Fannie Mae, banks halt foreclosures
Fannie Mae, banks halt foreclosures
for the holidays
@CNNMoney December 1, 2011: 4:11 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Happy holidays struggling homeowners! Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and several large mortgage lenders have pledged not to foreclose on delinquent borrowers during the Christmas season. For homeowners with loans through Fannie Mae (FNMA, Fortune 500) and Freddie Mac (FMCC, Fortune 500), the moratorium will run from Dec. 19 to Jan. 2. During this time, legal and administrative proceedings for evictions may continue, but families will be allowed to stay in their homes, Fannie said in a statement. "No family should have to give up their home during this holiday season," said Terry Edwards, an executive vice president for Fannie Mae. Among some of the major banks that offer mortgage loans, Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) Mortgage said it will not evict anyone between Dec. 22 and Jan. 2. Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) will also suspend evictions during that period, but will not shut down its eviction machinery entirely.The bank said it will observe the moratorium on foreclosed properties in its own portfolio but for loans it services for other lenders "foreclosure-related actions may still occur."
Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) said that it would "avoid foreclosure sales or displacement of homeowners or tenants around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays."
Why Fannie/Freddie execs get paid a lot
However, that policy only applies to loans the bank itself owns. Like Wells Fargo, it will also honor the wishes of the owners of the loans it services, which could mean moving forward with certain foreclosures.A holiday halt on foreclosures by the major mortgage lenders could affect tens of thousands of homeowners. An average of 89,000 foreclosure auctions a month have been scheduled this year, according to RealtyTrac. Once a home has gone through that process, eviction is the next step.
Giving foreclosure families a second chance
There could be a small handful of borrowers who might benefit permanently from the suspension, according to Daren Blomquist, a spokesman for RealtyTrac. Sometimes, albeit very rarely, a Christmas miracle will occur where a borrower finds the cash to get current on their mortgage again and keep their home.For the overwhelming majority of borrowers in default, however, "[i]t's a temporary reprieve, a symbolic gesture to help people out during the holidays," said Blomquist. Then, come the New Year, everyone gets back to business, including mortgage lenders.
4 steps to buy again after foreclosure
Mood of the Market
By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Tuesday, November 29, 2011.Frequently, I receive letters from someone who hasn't yet lost their home to foreclosure but anticipates they soon will, and wants to be able to get back into the market, quick-like.
Many claim their haste is because they don't want to miss out on today's bargain housing prices or interest rates. Yet neither seems poised to rise significantly any time soon.
In the same breath, many of these folks say they're ready to pay top dollar for their next home, and pay an additional premium if they are forced to rely on lease-to-own, seller financing, or a hard-money mortgage.
My advice is almost always this: Slow down! Most legitimate loan programs now impose a three-year-plus waiting period after a borrower loses a home to foreclosure, even if they would otherwise qualify for a mortgage based on their credit score, income and assets.
Here are my four suggestions for how you can wisely use that waiting period to recover from a foreclosure -- these steps also do double duty in terms of setting you up for success and sustainability the next time you buy a home.
1. Feel the pain.
Many folks who write to me are still in the early stages of grief at the loss of their home: anger and denial. They are angry at the bank, and in denial about the loss of their home and its advantages, from status to tax write-offs. What I know is that getting through this grief is an essential first step to truly moving forward. Inherent in grief is an acknowledgement that something is dead and over. The acceptance of that finality is what allows you to move forward and learn the lessons that such experiences can teach.
As long as you're stuck in the emotional protestations of how unfair it was that you lost your home, or spinning in a place of outrage about the Wall Street bailouts, you're probably not making emotional progress to the point where you can begin to learn from your experience.
2. Metabolize the loss.
Henry Cloud, bestselling author of "Necessary Endings: The Employees, Businesses, and Relationships That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Move Forward" (Harper Business, 2011), recommends that we treat our painful past experiences as our bodies do food, metabolizing them by taking away the lessons we can distill from them that will fuel our future decisions, and leaving behind the pain and other toxic wastes from the experience. Individuals and couples should take time out to acknowledge what has happened, and distill and discuss mistakes that were made and insights you've gained so that you can avoid repeating them in the future. It's a meaningful method for progressing past grief and repositioning yourself to make smarter decisions about your money and your mortgage for the rest of your life.
