While 2010 was not a stellar year for new home sales, it ended on a positive note: December home sales rose 17.5 percent over November home sales on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In December, there were 329,000 home sales on a seasonally adjusted basis, strongly surpassing economists’ predictions of 299,000 sales.

While a strong uptick in new home sales marked a positive end for 2010, however, the year ended up as the slowest one on record. The estimated total of new homes sold in 2010 was 14.4 percent below the 2009 level, according to the report.

Pending home sales jumped 10.4 percent in October, showing another positive uptrend since bottoming in June, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI), a forward-looking indicator, rose to 89.3 based on contracts signed in October from 80.9 in September. The index remains 20.5 percent below a surge to a cyclical peak of 112.4 in October 2009, which was the highest level since May 2006 when it hit 112.6.

The latest surge also reflects market strength, since buyers had an additional push to close quickly in October 2009 to qualify for one version of the first-time homebuyer tax credit that expired in November. The data reflects contracts and not closings, which normally occur with a lag time of one or two months.

The data also surprised economists who had expected a decline in pending home sales given current troubles within the housing market. However, Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says excellent housing affordability conditions drew in more homebuyers.

“It is welcoming to see a solid double-digit percentage gain, but activity needs to improve further to reach healthy, sustainable levels,” Yun says. “The housing market clearly is in a recovery phase and will be uneven at times, but the improving job market and consequential boost to household formation will help the recovery process going into 2011. More importantly, a return to more normal loan underwriting standards and removal of unnecessary underwriting fees for very low risk borrowers is needed and could quickly help in the housing and economic recovery.”

Recent loan performance data from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac clearly demonstrates very low default rates on recently originated mortgages – much lower that the vintages of 2002 and 2003 before the housing boom.

The PHSI in the Northeast jumped 19.6 percent to 71.3 in October but is 27.3 percent below the tax credit peak in October 2009. In the Midwest, the index surged 27.3 percent in October to 81.7 but is 24.8 percent below a year ago.

Pending home sales in the South rose 7.1 percent to an index of 93.8 but are 18.4 percent below October 2009. In the West, the index slipped 0.4 percent to 104.3 and is 15.6 percent below a year ago.

Near term, Yun expects home sales to continue climbing from their cyclical low this past summer.

“Even so, we now have some consumer concerns regarding the mortgage interest deduction, an important component in housing affordability,” Yun says.

Sales of existing condominiums in Florida rose 15 percent in third quarter 2010 compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the latest housing statistics from Florida Realtors®. A total of 16,938 existing condos sold statewide in 3Q 2010; during the same period the year before, a total of 14,793 units changed hands.

Fourteen of Florida’s metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) reported higher existing condo sales in the third quarter, according to Florida Realtors. The statewide existing-condo median sales price was $84,000 for the three-month period; in 3Q 2009, it was $106,000 for a decrease of 21 percent.

“A healthy housing market is built on the foundation of a robust economy,” said Dr. Sean Snaith, director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Competitiveness. “As the economic recovery continues in Florida – and in particular as the labor market improves – the housing market will follow suit. The price decline in the condo market continues to attract domestic and foreign buyers to Florida to take advantage of this buying opportunity.

“The third-quarter single-family and condo Florida resales data reflect a slowdown relative to second-quarter data as the expiration of the first-time homebuyer’s tax credit in April pulled future demand into the second quarter,” Snaith said, adding that the drop-off was expected.

Meanwhile, in the year-to-year quarterly comparison for existing single-family home sales, 41,122 homes sold statewide for the quarter compared to 44,451 homes in 3Q 2009 for a 7 percent decrease. The statewide existing-home median sales price was $135,200 in 3Q 2010; a year earlier, it was $145,300 for a decrease of 7 percent. Sales of foreclosures and other distressed properties continue to downwardly distort the median price because they generally sell at a discount relative to traditional homes, according to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR). The median is a typical market price where half the homes sold for more, half for less.

The University of Florida’s Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies’ latest quarterly survey of real estate trends reports that the jobless rate remains a top concern for the future outlook of the state’s real estate industry. The survey polls market research economists, industry executives, real estate scholars and other experts.

Timothy Becker, the center’s director, noted that investment in real estate continues to flow into Florida, though investors are wary about the economy. “The apartment sector is the stellar performer,” he said, adding that conditions continue to improve in the commercial sector. “We’re starting to see stabilization across property types in occupancy, with respondents saying they feel better about what rents are going to look like in the near future.”

Low mortgage rates continued to be available during the third quarter of the year. According to Freddie Mac, the national commitment rate for a 30-year conventional fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.45 percent in 3Q 2010; one year earlier, it averaged 5.16 percent.

