Team Thayer Property Servicing

While tight inventory combined with increasing home prices have caused some concern about affordability as of late, the  Federal Reserve reported in its  December Beige Book released Wednesday  that housing markets improved at a “moderate” pace on balance since the previous Beige Book was issued in mid-October. Rising home sales in seven of the Fed’s 12 districts—Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Richmond, Chicago, and Kansas City—were largely responsible for the Fed’s reports of moderate growth in housing markets, though the Philadelphia district reported a “slow growth” market in which supply was at a low but stable level. The Boston, Cleveland, Richmond, and St. Louis districts all reported year-over-year declines in housing inventory, the Fed reported. Other contributors to the moderate improvement in housing markets were an increased demand for mortgage lending in several Fed districts, notably Richmond, Atlanta, St. Louis, and San Francisco; a sligh...

When distressed properties account for a large share of all residential home sales, it tends to pull down the prices of non-distressed homes, since foreclosed and REO properties typically sell at a discount to non-distressed homes. Yet even though the distressed sales share remains high, home prices are not slowing. According to CoreLogic’s latest  Home Price Index , prices appreciated at 6.8 percent year-over-year in October. A  recent report from Zillow  indicated that a lack of affordability in the housing market in urban areas may drive would-be homebuyers out to the suburbs. Since why is the high volume of distressed properties selling at discounted prices pulling down the prices of non-distressed homes, as is usually the case? “The number and share of distressed sales have fallen between September 2014 and September 2015,” CoreLogic Chief Economist Frank Nothaft said. “The distressed sales share in the most recent month was 9.7 percent, compared with 12.1 ...

While delaying foreclosure on a home does have some potential benefits, for the most part it is counterproductive, according to data released this week by  Freddie Mac . In Freddie Mac’s  November 2015 Insight & Outlook report , the Enterprise notes the time it takes to foreclose on a home is twice as long on the average in judicial foreclosure states, meaning that the courts must approve the process before it is completed, as opposed to non-judicial states, where the process can be completed without the courts. The state with the longest average time to complete foreclosure (from the date of initial default) was a judicial foreclosure state, New Jersey, at 22 months—which was twice as long as the shortest average foreclosure timeline, 11 months, in two non-judicial states, Michigan and Missouri. In some judicial states the foreclosure process can take much longer than 22 months, such as in Ohio, where a  bill recently passed in the State House of Representative...

= While the data released on foreclosure sales and starts for the third quarter indicated substantial declines as those totals move toward pre-crisis levels, the number of non-foreclosure workout solutions seems to be declining at nearly the same rate, according to data released by  HOPE NOW  on Monday. HOPE NOW reported that the mortgage industry assisted approximately 337,000 homeowners in Q3 with non-foreclosure solutions that included both home retention and home forfeiture workout plans. By comparison, the industry completed 76,000 foreclosure sales during the quarter, which calculates to a ratio of 4.4 non-foreclosure solutions for every one foreclosure sale that was completed during the three-month period. While the number of foreclosure sales completed dropped significantly both over-the-quarter (15 percent, down from 89,000) and over-the-year (31 percent, down from 110,000) in Q3 2015, the number of non-foreclosure solutions also declined at similar rates—18...

While housing counselors across the country report improved communications with servicers in the area of helping struggling borrowers avoid foreclosure, there is still more work to be done,   according to a report   released Thursday from the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling ( NFMC ) program. NFMC is a congressionally-funded effort launched in December 2007 to address the foreclosure crisis by making more housing counselors available to families at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure. In slightly less than eight years, NFMC has helped approximately 1.9 million homeowners understand their foreclosure prevention options. The funds are distributed by Washington, D.C.-based community development non-profit and grant maker  NeighborWorks America  to grantee organizations, which in turn provide the housing counseling services. The report released Thursday was NFMC's 11th report to Congress. Team Thayer Real Estate News Eugene Oregon “Servicer in...

Team Thayer Real Estate News Eugene Oregon The share has risen above previous year levels since April 2015, reflecting improvements within the labor market, riskier mortgage lending, and continuing low mortgage rates. This and a 35-month-long seller’s market for existing homes are causing home prices to increase much faster than income. “The strong spring 2015 home buying season has been paced by outsized gains for first-time buyers,” said Edward Pinto, co-director of the AEI’s International Center on Housing Risk. “Unfortunately, these gains are fueled in part by liberalized credit standards, which is creating demand pressure and driving real home prices higher. This will lead to future instability.” Team Thayer Real Estate News Eugene Oregon The Federal Housing Administration ( FHA ) had a share of first-time homebuyers in August at or above 80 percent,  Fannie Mae ’s share stood at 43.3 percent, and  Freddie Mac  had a share of about 40 percent, AEI r...

