Freddie Mac Announces New Foreclosure Policies

Mortgage finance company Freddie Mac said it will allow some borrowers to rent their homes after losing them to foreclosure. The goal of the new policy, announced Friday, is to prevent properties from being vacant and falling into disrepair. Freddie Mac also said it will allow renters to remain in their homes even if the landlord enters foreclosure. The McLean, Va.-based company has about 8,500 properties in the foreclosure process, but many of those are vacant. Fannie Mae, which announced similar plans this month, said it has stopped about 20,000 foreclosure sales and halted 6,300 evictions of owners or renters this winter.

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Tainted drywall causes big problems for Florida homeowners

Something stinks in a growing number of homes built during the peak of the housing boom just south of the Tampa Bay area. Some builders, unable to find (or unwilling to buy) higher-priced domestic drywall around 2005-2006, went shopping in China. What they got was drywall, now in hundreds and possibly thousands of Florida homes, that can exude a sulfurlike gas. Some residents appear sensitive to the smell, while others do not. Only a few folks are ringing alarm bells on health matters. But this much is known: The sulfurlike odor corrodes metal and repeatedly has eaten away the electrical wiring, air conditioning systems and, in some cases, plumbing pipes, inside the walls of affected Florida homes. Some homes have had their wiring and air conditioning replaced more than once. But the corrosion returns. Some homes are back on the market. They're not hot sellers.

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New Home Sales Fall To Record Low

Bargain hunters may be snatching up distressed existing homes, but they still seem skittish of new homes, according to a report released Thursday from the U.S. Commerce Department. Sales of new homes nationwide plunged to the slowest pace on record last month. New home sales fell 14.7 percent in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 331,000, from a downward-revised November figure of 388,000. December's sales pace was the lowest among records dating back to 1963.

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Tax Portability Law Didn't Stimulate Sales

A year ago, Florida voters approved a tax-reform package that limited the growth in the taxable value of homes to 3 percent a year and allowed those homeowners to sell their home and move to another, taking the tax limit with them. The idea was to eliminate any tax considerations that might keep Floridians from selling a home and buying another, but the plan seems to have had little impact. State tax experts calculated that the average home seller would save $2,500 in taxes when he sold a current property and bought a different one. In reality, the savings was much less. The 13,646 Floridians who took advantage of the tax break saved an average of $1,500 from what they would have paid previously.

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Tampa among top five choices for relocation, survey finds

Finally some good news for the Tampa Bay area for when the housing market recuperates. A Pew Research Center national relocation survey found that 34 percent of respondents would live in Tampa if given the choice. We ranked among the top five most popular cities, along with Denver, San Diego, Seattle and Orlando. Least favored cities included Cleveland, Detroit and Cincinnati. Pew conducted the telephone poll of 2,260 adults in October. Overall, about half of all survey takers told Pew they would prefer to live somewhere else. City dwellers, particularly women, were more apt to say they wanted to move away.

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Mortgage Rates Hold Steady

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.10 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending January 29, 2009, down from last week when it averaged 5.12 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.68 percent.

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Homebuyers get a bonus in the stimulus bill

If you're thinking of buying a home, there could be a big bonus for you in the economic stimulus bill that's now before Congress. Among its many provisions is a $7,500 tax credit for first time home buyers. The House passed the $819 billion stimulus plan, including this tax credit, in a vote late Wednesday. The Senate may vote on its version of the bill some time next week. To be eligible, buyers cannot have owned a home for the past three years, and the new home has to be used as a primary residence. The credit phases out as income rises above $75,000 for singles and $150,000 for couples, and disappears entirely at $95,000 and $170,000, respectively.

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State Farm Insurance To Leave Florida - Good Riddance

The state’s largest private insurer will drop 1.2 million policies over the next two years, likely pushing many into the already bloated state-run insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. State Farm Florida’s policy shedding is widespread, affecting house and condo owners, renters and customers with coverage for personal liability, boats, personal articles, and business property and liability. The insurance giant is hanging on to some lines, including its lucrative, market-leading auto insurance business and life insurance. State Farm Florida president Jim Thompson said that even without any major hurricanes in the past three years, the Florida operation has been losing $20 million a month and was on pace to go insolvent by 2011. Losing a recent legal battle to hike its property insurance rates by an average of 47 percent was the last straw, he said. To Gov. Charlie Crist, the issue was State Farm’s obstinacy in seeking rate hikes. His reaction: good riddance.

