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		<title>Where’s the recovery going?</title>
		<link>http://sarasotashortsale.com/?p=135</link>
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		<pubDate>Sun, 29 Apr 2012 22:23:54 +0000</pubDate>
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NEW YORK – April 27, 2012 – Economists may have finally learned CEOs’ first rule of dealing with Wall Street: It’s better to underpromise and overdeliver.
For the past two years, forecasters have overpromised, as bullish predictions for 2010 and 2011 fell short. Last year’s hoped-for recovery soon faded in the fallout from Japan’s earthquake, coupled [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://sarasotashortsale.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/9320227-recovery-street-sign.jpg"><img src="http://sarasotashortsale.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/9320227-recovery-street-sign.jpg" alt="" title="9320227-recovery-street-sign" width="131" height="168" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-136" /></a><br />
NEW YORK – April 27, 2012 – Economists may have finally learned CEOs’ first rule of dealing with Wall Street: It’s better to underpromise and overdeliver.</p>
<p>For the past two years, forecasters have overpromised, as bullish predictions for 2010 and 2011 fell short. Last year’s hoped-for recovery soon faded in the fallout from Japan’s earthquake, coupled with Washington’s flirtation with defaulting on the national debt.</p>
<p>Heading into this year, economists all but unanimously predicted a first-half slowdown that would keep unemployment near 8.5 percent through the election.</p>
<p>Fortunately, so far this year they’ve been wrong again.</p>
<p>Joblessness is at 8.2 percent, and USA TODAY’s 50-member panel of economists forecasts it will reach 8 percent by year’s end.</p>
<p>As the recovery finally puts down what appear to be stronger roots, it faces one big force that could strengthen and reinforce it  – and an even bigger one that threatens to derail it.</p>
<p>Coming down the track from one direction is the bullish force of pent-up demand  – especially the potential buying power of households that haven’t been formed since 2008 as the recession and its aftermath forced young people to double up, not move out of relatives’ homes or not get married.</p>
<p>In the other direction is another Washington-induced showdown: a locomotive of expiring tax cuts and spending reductions set to take effect Dec. 31 that forecasters think could shave 3.5 percent off the economy next year  – in essence, negating all of its 2012 growth and then some  – if the election doesn’t produce a clear direction for fiscal policy.</p>
<p><a href="http://sarasotashortsale.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/400-04652104t.jpg"><img src="http://sarasotashortsale.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/400-04652104t.jpg" alt="" title="400-04652104t" width="150" height="150" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-137" /></a></p>
<p>“People don’t realize the U.S. was the only major economy in the world that improved last year,” said Richard Bernstein, head of money manager Richard Bernstein Advisors in New York. “It’s not strong, but it certainly has improved. As we progress through this year, the fiscal cliff will be a major issue  – for (financial) markets all over the world.”</p>
<p>Running off that fiscal cliff would add more pain to what has been the most painful recession and protracted recovery in most Americans’ lifetimes. The 2.5 percent growth economists predict for this year is nothing special but better than last year’s 1.7 percent. The economy grew 7.2 percent in 1984, coming out of the next-deepest postwar downturn.</p>
<p>Deep wounds, long recovery</p>
<p>The recession was deep, and the recovery long, for the same reason, Fed Governor Sarah Raskin said in an April 12 speech. Americans got in over their heads on housing, then saw $7 trillion of home equity and 8.8 million jobs wiped out by the housing bust and its aftermath. Consumers have also been slow to resume spending because they have so much debt left over from the housing bubble, said Carmen Reinhart, co-author of This Time Is Different, a 2009 book that argues recoveries from downturns caused by financial panics are always protracted.</p>
<p>While consumers’ debt payments have come down because of lower interest rates, their debt loads are twice as large as after the 1982 recession, Reinhart said. The result: Even with 4.1 million new private-sector jobs added since February 2010, the U.S. is still 5.2 million total jobs below January 2008.</p>
<p>But that effect is slowly wearing off. With a boost from rapid retirements among Baby Boomers, the unemployment rate has dropped nearly 2 percentage points in two years. Two different surveys Tuesday reported modest gains in housing prices, and first-quarter new home sales were up more than 10 percent, helped by better credit quality among more-recent mortgages and a slow unwinding of the stock of foreclosed homes.</p>
