Posts

California Home Prices near 4-Year High

/in /by

For information about exclusive Los Angeles County real estate and homes in coastal Orange County to La Jolla, call Bob Cumming of Keystone Group Properties at 310-496-8122. Keystone Group Properties serves discriminating buyers and sellers of distinguished Southern California properties in Newport Beach, Dana Point, and Coto de Caza; Marina Del Rey, Hermosa Beach, and Ladera Ranch; Pacific Palisades, Rancho Margarita, Santa Monica, Malibu, and Irvine; and inland Beverly Hills real estate.

California Home Prices near 4-Year High

August 20th, 2012, 1:00 am • • posted by MARILYN KALFUS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

California home sale prices came close to a 4-year high in July, with the pace of sales year-over-year growing for the fourth month in a row, the California Association of Realtors says.

“It’s hard to generalize the state of California’s housing market because the markets are so diverse and are performing so differently,” LeFrancis Arnold, the association’s president, said.

“REO-dominated areas (of homes seized by banks) such as those in the Inland Empire and Central Valley are experiencing sales constraints due to an extreme shortage of available homes,” he said. “On the other hand, a robust economy in the San Francisco Bay area and a relatively larger inventory at higher price levels is helping to fuel sales and prices.”

The July median price was the highest since August 2008, when it was at $352,730. July also marked the 5th straight month that the state’s median home price saw both month-over-month and year-over-year gains

The report says:

  • The median price of an existing single-family home (or price at the midpoint of all sales) was $333,860 last month, up 4.2% from $320,540 in June and nearly 13% from the state’s July 2011 median of $296,160. During the housing crash, the state’s median price got as low as $245,230.
  • July sales rose to an annualized pace of 529,230 homes – that is, homes that would sell if transactions were to occur for a year at July’s sales pace. That’s an increase of 15.3 percent over the pace in July 2011 – 459,140 homes.
  • California’s housing inventory was pretty much flat in July, with the index of existing, single-family homes at 3.4 months compared to 3.5 months in June. However, July’s inventory was down from a revised 5.6-month supply in July 2011. The index indicates the number of months needed to sell the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate. A seven-month “inventory” of homes for sale is considered normal.

In Orange County, prices slipped slightly, while sales had a dramatic increase. The association reported:

  • • The median house price was $551,160 in July, barely down from $551,510 the year before and down about 3% from June. The low since the housing crash was $442,170 in January 2009, CAR spokesperson Lotus Lou said in an interview.
  • House sales in O.C. were up 32.1% from year-ago levels.
  • The county’s “inventory” of homes for sale was at a 4-month supply, down a bit from 4.2 months in June and plunging from 7.5 months in July 2011

Irvine CA homes for sale


 

CoreLogic June Home Price Index Rises 2.5 Percent

/in /by

If you are interested in exploring your options for Southern California luxury real estate in Los Angeles and Orange County counties and San Diego homes, call Bob Cumming of Keystone Group Properties at 310-496-8122. Keystone Group Properties serves discriminating buyers and sellers of exclusive properties from LaJolla to San Juan Capistrano to Newport Beach and Beverly Hills.

CoreLogic June Home Price Index Rises 2.5 Percent—
Representing Fourth Consecutive Year-Over-Year Increase

CoreLogic® (NYSE: CLGX), a leading provider of information, analytics and business services, today released its June Home Price Index (HPI®) report. Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased on a year-over-year basis by 2.5 percent in June 2012 compared to June 2011. On a month-over-month basis, including distressed sales, home prices increased by 1.3 percent in June 2012 compared to May 2012*. The June 2012 figures mark the fourth consecutive increase in home prices nationally on both a year-over-year and month-over-month basis.

Excluding distressed sales, home prices nationwide increased on a year-over-year basis by 3.2 percent in June 2012 compared to June 2011. On a month-over-month basis excluding distressed sales, home prices increased 2.0 percent in June 2012 compared to May 2012, the fifth consecutive month-over-month increase. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions.

