Mortgage Rates Flat This Week

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.98 percent with an average 0.6 point for the week ending January 28, 2010, down slightly from last week when it averaged 4.99 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.10 percent.

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One in every 21 Tampa households mired in foreclosure

Eleven of the top 25 metro areas with the highest foreclosure rates in 2009 are located in Florida, more than any other state. California accounted for 10, according to data released Thursday by Calif-based RealtyTrac. In the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area, there were 62,719 properties that received filings during the year. That's one filing for every 21 households and a 17 percent increase from the previous year. Filings rose 162 percent from 2007.

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Freddie Mac CEO: Housing Is Near Bottom

The inventory of foreclosed houses still hampers the recovery of the housing sector, but overall, the U.S. housing market appears to be at or near bottom, Freddie Mac CEO Charles Haldeman told the Detroit Economic Club on Tuesday. He predicted that the 30-year fixed mortgage rate would remain between 5 percent and 6 percent through 2010. "The big downside risk to all this is a large wave of homes now in foreclosure potentially hitting the market at prices that are destructive," Haldeman said.

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'Flat is good' for home prices

Tampa area home prices continued to fall in November, but the monthly decline no longer is the nation's worst. Greater Tampa saw a 0.4 percent dip in home prices compared with the previous month and a 13.2 percent drop from the same month a year ago, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Metro Area Home Price Indices. This comes after October's data showed a 1.6 percent monthly decline and a 15.2 percent yearly drop. October's monthly drop was the steepest among all the metro areas tracked by S&P/Case-Shiller. The nation overall did better than Tampa. Home prices rose for the sixth straight month in November. Karl Case, co-creator of the indexes, cites signs of stability that were in stark contrast to rapidly falling prices a year ago. "Flat is good," he said. "Tampa and Las Vegas are at their bottoms," said David Blitzer, head of the indexes board. "Other cities may be showing increases, but those cities were more boring during the boom. Tampa and Las Vegas both saw large run-ups in prices."

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US home prices rise for 6th straight month in Nov.

Home prices rose for the sixth straight month in November, fueled by tax credits for homebuyers. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index released Tuesday inched up 0.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted reading of 145.49. The index was off 5.3 percent from November last year, nearly matching analysts' estimates that it would fall by 5.1 percent. The index is now up more than 3 percent from its bottom in May, but still 30 percent below its peak in May 2006. Home prices fell for the third straight month in Tampa, Fla., where sales of distressed properties comprise about half of total sales.

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US Existing-Home Sales Down, but Prices Rise

Existing-home sales fell as expected in December after first-time buyers rushed to complete deals during the months leading up to the original November deadline for the tax credit. However, prices rose from December 2008 and annual sales improved in 2009, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. Existing-home sales—including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops—fell 16.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.45 million units in December from 6.54 million in November, but remain 15 percent above the 4.74 million-unit level in December 2008. There were approximately 5,156,000 existing-home sales in 2009, which was 4.9 percent higher than the 4,913,000 transactions recorded in 2008. It was the first annual sales gain since 2005.

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December Tampa Bay Home Sales Up 14%, Median Price Down 4%

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA reported a total of 2,123 homes sold in December compared to 1,857 homes a year ago for a 14 percent increase. The existing home median sales price was $140,000; a year ago, it was $145,700 for a 4 percent decrease. The median home price is up 14% from the low point in January 2009 of $122,400 and on track to show the first increase in the median price since 2006 this month. In the year-to-year comparison for the existing condo market, a total of 820 units sold in the MSA last month, up 92% from a year ago when 426 condos sold. The market’s existing condo median price was $106,300; a year ago, it was $128,800 for a 17 percent decrease.

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Tampa Bay area could see home prices stabilize later this year

Home prices declined once again in November, but the bottom may be close for the greater Tampa housing market. A new study from First American CoreLogic said home prices in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater dropped 13.5 percent since November 2008. That was smaller than the 14.5 percent decline experienced between in October, but was well above the national decline of 5.7 percent. When distressed properties are removed from the equation, the year-over-year decline is 11.85 percent compared to the 12.6 percent annual decline in October. Nationally, those numbers adjusted to a 5,1 percent decline in November and 5.7 percent in October. However, by November 2010, home prices should be far more stable, with CoreLogic predicting a 0.19 percent increase.

