Real Estate. Economics. Business
The U.S. Treasury Department has issued new short sale guidelines to try to help banks speed up a cumbersome process. Reuter’s published this update (HT Mr. Short Sales).
There were two very critical items:
1) Treasury requires that the bank release the debtor from future obligations on that debt
2) The banks cannot reduce the real estate commissions of agents involved in the short sale
It will be see how this gets implemented in the next few weeks and months.
I often get the question, what’s the difference between a foreclosure and a short sale. Afterall, once a person gets behind on payments, their credit is already hit hard. Well, there is a difference.
Here is a FREE report on Foreclosure vs. Short Sale.
There was a change in Minnesota State statutes earlier this year that allows homeowners to delay the Sheriff’s sale by up to 5 months. There are several steps that need to be taken. If you do get a delay, that shortens the redemption period to 5 weeks from 6 months.
The Minnesota Home Ownership Center has some good information.
Here’s a Google Search on Foreclosure Postponement in Minnesota.
Why might someone want to consider postponing the Sheriff’s sale especially if they feel it’s inevitable that they can’t keep their house? The main reason I suppose someone would want to do this is to pursue a short sale.
If you’d like to consider your options before letting your home go to foreclosure, I am here to help. I’ve built a web site and become a Certified Distress Property Expert which allows me to help homeowners in distress. Please visit my web site dedicated to helping troubled homeowners at John Murphy Helps.
The Obama Administration is apparently going to crack down hard on banks that have received taxpayer funds to get them to complete more mortgage modifications. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that expectations are increasing that people get their mortgages reduced.
Calculated Risk has an excellent chart that shows the rather rapid growth in the number of mortgage modifications.
Market-Ticker minces no words on this. There have been essentially no permanent loan modifications accepted for the past 5 months. I’m not sure what the banks are doing. Is this an issue on the part of the borrower? Could be. Could it be that the market conditions just continue to deteriorate so the banks eventually don’t agree to the final loan mod? Hard to say.
What is interesting is that there are all kinds of businesses out there that supposedly will help you get a loan modification. The typical fee runs from $1,500 to $3,000 often times with no guarantee that they will get a modification done. Well, if you read Market-Ticker, trying to get a loan modification done sounds like a complete waste of time. BTW, if you want to do a loan modification, you can do it on your own. You don’t need to pay someone that kind of money to negotiate with the banks.
While the market is winding down for the year, there remain 18 bank owned homes for sale in Plymouth, MN.
If you’d like this list, please sign up at Plymouth Bank Owned.
The bank owned sales have generally been flying out the door. It used to be you could be patient if you were pursuing a bank owned home. With the banks being much more aggressive on price, you need to be the first to receive these new listings.
Several people have asked how you can easily find foreclosures on the Hennepin County web site. There is a link specifically to the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Sales. Note that these homes listed here have already gone through the foreclosure sale. There typically remains a 6 month redemption period from the time of the initial Sheriff’s sale.
These homes are often good candidates to consider a short sale. There is still time to avoid foreclosure.
I will post the link in the links section on the right side of this blog.
The latest from John Mauldin….good reading if you’re feeling a little down.
MarketWatch published a story a couple of weeks ago about people’s interest in pursuing real estate investments.
Given the collapse we’ve seen in some cities, it does indeed look like a good time to be a buyer. Below are some statistics that might be of interest:
Below is a revised synopsis of home sales in Foxberry Farms in Medina, MN from 2004-2009. The only data point that changed was the average sales price for 2009 YTD as a home closed earlier this week in Foxberry and it was not included in my earlier data posted here.
This is now the first time since the early days of the development that the average sold price is below $600,000! The average sales price in 2009 is $590,000 down from $725,000 in 2008. Statistically, this is an 18.6% decline in the average sales price. This does not mean that the typical home in Foxberry Farms is down 18.6% from a year ago, but it better reflects the appetite of buyers. There just aren’t as many people who are interested in buying $800,000 – $900,000 homes in today’s market.
I also believe that there is a major reset going on in the marketplace and it’s driven by several factors:
Click on the pictures to enlarge in a new window. If you’d like to stay up to date on Foxberry Farms, the click the link to subscribe to the latest MLS information. If Wild Meadows interests you, click the link for that development.
Foxberry Farms Home Sales - Medina, MN
Foxberry Farms Sales by Finished Square Feet - Medina, MN
The Case-Shiller Index was published this morning for the month of September 2009. The Twin Cities continues to show price improvements month to month but remains down 11.2% year over year. While that is a big decline, it’s better than 16-20% declines we were seeing a few months ago.
I’ve linked the Case-Shiller Index Press Release. Calculated Risk has an excellent graphical display of the Case-Shiller Index.