The CoreLogic Pending HPI indicates that July home prices, including distressed sales, will rise by at least 0.4 percent on a month-over-month basis from June 2012 and by 2.0 percent on a year-over-year basis from July 2011. Excluding distressed sales, July house prices are also poised to rise by 1.4 percent month-over-month from June 2012 and by 4.3 percent year-over-year from July 2011. The CoreLogic Pending HPI is a new and exclusive metric that provides the most current indication of trends in home prices. It is based on Multiple Listing Service (MLS) data that measure price changes in the most recent month.

“Home prices are responding positively to reductions in both visible and shadow inventory over the past year,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “This trend is a bright spot because the decline in shadow inventory translates to fewer distressed sales, which helps sustain price appreciation.”
“At the halfway point, 2012 is increasingly looking like the year that the residential housing market may have turned the corner,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “While first-half gains have given way to second-half declines over the past three years, we see encouraging signs that modest price gains are supportable across the country in the second-half of 2012.”

Highlights as of June 2012:

  • Including distressed sales, the five states with the highest appreciation were: Arizona (+13.8 percent), Idaho (10.4 percent), South Dakota (+10.1 percent), Utah (+8.3 percent) and Wyoming (+7.7 percent).
  • Including distressed sales, the five states with the greatest depreciation were: Alabama (-4.8 percent), Connecticut (-4.0 percent), Illinois (-3.4 percent), Georgia (-2.9 percent) and Delaware (-2.8 percent).
  • Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the highest appreciation were: South Dakota (+10.2 percent), Utah (+9.1 percent), Montana (+8.7 percent), Arizona (+8.7 percent) and Wyoming (+6.9 percent).
  • Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the greatest depreciation were: Delaware (-3.6 percent), Alabama (-3.1 percent), Connecticut (-2.1 percent), New Jersey (-0.9 percent) and Kentucky (-0.4 percent).
  • Including distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI (from April 2006 to June 2012) was -28.8 percent. Excluding distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the HPI for the same period was -21.3 percent.
  • The five states with the largest peak-to-current declines including distressed transactions are Nevada (-57.1 percent), Florida (-45.3 percent), Arizona (-44.1 percent), California (-39.2 percent) and Michigan (-39.0 percent).
  • Of the top 100 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) measured by population, 27 are showing year-over-year declines in June, five fewer than in May.

Los Angeles CA luxury homes for sale

HARP Refinances Continue Surge in First Half of 2012

/in /by

For information about coastal and luxury Los Angeles real estate, Orange County CA homes, and San Diego homes, call Bob Cumming of Keystone Group Properties at 310-496-8122. Keystone Group Properties services buyers and sellers of exclusive Southern California homes from Malibu and Santa Monica to Newport Beach and San Juan Capistrano, La Jolla and Mission Beach to distinctive Beverly Hills, Beverly Glen, and Bel Air homes.

HARP Refinances Continue Surge in First Half of 2012

One in Three Refinances Were Through HARP in June

Washington, D.C. –

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today released its June Refinance Report, which shows that one of every three refinances through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were made through the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), the highest number since the inception of the program in April 2009. The continued increase in HARP volume is attributed to record-low mortgage rates and program enhancements announced last fall including removal of the loan-to-value (LTV) ceiling for borrowers who refinance into fixed-rate loans and the elimination or lowering of fees for certain borrowers.

Also in the report:

  • Through June 2012, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac refinanced 422,969 loans through HARP, more than all HARP refinances – 400,024 – last year.
  • HARP refinances for loans with LTV greater than 125 percent surged in June to more than 40 percent of HARP volume as lenders began to sell Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities containing these loans June 1.
  • More than two-thirds of borrowers in states hard-hit by the housing downturn – Nevada, Arizona and Florida – refinanced through HARP in June, compared with 33 percent nationwide.
  • In Nevada, Arizona and Florida, underwater borrowers (with LTV greater than 105 percent) represented more than 80 percent of HARP volume in June.
  • Since 2009, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac refinanced more than 2.2 million loans through their existing programs and more than 1.4 million loans through HARP.