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6 Surprising Facts About the Buyer Tax Credit

The homebuyer tax credit is not as simple or straightforward as you might think. Here are some nuances that will affect homebuyers who plan to use it.

* To qualify for the move-up tax credit, a home owner must have occupied the same principal residence for five of the last eight years consecutively.
* Buyers can elect to claim the credit on either their 2009 or their 2010 tax return, whichever is best for them.
* Buyers who claim the credit in 2009 can’t file electronically because the Internal Revenue Service hasn’t put the required forms on line. The wait for a refund is three or four months.
* The home can be a mobile home or travel trailer that is fixed to land owned or leased by the home owner. A mobile home or travel trailer that is actually mobile doesn’t qualify.
* The home can’t be purchased from a close relative, including a parent, spouse, child, grandparent or grandchild.
* A buyer who earns no taxable income or doesn’t owe any federal income tax can qualify for the tax credit and file a tax return just to claim it.

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Clearing up confusion regarding tax credits

Federal tax credits for home buyers have certainly boosted the Tampa Bay area real estate market. The incentives have prompted nervous buyers to get off the fence, and that has helped the area shed thousands of homes from the region's inventory of unsold properties. But as these buyers prepare to cash in on their purchases by filing their tax returns, many are finding they may not qualify after all or don't know how to file.

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Florida unemployment hits 11.8%

Florida's unemployment rate for December hit 11.8 percent, inching closer to breaking the state record of 11.9 percent set nearly 35 years ago. In the Tampa Bay area, the jobless rate was 12.4 percent, driven in part by Hernando County's whopping 14.9 percent rate, second-highest in the state.

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30-Year Rates Down For Third Consecutive Week

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.99 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending January 21, 2010, down from last week when it averaged 5.06 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.12 percent.

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FHA To Toughen Down Payment Rules

The Federal Housing Administration will raise the minimum down payment for its least credit-worthy borrowers, agency announced Tuesday. Borrowers with credit-rating scores below 580 will be required to put down at least 10 percent. Those with a credit score above 580 will be able to continue to put down only 3.5 percent. The changes are intended to shore up the agency's finances. The FHA also will increase its upfront mortgage insurance premium from 1.75 percent to 2.25 percent. The agency is expected to seek congressional approval to raise annual mortgage insurance premiums, paid by borrowers over the life of the loan, above the current 0.55 percent maximum. The amount it will seek has yet been announced.

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Three-quarters of all Tampa pending home sales are because of financial distress

Pending distressed home sales in the Tampa Bay reached above 70 percent in December, turning around what was once a conventional sale-driven market as the economy continues through a recession. A new report from consulting firm Home Encounter LLC in Tampa says 70.5 percent of pending sales can be classified as “distressed,” highlighting the influence of short sales or bank foreclosures on the market. Short sales accounted for more than 21 percent of all sales in December and 61 percent of pending sales. Bank-owned accounted for a little over 20 percent of all sales and 10.5 percent of pending sales. Conventional sales accounted for just half of all sales in December and only 30 percent of pending sales.

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HUD acts to speed foreclosed properties resales

The U.S. government is taking action to speed the resale of foreclosed properties by temporarily expanding access to Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance, U.S. housing officials said on Friday. Effective Feb 1, the Housing and Urban Development Department will waive for one year an FHA rule that prohibits insuring a mortgage on a home owned by the seller for less than 90 days, giving FHA borrowers access to a broader array of recently foreclosed properties. The move is to allow homes to resell as quickly as possible, helping stabilize real estate prices and revitalize neighborhoods after the U.S. housing market collapse.