<p>“Growth is 2.5 percent, rock-solid,” said Mark Zandi, Moody’s Analytics’ chief economist, reflecting the consensus of USA TODAY’s panel of economists, whose median 2012 growth estimate is 2.5 percent.</p>
<p>“Job growth is 175,000-200,000 a month, pretty much rock-solid. We were at 250,000 a month, but some of that was the warm winter, and March (when the economy added 120,000 jobs) was a kind of payback,” Zandi said.</p>
<p>The Federal Reserve is still worried enough to keep monetary policy very loose. It has committed to keeping interest rates “extremely low” through late 2014, even though more than 80 percent of USA TODAY’s economists now expect the Fed to raise rates sooner.</p>
<p>Wall Street is also campaigning for the Fed to do more bond-buying operations, known as quantitative easing, in which the central bank pumps money into the economy by buying U.S. Treasuries and other government-backed bonds. Some on Wall Street, including Goldman Sachs Asset Management Chairman Jim O’Neill, have worried that the recent uptick in new claims for unemployment insurance may herald a new slowdown in growth.</p>
<p>“The last two weeks have not been great for those thinking of GDP growth surprising significantly” for the better, O’Neill wrote on Monday. “We need to take each stage of evidence as it comes.”<br />
<a href="http://sarasotashortsale.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/images.jpg"><img src="http://sarasotashortsale.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/images.jpg" alt="" title="images" width="120" height="120" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-141" /></a><br />
Many of the forces that have prompted recent worries are fading, however:</p>
<p>• The eurozone’s financial woes are a long way from over, but the crisis has calmed some since the European Central Bank created a 500 billion euro ($658 billion) lending program to prop up continental banks in December.</p>
<p>• The increase in the price of gasoline that sparked renewed recession fears in the U.S. this winter is abating. Gas prices have fallen 7 cents a gallon in the last two weeks, to $3.87 a gallon for regular, and are now slightly below this time last year, the Energy Department said.</p>
<p>• Consumers’ debt payments as a percentage of their income are at their lowest levels since 1994, according to the Fed.</p>
<p>That sets the stage for consumer confidence, and especially new household formation, to take the recovery up a notch by next year, Zandi argues. Household formation fell to 357,000 in the year ended in March 2010, where 1.2 million is normal, he said. He estimates the car market has 2 million units in pent-up demand.</p>
<p>“You have a lot of twenty-somethings who have been doubled up with their parents because they couldn’t find a job,” Zandi said. Coupled with people who have put off buying cars or houses because of the economy, household formations should help push up vehicle demand by another million units a year, to 15.5 million, he said. At the same time, home building could double from last year’s record low as the market works off the backlog of foreclosed and vacant homes. Both should be underway by late 2013 or 2014, he said.</p>
<p>Car sales have already picked up. Washington, D.C.-area dealer Darcars Automotive Group posted a 14 percent sales gain in the first quarter, Vice President Tammy Darvish said.</p>
<p>“We’re back to worrying about growing our facilities,” said Darvish, whose $100-million-a-year company has more than $10 million in capital improvements underway. “A lot of it has to do with the age of cars on the road, and the biggest accelerant has been better availability of credit.”</p>
<p>Headed for a cliff?</p>
<p>The big question is whether the other train coming down the track is even more powerful  – and what Washington should do about it.</p>
<p>Two major economics consulting firms, Moody’s and IHS Global Insight, have said the nation could lose substantially all of its short-term economic momentum after the election if potential tax increases and budget cuts go into effect simultaneously.</p>
<p>Each put the potential impact of allowing the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts to expire, sunsetting the 2010 payroll tax cut that was extended to last through this year, and letting $900 billion in automatic spending cuts over 10 years take effect as scheduled, at 3.5 percent of gross domestic product. That’s worth about $550 billion, based on last year’s GDP of $15.1 trillion.</p>
<p>Neither party so far has proposed anything as drastic as rushing headlong off what Bernanke has called the “massive fiscal cliff” waiting at the end of the year. President Obama has proposed raising taxes on incomes above $250,000 for couples and $200,000 for single taxpayers. Mitt Romney, the likely Republican presidential nominee, has proposed a 20 percent income tax cut across the board. Both have proposed cutting corporate tax rates.</p>
