US home price drops set records in Jan.

Home prices sank by the sharpest annual rate on record in January, and the pace continues to accelerate, but there were a handful battered metro areas where price declines slowed, according to data released Tuesday. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of home prices in 20 major cities tumbled by a record 19 percent from January 2008. It was the largest decline since the index started in 2000. The 10-city index dropped 19.4 percent, also a new record. All 20 cities in the report showed monthly and annual price declines, with 13 posting new annual records. Prices dropped by more than 10 percent in 14 cities.

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1 in 10 FHA loans in the Tampa Bay area in default

In the Tampa Bay area, nearly 1 in 10 mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration is in trouble. As of December, 3,913 out of 41,361 FHA mortgages in the region hadn't been paid in at least three months and hovered on the brink of foreclosure. That's up from 2,135 a year earlier. The rate of default was 9.46 percent, up from 6.44 percent in December 2007. The most recent national rate — for February — was 7.5 percent. Here's a breakdown by loan type as of December 2008. Default rate overall: 9.46 percent. Default rate on fixed-rate mortgages: 9.4 percent. Default rate on adjustable rate mortgages: 11.67 percent.

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County To Buy, Fix Homes

Hillsborough County officials, in an effort to keep neighborhoods from deteriorating during tough economic times, want to buy and rehabilitate foreclosed homes. The endeavor is part of the county's Neighborhood Stabilization Program, created in line with the federal government's $3.9 billion Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. The initiative was launched to halt community blight caused by the high number of foreclosures occurring across the country. Hillsborough is receiving $19.1 million for the program. It is focusing the money on three unincorporated areas: Palm River, Clair-Mel City and Progress Village; Orient Park, just west of Mango; and the University Area, near the University of South Florida.

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Bay area jobless rate hits 10.2 percent

Many of the states at the epicenter of the recession were epicenters of the housing boom. California's unemployment rate just reached 10.5 percent; Nevada is at 10.1 percent. That goes a long way in explaining why Florida's unemployment rate, now hovering near a 33-year high, far outpaces the national average of 8.1 percent. It also explains why Cape Coral/Fort Myers (12 percent) is witnessing among the highest unemployment rates among Florida metro areas. In the past couple of years, Cape Coral has transformed from one of hottest housing markets in the country to the second-worst foreclosure rate behind Las Vegas, with one out of every 65 units in the foreclosure process last month. Nearly three years into the housing slump, new home construction in Florida is still off by double digits year over year. Foreclosures are partly to blame. Why order a new home from a builder when a foreclosure is available more cheaply down the street?

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Survey: Households Say Now is Good Time to Buy

More than three-quarters (78 percent) of potential first-time home buyers say that now is a good time to buy a home, despite widespread concern about the economy. Out of the 1,000 prospective U.S. first-time home buyers surveyed in early March for the CENTURY 21 First-Time Home Buyer Survey, 68 percent think now is a better time to buy than six months ago. Prices are the driving motivation for potential first-time home buyers with more than eight of ten first-time home buyers (85 percent) saying they consider current home prices affordable and 73 percent citing that taking advantage of current prices is a major factor in their decision to buy. Interestingly, potential first-time buyers are still split between “being willing to consider an offer now” (42 percent) and “waiting for prices to go down before they seriously consider making a purchase” (48 percent).

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Chase opens Tampa homeownership center for loan help

Josephus Jenkins, a housing counselor at the Corporation to Develop Communities of Tampa Inc., hates steering someone struggling to pay a mortgage to a toll-free number. So he was happy to join more than a dozen other community and neighborhood activists Thursday morning as JPMorganChase opened its first "homeownership center" in the bay area. The center, located inside Chase's Fountain Square campus at 4919 Memorial Highway, offers homeowners a face-to-face meeting with a loan adviser if they're late on a mortgage handled by Chase, Washington Mutual or EMC, which are all part of the JPMorganChase family.

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Another Record Low Set This Week For Long Term Mortgage Rates

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.85 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending March 26, 2009, down from last week when it averaged 4.98 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.85 percent. The 30-year FRM has not been lower in the life of Freddie Mac’s weekly survey, which dates back to 1971 for the 30-year FRM.