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REOs Expected to Flood Market

Mortgage lenders are likely to put their growing supply of repossessed homes up for sale in the months to come. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, 10 percent of home loans was either delinquent or in the foreclosure process at the end of September. Plus, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw repossessions grow nearly 25 percent to 15,196 homes from the second quarter to the third quarter of 2008. Lenders may have to reduce the principal balance on loans to do more than slow down the foreclosure process for many borrowers.

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S&P/Case-Shiller Home Prices Indices Set New Record Annual Declines

A closely watched index shows home prices dropped by the sharpest annual rate on record in November. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city housing index released today tumbled by a record 18.2 percent from November 2007, the largest decline since its inception in 2000. The 10-city index dropped 19.1 percent, tied with October for the biggest drop in its 21-year history. Both indices have recorded year-over-year declines for 23 straight months. Prices are at levels not seen since February 2004. Prices in the 20-city index have plummeted 25.1 percent from their peak in July 2006. The 10-city index has fallen 26.6 percent since its peak in June 2006. All 20 cities recorded year-over-year declines in November.

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Cheap homes keep sales on upswing

December marked the fourth month in a row in which home sales improved in the Tampa Bay area. The long-awaited rebirth of the housing market? More like buyers feasting on a glut of foreclosure homes. Cheaply priced properties, many of them bank-owned, constitute a disproportionate number of local sales. From December 2007 to December 2008, closings rose 16 percent, from 1,597 to 1,857, according to the Florida Association of Realtors. Median sales prices headed in the opposite direction. Year over year they plunged 27 percent, from $199,800 to $145,700. The December sales picture across Florida was similar: Sales up 27 percent, prices down 27 percent. Buyer activity increased last month in 16 of 20 Florida housing markets. Gainesville, Tallahassee, Pensacola and Punta Gorda were the exceptions.

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Mortgage Rates in 2009: 7 Things You Need to Know

It wasn't too long ago that mortgage rates were expected to move sharply higher in the coming months thanks to rattled investors and mounting inflation. But while falling home prices and jittery financial markets have done little to assuage investor fears, a number of recent developments have combined to create a decidedly optimistic mortgage-rate outlook for 2009. Here's a look at where mortgage rates are headed in the New Year, the forces that will be influencing them, and how consumers can take advantage of the trends.

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December Tampa Bay Area Home Sales Up 16%, Prices Decline 27%

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA reported a total of 1,857 homes sold in December compared to 1,597 homes a year ago for a 16 percent increase. The existing home median sales price was $145,700; a year ago, it was $199,800 for a 27 percent decrease (and down 39% from the record high of $237,800 in August 2006). In the year-to-year comparison for the existing condo market, a total of 426 units sold in the MSA last month, down 13 percent compared to 488 condos sold the previous December. The market’s existing condo median price was $128,800; a year ago, it was $181,700 for a 29 percent decrease.

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Pinellas Realtor Organization's CEO's Year In Review

Wrapping up the review of 2008, total dollar volume for Pinellas County was down 20% from 2007 and down 28% for the Tampa Bay area in all residential properties. Single family total dollar volume was down 21% for Pinellas and down 25% for the Tampa Bay area. Condos were down 17% in Pinellas and down 31% in the Tampa Bay area as a whole. No one will mourn the passing of 2008, but will 2009 be better? With low mortgage rates, realistic sales prices and government programs to help the distressed sales segment of the market, we are optimistic that 2009 will continue the trend towards a recovering market.

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Flood of foreclosures: It's worse than you think

Housing might be in worse shape than we think. There is probably even more excess housing inventory gumming up the market than current statistics indicate, thanks to a wave of foreclosures that has yet to hit the market. The problem: Many foreclosed homes and other distressed properties that are now owned by banks have yet to be listed for sale. The volume of this so-called 'ghost inventory' could be substantial enough to depress already steeply falling prices when it does go on the market.

