A panel of the Mortgage Bankers Association claim that servicers are now going to take a more proactive approach to short sales. They claim that the relaxation of Hafa requirements will now open the program up to as many as 91% of homeowners that previuosly did not qualify. It still reamins to be
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02/24/2011
Every week, I post a review of the housing market for Maricopa Arizona subdivision homes. This past week, inventory levels continue to drop amid strong seasonal buying activity and the lack of new inventory release from the lenders' backlog of foreclosures As a result, values have remained steady
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02/22/2011
This article outlines a few of the proposed budget cuts to HUD. In particular it mentions cuts to the Development Block Grant program and Neighbor Works. The Development Block Grant program cuts are minor and I, for one, am glad to see that. In our small community of Maricopa n, these grants are
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02/15/2011
In this article, DBRS cliams that foreclosures will flood the market in 2011 resulting in deep discounts. I won't argue with them but my question is what are the lenders holding on to their shadow inventory? In Maricopa Arizona we are in the midst of our annual seasonal buyer fenzy and inventory
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02/14/2011
I found this article pretty interesting as it came from a point of view I hadn't thought of. Obviously GSE reform has many ramifications no matter how it is accomplished but I hadn't thought about the fact that it might do exactly what the author mentions: shift all lending to a few mega-lenders
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02/14/2011
This week's post by Housing Wire that reviews the weekend news. As expected, the mortgage finance industry is beginning to weigh in on the Obama plan to phase out Fannie and Freddie. As I had posted earlier, Amherst Securties Group commented that there are not enough details behind the three opti
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02/13/2011
A good article that outlines how everyone is lining up in response to the Obama plan to phase out Fannie and Freddie. The major concern seems to be that it will affect the affordability of home ownership. Given the housing mess and everthing that caused it, is that such a bad thing? First of all,
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02/12/2011
And we waited all this time for what? I need to read more about this but this article outlines the "plan" set forth by the Obama administration for the GSEs. There administration said that they need to withdraw government oversight of the housing market but need to do it slowly and offered three
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02/11/2011
I just wanted to post the latest update to the Fannie and Freddie scenario. I won't begin to comment on this article as there are just too many issues invloved that I don't begin to understand. The problem is, the government doesn't either. There will be a lot of "pushing and pulling" with the le
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02/11/2011
Realty Trac, a compnay that monitors default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions (REO) in counties across the U.S., stated that filings were down 17% from a year ago. This marks the third straight month of under 300,000 filings following a period of 20 months with higher numbers. T
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02/10/2011