<p>But unless Congress can forge a deal by Dec. 31, all the tax cuts will expire and spending reductions will take effect in January. That has economists on the left and right musing about alternatives.</p>
<p>Congress could cut the deficit and protect the economy by phasing out Bush’s tax cuts for the top two brackets, covering joint filers with incomes above $212,300, instead of just the top bracket, said Jared Bernstein, a former top aide to Vice President Biden who works at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington.</p>
<p>He would also phase out tax cuts for middle-income consumers as the economy improves, until most people pay the tax rates they did under President Clinton. Bernstein would suspend most of last summer’s spending cuts in exchange for phasing out extended unemployment benefits and the payroll tax cut as unemployment falls.</p>
<p>A small number of GOP-leaning economists are also calling for the party to compromise some, and to tone down their rhetoric on the economy.</p>
<p>“A lot of conservatives have been way too negative on the economy,” said Brian Wesbury, chief economist at asset manager First Trust in Chicago, and a former chief economist for the congressional Joint Economic Committee.</p>
<p>The likeliest outcome is for the post-election Congress to split the difference, extending some tax cuts and not following through immediately on all the planned spending cuts, Zandi said.</p>
<p>That strategy could produce 3 percent growth next year and 4 percent in 2014, he said. Unemployment might fall to about 7 percent by the end of 2013, he added  – the lowest since November 2008.</p>
<p>But until Congress and the president make a deal, economists and market analysts don’t rule out another drama like last year’s debt-ceiling showdown, which helped stall the economy and slice 20 percent off the stock market.</p>
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		<title>U.S. rate on 30-year mortgage dips to 3.88%</title>
		<link>http://sarasotashortsale.com/?p=131</link>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 28 Apr 2012 23:14:10 +0000</pubDate>
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WASHINGTON – April 27, 2012 – The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage has dipped to near its record low, keeping home-buying and refinancing affordable.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year loan dropped to 3.88 percent this week, down from 3.9 percent. In February, the rate hit 3.87 percent, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://sarasotashortsale.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/InterestRates.jpg"><img src="http://sarasotashortsale.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/InterestRates.jpg" alt="" title="InterestRates" width="300" height="278" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-132" /></a><br />
WASHINGTON – April 27, 2012 – The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage has dipped to near its record low, keeping home-buying and refinancing affordable.</p>
<p>Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year loan dropped to 3.88 percent this week, down from 3.9 percent. In February, the rate hit 3.87 percent, the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.</p>
<p>The 30-year loan is the most common financing option for homebuyers.</p>
<p>The average on the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage, popular with homeowners who are refinancing, dipped to 3.12 percent, down from 3.13 percent last week. The national average hit an all-time low of 3.11 percent two weeks ago.</p>
<p>Cheaper mortgages have so far done little to boost home sales. Sales of both previously occupied homes and new homes fell in March. Analysts suspect some of that weakness reflected a warm winter, which pulled sales that would normally occur during the spring buying season into January or February.</p>
<p>In addition, some potential buyers are skeptical about purchasing a home with prices still falling. And many Americans are still struggling with damaged credit.</p>
<p>To calculate the average rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday of each week.</p>
<p>The average rate does not include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.</p>
<p>For the five-year adjustable loan, the average rate rose to 2.85 percent, up from 2.78 percent. The average on one-year adjustable loans dropped to 2.74 percent, down from 2.81 percent.</p>
<p>Call Beachy Properties at 941.371.8163 if you wish to take advantage of these low rates.</p>
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		<title>Pace of short sales increases</title>
		<link>http://sarasotashortsale.com/?p=125</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 24 Apr 2012 18:28:09 +0000</pubDate>
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NEW YORK – April 20, 2012 – Short sales outnumbered foreclosure sales in 12 states in January, indicating that more homeowners are finding an easier way out of a distressed home loan.