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New Home Sales Rise Unexpectedly

It was the second-worst month on record for sales of new homes. But last month still brought a long-awaited shred of good news for the battered building industry. February's results, while still far below last year's levels, provided some hope that new home sales have finally hit bottom and the worst may be past. Prices, however, are likely to remain weak for months as builders continue to clear out their stock of unsold homes.

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Florida still growing but in-migration down 90 percent

The economic recession has cast a shadow over growth in the Sunshine State, according to the latest population projections from the University of Florida (UF), which see Florida’s population increases falling to their lowest level in 60 years as some counties actually shrink. With South Florida counties particularly hard hit, the state is expected to add an average of only 37,000 residents each year between 2008 and 2010, a drop of more than 90 percent from the annual average increase during the housing boom years of 2002 to 2006. The new report shows county population projections from 2008 to 2035.

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State releases findings of drywall investigation

Chinese drywall samples give off a sulfur odor when exposed to heat and moisture, according to a 66-page report released Monday by the Florida Department of Health. The findings of the investigation, conducted by Unified Engineering, a private lab, will be detailed later Monday during a press conference by the department, which is analyzing drywall in response to a widening product liability crisis. The lab tested one sample made in the U.S. by National Gypsum Co.’s GridMarx brand and three samples made in China.

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Half Of All Properties Sold Last Month In Foreclosure

To Clearwater investor Jack Shea, a surge in Tampa Bay area home sales in February represented less a housing recovery than a "bottom picking of low-hanging fruit." But after three years of housing drought, the fruit basket looked uncharacteristically bountiful. Local sales rose 23 percent in February, the largest year-to-year jump since September 2005. Of the 1,856 home sales recorded by local Realtors last month, close to half the properties were in or heading toward foreclosure. The median sales price in February stood at $131,400, a yearly decline of 27 percent.

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Tampa February Home Sales Up 23%, Prices Down 27%

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA reported a total of 1,856 homes sold in February compared to 1,515 homes a year ago for a 23 percent increase. The existing home median sales price was $131,400; a year ago, it was $178,900 for a 27 percent decrease. The February median price is down 45% from the record high of $237,800 in August 2006 but up 7% from January 2009 and possibly a signal that the bottom of the housing market has arrived. In the year-to-year comparison for the existing condo market, a total of 409 units sold in the MSA last month, unchanged from a year ago when 414 condos sold. The market’s existing condo median price was $98,800; a year ago, it was $153,100 for a 35 percent decrease.

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Major Banks Re-Enter Jumbo Arena

Bank of America is among the major banks rolling out jumbo mortgage programs and holding the loans in their own portfolios. It will offer loans from $730,000 to $1.5 million with 30-year fixed rates under 6 percent; but borrowers must make a 20-percent down payment, have good credit, provide proof of income, and hold six months' of principal, interest, property tax, and insurance payments in reserve. Other banks offering jumbo loans include ING Group's ING Direct unit and Luxury Loans of San Diego.

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Modifying A Mortgage Can Be Tricky

The loan modification process isn't as straightforward as many homeowners think.

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Drywall from China blamed for problems in homes

Real estate agent Felix Martinez thought he'd found his dream house when he bought the 3,500-square-foot beauty in Homestead, Fla., two years ago. Then, he says, his large-screen TV mysteriously failed. Next, the air conditioner went. His bath towels smelled like rotten eggs. Visitors noted an odor in the house. Martinez says he's suffered new sinus problems and sleep apnea. His wife and son sneeze a lot. The walls in the home, a recently filed class-action lawsuit alleges, were built with the same kind of Chinese-made drywall that tests have shown emit sulfur gases that corrode copper coils and electrical and plumbing components.

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New Condo Rules May Limit Sales

Fannie Mae, the biggest player in the mortgage market, wants to ensure that if it's backing a loan for a condominium, the building is in good shape. If the building is brand new, Fannie Mae wants to be certain there are enough owners to pay for maintenance and preserve the value of the property. Under the new regulations, Fannie Mae will reject any mortgage for a condo buyer if more than 15 percent of owners are delinquent on their association fees. What's more, Fannie Mae will only guarantee mortgages in new or newly converted condo developments if 70 percent of the units are sold or under contract.