3. Avoid rebound home purchases.
There's a whole lot of what I call tuition -- the price we pay to learn life lessons -- involved in the loss a home to foreclosure. If rush in too quickly to the next home purchase, chances are good we'll miss the lesson and get nothing for the tuition. This is evident in the gymnastics many foreclosed homeowners are considering going through in order to buy a home at all costs. These may mirror their willingness a few years ago to take on an unsustainable mortgage, which is what got some portion of them into foreclosure in the first place.Trying to replace our losses on the rebound, be it after a breakup or after a foreclosure, is how people end up repeating their mistakes. Making new, unsustainable mortgage commitments and chronically overspending or over borrowing is no different from your friend who keeps repeating the same old dysfunctional relationship patterns, year after year.
4. Heal your finances.
My advice to foreclosed homeowners is to devote some real time to working on their finances, without worrying about buying another home. Get your debt paid down or off. Change your spending habits and your overall relationship with money. Get your taxes current and paid. Save some money. Create the habit of paying every bill on time every time. Eliminate unnecessary monthly expenses. Work the programs in "365 Days to Organized Finances or Financial Recovery," or some similar book, or both. Focus for awhile on your career development.Tara-Nicholle Nelson is author of "The Savvy Woman's Homebuying Handbook" and "Trillion Dollar Women: Use Your Power to Make Buying and Remodeling Decisions." Tara is also the Consumer Ambassador and Educator for real estate listings search site Trulia.com. Ask her a real estate question online or visit her website, www.rethinkrealestate.com.
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Stronger Lure for Prospective Home BuyersOwning Continues to Become More Affordable Relative to Renting, but Several Obstacles Prevent Many From BitingBy NICK TIMIRAOSHome prices and mortgage rates have fallen so far that the monthly cost of owning a home is more affordable than at any point in the past 15 years and is less expensive than renting in a growing number of cities. The Wall Street Journal's third-quarter survey of housing-market conditions in 28 of the nation's largest metropolitan areas found that home values declined in all but five markets compared with the second quarter, according to data from Zillow Inc.  Meanwhile, rent levels have risen briskly across the country and mortgage rates, hovering around 4%, are the lowest in six decades.As a result, monthly mortgage payments on the median priced home—including taxes and insurance—are lower than the average rent levels in 12 metro areas, according to data compiled for The Wall Street Journal by Marcus & Millichap, a real-estate brokerage that tracked 27 metro areas. It remains less expensive to rent than to buy in 15 cities. But affordability hasn't done much to lift the sagging housing sector because many would-be buyers are unwilling to purchase a home or unable to qualify for a mortgage. "It's one of the most striking developments of the housing downturn," said Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics. "The initial building blocks for a recovery are in place, but the legacy of the recession is really preventing households from taking advantage."In Atlanta, which had the most favorable values for owning versus renting, the monthly payment on the average home was $539 assuming a 20% down payment during the third quarter. By contrast, the average asking rent stood at $840, according to the Marcus & Millichap data.But real estate agents and economists say the trend hasn't boosted demand. That is because affordability alone hasn't been enough to overcome the obstacles in the way of a housing recovery. Some homeowners who would like to move up to larger properties are stuck because they can't sell their homes.  Owner's AdvantageAlso, while the monthly carrying costs on a mortgage are lower than average rents in some cities, home ownership carries other costs—including taxes, insurance, homeowner association dues and maintenance—which may dissuade some potential owners. Other would-be buyers can't qualify for mortgages because lending conditions are tight or because they don't have enough equity in their current homes to use as a down payments. "The reality of coming up with the down payment and the loan-qualification standards makes things much different than the raw numbers suggest," says Hessam Nadji, managing director of Marcus & Millichap. And even those who may qualify remain skittish about buying property in a market where prices could fall amid foreclosures and weak job growth. Ryan Young illustrates the point. He is under contract to buy a three-bedroom home in