Short sales – which occur when a lender agrees to a home sale for less than what’s owed – were up 33 percent in [...]]]></description>
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NEW YORK – April 20, 2012 – Short sales outnumbered foreclosure sales in 12 states in January, indicating that more homeowners are finding an easier way out of a distressed home loan.</p>
<p>Short sales – which occur when a lender agrees to a home sale for less than what’s owed – were up 33 percent in January year-over-year, and preliminary February numbers also look strong, according to market researcher RealtyTrac.</p>
<p>Its data underscore lenders’ increased willingness to do short sales, which tend to harm neighborhoods less than foreclosures. Homeowners also may regain eligibility for a new mortgage sooner than those who go through foreclosure.</p>
<p>More short sales “is mostly a good thing,” says Ira Rheingold, of the National Association of Consumer Advocates. One concern is that homeowners may have to short sell after being denied loan modifications that would have enabled them to stay in homes, he says.</p>
<p>RealtyTrac says foreclosure sales, which occur after a bank has repossessed a property, still outnumber short sales nationwide but the gap is closing.</p>
<p>Earlier this week, Bloomberg News reported that data from mortgage tracker Lender Processing Services show short sales surpassed foreclosures in January for the first time.</p>
<p>RealtyTrac’s data show that occurred in key states at the forefront of the housing downturn, including California, Arizona, Florida and nine others.</p>
<p>Lenders are pricing short sales more aggressively, RealtyTrac adds. In January, the average short sale price was 10 percent lower than a year earlier, exceeding the drop in U.S. home prices.</p>
<p>Some mortgage servicers started pursuing short sales more aggressively months ago. Bank of America says it did 107,000 short sales last year, up from 92,000 in 2010 and double the 2009 volume.</p>
<p>New measures are also likely to boost short sales.</p>
<p>Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which own or guarantee 60 percent of home loans, will soon require lenders to decide short sale offers within 60 days. Realtors have complained that short sale offers often linger. The recent $25 billion mortgage settlement also encourages short sales.</p>
<p>New rules have slowed foreclosures in many states, increasing short sales, says Florida foreclosure defense attorney Roy Oppenheim.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2012 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc., Julie Schmit.</p>
<p>For help with a short sale call Beachy Properties at 941.371.8163.</p>
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		<title>Freddie Mac sets new short sale timelines, Fannie to follow</title>
		<link>http://sarasotashortsale.com/?p=118</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Apr 2012 20:40:26 +0000</pubDate>
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McLEAN, Va. – April 18, 2012 – Freddie Mac, the federally owned company that buys mortgages from local lenders, says it wants to make the short sale process easier on home sellers by updating its timelines for short sales and requiring better communication from lenders. Last year, Freddie Mac completed 45,623 short sales.
The initiative is [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://sarasotashortsale.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/calendar-timeline-clip-art.jpg"><img src="http://sarasotashortsale.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/calendar-timeline-clip-art.jpg" alt="" title="calendar timeline clip art" width="640" height="462" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-119" /></a><br />
McLEAN, Va. – April 18, 2012 – Freddie Mac, the federally owned company that buys mortgages from local lenders, says it wants to make the short sale process easier on home sellers by updating its timelines for short sales and requiring better communication from lenders. Last year, Freddie Mac completed 45,623 short sales.</p>
<p>The initiative is part of the Servicing Alignment Initiative (SAI) Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae launched in 2011 at the direction of their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). Yesterday, FHFA announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must adopt the new short-sale guidelines, and the latter announced compliance shortly after that.</p>
<p>“Freddie Mac’s new timelines are intended to help make the decision process more transparent and timely for short sales under the Obama Administration’s HAFA program or Freddie Mac’s traditional short-sale option,” says Tracy Mooney, Freddie Mac senior vice president, single-family servicing.</p>
<p>Freddie Mac proposals</p>
<p>• Loan servicers should make a decision within 30 days of receiving 1) an offer on a property under Freddie Mac’s traditional short sale program or 2) a completed Borrower Response Package (BRP) requesting consideration for a short sale under HAFA or Freddie Mac’s traditional short sale program. BRPs are standardized assistance applications developed under the Servicing Alignment Initiative.</p>
<p>• If a lender needs more than 30 days, it must give homeowners a status update at least weekly, and a final decision must be made in less than 60 days.</p>
<p>• If a servicer makes a counteroffer, the borrower must respond within five business days. The servicer then has 10 more business days to respond to the buyer.</p>
<p>Freddie Mac says it will use the new timelines to evaluate servicer compliance with the SAI and its own servicing requirements.</p>
<p>If you need help or have any questions on doing a short sale please call Beachy Properties at 941.371.8163.</p>
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		<title>Investors eye REOs as a ‘gold rush’</title>
		<link>http://sarasotashortsale.com/?p=111</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Apr 2012 01:39:20 +0000</pubDate>
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NEW YORK – April 16, 2012 – Investors are pouncing on foreclosure bargains and then turning the properties into moneymaking rentals, which has some drawing comparisons to a “Gold Rush” of sorts.