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Florida builders brace for suits over odor-emitting Chinese drywall

Chinese drywall has become the home construction scare story of the season. USA Today highlighted the problem in a long story this week. At least three class-action lawsuits in Florida have rattled builders and drywall suppliers. Plaintiffs allege the drywall fumes destroy appliances and copper wiring, and cause headaches and coughs. No one knows the number of Florida homes built with defective Asian wallboard. It was imported by the millions of pounds between 2004 and 2006 when American companies couldn't keep up with the building boom and post-hurricane reconstruction. Estimates vary between 800 and 36,000 homes. Close to 100 homeowners — about 10 in the Tampa Bay area — have reported the problem to the Florida Department of Health. In a report released late Friday, the health department confirmed Chinese drywall samples put off a strong sulfur smell when exposed to heat. An American-made sample did not. The tests also showed that Chinese drywall had an organic content of more than 5 percent. That could lend credence to a theory, propagated by personal injury law firm Morgan & Morgan, that Chinese manufacturers tainted drywall with waste ash from coal-fired power plants.

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Mortgage Rates May Fall to WWII Low

U.S. mortgage rates may fall to the lowest since World War II on the Federal Reserve’s plan to buy up to $300 billion of Treasuries and increase purchases of mortgage-backed bonds. Rates for 30-year fixed home loans dropped to 4.98 percent this week, Freddie Mac said today. They may reach 4.5 percent as the Fed’s purchases progress, said Mike Larson, real estate analyst at Weiss Research in Jupiter, Florida.

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Bond Rates Help Mortgage Rates Drop To Near Record Lows

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.98 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending March 19, 2009, down from last week when it averaged 5.03 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.87 percent. The 30-year FRM has not been lower since the week ending January 15, 2009, when it hit an all-time low of 4.96 percent in Freddie Mac's weekly survey survey.

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Underwater Owners May Keep Walking Away

Housing economists are growing increasingly worried that home owners whose properties are underwater will stop trying to pay their mortgages and just walk away. In all, the total value of U.S. residential properties fell to $19.1 trillion in December 2008 from $21.5 trillion in December 2007. About 52 percent of Nevada mortgages are underwater, followed by 32 percent in Arizona and 30 percent in both Florida and California, according to researcher First American CoreLogic.

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Chinese Drywall Leads to Lawsuits in Florida

Several home owners are blaming some drywall imported from China in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and Wilma as giving off a foul odor and causing a range of health problems, according to a lawsuit. Several class action lawsuits have been filed, including claims against U.S. homebuilder Lennar and a Chinese drywall manufacturer, Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin. Lennar, which has been replacing drywall in some homes, says it didn’t approve the use of the imported drywall. Knauf says it wasn’t necessarily the manufacturer and that the drywall has passed tests that have indicated that it produces no health hazards. The Consumer Product Safety Commission and Florida regulators are investigating. One estimate suggests 60,000 homes may contain the drywall. Attorneys who have filed the suits claim residents have suffered rashes, new allergies, asthma and sore throats. Victims should be compensated and their health monitored, says attorney Ervin Gonzalez of Colson Hicks Eidson in Washington, D.C.

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US New-Home Construction Rises in February

New-home construction rose 22.2 percent in February, compared to January, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 583,000 units. Applications for building permits, which are considered a good measure of future building, rose 3 percent in February to an annual rate of 547,000. Both increases surprised analysts who had predicted further downturns. Housing construction is still down 47.3 percent from a year ago. However, builders remained pessimistic about their businesses. The National Association of Home Builders’ index of builder sentiment is at 9, one point above the all-time low reached in January. Numbers lower than 50 indicate a negative outlook about the market.

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How Will Foreclosure Effect Credit Scores?