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Judge allows bank to foreclose on Trump Tower site

The fading hopes of Trump Tower Tampa just got fainter. A Tampa bankruptcy judge has ruled that Colonial Bank, owed $3.5-million by tower developer SimDag LLC, can proceed with its foreclosure against the project's riverfront lot at 100 S Ashley Drive. SimDag filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June, freezing the foreclosure action. But earlier this month Judge K. Rodney May granted the Alabama bank permission to pursue its case. The 1.5-acre property, which SimDag said is worth at least $15-million, could be seized or auctioned by the bank as part of the foreclosure. Trump Tower was supposed to be the region's tallest skyscraper but could not get a $200-million construction loan.

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Tampa Reports Highest Unemployment Rate In Florida

Florida shed a quarter million jobs in 2008, exiting December with 752,000 jobless workers out of a labor force of 9.3-million, according to the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation. In the Tampa Bay area, unemployment rose to 8.3 percent, the worst major metro area in the state.

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Save Our Homes cap will bring property tax cheer to homeowners

The Save Our Homes cap will deliver more property tax relief in 2009 than at any time in the program's 15-year history. That's welcome news for stressed homeowners, many of whom have seen their tax bills increase while the market has fallen. But it's yet another worry for local government leaders getting pounded by revenue declines. State law sets increases to the assessed value of homesteaded property at 3 percent or the consumer price index, whichever's lower. This year the index, a measure of the change in price for goods and services, rose 0.1 percent.

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Citizens insurance premiums could jump 20 percent

A move to raise Citizens Property Insurance rates is picking up steam. Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, said Thursday that legislators will let a three-year rate freeze for homeowners with policies under state-run Citizens expire this year. That means homeowners will start seeing higher bills — perhaps up to 20 percent higher — starting in 2010.

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Housing starts hit record low

Higher unemployment, tight-fisted lending and sagging consumer confidence drove the new-home market to record lows in 2008. Tampa Bay area builders started construction on 932 homes in the last quarter of 2008, crowning a crummy year in which only 4,730 homes broke ground. The previous low for annual housing starts was 4,798 in 1991, another recession year that messed up the housing market. Tampa Bay area housing starts have plummeted 73 percent since the 2006 boom year. Here's a recent yearly breakdown:

2008: 4,730

2007: 7,244

2006: 17,683

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Long Term Mortgage Rates Rise This Week Reversing 11 Week Trend

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.12 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending January 22, 2009, up from last week when it averaged 4.96 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.48 percent.

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Little reason for optimism, Florida real estate professionals say

Once the most buoyant of the bunch, Florida real estate professionals are feeling blue, according to a new survey sponsored by the University of Florida's Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies. Waves of bad economic news have sunk confidence in the industry, UF said, and real estate pros are curtailing their longer-term prospects. "Name the segment of real estate — retail, offices, housing, condos and the consumer's frame of mind — and the survey finds that with few exceptions belief in the market has sagged to lows seldom seen in the state," survey director Wayne Archer said. Archer compared the current slump to the recession of 1974. The December survey was based on 381 responses. In a separate survey by the National Association of Home Builders, confidence hit a record low in December, though it ticked up a point in the South.

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Cory Lake Isles Homeowners On The Hook For Developer's Debts

To develop Cory Lake Isles, Gene Thomason, the developer, borrowed $20-million that is being repaid with a tax on the properties. But homeowners say they did not know of another bond he took out, and they could be on the hook if he fails to pay it off.

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Short Sale v. Foreclosure

Is it better to negotiate with a short seller or look for a house that is already bank owned? Click here for the answer.

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Expect Storm Of My Safe Florida Hurricane Inspectors

If you've never heard of My Safe Florida Home, the state's free hurricane inspection program, chances are you soon will. Officials are scrambling to meet a legislative requirement to have 400,000 inspections complete with only five months to go. As of Wednesday, 388,193 inspections had been performed since state lawmakers created My Safe Florida Home in 2006. The program contracts work through nine companies; their deadline to finish all inspections is June 30. Residents statewide can expect a marketing blitz between now and then.

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Bay area home prices almost certain to fall, mortgage insurer says

The Tampa Bay area ranks seventh riskiest nationally for home price declines, according to PMI Group. The mortgage insurer said the likelihood is 99.2 percent that Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater will have lower home prices two years from now. Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Orlando and Jacksonville were also among the top 10 markets in jeopardy. California and Las Vegas owned the remaining top spots. The biggest factors in PMI's forecast were rising unemployment and foreclosures. The company said price declines are a growing risk in 369 of 381 markets it tracks. A few cities appear immune. PMI suggested housing values would rise in places like Dallas, Houston and Pittsburgh.