First-time buyers comprised 56.9 percent of primary owner-occupied home purchase mortgages with a government guarantee in August 2015, up from the 54.5 percent share last August, the  American Enterprise Institute (AEI)  reported in their  First-Time Buyer Mortgage Share Index (FBMSI) . The share has risen above previous year levels since April 2015, reflecting improvements within the labor market, riskier mortgage lending, and continuing low mortgage rates. This and a 35-month-long seller’s market for existing homes are causing home prices to increase much faster than income. “The strong spring 2015 home buying season has been paced by outsized gains for first-time buyers,” said Edward Pinto, co-director of the AEI’s International Center on Housing Risk. “Unfortunately, these gains are fueled in part by liberalized credit standards, which is creating demand pressure and driving real home prices higher. This will lead to future instability.” Team Thayer Eugene ...

Nationwide REO inventory is approximately one-third of what it was at its peak in early 2009 at the depth of the housing crisis. What will it mean for banks when the steadily declining REO inventory falls down to its "normal" pre-crisis level in less than two years, as is expected? What type of shifts or diversification is the mortgage industry experiencing right now as REO inventory continues to spiral downward? At the REO Lab at the  2015 Five Star Conference and Expo  on Friday in Dallas, industry experts discussed how to get ahead and stay informed and equipped to take on the new REO marketplace. Team Thayer Real Estate News The first panel of the lab, "True State of REO: Market Analysis and Shadow Inventory," included Roger Beane, President and CEO of LRES Corporation; Sharon Bartlett, Director of Vendor Services at Freddie Mac; and Clay Lehman, Principal, Resolute Asset Management. Beane said the future of REO, and of housing in general, could be...

Fannie Mae has introduced HomeReady™ mortgage, our enhanced affordable lending product. HomeReady is designed for creditworthy, low- to moderate-income borrowers, with expanded eligibility for financing homes in designated low-income, minority, and disaster-impacted communities. HomeReady will be available later this year, with details to be released in late September. Key HomeReady features include: Accessible and sustainable financing  up to 97% LTV for a home purchase with no first-time buyer requirement. Flexible sources of funds can be used  for the down payment and closing costs with no minimum contribution required from the borrower's own funds for 1-unit properties. Underwriting flexibilities  include an  innovative new feature that supports extended family households  by considering income from a non-borrower household member as a compensating factor in Desktop Underwriter® to allow for a debt-to-income ratio above 45% up to 50%. Required homeo...

Foreclosure volumes are near pre-crisis levels in many parts of the country seven years after the housing crisis, and the landscape is still constantly evolving. New and revised regulations coming from Capitol Hill are keeping mortgage lenders, servicers, and attorneys on their toes as far as compliance. How easy or difficult has it been to adjust? Team Thayer Housing news Eugene Oregon Participants in the Foreclosure Lab at the  2015 Five Star Conference and Expo  in Dallas on Thursday weighed in on this question and other topics such as the foreclosure statute of limitations and how to maintain a pipeline while the housing market is largely recovered and foreclosure inventory is way down from its levels of five and six years ago. "In our industry, there is only so much that we can control," said Daniel Chilton, managing attorney with Citi . "I believe that it's cyclical, and I believe that as defaults go back up, a key indicator will be as interest rate...

The housing market has made its way back from crisis times, but investors still face unexpected challenges. The key to investors' ability to capitalize on opportunities that exist is knowledge. Participants in the  Investment Lab  at the 12th Annual  Five Star Conference and Expo  on September 17 delved into the investment strategies and discussed how to be successful in a highly competitive market. Industry panelists from a number of companies came together in the lab to talk about regulation, non-depository lending, mortgage servicing rights, and REO to loan products in the three and a half hour lab. Team Thayer Housing News Eugene Oregon The director of the lab, David Tobin, a principal at one of the industry's most respected loan sale advisory firms,  Mission Capital Advisors . Tobin has extensive experience in loan sale advisory transactions, investment banking and commercial real estate debt, and equity raising. To kick off the conversat...