When we interviewed Donald Trump a couple of weeks ago, he told us that NOW is a great time to get into real estate – and he specifically pointed to houses. Fellow billionaire, Warren Buffett, appeared on CNBC a couple of months ago and essentially said the same thing. In fact, he said if...
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In August 2011, the United States Federal Housing Finance Agency offered its “Request for Information” (RFI) for REO Asset Disposition including a transition to a rental-based solution, soliciting ideas from the private sector, academia, and research groups on the handling of the existing REO inventory. From the August release: The Federal Housing Finance Agency...
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Sales of Freddie Mac REO homes took a dip in 3Q11 compared to the first two quarters of the year as nonperforming loans surged consistently over the previous quarter. The number of repossessed homes plunged to 25,300, falling by 13.5% quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) or approximately 30,000 units in 3Q11. REO sales also stumbled from 31,600...
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Bad in the short-run, but a necessary market-clearing step… (see: REO & Foreclosure Investors – Scavengers or Saviors?) From yesterday’s Baltimore Post: One of every 10 city homes sold during the first half of the year — about 275 in all — fell in that price range. Twice as many sold for under $20,000. Often foreclosures, these...
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Much to the consternation of those around us, we first saw Detroit’s price strength back in April (See our National Housing Report). From yesterday’s HousingWire article – “Home sales rise 9.6% in greater Detroit area”: The Detroit area experienced a 9.6% surge in home sales in July… Home prices in the four-county metropolitan area climbed 8.8%…...
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Is the housing market bifurcated or should all supply be considered part of a single housing market? Evidence is mounting that the market is the market – REOs and non-distressed properties cannot be isolated. From Friday’s DSNews article – “Heavy Distress Sends Las Vegas Home Prices to 15-Year Low” - Foreclosure resales – homes...
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We tackled several topics in my five-minute segment CNBC’s Street Signs on Wednesday – “Housing: A Silver Lining” – so here’s some deeper analysis of the on-air arguments and assumptions. Valuation methodology is the acute problem for most of today’s housing market problems – refinancing, demand stimulus, foreclosures. The valuation and appraisal process is...
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[08/15/11: Author "told-you-so" update - We saw rising home prices in Phoenix from foreclosure activity much earlier this year.) From HousingWire: “Rise in REO value cuts Freddie Mac holding expenses by 90%” “The decrease in REO operations expense was primarily driven by an improvement in both REO holding period write-downs and disposition losses as REO...
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Like ‘em or not, the market needs these investors to clear the housing ongoing housing glut. From the article a Sacramento Bee article today – “Real estate scavengers flip foreclosed homes in Sacramento area”: “Eighty percent of these homes will be flipped within a year. Typically, they will fetch about $30,000 – or 20...
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(Inspired by this local perspective on Phoenix foreclosure sales.) We’re often asked how distressed sales affect the resale market, and whether the housing market should be bifurcated into distressed and non-distressed sales. Mathematical beauty is in the eye of the modeler, but our active market analytics in Mesa shows that as distressed sales are...
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