All Articles Tagged "housing market"
Home Market Gets Foreign Aid
(AJC) — Georgia may have one of the nation’s highest jobless rates, but a state program aimed at getting the unemployed back to work is being touted as the basis for a federal jobs program President Barack Obama will unveil next month. The White House is studying Georgia Works, created in 2003 and hailed since as a promising approach, according to a report this week in The Wall Street Journal. The White House declined Tuesday to comment what the president will propose. Georgia Works, which the state expanded last year and then curtailed for budgetary reasons, places unemployed workers in jobs for a six-week trial stint. Employers pay nothing and workers continue to receive unemployment benefits as well as a small state stipend for travel expenses and childcare.
Baltimore Homes Go for $10K — or Less
(Washington Post) — Andrew Wells is hoping to buy a Baltimore home for around the cost of an old car: Less than $10,000. Turns out he’s in good company. One of every 10 city homes sold during the first half of the year — about 275 in all — fellin that price range. Twice as many sold for under $20,000.
Banks Seek Immunity for Mortgage Misbehavior
(Wall Street Journal) — Efforts to reach a settlement that would end the long-running probe of foreclosure practices are snagged over whether banks will get broad legal immunity from state officials for mortgage-related claims. Federal and state officials are seeking penalties of $20 billion to $25 billion from Bank of America Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and other financial firms under investigation since last fall. The banks are pushing hard for a deal, but they have insisted on a wide-ranging legal release from state attorneys general. ”They wanted to be released from everything, including original sin,” said a U.S. official involved in the discussions. The legal protection sought by the banks included loan origination; securitization and servicing practices; fair-lending procedures; and their use of the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, an industry-owned loan registry that often acts as an agent for owners of mortgage loans, people familiar with the discussions said.
Read More…
Detroit Police Get Major Perk: Free House
(Detroit Free Press) — Mayor Dave Bing’s ambitious plan to make Detroit homeowners out of 200 police officers who currently live outside the city awarded its first home Wednesday. But six months into the project, it is far from meeting its goal. But more incentives are on the way. Chase Bank is expected to announce today that it plans to offer cash to help city workers make down payments on vacant homes in targeted neighborhoods. Bank representatives and Bing are expected to make the announcement in support of the initiative, dubbed Project 14, at 10 a.m. today. The project is designed to help the city reduce blight and crime and add a sense of security to its neighborhoods.
Skittish Market Scares off Homebuyers
(Wall Street Journal) — Prospective home buyers are turning the stock-market turmoil and fresh worries about the economy into an opportunity to lower their offers on properties. Ryan Goodman just reduced bids on two homes in Barrington, Ill., “because the stock market sold off so much last week,” the 36-year-old risk analyst said. In July, Mr. Goodman and his wife offered $680,000 for a home listed at $800,000. While the seller later lowered the asking price to $750,000, the couple last week made a new offer of $650,000. “Unless we get a steal, we’re not going to buy any house,” he said. That dynamic threatens to put more pressure on home prices. “Buyers are going to use every point of leverage they can to get a lower price,” said Glenn Kelman, chief executive of real-estate brokerage Redfin Corp. “Sellers have to ask themselves how many people woke up this morning and said, ‘It’s a good day to buy a house.’ Far fewer than two or three weeks ago.”
Cheaper to Buy than Rent These Days
(Huffington Post) — As the national real estate slump deepens, home prices in many cities have crossed a worrisome milestone. It’s cheaper to buy a home than to rent onein 74 percent of the country’s largest 50 cities, according to the real estate site Trulia — findings that confirm the national epidemic of depressed housing prices remains in full swing. Trulia’s research, which compared the median list price and median rent for two-bedroom apartments, condos and townhomes in America’s 50 largest cities, found that renting is more expensive than buying in dozens of markets, particularly in Miami and Las Vegas, as well as Mesa, New Mexico, and Arlington, Texas.
The Long View on Short Sales
(Daily Finance) — For anyone who has braved the housing market in the past four years,short sales have become synonymous with high risk and high reward. But with so many discounted properties on the market today, are they really worth a buyer’s trouble? Maybe — if you have a lot of time and a strong stomach. Yes, you can get a below-market price, says Dallas Realtor Loni Parmelly, who specializes in short sales, but it’s going to take patience because these deals are slow and difficult.
Housing Bust Still Fresh for Many in Area
(Washington Examiner) — The housing market in much of the Washington region may be well on the way to recovery — but for the people who bore the brunt of the housing crisis, the scars are still fresh more than two years after values in most areas hit bottom. And in the hardest-hit areas, where foreclosures dominated home sales for more than a year, the recovery is sluggish and the drag is widening an already stark economic gap. For many residents, the sting didn’t come from the initial mortgage taken out on the house — it was the additional equity they took out during the market peak, which topped out in most jurisdictions five years ago in the summer of 2006.
Keys to D.C.’s Confidence: Housing Market, Transience
(Washington City Paper) — A few days ago, we took note of the oddity of D.C’s high consumer confidence relative to suburban dwellers, as reflected in a survey done by Clarus Research for the Greater Washington Board of Trade. For an explanation, I called up the Center for Regional Analysis’ Lisa Sturtevant—heir apparent to this guy—who had some thoughts on the data. First of all, there might be some problems with the data, Sturtevant says. 800 people is an okay sample size, generally speaking, but if only a few hundred of them came from the District, it’s hard to come to any concrete conclusions.
Mortgage Options With Low Down Payments
(Bankrate) — The prospect of buying a home is daunting, especially for the uninitiated. First-time homeowners often aren’t in the position to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a down payment, either. Luckily, options exist to help new buyers get mortgages without selling their organs to come up with the cash.
FHA Loans: Insured by the Federal Housing Administration, these loans — known as FHA loans — only require a down payment of 3.5 percent along with mortgage insurance. A down payment of 3.5 percent is a lot more manageable to first-timers than the traditional 20 percent down. And if the home is in an affordable market, the down payment will be even lower.
