SORR Point
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 Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2008 8:34 am Post subject: US Home Foreclosures Sales & Starts |
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All the current data is only Oct 08 Figures, and therefore reflects past
activity, that more likely goes back to the state of Play in August ....
nothing has improved since August that>s for sure.
So expect that Home stats compared to the below comments will be seriously
tanking by the time December-January 09 Activity and Prices are being
reported around February 09.
Obama will surely be having an Interesting first 100 days like no one ever
before him has!!!
If you are a Philosopher, what guidance would you be giving?
Cheers
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Fannie, Freddie Suspend Foreclosures Through Jan. 9
Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Fannie Maeand Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance
companies seized by the U.S. government, will suspendforeclosures and
evictions over the holidays.
The six-week halt will begin Nov. 26, a day before the U.S. Thanksgiving
holiday, and last through Jan. 9, the companies said in separate statements
today. The hiatus is designed to give servicers more time to implement a
streamlined loan modification program for struggling borrowers.
“It’s a giant time out,” Paul Miller, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets in
Arlington, Virginia, said today in a Bloomberg Television interview. “I
wouldn’t be surprised to see this across the board.”
Fannie and Freddie, government-sponsored enterprises that own or guarantee
$5.2 trillion of the $12 trillion U.S. home mortgage market, were placed
under federal control Sept. 6. They have since been pushed to work harder at
modifying troubled single-family and multifamily mortgages to curtail
foreclosures.
Until a streamlined modification program is up and running, “we felt it was
in the best interest of both borrowers and Fannie Mae to take this extra
step to ensure that homeowners with the desire and ability to prevent
foreclosure have an opportunity to stay in their homes,” Fannie Chief
Executive Officer Herb Allison said in a statement.
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LOS ANGELES
Despite an increasingly uncertain economy, homebuyers in California kept
snatching up foreclosed homes last month, dragging down the median home
price by 34 percent from a year ago, a real estate tracking firm said
Thursday.
The statewide median home price plunged to $278,000 in October, compared
with $424,000 in the year-ago period, according to San Diego-based MDA
DataQuick.
Last month>s median price was down 1.8 percent from September.
About half the drop in the median price was due to depreciation, while the
other half came from a shift in sales toward distressed homes and the way
those homes are financed, DataQuick said.
"What happens next to housing will be determined by the fate of the economy,
and especially the job market, as well as the outcome of recently announced
efforts to curb foreclosures," John Walsh, MDA DataQuick>s president, said
in a statement.
Despite efforts by government, lenders and others to help strapped
homeowners with mortgage payments, foreclosures have continued to rise in
California, particularly in inland counties with metro areas such as
Stockton, Merced, Riverside, San Bernardino and Modesto.
But the worsening U.S. economy is not dissuading buyers with bargain home
prices in their sights, although the latest figures represent homes that
closed escrow in October on sales that were initiated probably as far back
as August.
Statewide home sales jumped nearly 64 percent from a year ago to 42,293 and
nearly 5 percent from September.
October>s sales were the strongest since December 2006, when 43,431 homes
were sold, according to DataQuick, which has kept the statistics since 1988.
Once more, foreclosure resales accounted for a major slice of sales last
month -- nearly 53 % of the preowned homes sold.
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Median home prices fall around US in Q3
By ALAN ZIBEL – 2 days ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Home prices fell in a record four out of five U.S. cities
in the third quarter as low-cost foreclosures flooded the market and the
U.S. housing market>s decline spread throughout the country.
Among 152 metropolitan areas included in the trade group>s survey, 120
posted declines in median home sales prices compared with a year ago, the
National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. Nationally, sales fell by
almost 8 percent in the third quarter compared with the same period a year
ago.
Sales of foreclosures and other distressed properties made up around 40
percent of transactions in the quarter, bringing down the median price by 9
percent from a year ago to $200,500.
Sales fell in all but four states in the Realtors' group>s report. The
exceptions were Nevada, California, Arizona and Virginia, where buyers have
been able to snap up foreclosed homes at a bargain.
"A very large proportion of distressed home sales are taking place at
discounted prices compared to more normal conditions a year ago," Charles
McMillan, the Realtors group>s president, said in a statement.
That>s especially true in places like Sacramento and Riverside, Calif.,
where prices were down 37 percent and 39 percent, respectively, from last
year. The two California cities had the largest annual price declines in the
report.
A nasty brew of strict lending standards, falling home values and a tough
economy is filtering through the housing market. By the end of the year,
foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc. expects more than a million
bank-owned properties to have piled up on the market, representing around a
third of all properties for sale in the U.S.
Meanwhile many economists believe the economy has fallen into a recession
that could be the worst downturn in more than two decades. As layoffs
accelerate, that>s likely to put further downward pressure on housing
prices.
Freddie Mac said last week that rising unemployment rates, tightening credit
and deteriorating economic conditions "contributed to a substantial increase
in the number of delinquent loans," including loans made to borrowers with
strong credit.
Freddie Mac has 28,000 foreclosed properties on its books, while its sister
company, Fannie Mae owns 67,500.
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U.S. Housing Starts, Permits Drop to Record Low Pace it>s now 1960 again!!!
Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. housing starts and permits for future
construction both dropped to record lows in October, signs the housing
downturn may extend into a fourth year.
Construction starts on housing fell 4.5 percent in October, less than
economists forecast, to an annual rate of 791,000 that was the lowest since
records began in 1959, the Commerce Department said in Washington. Building
permits, a sign of future residential projects, dropped 12 percent to a
708,000 pace, the lowest since at least 1960.
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