Diane Gozza, the executive vice president of Integrated Mortgage Solutions in Houston, recently wrote in an article for National Mortgage News that investors are [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://sarasotashortsale.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/gold-panning-clipart.gif"><img src="http://sarasotashortsale.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/gold-panning-clipart.gif" alt="" title="gold-panning-clipart" width="175" height="132" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-114" /></a><br />
NEW YORK – April 16, 2012 – Investors are pouncing on foreclosure bargains and then turning the properties into moneymaking rentals, which has some drawing comparisons to a “Gold Rush” of sorts.</p>
<p>Diane Gozza, the executive vice president of Integrated Mortgage Solutions in Houston, recently wrote in an article for National Mortgage News that investors are eyeing the properties similar to how those risk-takers did back in the 1848 California “Gold Rush,” who also had dreams of striking it rich.</p>
<p>In recent months, investors have been buying up investment properties in bulk at rock-bottom prices.</p>
<p>They have plenty to choose from: The government-sponsored enterprises (GSE), which includes Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, own more than 200,000 single-family foreclosed homes, and banks own about 600,000 more. To help accelerate the “rush,” the Federal Housing Finance Administration recently launched a pilot foreclosure-to-rental program, offering investors the chance to bid on 2,500 foreclosure properties owned by Fannie.</p>
<p>But some housing experts, including the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), have argued that such REO-rental programs aren’t needed because investors are already flooding the market to buy up foreclosures, making a government intervention unnecessary. (Read “NAR: REO Rental Programs Largely Unnecessary.”<br />
<a href="http://sarasotashortsale.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/gold-bars.jpg"><img src="http://sarasotashortsale.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/gold-bars.jpg" alt="" title="gold-bars" width="599" height="450" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-113" /></a><br />
“Taking into account the enormous stockpile of REO properties currently held by the GSEs, the auction and bulk investment in REO to rental properties may indeed be the next gold rush,” Gozza writes. “Much in the spirit of the 1848 gold rush, there will be risks and tough lessons learned. But this private-sector initiative has the potential to be the catalyst for a housing market recovery.”</p>
<p>Source: “Tapping into the Next ‘Gold Rush,’” National Mortgage News (April 10, 2012)</p>
<p>For a free list of REO properties email Beachy Properties at davebeachy@gmail.com</p>
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		<title>*U.S. gov’t to propose new mortgage lending rules*</title>
		<link>http://sarasotashortsale.com/?p=106</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Apr 2012 22:28:28 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[WASHINGTON (AP) – April 10, 2012 – The federal government plans to propose new rules on Tuesday that will give homeowners more ways to avoid foreclosure and get an accurate accounting of their monthly mortgage payments.
Congress mandated changes in the rules covering the mortgage servicing industry in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
The Consumer [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://sarasotashortsale.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/h.jpg"><img src="http://sarasotashortsale.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/h.jpg" alt="" title="h" width="259" height="194" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-107" /></a>WASHINGTON (AP) – April 10, 2012 – The federal government plans to propose new rules on Tuesday that will give homeowners more ways to avoid foreclosure and get an accurate accounting of their monthly mortgage payments.</p>
<p>Congress mandated changes in the rules covering the mortgage servicing industry in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.</p>
<p>The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposed rules would require mortgage servicers to give all borrowers standardized monthly statements and warn borrowers about interest rate or insurance change.</p>
<p>The mortgage servicers would also be required to make “good-faith efforts” to contact borrowers at risk of foreclosure and give them options to avoid losing their homes. There are also stipulations for improving record-keeping and providing foreclosure counseling to those who need it.</p>
<p>The agency said it will formally propose the rules this summer and finalize them by January 2013.</p>
<p>Nearly 8 million Americans have faced foreclosure since the housing bubble burst in late 2006. Many homeowners have said companies that process mortgages failed to verify information on foreclosure documents. The worst practices, known collectively as “robo-signing,” included employees signing documents they hadn’t read or using fake signatures to approve foreclosures.</p>
<p>In February, the nation’s five largest mortgage lenders agreed to overhaul their mortgage servicing practices and pay $25 billion to U.S. states to help those who lost their homes or face foreclosure.</p>
<p>A mortgage servicer collects payments from the borrower on behalf of a loan’s owner and typically handles customer service, escrow accounts, collections, loan modifications and foreclosures. Most borrowers do not choose their mortgage servicers. The owner of a loan frequently is not the original lender, even when the original lender is the servicer.</p>
<p>The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau supervises U.S. payday lenders, mortgage companies and private student lenders. It also can write rules to supervise big lending companies.<br />
 Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press, Derek Kravitz, AP economics writer.</p>
<p>If you need help with your home please call Beachy Properties at 941.371.8163.</p>
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		<title>**Updated mortgage-aid program aims to pick up slack**</title>
		<link>http://sarasotashortsale.com/?p=102</link>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 07 Apr 2012 02:35:31 +0000</pubDate>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://sarasotashortsale.com/?p=102</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
PHILADELPHIA – April 5, 2012 – After months in the works, HARP 2.0 is available to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac borrowers who want to refinance but owe more on their mortgages than their houses now are worth.