The amount of damage to a credit score caused by foreclosure, deed in lieu or a short sale during 2008 and 2009 may be mitigated by the slower economic times, say some credit and legal experts. FICO may have to adjust its credit scores to lessen the impact of a foreclosure in the last two years, says Todd J. Zywicki, a professor of law at George Mason University. "It just seems obvious that a foreclosure in 2008 or 2009 doesn't have as much information value as a foreclosure five years ago," he says. "To the extent that foreclosure doesn't predict future behavior as much as it did in the past, you'd expect that the FICO algorithm would change to adjust for that." One of the country’s largest credit unions Golden 1 has already figured out a way to lend to people with a foreclosure on their record by offering a mortgage repair loan specifically for those who have lost a home to foreclosure and who want to buy a new one. BECU, another large credit union based in Washington State, is about to present a program to fellow lenders, "How to Lend to the Newly Credit Impaired.”

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Florida No. 2 in mortgage fraud

Three years after the housing boom turned to housing bust, Florida still churns out fraudulent home loans at nearly three times the rate of the national average. The Tampa Bay area trailed Miami in its rate of fraud. In Miami, the most common trick was listing incorrect assets on a mortgage application, a reflection of that market's higher housing prices. Tampa fraudsters typically worked with inflated housing appraisals to flip a property for fast cash.

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One reason you can't get a mortgage

The main tool in the appraiser's kit is the sale prices of homes in the area. If they can find similar houses nearby in similar condition that sold recently for, say, $300,000, they can assume that the home they are appraising is worth a comparable amount. But with sales volume falling, there are fewer homes with which to compare. In fact, sales of new homes crashed in January to the lowest level in 45 years, and existing home sales fell to a 12-year low. And even when there are recent sales figures, they often don't hold up as a reliable baseline. Appraisals are estimates of market value at a given time, and with prices in free fall, values "age" quickly.

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Foreclosure Filed Against Mark Maconi Homes of Tampa Bay

Hounded by bank foreclosure, Mark Maconi Homes of Tampa Bay, a luxury builder based in Palm Harbor, has been struggling to pay off creditors as the market for its $1 million mansions tanks. A low point came in December when Maconi president Peter Krauser handed over the keys to his private $1.2 million residence in Clearwater's Coachman Hill Preserve. Wachovia Bank has initiated foreclosure against the builder, seeking payments for lots Maconi owns in northern Pinellas County. Dunedin has charged the builder for failing to keep lots mowed. Maconi has homes for sale for between $699,000 and $2.5 million in places like Snell Isle in St. Petersburg and Manning Oaks in Palm Harbor.

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Foreclosed rentals leave good tenants suddenly homeless

Renters are being kicked to the curb by the hundreds in a Tampa Bay area housing market that logged more than 5,800 foreclosure cases in February. It was a 37 percent rise in foreclosures from a year earlier. In many cases the renter is unaware that the landlord has defaulted on his mortgage and pays the penalty with temporary homelessness when the bank comes knocking. To avoid legal delays, lenders typically list "unknown tenants" along with the borrowers on their foreclosure lawsuits. When the home is auctioned or repossessed, the tenant usually gets the boot. No one keeps hard numbers of how many tenants have been so displaced in the Tampa Bay area, but they easily run in the hundreds, if not thousands. Congress recently passed a law that gives renters the choice of staying in a home that's been repossessed by government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

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Termites will wreak havoc on Tampa Bay homes this year, experts predict

All new homes in Florida are required to be treated for termites, according to Steven Dwinell, assistant director for the state Division of Agriculture and Environmental Services. State law mandates that pest control companies offer the homeowner a contract for yearly inspections and treatment, as termite damage is not covered by homeowners insurance. "But nearly half the homes in Florida are currently not under contract," Dwinell said.

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Tampa Sheetrock Manufacturer Cleared In "Chinese Drywall" Investigation

The Florida Department of Health has received more than 120 homeowner complaints, with nearly a third from the Tampa Bay area, since Jan. 1 about sulfur compound emissions from drywall. Those complaints stem from gypsum drywall that has dominated media reports under the moniker of “Chinese drywall.”

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Mortgage Rates Fall Back This Week A Bit

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.03 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending March 12, 2009, down from last week when it averaged 5.15 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.13 percent.

