Yulia Demyank, Senior Research Economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland recently published a commentary piece entitle, “Ten Myths about Subprime Mortgages.” It’s worth a read.
100 Plymouth, MN Foreclosures, Bank Owned Properties and Distress Sales – www.PlymouthBankOwned.com
July 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Checking through the MLS this morning, it appears there are still plenty of foreclosures, bank owned properties and distress sales for sale.  (Note: some agents are now marketing their properties as “not a foreclosure” and those may be getting picked up in my customized search criteria. At this point it appears that about 10% are being picked up this way).
Prices range from $50,000 to about $700,000. Â There are condos, townhomes and single family homes in this list.
If you’d like to receive this list, please leave your contact information at:Â www.PlymouthBankOwned.com.
Robert Shiller – “Housing Will Be More Volatile…Not Likely To Be Over Quickly”
July 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Robert Shiller, Yale Professor and cofounder of the much watched Case-Shiller Index, was interviewed back in February this year at a conference. This video clip runs for a few minutes. He’s been very accurate on housing and really is as good as anyone on the current crisis. He makes an interesting point that housing will run the risk of being even more volatile in the future and that this current housing problem will not be over quickly. Given that this clip is now almost six months old, it seems that he was right with that last statement.
Shiller was recently interviewed on CNN two weeks ago. He comments on commercial real estate and also makes note that the millions of people who have lost their life savings in this housing market bubble and crash, “are not going to forget that they were wiped out” due to their home.
Embedded video from CNNMoney Video
“SAFE AT HOME: Preventing Foreclosure Documentary” by Twin Cities Public Television (TPT)
July 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment
The Minnesota Home Ownership Center has some very good materials on its website for those who are trying to deal with foreclosure.  As I mentioned in a previous blog post, they have some great information about the new postponement law that allows homeowners to delay the Sheriff’s sale for another 5 months. There are some specifics that must be followed so be sure to check out the site or an attorney for those details.
Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) and the Minnesota Home Ownership Center have teamed up to produce a documentary entitled, “SAFE AT HOME: Preventing Foreclosure.” Â It will demonstrate the foreclosure counseling network that is available to Minnesotans and it will describe efforts underway to help troubled homeowners and neighborhoods deeply impacted by the foreclosure problem in Minnesota.
Click here for the details as to when the show will be airing in the Twin Cities.
Strategic Default – Walking Away From Your Home
July 24, 2009 By 1 Comment
The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management just completed a recent study of homeowners who default on their mortgages. The San Francisco Chronicle published some of the details of this report. The article is available at SFGate. Apparently the study found that 26% of the defaults are categorized as “strategic default.”
Strategic default involves a homeowner deciding to not make the payment and “walk away” even though they have the financial wherewithall to continue to make their mortgage payment.
Several months ago there was much discussion about “walk aways” but not a lot of proof. This study now may lend some credence to the idea that there are people who can afford to make their payments, but because they are so far upside down on their home with no hope of recovery, they choose to walk away and default leading to foreclosure.
Medina, MN Real Estate: Wild Meadows Foreclosures and Short Sales
July 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment
To stay up to date on current and future foreclosures and short sales in Wild Meadows, be sure to add your name to the free auto e-mail report. There’s no obligation. This will automatically e-mail you when something comes up as either a short sale or foreclosure in Wild Meadows.
Medina, MN Real Estate: Foxberry Farms Home Sold for $480,000 – July 2009
July 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment
It’s been many years since we’ve seen home prices under $500,000 in Foxberry Farms located in Medina, MN. The neighborhood used to have a price range from $600,000 to $1.1 million. It has been slipping backwards each year for the past couple of years. In 2008, we saw a couple of properties sell in the low to mid $500,000s.  Now we had one just close for $480,000. (For disclosure purposes, this was my listing).
Previous blog post on 1115 Foxtail Drive, Medina, MN 55340.
If you’re interested in staying up to date with properties for sale along with transaction history for either Foxberry Farms or neighboring Wild Meadows, you can sign up at the links below to receive free MLS updates. There is no obligation.
For other posts on Foxberry Farms in Medina, MN click here.
Record Number of FHA Mortgages Written in June 2009
July 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment
HousingWire is reporting that the FHA insured a record number of mortgages in June 2009. 194,000 mortgages were insured by the American Taxpayers – I mean, the FHA, during the month of June. That’s up 48% from one year ago.
FHA is predicting a 10% increase in “insurance claims” otherwise known in regular lingo as defaults for 2009. However, in a sign of continued deterioration in FHA loans, June’s claims jumped 26% over last year.
Somehow I don’t think this is going to end well for the American Taxpayer.
Minnesota State Forms Revisions for Real Estate Purchase Agreements Take Effect August 1, 2009
July 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment
It seems that the Minnesota State forms for real estate transactions are updated every year and then go through more major revisions every other year. Effective August 1st, several new changes will take effect for purchase agreements and disclosures.
Perhaps the most important thing that has changed is a clarification about “business days” and how they are counted. With real estate transactions, there are deadlines that must be met otherwise the contract is to be cancelled. There are times where agents and the principals in the transaction don’t exactly agree as to when the business day count starts and when it expires. For example, there may be an inspection contingency that has 5 business days to complete from the date of Final Acceptance. The new forms now clearly articulate that the business day count is defined as “the first day following the occurance of the event specified and including subsequent calendar days which are not a Saturday, Sunday or a state or federal holiday unless stated elsewhere by the parties in writing. The deadline expires at midnight on the last day.”
This is definitely inside baseball for real estate agents, but for those who want to read all the changes, the 15 page pdf is linked here.
Hennepin County Pre-foreclosures: 91 Notices of Default (NODs) Published Tuesday, July 21 – Bank of America and Countrywide Dominate
July 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Hennepin County publishes its Notices of Default (NODs) Tuesday through Saturday. Yesterday seemed to be a pretty heavy day with 91 Notices of Default published with well over one third of these notices were from Bank of America or Countrywide.
The values for these properties ranged from $86,000 to $2.7 million according to the EMV (Estimated Market Value as provided by Hennepin County).
These homes are all considered pre-foreclosures as they have received the foreclosure notice announcing the date of the Sheriff’s sale. Most of the Sheriff’s sales will be in the next 4-6 weeks.  These properties are also candidates for short sales.
Perhaps these homeowners want to review my post from last night if they wish to delay the Sheriff’s sale.