San Juan Capistrano CA homes for sale


 

Index Spotlights 80 Improving Housing Markets in August

/in /by

For information about coastal and luxury real estate in Southern California—Los Angeles County, Orange County and San Diego County—call Bob Cumming of Keystone Group Properties at 310-496-8122. Keystone Group Properties services buyers and sellers of distinctive Southern California homes in Newport Beach, Dana Point, Laguna Beach, Laguna Niguel, and south to Santa Monica, San Capistrano, and La Jolla homes.

Index Spotlights 80 Improving Housing Markets in August

August 6, 2012 – A total of 80 metropolitan statistical areas across 32 states and the District of Columbia were listed as improving housing markets on the National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI) for August, released today. This included 75 markets that retained their places on the list along with five new ones, while nine areas fell from the list due primarily to slight movements in house prices.

The index identifies metropolitan areas that have shown improvement from their respective troughs in housing permits, employment and house prices for at least six consecutive months. The five metros that were added to the list this month include Miami and Palm Bay, Fla.; Hinesville, Ga.; Terre Haute, Ind.; and Lubbock, Texas.

“The list of improving housing markets in August includes metros across every region of the country, all of which have distinctly different characteristics in terms of their economic and employment bases as well as other factors,” noted Barry Rutenberg, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Gainesville, Fla. “One thing that most markets have in common, however, is the tight lending environment for both builders and buyers that continues to drag on their positive momentum.”

“The fact that we continue to see a strong core of metros showing up on the improving list each month adds to the growing evidence that the emerging housing recovery has a solid foundation on which to build as housing returns to its traditional role of driving economic growth,” observed NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe.

“With nearly one quarter of all U.S. metros currently designated as improving housing markets, there is growing recognition among consumers that now is an opportune time to consider a home purchase,” added Kurt Pfotenhauer, vice chairman at First American Title Insurance Company.

The IMI is designed to track housing markets throughout the country that are showing signs of improving economic health. The index measures three sets of independent monthly data to get a mark on the top improving Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The three indicators that are analyzed are employment growth from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, house price appreciation from Freddie Mac and single-family housing permit growth from the U.S. Census Bureau.

NAHB uses the latest available data from these sources to generate a list of improving markets. A metropolitan area must see improvement in all three measures for at least six months following those measures’ respective troughs before being included on the improving markets list.

A complete list of all 80 metropolitan areas currently on the IMI, and separate breakouts of metros newly added to or dropped from the list in August, is available at nahb.org/imi.

Laguna Niguel CA homes for sale

No More ‘Drive-By’ Appraisals—On Some Loans

/in /by

For information about distinguished Southern California luxury real estate in Los Angeles County, as well as coastal Orange County homes and San Diego homes, call Bob Cumming of Keystone Group Properties at 310-496-8122.

No More ‘Drive-By’ Appraisals – On Some Loans

During the housing market’s go-go years, the practice of “drive-by” appraisals, in which property appraisers didn’t physically inspect the interior of a home, was commonplace.

It’s since become far less so, as mortgage lenders remain extremely cautious about the loans they are making. They want to make sure that they have an independent estimate of the market value of a home, so it stands to reason that an appraiser should actually take a look at the home’s interior. Most of the complaints about the appraisal industry these days are of a different nature – that appraisers are too conservative about how they value homes.

Rules proposed by federal regulators on Wednesday would ban the practice of “drive-by” appraisals and require a physical inspection of the home. But the rules, required by the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul of 2010, would only apply to a small slice of the mortgage market – loans defined by regulators as “higher risk.”

Regulators define high risk ones in which the rate is at least 1.5 percentage points above a market average.

However, lenders don’t make many loans above this threshold: In 2010, the most recent year for which data are available, such high-risk loans made up only 3.2% of the overall lending market, according to the Federal Reserve.

The regulators, including the Fed and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, also said they aim to combat fraudulent property flipping schemes in which a developer buys a property, makes minimal repairs and tries to sell it at an inflated price. In an effort to combat this property flipping, the regulators propose to require lenders making higher-rate mortgages to obtain an additional appraisal at no cost to the borrower.

An appraisal exists to protect a lender; it is different from a home inspection done on the borrower’s behalf to see if there are any needed repairs before closing.