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Florida tops in preforeclosure activity

Florida had the highest number of preforeclosure filings in the month of February, according to a report from Foreclosures.com. The state had 53,173 preforeclosures in February, up 23.5 percent from the 43,070 reported in January and 5 percent higher than the 50,633 in December. Florida also reported 14,243 bank/lender repossessions — known as real estate owned filings — in February, up 42.3 percent from January’s 10,007. That put Florida at No. 2 in the nation for bank repossessions, trailing only California.

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In bay area, fewer foreclosures in February

It's hard to say we had a "good" month for foreclosures, but while foreclosure filings in the state as a whole surged 14 percent from January to February, the Tampa Bay region's caseload dropped 6.3 percent. Pinellas, Pasco, Hillsborough and Hernando counties reported 5,828 foreclosure filings in February vs. 6,222 in January, according to the firm RealtyTrac. Across the country, foreclosures were up 6 percent month to month. The local improvement was a bit surprising considering Gov. Charlie Crist's voluntary foreclosure moratorium expired at the end of January. Many had predicted a compensatory surge of filings in February. The depth of the mortgage default crisis depended on the county. Pinellas, where new home sales were the slightest during the housing boom, reported a foreclosure rate of 1 for every 353 households. Hills­borough County came off the hardest hit at one in every 178 households.

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Hillsborough home sales soar as prices dive

Falling prices helped push up Hillsborough County home sales a robust 38 percent in February. Sales rose from 813 in February 2008 to 1,120 in February 2009, according to the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors. Prices fell almost exactly a third, from an average price of $240,077 a year ago $160,145 last month. Foreclosure properties — dumped by the bank or by their desperate owners — represented a large chunk of the traffic. All-cash transactions were one sign that investors were scooping up distressed properties. In February 2008, 21 percent of sales were all-cash deals. Last month, cash buyers accounted for 37 percent of sales.

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Foreclosures up 30 percent nationwide in February

Despite halts on new foreclosures by several major lenders, the number of households threatened with losing their homes rose 30 percent in February from last year's levels, RealtyTrac reported Thursday. Nationwide, nearly 291,000 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice last month, up 6 percent from January, according to the Irvine, Calif-based company. While foreclosures are highly concentrated in the Western states and Florida, the problem is spreading to states like Idaho, Illinois and Oregon as the U.S. economy worsens.

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Foreclosed Property Register Weighed For Hillsborough County

The Hillsborough County Commission last week voted unanimously to draft an ordinance to create a registry for unincorporated parts of the county and to determine an appropriate filing fee for foreclosed properties. The Legislature is considering a similar, statewide effort. Since January 2006, there have been more than 36,298 new foreclosure cases filed in Hillsborough County. In Florida, several cities, including Coral Springs and North Lauderdale, both in Broward County, have created registries and charge banks a fee to report properties and assist with maintenance. Coral Springs' program started in July. The city charges $150 per registration and has about 500 properties on its list. North Lauderdale, which charges $50, began its program in June. To date, about 153 properties have been registered.

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Sales Increase as Price Per Square Foot Falls

The price per square foot fell an average of 22 percent in December 2008 from December 2007 in the metro areas included in the RPX Monthly Housing Market Report index by real estate data and analytics company Radar Logic. Phoenix and San Francisco showed the steepest declines. However, sales of foreclosures drove an overall increase in transactions, increasing 177 percent in the year ending in December 2008. Sales not associated with foreclosures, on the other hand, dropped during the same period by 17 percent. Radar Logic says that an improvement in affordability and low mortgage rates contributed to an increase in year-over-year transaction counts in 14 of the 25 metro areas tracked in December compared to December 2007.

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Tampa No. 10 In $/SF Price Drop For 2008

Here’s how much the price per square foot in each metro area declined in 2008.

1. Phoenix, -35.9
2. San Francisco, -35.1
3. Las Vegas, -31.9
4. San Jose, Calif., -30.2
5. Sacramento, Calif., -27.4
6. San Diego, Calif., -27.1
7. Los Angeles, -26.8
8. Miami, -26.6
9. Washington, DC, -24.8
10. Tampa, -23.5

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Tampa Ranks No. 3 In Late Commercial Loan Payments

The Tampa, Florida, area was third, behind Cleveland at number one and Detroit at number two, in commercial mortgage delinquencies at 2.9 percent in March, according to Bloomberg data, a sign the housing crisis that brought down Wall Street is spreading beyond the residential market.