© 2010 Florida Realtors®

The Viceroy, a swanky condominium complex in downtown Miami, gives the impression that the United States is in another real estate boom. The sales office is strangely exuberant. Buyers gush about the glam condos – designed by hipster tastemaker Kelly Wearstler – and their hotel-like amenities: poolside libations, daily housekeeping and room service food stirred up by a celebrity chef.

Since January, 262 of the Viceroy’s 372 units have sold. But there’s a twist: Almost 90 percent of the buyers are foreigners. And they all paid cash.

The Viceroy’s story is playing out across Miami. Individual investors from as far as Argentina, Canada, Colombia, France, Israel, Italy, Norway and Venezuela are swarming the city’s sales offices to get in on what they see as one of the greatest real estate fire sales in the history of the United States.

At one time, these people would have invested in the U.S. stock market. Now they see the opportunity of a lifetime in the nation’s debilitated housing market. The idea is to rent out the properties and then sell them once the economy turns around.

The math is seductive: Prices at the Viceroy are roughly 52 percent off the 2007 peak. Units once sold for as much $670 a square foot. Today the average price is $319.

“I have never seen such a high concentration of foreign nationals acquiring real estate,” says Peter Zalewski, who has been in real estate for 15 years and founded Condo Vultures, a consulting and brokerage firm. “Eighty percent of the sales in downtown Miami are foreign-based. This is unprecedented.”

Miami is hardly the only hot spot for buyers from outside the United States. Real estate brokers say they’ve seen a surge in Washington, New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco. In Seattle, Asians are buying property sight unseen, says Joe Brazen of Brazen Sotheby’s International. In New York, 25 percent of buyers at the Armani-designed 20 Pine building, near the World Trade Center site, are from overseas.

“It’s a positive in a sea of negatives,” says Jonathan Miller, chief executive of Miller Samuel, a real estate consulting firm in New York.

This year in Phoenix, for the first time, there have been more buyers from Canada than from California, according to real estate data outfit Information Market. With the Canadian dollar approaching parity with its U.S. counterpart, the opportunity was simply irresistible to Jim Chuong, a 38-year-old Novartis sales manager from Toronto.

Chuong, whose house in Canada is already paid off, used to invest in U.S. stocks. Now he’s investing in Phoenix condos, paying $50 a square foot for units that would cost $500 a square foot in Toronto.

“It’s ridiculous is what it is,” Chuong says.

For foreigners with cash, the deals can make them money from day one. Chuong buys two-bedroom condos for less than $40,000 in low-crime areas. He only picks up units that already have renters. After paying association fees and taxes, he walks away with $300 a month, pre-tax, on each. The deals are now easy to do, thanks to the cottage industry of companies that has grown up to manage virtually everything for foreign buyers, down to badgering renters for the monthly check.

For the international investor class, the United States’ bloated inventory of homes, high unemployment and weak currency make for an unusually attractive buyer’s market.

“Never before have all these things come together like this,” says Patrick O’Neill, chief executive officer of the Hong Kong-based O’Neill Group, which helps Chinese invest in international real estate. O’Neill says Chinese buying in places like New York is on track to double this year.

“Unless you want to go to Baghdad,” O’Neill says, “the United States is the best you can get.”

The trend is showing up in the statistics. In a National Association of Realtors report released in July, 28 percent of brokers reported they had worked with at least one international client, up from 23 percent a year earlier. Among those, 18 percent had completed at least one sale, compared with 12 percent in the 2009 report.

“I was going to invest in the stock market, but I decided to invest in real estate instead,” says Diego Garcia, a Mexico City native on assignment in New York City with Pfizer Inc., where he is a regional finance director. Garcia paid $850,000 for a Manhattan one-bedroom in a gleaming new high-rise that he plans to live in for now. “I’m a conservative guy,” Garcia says, “and this was more conservative.”

That’s not to say there aren’t steep risks. An economic jolt could easily throw the whole plan into disarray. The housing market is far from a recovery. In many places, prices continue to fall. What happens if currency values reverse and a foreign owner needs a quick sale? Or a renter bolts in the middle of the night, leaving an empty unit and no cash flow?

It’s not as if foreign buying can be counted on for a housing market turnaround. Overseas buyers represent a mere 7 percent or so of today’s total. Yet in some cities, such as Miami and Washington, the foreign sales are helping to stabilize the markets.

In past downturns, buying a property in the U.S. was the prestigious purview of the wealthy, but today the market is within reach of the swelling ranks of the global upper-middle class.

Colombians, who often call Miami the most beautiful city in their country, have always been drawn to Florida. The difference now is the upside-down economics. It is cheaper to buy in Miami than in Bogota, and you can fly between the two cities for $59 each way.

“Muchos muchos muchos muchos opportunity,” says Elsa de Blaschke, who owns a construction company with her husband in Barranquilla, Colombia, and is hunting for an investment property to buy in Miami. De Blaschke chose not to invest the capital at home because she says Florida offers a better chance of a bigger return.