Separately, the consumer bureau proposed that lenders should be required to provide consumers a free copy of their appraisal no later than three days before the property sale closes.

That proposal, another Dodd-Frank requirement, has become standard practice around the appraisal industry in recent years, said Bill Garber, director of government and external relations for the Appraisal Institute, an industry trade group. Until around 2008, lenders didn’t provide a copy of an appraisal to borrowers unless they received a written request, but new standards for the industry changed that practice.                        Alan Zibel

Select Orange County Homes for Sale

Are Investors Taking Over your Neighborhood?

/in /by

For information about Southern California luxury homes in Los Angeles County, Orange County, and San Diego, call Bob Cumming of Keystone Group Properties at 310-496-8122. Keystone Group Properties serves discriminating buyers and sellers of California luxury and coastal real estate in Newport Beach, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Dove Canyon, Ladera Ranch, Marina del Rey, San Juan Capistrano, Palos Verdes, Pacific Palisades, Mission Viejo, Rancho Margarita, San Clemente, Redondo Beach, Santa Monica, Venice, Malibu, Irvine, Bel Air, Beverly Hills, and Beverly Glen.

Are Investors Taking Over your Neighborhood?

They’ve got the cash and the manpower working in their favor. They’re buying up parts of your neighborhood in hopes of turning quick profits, and in their own words, moving a once-stagnant market forward. For first-time homebuyers, they’re seen as potential hurdles.

The presence of real estate investors in San Diego County has mushroomed. A total of 1,030 properties were sold in June to absentee buyers, mainly investors and buyers of second homes, DataQuick numbers show. That’s the highest level of absentee-buyer activity since 1,089 in June 2005 — when countywide home prices neared a dizzying peak of $517,500 and amateurs placed risky bets in the real estate game. Their share now of the total housing market in the county has skyrocketed, too. Absentee sales made up 30 percent of all homes sold in February, a peak, and has been in the 28 percent region ever since.

An absentee buyer is someone who indicates at the time of sale that their property tax bill be sent to a different address, based on DataQuick’s definition.
So are we back in 2005, a time of fast-and-loose borrowing and rocket-fast price appreciation? Not at all. In today’s market, mortgage underwriting remains tight and prices are steadily climbing. Also, investors now are savvier, eyeing smaller profits and have found strength in numbers. Instead of going at it alone and buying one-offs, they’re working with others and rehabbing several properties at a time.

“Unlike the dumb money of the 2003-2005 period, I would characterize the buyers of 2008-2012 as pretty sophisticated, often with full-time acquisition staff and more likely to do a lot more research before buying,” said Norm Miller, real estate professor at University of San Diego.

Another major difference in the current market is inventory levels. Right now, fewer than 6,000 homes are listed for sale in San Diego County, 55 percent lower than what was available about two years ago, the latest numbers from the San Diego Association of Realtors show.

Fewer homes on the market means more competition for anyone who wants to buy, from the investor looking for his next project to a couple looking for a starter home. It also means higher chances of multiple bids, sometimes upbids, which can dash first-timer hopes of buying in the under-$300,000 pricing area.

“There’s almost no inventory,” said Stan Gendlin, acquisitions manager with CT Homes, a local real home-flipping company. “Investors are looking for anything they can get. Everyone is bidding each other up.”

What kinds of tactics are investors adopting?

Curtis Gabhart has been a full-time real estate investor for 12 years. Like many in his field, he goes where there are opportunities.

Before the real estate bust, Gabhart’s focus was apartment buildings. Post-bust, it’s been single-family homes.

Problem is, he and others like him have already gobbled up most of the under-$300,000 inventory, which also is popular among first-time homebuyers. Homes in that price range have been popular since they cost less to acquire, and if they require little work, could yield higher, faster profits.

San Clemente CA homes for sale

81 Percent of Refinancing Homeowners Maintain/Reduce Mortgage in Q2

/in /by

For interest in Southern California luxury real estate in Los Angeles County, coastal Orange County homes and San Diego homes, call Bob Cumming of Keystone Group Properties at 310-496-8122. Keystone Group Properties serves discriminating buyers and sellers of La Jolla California real estate and properties in Newport Beach, Dana Point, Laguna Beach, Palos Verdes, Mission Viejo, Redondo Beach, Santa Monica, Malibu, Beverly Hills, Bel Air, and Beverly Glen.