HARP 2.0 – HARP stands for Home Affordable Refinance Program – is being billed as an improvement over [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://sarasotashortsale.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/house-underwater21.jpg"><img src="http://sarasotashortsale.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/house-underwater21.jpg" alt="" title="house-underwater21" width="466" height="480" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-103" /></a><br />
PHILADELPHIA – April 5, 2012 – After months in the works, HARP 2.0 is available to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac borrowers who want to refinance but owe more on their mortgages than their houses now are worth.</p>
<p>HARP 2.0 – HARP stands for Home Affordable Refinance Program – is being billed as an improvement over the three-year-old version that just about everyone acknowledges didn’t help anyone.</p>
<p>The reason for that failure: The original program had limits on loan-to-value ratio, the amount of a mortgage as a percentage of the appraised value of a property. If the balance of a mortgage exceeded the appraised value – say, $300,000 versus $150,000 – the borrower wasn’t allowed to refinance.</p>
<p>Recognizing that none of the borrowers the program was intended to help would be able to qualify, the limits were dropped when the new version of HARP was heralded in October.</p>
<p>Does that mean all lenders have agreed to no limits?</p>
<p>“I have lenders that have limited the loan-to-values. Some have even differentiated between attached and detached homes,” said Philadelphia mortgage broker Fred Glick, who has launched a blog, http://harp2.com, to update consumers. “They still are limiting what they will do” with loan-to-value ratios of 150 percent and no more.</p>
<p>“All in all, it is a great way to get people’s rates down in spite of low values,” Glick said. “This will decrease the supply of homes for sale and increase values over the long run.”</p>
<p>As with all these programs, the months since HARP 2.0 was announced have been spent trying to get lenders on board – no easy task since Fannie and Freddie loans are pooled as mortgage-backed securities that are owned by many investors. All the investors need to agree before borrowers can apply to reduce monthly payments to today’s low fixed interest rates, which remained under 4 percent for many months but now are beginning to increase as bond yields rise in an apparently improving economy.</p>
<p>As of March 17, HARP 2.0 has been in place to help keep homeowners above water. About four million Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac borrowers nationwide owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.</p>
<p>The government has a website, http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov, (link) that has details about HARP 2.0 and other information.</p>
<p>Underwater loans might also be eligible to refinance under provisions of the recent National Mortgage Settlement. That applies to loans neither owned by Freddie or Fannie nor insured by the Federal Housing Administration, which has its own streamlined refinancing under a program announced in January. Details of that settlement are being worked out, and eligible borrowers will be notified by the five participating lenders – Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Ally Financial, and Citibank – at some point.</p>
<p>To be eligible for HARP, homeowners must be current on their mortgage. That means paid in full up to date, with no late payments in the past six months and only one in the past 12. They also need to show that they can afford the new payments gained through refinancing without any trouble.</p>
<p>Borrowers must have closed on their current mortgage on or before May 31, 2009, and cannot have refinanced through HARP before. In addition, mortgages must fall under current “conforming-loan limits,” which vary by region.</p>
<p>One thing both Fannie and Freddie want to see is whether borrowers refinance to loans with terms shorter than 30 years. They call this “movement to a more stable product.”</p>
<p>Borrowers with an interest-only loan will be urged to refinance to a mortgage product that provides amortization of principal and accumulation of equity in the property.</p>
<p>Those who have an adjustable-rate mortgage will be encouraged to refinance to a fixed-rate loan that eliminates the potential for payment shock, or to an adjustable with an initial fixed period of five years or more and equal to or greater than the existing mortgage.</p>
<p>Homeowners with a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage will be advised to refinance to a 15-, 20- or 25-year fixed that offers, in Fannie Mae’s words, accelerated amortization of principal and equity building. But borrowers won’t be allowed to cash out equity under this refinancing “except for closing costs and certain allowances to cover items such as association fees, property tax bills, insurance costs and rounding adjustments.”</p>
<p>Plus, borrowers may not satisfy subordinate financing in the form of a home-equity line of credit or a closed-end second mortgage with the proceeds of the refinance mortgage.</p>