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A New Week, Another Record Low For Long Term Mortgage Rates

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.96 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending January 15, 2009, down from last week when it averaged 5.01 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.69 percent. The 30-year FRM has not been lower since Freddie Mac started the Primary Mortgage Market Survey in 1971.

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Tampa Area 2008 Foreclosure Filings Up 123%

As the economy worsened in 2008, more Tampa area homeowners found themselves facing trouble. The number of foreclosure filings rose 123 percent compared with 2007. Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Polk counties combined had 53,630 filings, according to California-based RealtyTrac. The area's foreclosure rate ranked 13th among all metro areas nationwide and eighth in the state. Four percent of all properties in the area received a foreclosure filing - default notice, auction sale notice or bank repossession - in 2008.

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Miami, Fort Myers Listed As Riskiest Markets for Price Drops

Home prices are likely to fall still more, according to a new study by mortgage insurer PMI Group Inc. The study predicts that home prices will be lower than they are now in 97 percent of 381 metro areas by the third quarter of 2010. The riskiest markets for falling home prices are California’s Inland Empire; the greater Miami, Fla., area; Lake Havasu City-Kingman, Ariz.; and the Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., areas. The cities with the lowest risk of further declines include the Dallas-Fort Worth area, greater Houston and Pittsburgh. Home prices showed signs of recovery in the third quarter of 2008, but with rising unemployment rates, home prices fell further in the fourth quarter, says PMI chief economist David Berson.

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US foreclosure filings up 81 percent in 2008

More than 2.3 million American homeowners faced foreclosure proceedings last year, an 81 percent increase from 2007, with the worst yet to come as consumers grapple with layoffs, shrinking investment portfolios and falling home prices. Nationwide, more than 860,000 properties were actually repossessed by lenders, more than double the 2007 level, according to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure listing firm based in Irvine, Calif., which compiled the figures. Moody's Economy.com, a research firm, predicts the number of homes lost to foreclosure is likely to rise by another 18 percent this year before tapering off slightly through 2011.

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Hillsborough County Reports 28% Of December Sales Are Cash Purchases

Foreclosure sales continue to bring down home prices in Hillsborough County. The Greater Tampa Association of Realtors reported an average home sales price in December of $186,297, 30 percent below the $267,117 the average home commanded in December 2007. Sales did improve, however. Last month Realtors reported 1,207 closings, a 10 percent increase from the 1,099 homes that sold in December 2007. GTAR said 336 of those December sales — 28 percent — were "all cash" deals. That suggests a large presence of investors plunking down dollars for foreclosure bargains. GTAR tracks sales in Hillsborough and part of Pasco County.

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Rotting Drywall Fouls South Florida Homes

Joining the wave of toys painted with lead-based paint and the tainted infant formula, drywall from China is now raising a concern. Florida officials are looking into a smattering of complaints from homeowners in South and Southwest Florida who say their walls stink and that some electrical and plumbing components are failing. Drywall is the board used to make interior walls. Usually, it is manufactured in the United States, but a housing boom between 2004 and 2006 and a need for construction materials after Hurricane Katrina prompted builders to buy from China. The Florida Department of Health has received 16 complaints from Pinellas, Manatee, Martin, St. Lucie and Lee counties, and is looking into the matter, officials said.

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Rental Advice For Homeowners Who Want To Become Landlords

As home values continue to plunge, a growing number of homeowners are choosing to rent their homes instead of selling for a loss now. Others become landlords because of a job change that requires them to move before they can sell. Renting is an option for those stuck in a home they can't afford and those who want to move up to a bigger house but can't sell the home they have.

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Paying Down Mortgage Faster Can Make Sense -- Sometimes

With the markets so dicey, many people who come into extra cash wonder whether they should avoid stocks and bonds and use the money to pay down their mortgage instead. Doing so can save you a lot in interest in the long run. But your monthly payments may remain the same until you pay off the entire loan. And if you have an attractive rate -- say, in the 5 percent range for a fixed loan -- there's no need to rush to pay it off.

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Paulson Floats Idea Of Mortgage 'Utilities'

In his final speech scheduled as Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr. yesterday proposed replacing mortgage-finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with highly regulated utilities that would play a more limited role in making money available for home loans.