“The international buyer pool is better than we have ever seen it before,” says Phillip White, president of Sotheby’s International, based in New York.

To match demand, U.S. brokerages are hiring agents who can speak foreign languages and are pouring more resources into marketing overseas.

In October, agents from 11 Sotheby’s International branches will descend on Hong Kong’s convention center to regale wealthy buyers there with slick visuals on showcase properties. In Toronto, agents from Florida Home Finders play to crowds of 800 every other Sunday at a Holiday Inn banquet hall. Jenny Huertas, Condo Vultures’ international sales director, throws seminars for potential clients across South America.

“Their jaws drop. They can’t believe it,” Huertas says. “They think these deals are too good to be true.”

Fannie Mae poll shows fewer see housing as a safe investment
A survey by Fannie Mae shows seven out of 10 Americans now agree with half of the proposition put forward by the National Association of Realtors in a notorious 2006 advertising campaign — that “It’s a great time to buy or sell a home.”

Seventy percent of Americans polled in June and July think it is a good time to buy a house, compared with 64 percent in a similar survey conducted in January 2010. But 83 percent believe it’s a bad time to sell, Fannie Mae said.

And while 78 percent believed that home prices will either remain flat or go up in the next year — up five points from January — the number of Americans who think housing is a safe investment has fallen from 83 percent in 2003 to 67 percent today.

The number of respondents saying they would be more likely to rent their next home if they were to move increased from 30 percent in January to 33 percent in the latest survey.

“Although most Americans believe that home prices have bottomed, they are adopting a much more cautious approach toward buying,” said Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan in a press release. “Homeowners and renters alike continue to be wary of taking on risk, and they are less confident in the long-term outlook for housing.”

People with mortgages (74 percent) and even underwater borrowers (69 percent) were more likely to say owning a home is a safe investment than delinquent borrowers (57 percent) and renters (54 percent).

more…

David Price received the Top Sales Award for all Coldwell Banker agents in NE St. Pete in Units and Volume for May 2010

A very hot March
(MLS stats Click Here .pdf)

Absorption Rate: With falling inventory and the trend for increased sales, the absorption rate continued to rise to 11.5 percent for single-family and 9.5 percent for condos. Currently the months’ supply of inventory is 5.5 single-family and 7.6 condo.

Inventory: The number of listings on the market continues to drop on a year-over-year basis. After a slight increase in listings earlier this year, listings dropped again in March. They were down nearly 16 percent for single-family and over 17 percent for condos since March 2009.

Units Sold: The biggest gain took place in sales. Single-family unit sales were up dramatically at nearly 27 percent over March 2009. Condo unit sales increased a whopping 58.5 percent over last year. That’s a pretty torrid pace considering how difficult the condo market has been for the past three years.

Median Price: The median sales price for single-family homes was barely below the March 2009 level, with a 1.1 percent decline. The condo median price fell 12 percent from last year.

Contracts Pending: With single family pending contracts up 60 percent and condo pending contracts up 32 percent from last year, there is great promise of a couple more good months ahead.

Most of the single-family home sales were in the $100,000 to $200,000 range at 37.4 percent and the second highest grouping was in the below $100,000 range at 33 percent. In the higher ranges, 24.7 percent sold in the $200,000 to $400,000 category while 4.7 percent were sold at more than $400,000. Around 1 percent were sold for $1 million or more.

Condo sales were brisk in the below $100,000 range at 46.7 percent. It is interesting to see 12.1 percent selling in the over-$400,000 category, with a surprising 3.1 percent sold at more than $1 million. Are we seeing recovery in the luxury market? The $100,000 to $200,000 range pulled in 26 percent of the sales, while 15.3 percent were in the $200,000 to 400,000 segment.

Pinellas County looks attractive again!

Don’t miss out on this GREAT TIME to buy or you could be sorry!

A record number of desperate borrowers have registered for a traveling mortgage relief marathon that “sounds too good to be true.”

The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America’s Save the Dream Tour opens 9 a.m. Thursday at the Miami Beach Convention Center, offering thousands of struggling homeowners a chance to modify their loans – at no cost.

The event, which offers free counseling and face-to-face contact with lender representative, runs 24 hours a day. Doors close at 8 p.m. on April 19.

Bruce Marks, CEO of the Boston-based nonprofit, said Wednesday morning that a company record 15,000 had already registered for Thursday’s event.

“We’ve had a huge response,” he said, even though the tour made a stop in West Palm Beach just last February.

Darren Duarte, spokesman for NACA, said the overwhelming number of people who showed up for help in Palm Beach County led the tour, which makes stops around the county, back to South Florida.

“During the last day the crowd was extremely large and we got to see a lot of people but there were a lot of people we didn’t get a chance to see,” Duarte said about the February event. “So we saw there is still a need here and a demand here.”