Washington Grove, Md., that will have monthly mortgage, tax, and insurance costs for around $150 less than the $1,900 he is paying to rent a slightly smaller house in Bethesda, Md. He qualified for a 30-year mortgage with a 3.95% fixed rate. Still, Mr. Young says he is cautious about owning his first home with the prospect of future price declines. "Buying a house is not a good financial decision, per se, but we needed a bigger place," said the 35-year-old scientist, "and we don't want to move every couple of years into a new rental." Other cities where owning is now cheaper than renting include Detroit, Minneapolis, Orlando, Las Vegas, Miami, St. Louis, Chicago and Phoenix. Home ownership is also looking more affordable because after several years of declines, apartment rents will rise by around 4% this year, says Mr. Nadji. He says rents are poised "to pick up even more momentum across the country next year." Even cities where it is still cheaper to rent than own have seen big boosts in affordability. In San Diego, the monthly cost of owning a home has averaged around 83% more than renting over the past two decades. During the third quarter, owning was 22% more expensive than renting, according to John Burns Real Estate Consulting.  Mortgage rates are a big reason why affordability continues to improve. In 1991, a $1,700 mortgage payment allowed a borrower to take out a $200,000 mortgage. Today, it gets that homeowner a $350,000 loan, a 77% increase in borrowing power, says Dan Green, a loan officer with Waterstone Mortgage, in Cincinnati. At the same time, low mortgage rates aren't spurring sales because few analysts expect rates to rise anytime soon. The Federal Reserve in August said it would keep rates at ultralow levels for two years. In a normal interest rate cycle, "when they go low, they don't stay for very long, and people jump in," said Mr. Dales. "This time, there is no urgency." Affordability could continue to improve as prices slide even lower in coming months. Price declines are likely because the share of "distressed" sales, including bank-owned foreclosures, tend to rise in the winter, when traditional sales activity cools. Banks are often much quicker to cut prices to unload properties quickly, which means that the greater the share of "distressed" sales, the more prices tend to fall. One hopeful sign is that inventories have fallen from their bloated levels of one year ago. All 28 cities in The Wall Street Journal's latest survey saw homes listed for sale fall from one year ago, when markets were reeling with a substantial overhang of properties amid a big drop in demand. Visible inventory was down sharply in several markets, including by almost half in Miami and 40% in Phoenix. Low inventories have spurred more bidding wars at the low end of the market as investors compete for homes that they can convert into rentals. In Sacramento, it would take just 2.5 months to sell the listed inventory at the current sales pace. Las Vegas has a 4.3 month supply of inventory, according to John Burns Real Estate Consulting. But the potential supply of homes is much bigger because banks have yet to process hundreds of thousands of potential foreclosures. Write to Nick Timiraos at nick.timiraos@wsj.com  Before You Buy Your First Home - Tips for a First-time Home BuyerBy Elizabeth Weintraub, About.com GuideIt's not uncommon for a first-time home buyer to say to me, "Gosh, just last week I called you about buying a home and now I'm in escrow!How did this happen so fast?"The answer is it didn't. First-time home buyers start the search long before most even realize it. Here's what you can expect from your home shopping experience. Benefits for a First-Time Home Buyer You should buy a home.That's what you've been hearing from friends and family, right? So, by now you have likely already weighed the benefits and decided that home ownership was the best decision for you. That's a major hurdle now passed. You are focused and certain. Good.Defining Search Parameters for a First-Time Home BuyerAlmost 80% of all home searches today begin on the Internet. With just a few clicks of the mouse, home buyers can search through hundreds of online listings, view virtual tours, and sort through dozens of photographs and aerial shots of neighborhoods and homes. You've probably defined your goals and have a pretty good idea of the type of home and neighborhood you want. By the time you reach your real estate agent's office, you are halfway to home ownership.How Long Should It Take to Buy Your First Home?In seller's markets, often I show only one home. After all, how many homes does one family need? A few buyers will look for years, but buyers who do that aren't motivated. A motivated buyer will find a home within two weeks. Most of my buyers find a home within two days. |
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