81 Percent of Refinancing Homeowners Maintain or Reduce Mortgage Debt in Second Quarter

Inflation-Adjusted Cash-Out Volume at 17-Year Low

MCLEAN, Va., Aug. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC) released the results of its second quarter refinance analysis showing homeowners who refinance continue to strengthen their fiscal house.

News Facts

In the second quarter of 2012, 81 percent of homeowners who refinanced their first-lien home mortgage either maintained about the same loan amount or lowered their principal balance by paying-in additional money at the closing table. Of these borrowers, 59 percent maintained about the same loan amount, and 23 percent of refinancing homeowners reduced their principal balance; the share of borrowers that kept about the same loan amount was the highest in the 27-year history of the analysis.
The net dollars of home equity converted to cash as part of a refinance, adjusted for consumer-price inflation, was at the lowest level in 17 years (since the second quarter of 1995). In the second quarter, an estimated $5 billion in net home equity was cashed out during the refinance of conventional prime-credit home mortgages, substantially less than during the peak cash-out refinance volume of $84 billion during the second quarter of 2006.
The median interest rate reduction for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was about 1.5 percentage points, or a savings of about 28 percent in interest rate, the largest percent reduction recorded in the 27 years of analysis.
Among the refinanced loans in Freddie Mac’s analysis, the median depreciation of the collateral property was 16 percent over the median prior-loan life of 5.1 years. The prior-loan age was the oldest in 13 years, surpassed only by the prior-loan age recorded in the third quarter of 1999.
Property-value change and loan age varied between Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) and other refinance loans. For loans refinanced during the second quarter through HARP, the median depreciation in property value was 34 percent and the prior loan had a median age of about 5.5 years (to be eligible for HARP, the prior loan had to be originated before June 1, 2009). Excluding HARP loans, other loans refinanced during the second quarter had a median property-value decline of 2 percent over a median prior-loan age of about 4 years.
Quotes
Attributed to Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist:
“The typical borrower who refinanced reduced their interest rate by about 1.5 percentage points. On a $200,000 loan, that translates into saving about $2,900 in interest during the next 12 months. Fixed-rate mortgage rates hit new lows during June, with 30-year product averaging 3.68 percent and 15-year averaging 2.95 percent that month, according to our Primary Mortgage Market Survey®.
“The enhancements to HARP announced in October, such as removing the maximum loan-to-value limit, resulted in additional refinance volume during the second quarter. HARP loans were about one-third of Freddie Mac’s refinance fundings during the second quarter, the highest share since HARP’s inception.”
Get the latest information from Freddie Mac’s Office of the Chief Economist on Twitter:@FreddieMac
Cash-out Refinance Analyses Information
These estimates come from a sample of properties on which Freddie Mac has funded two successive conventional, first-mortgage loans, and the latest loan is for refinance rather than for purchase. The analysis does not track the use of funds made available from these refinances. The analysis also does not track loans paid off in entirety, with no new loan placed.

Mission Viejo homes for sale

Facing Foreclosure?

/in /by

For information about distinguished Southern California luxury real estate in Los Angeles County, as well as coastal Orange County homes and San Diego homes, call Bob Cumming of Keystone Group Properties at 310-496-8122. Keystone Group Properties serves discriminating buyers and sellers of exclusive California real estate.

Facing Foreclosure?

The number of foreclosures in California and across the nation is on the rise. It is possible we can help. The law firms our organization works with have extensive experience in helping homeowners as do the attorneys’ that form part of the team. There have been numerous scams from firms and individuals claiming they can help the homeowner. BEWARE!  It is highly recommended the homeowner interview a number of firms and individuals before making a decision.  You may contact our organization for a free consultation. Homeowners have some potential options which are discussed below:

Mortgage Modification:

The Mortgage Modification program allows most homeowners who can make payments keep their homes. By actively counseling the clients and aggressively negotiating with their lenders one is capable of modifying the original loan to give the client a fresh start in managing their home finances. Depending upon the individual needs of each client, modifications can range from a simple interest rate reduction resulting in a lower monthly payment to what is known as a “recapitalization agreement.” A recapitalization agreement takes all the “arrears” or monthly amounts that should have been paid but wasn’t paid, interest, fees, and missed payments and adds it to the principal of the mortgage loan. The life of the loan can also be extended to lower the monthly payments. In some instances, the complete removal of the principal above the current fair market value and “arrears” is removed.

