The Pointing You Home Real Estate Blog

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Bank of America, like several other banks, continues to contribute to the foreclosure crisis in this country – I’m not blaming them for needing to liquidate their inventory of foreclosed real estate, but this trend is going to be an on-going drag on home values for a prolonged period of time.

Huge Surge in Bank of America Foreclosures

Tuesday, 13 Sep 2011 by CNBC
by Diana Olick

Bank of America is ramping up its foreclosure processing, sending out far more notices of default to borrowers in August than in previous months, well over 200 percent more month-to-month.

A notice of default is the first stage of the foreclosure process in non-judicial foreclosures states, that is, where foreclosures do not go before a judge.

The notice of default is usually sent when a borrower is 90 days or more overdue in payments, but that timeline has been extended significantly during this housing crisis, due to the so-called “robo-signing” processing scandal and the sheer volume of troubled loans.

To read the full CNBC “Huge Surge in Bank of America Foreclosures” Article, click here.

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I just read this article about how the Washington DC Area has experienced one of the most active August real estate markets in four years!

In his article “Active August For DC Housing Market” Mark Wellborn writes about this optimistic report seems to run against the prevailing news reports of doom and gloom in the market place – which is certain true in many areas, but the Washington Market remains insulated from the tumult of the rest of the country.

In August, pending home sales in the DC area reached their highest level in four years, according to data released today by RealEstate Business Intelligence (RBI). Specifically, 4,169 contracts were signed in the region last month, a drop-off from July, but a 20 percent increase over August 2010.

The report released this morning also stated that the median home sales price for the area fell to $356,000 in August from $370,000 in July, a month-over-month drop that is in line with the seasonality of the market. A more notable statistic that caught our eye was that the median sales price for August 2011 was virtually the same as August 2010 ($355,000). MRIS analyst Jonathan Miller, who authored the report, noted that the median sales numbers (which are for closed home sales, so lag about three months) for last August were probably a little inflated because of the effect of the federal homebuyer credit, so while prices have not shot up, the price comparison is a little misleading.

To Read the full article about The Washington Area’s active Summer market, click here.

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In what appears to be a bright spot in an otherwise unexciting marketplace, Mortgage Applications rose 6.3% last week, according to the LA Times.  It’s worth a read for sure!

Mortgage applications up 6.3% last week

by KERRI PANCHUK, September 14, 2011

Mortgage applications rose 6.3% last week as more homeowners filed purchase applications and refinanced their home loans.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its refinance index increased 6% last week after three weeks of declines.

Read the Full “Morgage Applications UP 6.3% last week” article here.

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Washington remains an above average Real Estate market.

Here are 10 reasons why NOW is one of the best times to buy real estate in over 15 years:

1. Historically low interest rates.
2. Strength of DC market (probably the best in the country).
3. Everything is on “sale”.  Everybody likes a sale and real estate is having one.  One of the biggest ones ever!
4. The experts ( like Dave Ramsey ) are buying.  It’s good to watch the lead dogs.
5. Best pricing in 10-15 years.
6. Large inventory to pick from.
7. Able to negotiate favorable terms.  I.E. closing help, large discounts, etc.
8. Excellent rental market.  Few vacancies.  Increasing rents.
9. High demand for rentals from all the distressed sellers looking for housing.
10. Shortage of housing due to little to no new construction over the past 5-7 years.

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This is very encouraging news!  CNN just reported that home prices nationally rebounded 3.6%!  That’s exciting news.  We’ve still got a long way to go, and we’ll probably see additional dips in the future, but a balanced number of rebounds gives me hope!

From CNNMoney’s “Home prices bounce back, but market still struggles” by By Les Christie August 30, 2011

Home prices made a comeback during the second quarter, but the struggling housing market isn’t out of the woods yet.  Prices rose a substantial 3.6%, compared with the three months ended March 31. But home prices are still down 5.9% compared with the second quarter of 2010.

The rise in home prices came after three consecutive quarters of drops, as reported by the S&P/Case-Shiller national index — an influential gauge of residential real-estate markets. The year-over-year decline was a bit more than the than the drop of 4.7% that had been forecast by a consensus of experts at Briefing.com. A separate monthly index of home prices in 20 major metro areas also reported a month-over-month gain of 1.1% for June, and a drop of 4.5% year-over year.

Follow this link to read the full “Home prices bounce back, but market still struggles” article.

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