More than 24,000 applied for mortgage relief at the Palm Beach County event, leading to nearly 11,000 modifications, Duarte said.

Greg Calley said he was among those who benefited. The American Airlines mechanic said he was poised to short-sell his Jupiter townhome after a year of trying unsuccessfully to work with Chase to modify his loan, which he struggled to pay.

Then he heard about Save the Dream.

“I thought it was too good to be true,” he said, echoing a common skepticism about whether the nonprofit really can help mortgage holders receive a free, same-day loan modification.

But Calley said that by the time he left the Palm Beach event, his monthly payment was $1,000 cheaper and his interest rate reduced by 4.5 percentage points.

The tour’s arrival in South Florida comes on the heels of a month that set a new South Florida record for property repossessions in March, with 3,707 in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, according to a report by real estate consulting firm CondoVultures Realty.

Those who attend the workshop are encouraged to register and are urged to bring pay stubs, tax forms and other financial documents.

More info: http://www.naca.com

If you are like many American’s who purchase or refinanced their home during the heat of the real estate boom this could be the program that was designed to help YOU! Over the past 2 years I’ve been working to help many clients who have found themselves upside down and need financial help to correct their housing situation. It’s been a long and hard road for many of these good people whose lives have changed in one way or another.

Finally it looks like our government has taken a step in the right direction to streamline the process of helping these good hardworking people.

There are two program: The first is called HAMP, and this is how it works:
The Home Affordable Modification Program is designed to help as many as 3 to 4 million financially struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure by modifying loans to a level that is affordable for borrowers now and sustainable over the long term. The program provides clear and consistent loan modification guidelines that the entire mortgage industry can use.

Borrower eligibility is based on meeting specific criteria including:
1) borrower is delinquent on their mortgage or faces imminent risk of default
2) property is occupied as borrower’s primary residence
3) mortgage was originated on or before Jan. 1, 2009 and unpaid principal balance must be no greater than $729,750 for one-unit properties.

After determining a borrower’s eligibility, a servicer will take a series of steps to adjust the monthly mortgage payment to 31% of a borrower’s total pretax monthly income:

•First, reduce the interest rate to as low as 2%,
•Next, if necessary, extend the loan term to 40 years,
•Finally, if necessary, forbear (defer) a portion of the principal until the loan is paid off and waive interest on the deferred amount.
Note: Servicers may elect to forgive principal under HAMP on a stand alone basis or before any modification step in order to achieve the target monthly mortgage payment.
The Home Affordable Modification Program includes incentives for borrowers, servicers and investors – For More Info Click Here

If you can’t complete the HAMP program for one or a number of reasons than you maybe (should be able to) go in to the second program call HAFA.

Here is the info on HAFA: How HAFA Can Help

The Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) Program was designed to complement the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) by helping current homeowners with mortgage debt who are eligible for HAMP but still cannot keep their home.

When a borrower applies for help from HAMP, not everyone succeeds with the program. Sometimes their lender is unable to approve a loan modification. Other times the borrower declines the terms of the loan modification. Some borrowers are approved and accept the terms of the modification, but fail to complete the program for various reasons. Before HAFA, these borrowers were usually headed for foreclosure.

HAFA gives those borrowers a viable alternative to foreclosure. If they have or want to find a buyer for their home, they may request approval for a short sale with pre-approval short sale terms and minimum acceptable net proceeds. If not, they may request approval for a deed-in-lieu . When a borrower applies for help with one of the HAFA solutions, the program already has their financial and hardship information from their HAMP application.

HAFA also imposes limits on the lender to help the borrower. Under the terms of this program, a lender must release the borrower from all future liability for the first mortgage debt. The lender may not ask the borrower for cash or a promissory note, and the lender may not ask a court for a deficiency judgment. The program also prohibits the lender from asking the listing real estate agent to discount their commission at the closing of a short sale.

All documents have been standardized and procedures, time frames, and deadlines have been streamlined under HAFA to make the process easier for both borrowers and lenders.

HAFA also provides financial incentives for both borrowers and lenders to participate in the program. Borrowers are entitled to receive $1,500 in relocation assistance , to be paid at closing. Lenders or loan servicers may receive up to $1,000 to help with administrative costs. There are also financial incentives for the lender or investor on the first mortgage to allow some of the proceeds from the sale of the property to be paid to subordinate lienholders.

Finally, participation in the HAFA program puts the foreclosure process on hold for the borrower. The lender may initiate the foreclosure process, but if the borrower is in the middle of the application process, or if any approved short sale or deed-in-lieu agreement has not been completed or reached its deadline, the lender may not complete the foreclosure process.

For more information Click Here

There are a lot of people who need this information so please forward to a friend or RT on twitter