Posts Tagged ‘Association Of Realtors’
Home Sales Contracts Rise, But Cancellations Run High
The chief economist at the National Association of Realtors said he was baffled by it, but ask any agent working the nation's neighborhoods, and they'll tell you it is all about confidence and financing—specifically, a lack of both.
Realtors Slam Lack of HUD Funds in Foreclosure Deals
Today's bullish report on pending home sales came with a caveat from the National Association of Realtors that if banks began lending to more creditworthy borrowers, recovery in the housing sector would be faster.
Entire State Puts Homes on ‘Clearance’ Sale
With the Spring season kicking off with a whimper, the Maine Association of Realtors is taking a cue from the builders and launching their own one-week "Clearance Event." That's right, at least $10,000 off of participating existing homes.
Spring Realty Check: Condo “Collusion” in Miami?
Condo sales in Miami were up 134 percent in January year-over-year, according to the Miami Association of Realtors. That's not a typo.
Is the Mortgage Market Too Tight? Or Just Right?
The message from the National Association of Realtors today, or at least from its chief economist as he released lackluster sales results for October, is that the mortgage market is now largely to blame for the lack of real recovery in housing.
Existing Home Sales: Read Between the Numbers
Noise. There's an awful lot of it in today's report on September existing home sales from the National Association of Realtors. Even the markets could hear the noise, as they didn't react all that much to the 10 percent jump in sales that completely beat expectations.
3 tips for negotiating short sales
Short sale transactions can be complex to negotiate with lenders. Hence, real estate trainer and educator Kathy Mehringer’s definition of short sales: “A transaction where nothing is certain but the uncertainty.” Mehringer, director of risk management for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Southern California companies, offered tips to negotiating short sales during her session, “Short Sales, REOs and Foreclosures: Still Hot” on Wednesday during the California Association of Realtors® Expo in Anaheim, Calif. Mehringer, who often educates real estate professionals on short sales and foreclosures, offered the following negotiation tips at her session: 1. Don’t give up. When a lender turns down your short sale offer, do not view that as the final answer. Too many real estate professionals assume that a firm “no” from a lender means they’ll never accept a short sale on that home. “You can’t see ‘no’ as an answer – see it as an opportunity,” Mehringer said. Follow up by asking the lender: “What will you accept? What can I do to make this offer better?” Remember, the lender is supposed to get the highest price for the bank. “No’ is merely the beginning of negotiations. 2. Earn their trust. Lenders don’t always trust real estate professionals when it comes to short sale negotiations. Mehringer has learned the reason for much of their distrust: They believe listing agents put a home on the market for a significantly lower price than what it is worth and then waste their time by submitting a ridiculously low offer and present it as the best possible offer for the home. “Lenders think you underprice short sales,” Mehringer said. “We need to show them that we are trustworthy and properly demonstrate the value of the property.” After all, your job when representing a seller – even in a short sale transaction – is to work to get the highest and best possible terms for your seller, she told attendees. 3. Lose the low-level clerk mentality. Mehringer said that she often hears from real estate professionals that the lender isn’t cooperating. But how is your behavior toward them? Telling the lender such things as “if I don’t have an answer by 5 p.m. today, the buyer will walk” is not going to work in closing a short sale faster but will serve as a turnoff, Mehringer said. “You will get more by being nice to people,” Mehringer said. “And being nice doesn’t mean that you have to be a pushover either.” Always be professional and courteous in your contact with lenders. Also, realize that a short sale is optional for a lender. “It’s a business decision,” Mehringer said. “A lender may elect to cooperate to save the expense and time of foreclosure … but it’s purely a business decision – it’s an algorithm.” Source: Melissa Dittmann Tracey for REALTOR® Magazine online
Sales of foreclosure properties on the rise
Foreclosures accelerated in the second quarter, driving down home prices and accounting for nearly half of all sales in several states. Nationally, homes sold at foreclosure accounted for 24 percent of all residential sales in the second quarter of 2010, RealtyTrac reports. The average price of properties sold while in some stage of foreclosure was more than 26 percent below the average for properties not in the foreclosure process. “It’s obvious foreclosures remain a major drag across the U.S.,” says Robert Dye, senior economist at PNC Financial Services Group. “Pioneering buyers with low mortgage rates will continue to take advantage of these properties. It’s going to take quite awhile to work through this inventory. It will take a few years, not months.” A total of 248,534 U.S. properties in some stage of foreclosure – default, scheduled for auction or bank-owned – were sold to third parties in the second quarter. That’s up almost 5 percent from the first quarter, but down 20 percent from second-quarter 2009. Some states were especially hard hit. Foreclosure sales accounted for nearly 56 percent of all sales in Nevada in the second quarter, the highest percentage of any state. Ranked second was Arizona, where foreclosure sales accounted for 47 percent of all sales. In California, 43 percent of sales were foreclosure properties. Other states where foreclosures were large shares of all sales were Rhode Island, 37 percent; Massachusetts, 35 percent; Florida, 34 percent; and Michigan, 33 percent. The uptick in foreclosures comes despite a federal effort to help homeowners struggling to retain their