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Foreclosures Concentrated in Certain Areas

A report by RealtyTrac shows that most of the 1.5 million foreclosures in 2008 were focused in a 35 counties. These locales represent about 1 percent of all the counties and are clustered in Michigan, Ohio, Southern California, Nevada, Arizona, South Florida and Washington, D.C. One quarter of last year’s foreclosures happened in just eight counties in Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada, places where the market boomed and prices skyrocketed. About 20 percent of U.S. households live in these key counties, but they account for more than 50 percent of the foreclosures last year.

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More Details On The "Making Home Affordable" Program

Who may qualify

• Mortgage must have been created before Jan. 1, 2009.

• Borrowers must be owner-occupants of a one- to four-unit home and owe no more than:

1-unit home $729,750

2-unit $934,200

3-unit $1,129,250

4-unit $1,403,400

• The mortgage payment (with taxes, insurance and dues) must exceed 31 percent of gross monthly income.

• Borrowers can qualify whether delinquent or not, but must have enough income to handle modified payments.

• Borrowers with home equity loans and second mortgages are not disqualified.

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Florida unemployment rate surges to 8.6 percent

Florida's unemployment rate zoomed to 8.6 percent in January, representing 800,000 jobless out of a labor force of 9.3 million, according to figures released this morning. The rate, the highest since September 1992, is up a full percentage point from the revised December rate. In the Tampa Bay area, the unemployment rate reached 9.7 percent as the region has shed more than 42,000 jobs year over year. The one-month jumps in unemployment were sizeable in every bay area county. Pinellas posted an unemployment rate of 9.5 percent, up from 8.2 percent in December. Hillsborough's rate was 9.1 percent, up from 7.9 percent. Pasco's rate was 10.8 percent, up from 9.3 percent.

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Florida tops nation for delinquent mortgages

Florida leads the nation in the number of homes delinquent or in foreclosure according to a fourth quarter survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The survey found that 20.1 percent of mortgages on Florida homes were delinquent or held in foreclosure. Nationwide, more than 11 percent of American homeowners are either delinquent or in foreclosure. The survey covered 85 percent of the country’s 1-4 family residential mortgages.

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Bond Yields Drive Mortgage Rates Higher

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.15 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending March 5, 2009, up from last week when it averaged 5.07 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.03 percent.

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One-third of Tampa Bay mortgage holders owe more than property is worth

Almost a third of us in the Tampa Bay area owe more on our mortgages than our property is worth. In a measure of how deeply housing values have sunk, real estate consultant First American CoreLogic reports that 183,821 properties in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area have negative equity. That's 31 percent of all properties carrying a mortgage in our region. Another 28,349 mortgages, or 4.8 percent, are close to being "under water," the company said. Negative equity is a greater problem in the Tampa Bay area than it is nationally. About 8.3 million mortgages, or 20 percent, are underwater across the country as a whole. Florida's rate was 30.3 percent, or 1.28 million underwater mortgages.

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The Details On The "Making Home Affordable" Program

The President's plan was created to help millions of homeowners refinance or modify their mortgages. Refinancing: Many homeowners pay their mortgages on time but are not able to refinance to take advantage of today’s lower mortgage rates perhaps due to a decrease in the value of their home. A Home Affordable Refinance will help borrowers whose loans are held by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac refinance into a more affordable mortgage. Modification: Many homeowners are struggling to make their monthly mortgage payments either because their interest rate has increased or they have less income. A Home Affordable Modification will provide them with mortgage payments they can afford.

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Feds unveil plan to help 9 million stay in homes

The administration, launching what it calls the "Making Home Affordable" initiative, said that borrowers will have to provide their most recent tax return and two pay stubs, as well as an "affidavit of financial hardship" to qualify for the $75 billion loan modification program, which runs through 2012. Borrowers are only allowed to have their loans modified once, and the program only applies for loans made on Jan. 1 2009 or earlier. Up to 4 million borrowers are expected to qualify. Mortgages for single-family properties that are worth more than $729,750 are excluded. Separately, up to 5 million borrowers who have mortgages held by government controlled mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be eligible to refinance through June 2010.