<p>Balloon mortgages and convertible adjustable-rate mortgages are eligible for HARP 2.0 if the conditional right to refinance the balloon or convert the ARM was exercised by the borrower and “redelivered” to Fannie Mae before June 1, 2009.</p>
<p>Resources</p>
<p>• To determine whether Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac owns your mortgage, check at http://fanniemae.com/loanlookup and http://freddiemac.com/mymortgage.</p>
<p>• To access Fannie Mae’s frequently asked questions file, go to http://goo.gl/pN54x.</p>
<p>• Many of the rules and regulations outlined in the latest information from Fannie and Freddie are far beyond the understanding of the typical homeowner, and, as the government warns, scam artists are already hovering above borrowers, waiting to pounce. For information about mortgage-assistance-relief scams, visit http://FTC.gov.</p>
<p>• Some underwater homeowners will qualify for assistance under the Mortgage Settlement. The Center for Responsible Lending has a downloadable consumer’s guide for that program at http://goo.gl/2FZKM.</p>
<p>Printed from http://www.floridarealtors.org</p>
<p>For more info contact Beachy Properties at 941.371.8163 </p>
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		<title>Banks pay delinquent borrowers $35,000 to sell their homes</title>
		<link>http://sarasotashortsale.com/?p=96</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:55:21 +0000</pubDate>
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The bank offered Angelique Pierce $25,000 to short sell her home. The listing price: $95,000.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) &#8212; In an effort to cut their losses, banks are paying some struggling homeowners as much as $35,000 to sell their homes before they end up in foreclosure.
The deals are aimed at incentivizing homeowners who owe more on [...]]]></description>
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The bank offered Angelique Pierce $25,000 to short sell her home. The listing price: $95,000.</p>
<p>NEW YORK (CNNMoney) &#8212; In an effort to cut their losses, banks are paying some struggling homeowners as much as $35,000 to sell their homes before they end up in foreclosure.<br />
The deals are aimed at incentivizing homeowners who owe more on their home than it is worth and who are seriously delinquent on their payments to sell their homes in a short sale.</p>
<p>In short sales, homes are sold for less than what is owed and the bank forgives the excess debt. Banks have been reluctant to approve such deals in the past &#8212; since they take a loss on the home &#8212; but in certain cases, it&#8217;s become a much better proposition than letting the homeowner fall into foreclosure.<br />
This new approach by the banks has startled plenty of homeowners, according to Elizabeth Weintraub, a Sacramento-area real estate agent who specializes in short sales.<br />
&#8220;Initially, the homeowners are skeptical,&#8221; she said. &#8220;The bank may have already turned down their request for a modification. Then, one day, they call and say, &#8216;Let us give you some cash.&#8217;&#8221;<br />
When Chase Mortgage (JPM, Fortune 500) told Angelique Pierce, that she would receive a check for $25,000 if she sold her house, she couldn&#8217;t believe it.<br />
&#8220;I got the offer in the mail,&#8221; said the Rancho Cordova, Calif. resident. &#8220;I called my bank to ask if it was real.&#8221;<br />
After Pierce became disabled a few years ago and had to stop working work, she fell behind on payments on both her first and second mortgages, valued at $250,000 and $50,000, respectively.<br />
Now, she&#8217;s trying to sell her three-bedroom ranch for just $95,000 &#8212; almost half of the $179,000 she paid for the place in late 2002.<br />
Foreclosure free ride: 3 years, no payments<br />
From the bank&#8217;s point of view, the offers make sense, according to Tom Kelly, a spokesman for Chase Mortgage, who would not comment on Pierce or other individual cases. &#8220;The first choice is a modification but if that&#8217;s impossible than a short sale is a faster, more efficient solution,&#8221; he said.<br />
For the banks, foreclosure has become an increasingly difficult and expensive option. Homeowners have learned to fight the banks tooth and nail, dragging out cases for years.<br />
And as the cases drag, expenses grow. Homeowners not only stop paying their mortgages but they stop paying property taxes and conducting normal maintenance as well. Roofs, siding, plumbing and other parts of the home deteriorate and the property loses value. By the time banks take possession, they&#8217;re out tens of thousands of dollars.<br />
Foreclosures: America&#8217;s hardest hit neighborhoods<br />
&#8220;I&#8217;ve seen a lot of foreclosures for sale where it would cost a lot more than $20,000 to get them into condition to sell again,&#8221; said John Hayton, a short sale specialist in Orlando, Fla, who has had a number of clients receive offers from the banks.<br />
