Continue Reading July 6th, 2009
The housing market has shown some signs of bottoming, but the next wave of foreclosures could delay any sort of recovery.
The Chicago Tribune had good piece today on another wave of foreclosures that could arrive as soon as this summer. Lenders are now moving ahead with foreclosures that had been delayed by self-imposed and state-government moratoriums that expired in the past few months.
First-time home buyers and investors are responsible for the spike in sales, especially in hard-hit California, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona. But the inventory of bank-owned homes is now likely to grow, putting increasing pressure on already low prices. And the rising unemployment rate will only compound the situation.
“The rapid pace of layoffs is of particular concern,” the Tribune article reads. “Homeowners who have lost jobs have little chance of getting their mortgages modified. That puts many homeowners on a collision course with banks that are preparing to take a more aggressive stance on loan modifications.”
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Continue Reading July 6th, 2009
Perusing some of the reader forums at the online real estate brokerage site Redfin.com I came across an interesting debate. Many investors are snapping up bank-owned homes with all-cash offers. Banks like all-cash offers because they are less risky than waiting for a buyer who needs a loan. The loan may not be approved. Or in the case of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans, the property may need repairs before the buyer can qualify.
In a string titled “All Cash offers can go to hell!!!” a reader named Westfoe had this to say:
“I’ve been looking for a house for the past 3 months. I’m approved Fha with 20% down. Almost every house that we think is about to go thru or that we are the highest bidder, there some cash only a-hole that snakes it from us!!! Am I the only one???
How about the Family’s that actually want to live at the house not rent it out for profit?”
Are investors who have the resources to pay cash being fair to families that just want to buy their own home? Is selling to investors in the best interest of the community? The term ‘pride of ownership’ gets used a lot in real estate circles. It means home owners take much better care of properties than tenants.
Elsewhere in the same string a reader argues that investors are playing a key role in getting us out of this crisis. They are getting problem assets off of bank balance sheets–freeing the banks up to make more loans. Demand from investors is also driving up home prices–critical to a recovery.
What do you think?
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