Lien Stripping:

The lien stripping program is available for individuals desiring to reorganize their debt using Federal Laws under Title 11 of the United States Code. The mortgage removal program can only be used in the context of a reorganization, often referred to as Chapter 13 (see below). If you own a home with more than one mortgage, you may be able to completely remove or “avoid” the second and subsequent junior mortgages from your home and county records, thus leaving only the first original mortgage! If you qualify, all mortgages except the first would no longer be secured by your home, and you would stop all payments except the first immediately.

There is nothing the creditor can do, provided you qualify for a simple three part test:

  1. The First Mortgage is equal to or higher than the fair market value of the home,
  2. You have income, and 3) Your total unsecured debt is under 336,900 and your secured debt is under 1,010,650. Unsecured debt is an item like credit card debt; secured debt is money owned on a vehicle secured by the vehicle or a mortgage secured by the property.

This ruling pretty much allows junior lien (seconds and thirds, etc.) removal on most properties bought or refinanced since 2004 due to the decline in real estate values.

Chapter 13 Reorganization:

The Chapter 13 “Reorganization,” allows one to consolidate all debts into one low monthly payment. The payment amount is tailored to one’s budget. Chapter 13 is technically a Bankruptcy, but viewed at differently since it is not a “straight bankruptcy” which simply eliminates all debt without any payment whatsoever. Instead, it consolidates all missed mortgage payments or “arrears” and then spreads the repayment out over 3-5 years.
It may also be possible to have junior liens or second and third mortgages along with other debt like credit cards be reduced as part of this process.

The net result may be a substantial reduction in monthly payments so one can keep his or her property. The Chapter 13 program results in a more realistic repayment plan than the short term plans currently offered by most lenders outside of the laws under Title 11, and you maintain all your rights under TILA, RESPA, HOEPA, FDCPA, FCRA, etc.

Short Sale:

A “Short Sales Program” markets and sells the property for at or below market value even though the property owner may owe substantially more than that on the mortgage(s). A short sale will not only stop the foreclosure but will prevent the adverse credit implications associated with a foreclosure.
Recent laws have gone into effect at the Federal and California State governments wherein the banks and finance companies are not allowed to come after the homeowner for any deficiency in monies owed.

Credit of the homeowner is normally not impaired about seven to ten years with a bankruptcy filing. It  usually takes around two years.

It’s not uncommon to remain many months longer and in some more than a year in a property without paying using a short sale or a short sale combined with a bankruptcy.

Equity Recoupment:

The Equity Recoupment program allows homeowners to recoup what they may have lost as a result of predatory lending and the current mortgage crisis. Some homeowners have been able to stay in their homes anywhere from six months to years without making a single payment. Most homeowners are not aware of the many federal and state laws to address the very issues all of us are facing today with widespread foreclosures and predatory lending.

Deed In Lieu of Foreclosure:

A deed in lieu of foreclosure may be an option to prevent a foreclosure from hurting your credit if you are behind on your monthly mortgage payments and are unable to sell your home at the current market value. The process involves giving the property directly back to the lender, or “deeding it back in lieu of foreclosure.” The lender benefits as they are able to mitigate the additional losses they would incur from having to proceed with a lengthy foreclosure.

It is not always a simple process. Team members of our organization are willing to provide a free consultation. There are issues each homeowner should be aware of such as: to

  1. Get the homeowner released from most or all of the personal indebtedness associated with the defaulted loan
  2. Prevent the homeowner from experiencing the public notoriety of a foreclosure and subsequent credit implications, and
  3. Put money in our client’s pocket via “Cash for Keys”.