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Homebuyer tax credit: No e-file and four-month delays

Good news homebuyers: You can file for your $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit again. Bad news: You still can't e-file your taxes if you want the cash. And there are long delays. Buyers who purchased their properties after Nov. 6 were unable to claim the refund because the Internal Revenue Service had yet to release a new form and instructions. But on Friday, the IRS finally posted the new IRS Form 5405. First-time buyers were able to immediately file for the tax credit after Congress approved it last February as part of the stimulus program. All they had to do was file an amendment to their 2008 tax returns (the ones they filed last April) and claim the promised refund of 10% of the purchase price, up to $8,000.

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Fixed-Rates Down Slightly

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.06 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending January 14, 2010, down from last week when it averaged 5.09 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.96 percent.

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December another strong month for Tampa Bay area foreclosures

Foreclosures dropped in every county except Sarasota in December in what could be a sign of stabilization in the key housing market sector. Hillsborough County had the highest number of foreclosure filings in December, according to a new report from RealtyTrac Inc., with 2,539, or one in every 203 homes. That was flat from November but down more than 15 percent from the year before. Manatee County had the biggest year-over-year drop. Its 806 filings were down nearly 42 percent from December 2008 and 10 percent from November. Its rate of one in every 210 homes facing foreclosure was just behind Hillsborough’s. Pinellas County had a big fall as well, dropping nearly 27 percent from the previous year to 1,675 filings, representing one in every 298 homes. That was down 23 percent from the month before. Other drops came from Pasco County at 19.2 percent, Hernando County at 13.5 percent and just under 1 percent for Polk County.

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Tampa area home starts only 3,545 in 2009

Home builders in 2009 started construction on 3,545 homes in Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Hernando counties. That's compared to 4,721 home starts in the 2008, according to Houston-based Metrostudy, which compiled the numbers. Builders began the year poorly, starting construction on 710 homes in the first quarter. By the third quarter, however, deals were boosted by the first-time homebuyer tax credit. Construction started on 1,031 homes during that quarter. There were 880 starts during the fourth quarter. One positive noted by Metrostudy is the number of completed homes sitting vacant. That number has decreased 11 consecutive quarters in the Tampa area. In the fourth quarter, there were 1,931 finished, vacant homes in the area.

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Making Home Affordable program puts dent in credit scores

If you accept a modification through Making Home Affordable, you'll probably pay for it with a lower credit score. In some cases the impact could be as much as 100 points. Future borrowing could be compromised, erasing some of the savings from the government bailout. Making Home Affordable targets not just delinquent homeowners but strapped borrowers who have never missed a payment. The goal is to keep house payments no higher than 31 percent of income. Banks usually accomplish that by lowering interest rates below market rate. The government picks up some of the tab. Before Nov. 1, a person participating in a trial loan modification was reported to credit bureaus as a "partial payer." With the Treasury's encouragement, FICO helped create a new credit default category: "Loan Modified Under a Federal Government Program." In doing so, FICO agreed to wait until at least mid 2010 before reconsidering credit scores.

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Home prices rise in the Bay area

Here's a shocker: The Tampa Bay area ranked among the top in the nation for increasing home prices in the fourth quarter. That's according to California-based Clear Capital, which says the Bay area is increasingly showing signs of stabilization. After years of falling home prices, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area posted a quarterly increase of 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared with the previous quarter, the report shows. The increase put the area in the top 15 metro areas for increases. The metro area did see a drop of 12.9 percent compared with the same quarter a year ago.

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Mortgage Rates Likely To Climb After April 1

April 1 will be the first day that the Federal Reserve will end its debt purchase program and allow the struggling U.S. mortgage market to operate unassisted. As a result, the Fed believes mortgage rates will rise about three-quarters of a percent to about 6 percent, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said Saturday. Fear of a worldwide perception that the U.S. government is simply printing money to use to purchase mortgage-related securities is a big reason the Fed has pulled back, analysts say. If that fear caused a sell-off of U.S. government bonds, it would push borrowing costs substantially higher and derail the economic recovery.

