Continue Reading Add comment September 4th, 2009
Hundreds of thousands of first-time homebuyers across the country have begun to claim their tax credits, according to new government data released on Friday, but experts say many more have yet to cash in. Read more »
Continue Reading Add comment September 4th, 2009
Hovnanian Enterprises disappointed Wall Street this week with an earnings report that showed deep revenue and profit declines. But CEO Ara Hovnanian, who said that new home contracts have improved in recent months, sounded upbeat about the future. Hovnanian said the company would raise prices, cut incentives, buy land and reopen two projects it mothballed in Southern California and Arizona.
Hovnanian’s announcement is just the latest sign of new-found confidence in the housing market. In the latest BusinessWeek issue, I argue that the housing market’s strength is more broadbased than the real estate industry acknowledges. And the recovery is not just concentrated in foreclosure and other low-priced sales.
Home prices appear to be rising in medium- and high-end markets as well, according to Case Shiller’s seasonally-adjusted Tiered Price Indices.
Builder and Realtor lobbyists are pushing for the extention and expansion of buyer incentives. They argue that the housing market cannot maintain its momentum unless the $8,000 first-time buyer credit is nearly doubled, extended through 2010, and given to all buyers, not just first-time buyers. The $8,000 credit is now due to expire after Nov. 30.
The $8,000 credit seems to have helped in spurring sales. It’s not clear what would happen if it is allowed to expire. Interestingly, Hovnanian said the expiration of the $10,000 credit for new home buyers in California in July did not hurt business signifantly.
I would say thus far, keep in mind it’s only been a few weeks, we haven’t seen a huge impact, so we are pleased with that. Part of that could be driven by the federal credit and that expires at the end of November, so you know, it’s hard to know what the impact of losing both of them will be and it’s hard to know what the impact will be after a greater period of time in California.
But based on the first few weeks, thus far things seem to be holding
Continue Reading Add comment September 4th, 2009
Hope Now, the alliance of banks, mortgage servicers and non-profit mortgage counselors, came out with its July data this week and the numbers still look bleak.
While the actual number of foreclsoures in the month declined 3% to 89,100, the number of borrowers 60 days or more past due on their loans rose 6% to 3.1 million. The number of folks entering the foreclosure process increased 12% to 283,000.
The group says the number of loans it modified decreased from 93,921 in June to 80,167 in July. The number of borrowers negoatiationing repayment plans also declined to 173,506 in July from 211,882 in June. The group blames the downward trend over the last few months on morgage servicers retooling and refocusing to keep up with the Obama Administration’s latest mortgage modification programs.
One bit of good news: as the chart above shows, the percentage of homeowners in trouble who are actually losing their homes is decreasing from about 48% at the start of the crisis to 38% today.
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