Short Sale
By Carrie Bay | 02/02/2012
Year-end data from CoreLogic shows home prices fell by 4.7 percent over 2011. It marks the fifth consecutive year the company has recorded an annual decline in residential property values. CoreLogic performed a separate calculation, which illustrates just how big an impact distressed sales are having on home prices. The company excluded all short sale and REO transactions from 2011 and found that when the distress factor is taken out, prices declined by just 0.9 percent.
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By Krista Franks | 01/31/2012
The Appraisal Institute has released guidelines to instruct its members on how to deal with distressed sales and foreclosures when seeking comparables. According to the organization, some homeowners claim appraisers have undervalued their homes by relying on nearby foreclosed and distressed homes to assess a property's value. The Appraisal Institute stresses that qualified appraisers know what adjustments to make when using distressed sales as comparables, but because the issue is "particularly crucial" in the current market, it's offering additional guidance.
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By Krista Franks | 01/30/2012
Seventy-two percent of homeowners say they are satisfied with homeownership, according to a recent HomeGain survey of more than 1,400 homeowners. Among the 28 percent who said they were dissatisfied, nearly two-thirds cited price depreciation as the main reason for their dissatisfaction. HomeGain also assessed satisfaction levels by sales type and found that homeowners who purchased a home through a short sale were the most likely to be pleased with their choice, followed by those who purchased a foreclosed home.
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By Carrie Bay | 01/27/2012
The default servicing industry is in a state of transition, according to Larry B. Litton Jr., CEO of Selene Finance, and it's the smaller, more nimble servicing operations that will have the advantage in reacting quickly to the new rules and the changes that are in store. Litton says many of the bigger servicing shops are still set up to do what he considers commoditized types of processes and aren't able to adapt quickly to the regulatory changes coming down the line, while smaller special servicers are already built for single point of contact and to be highly responsive to consumers.
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By Carrie Bay | 01/25/2012
Foreclosure homes sold for 34 percent less than the average price of a non-distressed home during the third quarter of 2011, according to new data released by RealtyTrac Thursday. The average sales price of homes in the process of foreclosure or bank-owned was $165,322 over the July-to-September period last year. RealtyTrac says third parties purchased a total of 221,536 residential properties classified as foreclosures or REO during the third quarter of 2011, representing just 20 percent of all residential sales during that timeframe.
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By Carrie Bay | 01/24/2012
One of the keys to the housing market's recovery is managing and ultimately clearing out the inventory of distressed properties, according to DataQuick, a real estate data provider headquartered in San Diego, California. The company released its new RiskFinder Distress at the American Securitization Forum on Monday.
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By Krista Franks | 01/23/2012
As robo-signing reviews reach completion, servicers are beginning to work through some of their foreclosure backlogs, according to a third-quarter report from Moody's Investors Service. At the same time, the ratings agency found that loan modifications are on the decline. Servicers are now turning to loss mitigation alternatives such as short sales and deeds in lieu, Moody's says. The agency is also forecasting longer timelines this year to move properties from foreclosure sale to REO liquidation.
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By Carrie Bay | 01/18/2012
Clayton Holdings LLC announced Wednesday it has completed its acquisition of Green River Capital. No financial details were disclosed. Green River has a staff of approximately 200 and a nationwide network of more than 5,000 real estate brokers, providing REO, short sale, and BPO services to investor, financial institution, and GSE clients. Green River will continue to operate as a standalone business, under its current brand and led by its current management team.
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By Carrie Bay | 01/17/2012
The overall median sales price of existing homes in Orlando, Florida, was $115,000 in November, up 9.52 percent from a year earlier. The Orlando Regional Realtor Association attributes the gain to an increase in short sales, which are now changing hands with smaller discounts. The number of short sale transactions in November 2011 jumped 39.38 percent compared to November 2010, while the median price of short sales improved by 7.07 percent to $106,000.
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By Krista Franks | 01/16/2012
Despite a decade-long trend making winter the slowest homebuying season for the Las Vegas area, the region saw an increase in existing home sales for the month of December, finishing the year strong enough to break the metro's yearly existing-home sale record from 2009, according to the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. The 2009 record was set with the sale of 46,879 homes, and 2011 surpassed this milestone with 48,186 sales. REOs made up 46 percent of December's transactions. Short sales accounted for nearly 27 percent.
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