Summary

The homeowner has a number of options to consider. We hope this article is helpful.

BEWARE THOSE LOAN MODIFICATIONS

/in /by

For information about luxury real estate in Los Angeles, Orange County, and coastal San Diego homes for sale, call Bob Cumming, Keystone Group Properties, at 310-496-8122. Keystone Group Properties services buyers and sellers of distinctive Southern California real estate from Newport Beach to La Jolla to Beverly Hills.

BEWARE THOSE LOAN MODIFICATIONS

The lenders are holding questionable if not worthless paper. One is validating a debt that he or she likely does not have anymore or at least has substantial offsets against as soon as one signs the modification. One is validating a security instrument (mortgage) that was most likely destroyed in the securitization process.

Unless one gets all the terms one wants, do not sign the modification. Consult with your real estate attorney. As a minimum, one also needs to protect themselves from later claims as it relates to a break in the chain of title caused by securitization. It is suggested one acquire new title insurance, conduct a quiet title action in the courts or perhaps do both.

Engaging a competent attorney and law firm is paramount to the success of securing a loan modification that meets your short term and long term needs.

Mortgage crimes are focus of new task force

/in /by

For information about exclusive Los Angeles real estate, Orange County CA homes, and coastal San Diego homes, call Bob Cumming of Keystone Group Properties at 310-496-8122. Keystone Group Properties servicesbuyers and sellers of distinguished Southern California homes from Laguna Beach to San Juan Capistrano, Beverly Hills to La Jolla real estate.

Mortgage crimes are focus of new task force

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) — A new special task force to investigate and prosecute those responsible for bad mortgages during the housing boom will be part of President Obama’s 2012 agenda.

Obama announced Tuesday that he’s asked the Justice Department to create a special unit of prosecutors and state attorneys general to investigateg abusive lending and packaging of risky mortgages that led to the housing crisis. And he’s tapped an avowed Wall Street enemy, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, to help run the crime unit, according to a White House official.

“This new unit will hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners, and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans,” Obama said in his State of the Union speech.

The new unit’s goal will be to investigate banks, financial firms and mortgage originators that broke the law, and to compensate victims and provide relief for homeowners, the White House official said.

Although the housing bust is more than four years old, this is the first time the Obama administration has indicated it will go after mortgage originators and Wall Street banks that got homeowners into loans they couldn’t afford — actions seen as a key culprit of the financial crisis.

The mortgage industry has often been blamed for its role helping homeowners get lines or credit and bigger mortgages during the housing boom. The industry saw little downside, unloading the risk that the loans would go bad on to the financial markets.

With Schneiderman, who has been working on his own investigations into big banks, Obama is signaling he’s ready to go after financial crimes. And left-leaning progressive groups cheered the news.

“Schneiderman has shown himself to be a courageous hero in his defense of the struggling underwater homeowners in his state and across the country,” according to a statement released by a coalition of left-leaning advocates such as MoveOn and New Bottom Line.

The news came as a surprise to the financial industry, which had been predicting Obama would tout a proposed settlement under discussion among federal regulators, state attorneys general and the largest bank mortgage servicers under investigation for improperly foreclosing on homeowners.

“We believe the industry is worried that this new task force will go after the banks for the origination of many of the mortgages that have defaulted or are now underwater,” said JaretSeiberg, a senior policy analyst for the Washington Research Group.

The state attorneys general, the Justice Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have been in talks for nearly a year with big bank servicers that stand accused of using robo-signers to service home loans. The five largest mortgage servicers involved in the talks are: Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500), JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and Ally Financial (GJM).

According to people familiar with the talks, a draft settlement would result in those banks paying $20 billion to $25 billion toward housing relief. About 1 million underwater homeowners would be eligible for an average $20,000 off the principal owed.

In return, state attorneys general would not be able to file future lawsuits against the bank mortgage servicers that agree to the deal. The amount of relief available for homeowners depends on how many state attorneys general agree to the deal.

Obama didn’t mention the talks in his State of the Union speech. A White House official said Wednesday that the new task force would not prevent progress that has been made on that deal.

La Jolla real estate for sale