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Another Record Low Set This Week For Long Term Mortgage Rates

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.01 percent with an average 0.6 point for the week ending January 8, 2009, down from last week when it averaged 5.10 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.87 percent. The 30-year FRM has not been lower since Freddie Mac started the Primary Mortgage Market Survey in 1971.

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Citi Reaches Deal With Lawmakers on Home Loans

Democratic lawmakers have reached a deal with the banking giant Citigroup on a plan to let bankruptcy judges alter home loans in an effort to prevent foreclosures and urged other lenders to follow suit. The so-called “cramdown” proposal has been backed by Democrats in the last year as a potential solution to the foreclosure crisis. Consumer advocates and Democrats say it would prod the lending industry to be more aggressive about modifying loans because of the looming threat of having a bankruptcy judge involved. But the lending industry has battled fiercely against the idea, arguing it would force lenders to raise mortgage rates because they would have to charge more for loans that could be altered later by a judge.

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Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac extend suspensions of foreclosures

Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said today they will extend the suspension of foreclosure sales and evictions from single-family homes through the end of January. The companies had suspended foreclosures through the holidays, but were expected to resume proceedings after Jan. 9. The government-controlled home loan giants said the extension will allow borrowers facing foreclosure to keep their homes as it works with mortgage servicers to find options for troubled mortgage holders under the Streamlined Modification Program. Freddie and Fannie began the modification program in December, aiming to create more affordable mortgage payments for borrowers at risk of foreclosure. The program applies to borrowers who have missed three payments or more, own and occupy their homes, and have not filed for bankruptcy. Under the program, borrowers can reduce their interest rate, extend the life of the loan or defer payments on part of the principal.

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Investor goes public in fight with bank over loans

An entrepreneur who invested heavily in Central Florida’s real-estate boom is heading to Washington this week to complain that his bank has refused to rework his troubled loans, even though the lender received billions of dollars in government bailout money. Thomas H. Ward, a Puerto Rican businessman who owns a half dozen homes in Metro Orlando, is facing foreclosure after his financing came due in full last month. He said he can’t pay off the loans and couldn’t find buyers in a recession before the three-year “balloon” payments came due. So he’s on the hook for more than $3.5 million. Ward said Fifth Third Bank refused to renegotiate the loans, even though he insists he has been a stellar customer for years. Ward has taken his complaint public this week to federal regulators, congressional leaders and in a full-page ad in the Orlando Sentinel.

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Tampa Bay area housing recovery far off, economist says

Tampa Bay area home sales, dragged down by tight credit and weak population growth, will be anything but spectacular over the next four years, according to a housing forecast released Tuesday by Florida economist Hank Fishkind. Between now and 2012, Fishkind predicts flat or modestly weaker home sales in Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties and a gradual sales increase in Hillsborough County. In Fishkind's view, prices will slowly rise as the market consumes the surplus that's kept the "for sale" listings clogged with more than 30,000 homes. The average price increase through 2012 will range from a 9.1 percent in Hernando County to 17.2 percent in Pasco County.

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Tampa Ranks No. 2 For Largest Increase In Job Losses For November

Tough news for the Tampa Bay area today from the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of the 49 largest metropolitan areas with a (Census 2000) population of at least 1-million, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area saw its jobless rate in November increase a whopping 3.3 percentage points -- to 7.8 percent from 4.5 percent in November 2007. That percentage increase was second among big metro areas only to the 3.6-point jobless loss in Providence-Fall River-Warwick, R.I.-Mass. And it equals, interestingly, the 3.3-point jobless loss reported in Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, N.C.-S.C., a metro area that fared well in recent years until the banking industry started to suffer and Charlotte-based giant Wachovia Corp. was sold to California's Wells Fargo.

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Citizens should hike insurance rates, task force says

Citizens Property Insurance should be allowed to end its three-year rate freeze and start aggressively hiking homeowner insurance rates as soon as next January, a state task force recommends. The panel, which is studying the mission of the state-run property insurer of last resort, voted unanimously Tuesday to recommend the Legislature cap Citizens' annual rate increases at 10 percent on average statewide. It also suggests an annual cap of 15 percent for any given territory and 20 percent for any single policy. The rate increases could hit coastal homeowners and condo policyholders the hardest.

