businesses showed caution at the end of the first quarter,” said Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan. “Job creation slowed in April and participation in the labor

The lengthy, sustained nationwide decline in the number of   foreclosures and REO properties   nationwide in the last five and a half years has been largely responsible for a similar decline in the share of residential home sales that are all-cash transactions, according to   data from CoreLogic released Thursday . The share of home sales that were all cash dropped by 2.5 percentage points in February down to 35.7 percent and have averaged 35.6 percent over the first two months of 2016—the lowest share to start any year since 2008, immediately prior to the crisis. By comparison, the cash sales share peaked at 46.6 percent in January 2011 and averaged about 25 percent prior to the crisis. CoreLogic estimates that at the rate of decline experienced in February 2016, the cash sales share should return to its “normal” pre-crisis level in the middle of 2018. “Foreclosure completions have fallen substantially over the past few years across the nation.  This has led to a drop in REO

The gap is growing between the number of foreclosure prevention actions that were home retention actions and the number that were home forfeiture actions, according to  FHFA ’s  February 2016 Foreclosure Prevention Report  released Tuesday. The increased number of home retention actions and the decline in home forfeitures is good news for families and for a housing market that is still in the process of healing nearly eight years after the crash. According to FHFA, home retention actions outpaced forfeiture actions by nearly a 5 to 1 since the start of the conservatorships in September 2008 through the end of February 2016. During that period, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed 3.03 million non-foreclosure solutions that kept families in their homes, which included loan modifications (the most common, at 1.92 million), repayment plans, forbearance plans, charge-offs-in-lieu of foreclosure, and Fannie Mae’s HomeSaver Advance program. By comparison, during that time, the GSEs

The decline in foreclosures and other default-related metrics has been steady over the five-plus years since the monthly total of completed foreclosures peaked at 117,782 in September 2010. March 2016’s total of completed foreclosures (36,000) was nearly 70 percent off of that peak total, according to CoreLogic’s  March 2016 National Foreclosure Report  released Tuesday. CoreLogic reported that the national foreclosure inventory rate for March 2016, which was 1.1 percent of all residential mortgages (about 427,000 homes), was the lowest since October 2007. Year-over-year, foreclosure inventory declined by 23 percent (from 1.4 percent and 556,000 homes) and has declined year-over-year now for 53 months in a row. The number of mortgages in serious delinquency (90 days or more past due or in foreclosure or REO) for March 2016 was 1.2 million, or 3.1 percent—the lowest serious delinquency rate since November 2007. What is really driving this lengthy, sustained decline in foreclo

Even with headwinds facing the housing industry such as  Team const rained inventory and home price appreciation outpacing wage growth, the National Association of Realtors ( NAR )  believes that 2016 will be the best year for existing-home sales since the pre-crisis year of 2006. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun, in presenting his midyear economic and housing forecast at the 2016 Realtors Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo on Thursday, said that even though existing-home sales were uneven in the first quarter, they are still ahead of last year’s overall annual pace (5.29 million compared to 5.26 million). Yun also noted other factors that will help make 2016 the best year for existing-home sales in a decade, such as persistently strong demand, especially in the areas that have produced the most jobs, and mortgage rates near a three-year low. Also, since 2010, 14 million jobs have been created. All this points to a forecast of an annual pace of 5.40 million for existing-

If the  May  Wall Street Journal  economist survey  is any indication, the economy is a lot worse off than it was as recently as a month ago. In the last three surveys conducted by the  Journal  in which economists are asked when they think the Federal Reserve  will next raise the federal funds target rate, the consensus answer has been June. In April’s survey, three-quarters of economists surveyed said they believe that a rate hike by the Fed will be announced at the next FOMC meeting on June 14 and 15. May’s survey told a different story, however. Less than a third (31 percent) out of the 70 economists surveyed said they believe the rate hike will take place in June; 21 percent said they believe it will take place in July. The same percentage of economists who believe that a June rate hike will take place (31 percent) said they think it will take place in September. What happened to the economy in the last month? A couple of setbacks—first, in late April, the Bureau of Econ

In order to achieve lower default rates on single-family rental investor loans, many single-family rental originators have enhanced their underwriting criteria and are now qualifying borrowers for SFR investor loans based on property income rather than personal income, according to research from Morningstar Credit Ratings . The traditional way to underwrite single-family, single-property investor loans has been to do them as residential instead of commercial loans. Borrowers typically include information on projected rental income from the property and add a portion of this to their personal income; however, lenders of residential investor loans commonly qualify borrowers for loans based on the borrower’s personal income and credit instead of whether or not the projected rental income from the property can cover the debt service. One of the main factors that prompted lenders to start focusing on property income when considering approval for a residential investor loan is th

The weak April jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics last week has fueled speculation that a rate hike by the Fed in June is now off the table. But according to the president of one Fed bank, financial markets’ focus is in the wrong place if they are concentrating on what the Fed does with the short-term interest rates. Neel Kashkari, president of the Minneapolis Fed since November, has mostly focused on an initiative to end “too big to fail” since he took his post. On Monday, Kashkari spoke at the Economic Club of Minnesota and addressed monetary policy for the first time in his six months as president of the Minneapolis Fed. Kashkari said he believes the “current accommodative policy stance (keeping the federal funds target range at 0.25 to 0.5 percent) is appropriate” given the lack of notable price and wage pressures and the possibility of drawing more people back into the labor market. He also stated, however, “I think market participants are too focused

Learn how you can not only play the negotiation game, but also win. When my husband and I first started the hunt for  Eugene, Or, real estate , I cringed at the tough negotiating he was doing, as did our  agent . “You sound like a fast-talking big-city businessman,” she said to him in her smooth drawl. But as cringe-worthy as it seemed at the time, he was just engaging in some tried-and-true horse-trading — trying to make a deal that both sides could feel good about. You might be the type of person I  was;  the kind who never questions the price of an item. If that sounds like you, it can’t hurt to brush up on your negotiation skills, whether you’re buying or selling real estate. When  selling your home , your first reaction might be a big “oh heck no” when you get a lowball offer, but take a deep breath and at least consider your options. Here are six negotiation skills for doing more than just playing the game: for  winning . Price your house right There’s a difference be

Why is May the best time to sell a house? We’ve asked real estate agents from several metro areas to chime in on why it’s such a magical month for home sales. 1. The timing aligns with the new school year If they intend to move, families  really  want to close on a new home before the end of summer. Why? Changing school districts after the school year starts is no picnic for anyone. “If you take the month of May to search for a home, you can be closed in July or August, which gives you a little time to settle in before school,” says  Team Thayer , a New Jersey agent. 2. Buyers are getting serious When the spring housing season begins, typically right after Presidents Day in mid-February, many buyers feel as if they have  plenty  of time to find their perfect home and perfectly time their summer move. So they might bid more aggressively and offer less than asking price. If no sellers bite, though, by the time May rolls around, these same buyers may relent to submitting more co