homes get modified mortgages with more affordable payments, as well as efforts by lenders to reduce payments for some borrowers. “It’s clear this will be with us for some time,” says Lawrence Yun, chief economist with the National Association of Realtors. Foreclosures used to be rising because so many borrowers had taken on mortgages they couldn’t afford, he says. “The further we go, more foreclosures will be related to the job market rather than people who overstretched,” Yun says. “There will be more traditional reasons for the foreclosures.” Foreclosure sales could pick up now that a federal tax credit for home buyers has expired, economists say. The credit gave borrowers the flexibility to bid on houses at higher prices. Without the credit, demand for lower-priced foreclosed homes could pick up. And that could pull down overall prices further. “Prices will fall and will put more people into negative equity, which causes more people to (go into) foreclosure,” says Mark Zandi at Moody’s Analytics.com. Copyright 2009 USA TODAY
Florida sees increase in international buyers
A number of factors contributed to the decline in home sales nationally and in Florida specifically, but the growing importance of foreign homebuyers has offset some of the damage. Roughly two out of every three Realtors in the state had at least one international transaction within the past year. While U.S. buyers continue to struggle, foreign buyers generally see U.S. real estate as a desirable, profitable and secure investment. In addition, a weak U.S. dollar has made Florida real estate even more attractive recently. The National Association of Realtors®, in cooperation with Florida Realtors, conducted a survey of Florida members, asking them about their experience working with international clients. The survey was conducted in July-August 2010. A total of 936 responses were received. Report highlights • 65 percent of survey participants – members of Florida Realtors – worked with an international client in the past 12 months. One in five worked with two international clients, and 18 percent working with three or more. • Half of the respondents said that international clients accounted for 25 percent or less of their business; 15 percent reported that international homebuyers accounted for more than half of their business. • One in three said that international clients were an increasing share of their customers in the past two years, while just under half (48 percent) noted that their share of international clients stayed about the same. • Canada had the largest share of buyers, accounting for 36 percent of recent sales. Buyers from the United Kingdom accounted for 15 percent, and the rest of Western Europe accounted for an additional 14 percent. Latin America, defined for the purposes of the report to include Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and South America, accounted for 16 percent. Other countries with a small but significant share of sales included Germany (5 percent), Venezuela (3 percent), Brazil (3 percent) and France (3 percent). • 11 percent of foreign buyers bought a new home, while the remaining 89 percent purchased a previously owned home. • 51 percent purchased a detached single-family home; 37 percent purchased a condo, 11 percent purchased a townhouse and 1 percent purchased some other type of home. • 38 percent purchased in a suburban area; 30 percent purchased property in a resort area; 25 percent purchased in a central city; and 7 percent purchased in a small town or rural area. • 15 percent of buyers plan to use their property less than one month per year; 21 percent expect to use it one to two months; and 34 percent three to six months. • 19 percent bought a home in the Orlando-Kissimmee area; 17 percent chose Miami-Ft. Lauderdale; 13 percent opted for Bradenton-Sarasota; and Tampa, Cape Coral-Fort Myers and Naples rounded out the top six with at least 5 percent of purchases. To read the complete report, which includes information on why buyers choose Florida as well as why they don’t, visit floridarealtors.org at: https://www.floridarealtors.org/Research/index.cfm
NAR: Bill could speed up short sales
Homeowners underwater on their mortgage may find relief through a bill strongly supported by the National Association of Realtors®. The bill, if passed by Congress and signed by President Obama, would force lenders to respond to a short sale request within 45 days. The legislation, H.R. 6133, “Prompt Decision for Qualification of Short Sale Act of 2010,” was filed yesterday in Congress by U.S. Reps. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) and Tom Rooney (R-Fla.). “The short sale, which requires lender approval, is an important instrument for homeowners who owe more than their home is worth,” says NAR President Vicki Cox Golder. “While the lending community has worked to improve the size and training of their short sales staffs, they still have a long way to go on improving response times. As the leading advocate for homeownership issues, NAR believes that quicker attention to the short sales process is vital to help homeowners … as well as the nation’s economy.” The number of potential short sale properties is rising across the country. According to NAR data, in the second quarter of 2010, four states have a significant share of properties with short-sale potential: Florida has 27 percent, Nevada 32 percent, California 28 percent, and Arizona 24 percent. “Unfortunately, homeowners who need to execute a short sale are severely hampered because lenders (loan servicers) are unable to decide whether to approve a short sale within a reasonable amount of time,” Golder said. “Potential homebuyers are walking away from purchasing short sale property because the lender has taken many months and still not responded to their request for an approval of a proposed short sale price. Many consumers have mentioned that the delay in short sale price approval exceeds 90 days, and in many cases never arrives.” Golder says she commends Reps. Andrews and Rooney for their efforts on the bill and urges Congress to pass the bill quickly. © 2010 Florida Realtors®