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Florida Among Biggest Sales Gains In 2008 Due To Foreclosures

Foreclosures drove U.S. home sales up 7 percent in 2008 after a 40 percent plunge the prior year, with eligible buyers lured by deep discounts and low loan rates, according to real estate data company Radar Logic. So-called "motivated sales," or foreclosed houses sold at auctions or by financial institutions, surged 177 percent last year while all other sales in the 25 metro areas tracked by Radar Logic fell by 17 percent. "The market seems to have migrated to the point where motivated sales have become a far more constant part of the housing sales market," Michael Feder, chief executive of Radar Logic, told Reuters. These distressed transactions represented as much as a third of all activity last year, he said. "Buyers recognize that those are at significant discounts versus what all other people are asking for homes and are migrating to those first," Feder said. Ultimately, that could be a positive for housing, suggesting there is a price point that has been reached that is attracting buyers, he added. The biggest sales gains were in areas with the largest annual price declines: California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida.

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Pending US Sales Down To Lowest Level On Record

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in January, fell 7.7 percent to 80.4 from a downwardly revised reading of 87.1 in December, according to NAR's latest report. The index is 6.4 percent below January 2008 when it was 85.9. The index is at the lowest level since tracking began in 2001, when the index value was set at 100. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says the downturn in the economy weighed heavily on the data. “Even with many serious potential home buyers on the sidelines waiting for passage of the stimulus bill, job losses and weak consumer confidence were a natural drag on home sales,” he says. “We expect similarly soft home sales in the near term, but buyers are expected to respond to much improved affordability conditions and from the $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit.”

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Citigroup to lower some mortgage payments

Struggling bank Citigroup Inc. said Tuesday that it will lower mortgage payments for some homeowners to an average of $500 a month for three months as part of a new program to help the unemployed. Homeowners who may qualify for assistance from Citigroup under the Homeowner Unemployment Assist program include those that are 60 days or more past due on their mortgages or in foreclosure and can pay the reduced amount. Customers must also have a first mortgage loan that is owned and serviced by CitiMortgage Inc. and conforms to government sponsored enterprise limits. The house must also be the customer's primary residence, with homeowners meeting all insurer and guaranty requirements.

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Judiciary and Financial Services Committee Joint Housing Bill Introduced in the House

The House Judiciary Committee and the House Financial Services Committee today released details of the combined housing bill the House may consider this week. The measure will combine the Judiciary Committee provisions to allow bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages on primary residences, and the Financial Services Committee legislation which provides a servicer safe harbor, Hope for Homeowners improvements, FHA changes, and reforms to the FDIC insurance fund. The new bill, H.R. 1106 could be on the floor as early as this week.

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New Home Sales Fall to Record Low in January

Sales of new homes fell 10 percent in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 309,000 from 344,000 in December. This is the lowest level since the U.S. Census began keeping records in 1963. The median sales prices of new homes sold in January was down 15 percent to 201,000 from 232,400 a year ago. Here’s how sales fared by region:

* West: -28%
* South: -6.5%
* Midwest: -5.6%
* Northeast: +12.5%

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Losing A Property Thru Foreclosure Can Possibly Increase Your Income Taxes

If you lost your home to foreclosure or a short sale (with the lender agreeing to accept sales proceeds that are short of what's owed on the mortgage), that unpaid debt is technically considered income to you. For the tax years 2007 through 2012, the government is waiving any tax liability on that phantom income. The lender will send you - and the IRS - a copy of Form 1099-C, "Cancellation of Debt," reporting that forgiven debt as income. To make sure you are not taxed on the amount, you will have to file Form 982, "Reduction of Tax Attributes Due to Discharge of Indebtedness." (Forms can be downloaded from www.IRS.gov.) If you've lost a home to foreclosure, be sure the bank and IRS have your current address (notify the IRS by mailing in Form 8822) so you receive important notices promptly. This year-old change to the tax laws will affect more people this year, thanks to soaring foreclosure rates. Forgiven debt on vacation homes and rental properties is still taxable as if it were income.

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