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Pending home sales plunge to record low in November

The National Association of Realtors says pending home sales fell to the lowest level on record in November, as the plummeting stock market and faltering economy caused buyers to put their purchases on hold. The trade group said Tuesday its seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for existing homes fell 4 percent to 82.3 from a downwardly revised October reading of 85.7 in October. That's worse than the reading of 88 that economists expected, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters. The reading, which was down 5.3 percent from November 2007, was the lowest since in the eight-year history of the index, beating the previous record low of 83 set in March 2008.

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The Latest Facts On Home Down Payment Requirements

There is some misinformation in the media lately about the required size of a down payment for a mortgage in today’s market, and the blog world is abuzz with misperceptions. Not all so-called experts are knowledgeable in this area, and some experts are being misunderstood. The facts:

1. An individual may be required to put down 20 percent based on that person’s financial situation. But that is not an across-the-board requirement for all borrowers.

2. A borrower who puts down less than 20 percent is required to obtain mortgage insurance.

3. Even in a declining market, a borrower is required to make at least a 5 or 10 percent down payment.

4. FHA requires a 3.5 percent down payment by borrowers, so long as they meet a 31 percent housing cost-to-income ratio. In other words, anyone who stays within their budget and who can afford a 3.5 percent down payment (even with family help) can become a homeowner. PLEASE NOTE: FHA market share has grown roughly tenfold in the past year to an estimated 30 percent of new mortgage originations.

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Fortune Magazine Leaves Tampa Off Of Top 10 Worst List For Real Estate

Fortune magazine predicts that these will be the 10 worst-performing real-estate markets in 2009:

Los Angeles, down -24.9 percent
Stockton, Calif., -24.7 percent
Riverside, Calif. -23.3 percent
Miami-Miami Beach, -22.8 percent
Sacramento, -22.2 percent
Santa Ana-Anaheim, Calif., -22 percent
Fresno, Calif., -21.6 percent
San Diego, Calif., 21.1 percent
Bakersfield, Calif., -20.9 percent
Washington, D.C., -19.9 percent

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November Tampa Area Home Sales Up 3%, Prices Down 21%

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA reported a total of 1,701 homes sold in November compared to 1,644 homes a year ago for a 3 percent increase. The existing home median sales price was $149,800; a year ago, it was $189,100 for a 21 percent decrease (and down 37% from the record high of $237,800 in August 2006). In the year-to-year comparison for the existing condo market, a total of 368 units sold in the MSA last month, down 3 percent compared to 380 condos sold the previous November. The market’s existing condo median price was $122,300; a year ago, it was $156,800 for a 22 percent decrease.

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2009 Real Estate Forecast: Troubles Spread

2008 was the year that subprime borrowers and speculators got hurt by the real estate crisis. 2009 could be when everyone else gets hit. Until now, the nation's most serious home price declines have been in low-cost markets that were dominated by subprime mortgages, and in overbuilt markets such as Florida, California, and Las Vegas, where residential values are sliding fast toward pre-housing boom levels. Housing and mortgage problems pushed the nation into a recession that could now amplify, draw out, and expand the reach of the housing declines. Few areas across the country will likely escape the recession and the corresponding impact on the real estate market. On the other hand, the speculative Las Vegas, Arizona, California, and Florida markets, which have already seen annual home-price declines of up to 30%, could see slightly smaller declines simply because values have already fallen so much. Some Florida markets, including Naples, Orlando, and Tampa, are already seeing declines moderate a bit, but problems in other Florida markets, such as Miami, continue to get worse.

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Falling Mortgage Rates Set A New Record Low

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.10 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending December 31, 2008, down from last week when it averaged 5.14 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.07 percent. The 30-year FRM has not been lower since Freddie Mac started the Primary Mortgage Market Survey in 1971.

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Moving Company Data Shows More People Moving Out Of Florida Than In

United Van Lines and Allied Van Lines, which track moves in and out of each state, confirm that through the first 11 months of this year, more people are heading out of the Sunshine State than moving in. Inbound shipments started to drop after several hurricanes hit the state in 2004 and 2005. The housing meltdown followed two years later. "Some people are moving out because they can't support the 'second housing' option," says Drew Klacik, policy analyst for Indiana University Center for Urban Policy and the Environment. "A lot of us who want to avoid the ice in Indiana and move to Florida, can't. It's harder and harder for people to sell their homes."

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