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Dogs that sniff out Chinese drywall may be cheaper inspection option

Until now, inspectors looking for tainted Chinese drywall had to tear apart houses to detect the problem. But now man's best friend can help sniff out the problem, minimizing damage to the home. Anthony Gimenez of Professional Building Inspectors in Manatee County teamed up last year with the Von Asgard K9 Center in Myakka City to form the K9 Detection Service. Since dogs were already being used to find explosives and narcotics, Gimenez suspected they could be trained to detect drywall problems.

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Home sales' uphill climb

Aaron Jacobs' home search spanned a year and involved exhaustive research, dozens of tours and a lot of second-guessing. "We did a lot of looking into whether the market would improve, whether prices would continue to drop," he said. "We finally determined that the bottom line is you really can't tell. It's a gamble." Jacobs and his girlfriend recently gave up their quest to time the market, snapped up their first-time buyer federal tax credit and bought a home in Carrollwood. They join thousands of others who are driving up Bay area home sales, contributing to signs that the worst real estate slump since the Great Depression is turning a corner. No doubt 2009 was a tough year for the economy, and real estate in particular. Potential homebuyers and economists are trying to gauge what the market will do this year. Experts agree that 2010 will be hard on some fronts, namely unemployment. But positive signs are mounting for real estate, and many expect a slow recovery, with more improvement later this year.

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Fannie Mae eases funding rules for Florida condo projects

Fannie Mae, which had been restricting loans to buyers of condominiums in Florida, is now relaxing some of those standards. The mortgage finance company said today it is reviewing hundreds of condo projects that currently don't qualify for its loans and will allow more to become eligible. Buildings deemed "sufficiently stable" after the review will be given a special approval lasting up to 18 months. Lenders will be allowed to offer mortgages to homebuyers and sell those loans to Fannie Mae, which pools them into bonds and sells them to investors. Under regulations enacted in March, Fannie Mae has been rejecting any mortgage for a condo buyer if more than 15 percent of a development's other owners are delinquent on their association fees. What's more, Fannie Mae will guarantee mortgages only in new or newly converted condo developments if 70 percent of the units are sold or under contract.

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Mortgage Rates Start the New Year Slightly Lower Than They Ended the Old Year

Tthe 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.09 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending January 7, 2010, down from last week when it averaged 5.14 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.01 percent.

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Modified loan on home can hurt

The last thing many troubled homeowners want to hear is that they could be denied a car loan after they get a chance to modify their home loan. But credit scores can get dinged after a home loan modification, making it more costly or tougher to get a loan or credit card. Hundreds of thousands of homeowners find themselves in a financial squeeze, thanks to the recession and the meltdown in the housing market. Lenders have offered trial loan modifications to more than 700,000 eligible borrowers. As of late November, about 31,000 trial loans have been made permanent, which requires at least three on-time payments under the trial program and proof of income. What these troubled homeowners don’t realize is that these attempts to avoid foreclosure may result in their credit scores taking a hit. A potentially damaged credit score is one of those hidden costs of home loan modification – and it varies significantly depending on your lender, as well as when you received your loan modification, your credit history and how your loan was altered.

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US pending home sales fall 16 percent in Nov.

The number of buyers who agreed to purchase previously occupied homes fell sharply in November, an indication that sales will fall this winter, undermining last summer's recovery. The National Association of Realtors says its seasonally adjusted index of sales agreements fell 16 percent from October to a November reading of 96. It was the first decline following nine straight months of gains and the lowest reading since June. The drop was far larger than the 2 percent expected from economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters. The report shows that consumers are taking their time following the extension of a tax credit deadline. The incentive of up to $8,000 for first-time buyers was set to expire at the end of November. But Congress pushed back the date and expanded the program.

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Foreclosures Weigh on Home Appraisals

Approximately 25 percent of real estate practitioners say low appraisals have broken up deals, according to the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. While foreclosed properties typically are not included in a comparable sales analysis, they account for about 40 percent of home sales -- more than 50 percent in some markets -- making it difficult for appraisers to value properties not in the foreclosure process. Additionally, new industry rules that require mortgage lenders to order appraisals through in-house staff or appraisal management companies means more appraisers without knowledge of the local market are making valuations.

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