Short sales also command higher prices than foreclosed homes. In December, foreclosed properties sold for an average of 22% less than conventional sales, while the discount for short sales was only 14%, according to the National Association of Realtors.<br />
All that has been true for years, but it is only lately that these outsized incentives, which Bloomberg recently reported on, have surfaced.</p>
<p>Sellers are more cooperative when they&#8217;re going to receive a five-figure check for their troubles.<br />
Nick Chaconas, an agent with discount broker Redfin, wondered why one seller was so anxious to sell their home. &#8220;Since I represent the buyer, I didn&#8217;t even know about the incentive until the closing,&#8221; he said.<br />
It turned out that the seller&#8217;s bank was writing her a check for $30,000.<br />
Whether sellers can expect incentives from their banks depends on multiple factors, including where they live.<br />
Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) limits its offers to certain states, such as Florida, where the foreclosure process can be lengthy, according to spokeswoman Veronica Clemons. The bank has paid $10,000 to $20,000 to borrowers who short sell or transfer their title to Wells via a deed-in-lieu.<br />
What the foreclosure settlement means for you<br />
Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) had a pilot program in Florida that paid incentives of $5,000 to $20,000 for sales that were initiated between Sept. 26, 2011 and Nov. 30, 2011 and close by the end of this August. The amount of the incentive is based on 5% of the unpaid balance, with a $5,000 minimum and $20,000 maximum.<br />
Jumana Bauwens, Bank of America&#8217;s spokeswoman, called it a &#8220;test-and-run program&#8221; that may be expanded to other states.<br />
The offers are not always a panacea for homeowners struggling to pay the bills, however.<br />
Pierce, for example, has not been able to make hers pay off. She had a buyer but her second mortgage holder refused to go along with the deal unless it got a share of the $25,000 she was being offered by the bank. She said that the bank balked at the deal and the sale was cancelled.<br />
She&#8217;s looking for another buyer, but it&#8217;s up in the air if Chase will honor its original offer if the second mortgage holder won&#8217;t cooperate. </p>
<p>Banks pay delinquent borrowers $35,000 to sell their homes<br />
By Les Christie @CNNMoney February 15, 2012: 8:28 PM ET</p>
<p>Do you need help with a short sale?  Call Beachy Properties at 941.371.8163 or email us at davebeachy@gmail.com.</p>
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		<title>*Bank of America has just announced that Florida homeowners may receive $5,000 to $20,000 in relocation assistance*</title>
		<link>http://sarasotashortsale.com/?p=86</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:10:34 +0000</pubDate>
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Bank of America encourages distressed homeowners to explore a short sale as a viable
option for avoiding foreclosure. To that end, for a limited time we are offering enhanced
relocation assistance to help motivate homeowners to engage with us on a pre-offer short
sale. An additional benefit for these pre-offer programs &#8211; such as the Home Affordable
Foreclosure Alternatives [...]]]></description>
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Bank of America encourages distressed homeowners to explore a short sale as a viable<br />
option for avoiding foreclosure. To that end, for a limited time we are offering enhanced<br />
relocation assistance to help motivate homeowners to engage with us on a pre-offer short<br />
sale. An additional benefit for these pre-offer programs &#8211; such as the Home Affordable<br />
Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) and Bank of America&#8217;s proprietary program &#8211; is that<br />
deficiency may be waived for the homeowner.<br />
Eligibility:<br />
• Homeowners with property in Florida<br />
• Short sales initiated without an offer between September 26 and November 30<br />
• The customer will have to be eligible for one of the without offer programs such as<br />
the HAFA program or our proprietary program (specific investor participation and<br />
eligibility criteria do apply to these programs)<br />
• Successful closing of the eligible short sale by August 31, 2012<br />
• Minimum relocation assistance is $5,000 and maximum is $20,000, with the specific<br />
amount calculated based on the unpaid principal balance<br />
Exclusions:<br />
• Ginnie Mae, FHA, VA and USDA loans are ineligible for participation<br />
• Lot loans are ineligible for participation<br />
• Properties outside the state of Florida are ineligible for participation<br />
• Short sales initiated with an offer are not currently eligible for the enhanced<br />
relocation assistance<br />
Frequently Asked Questions:<br />
Q: How can I find out if my client/homeowner qualifies for this relocation assistance?<br />
A: Call a Bank of America short sale specialist at 1.877.459.2852.<br />
Monday &#8211; Friday 8 a.m. &#8211; 10 p.m.; Saturday 9 a.m. &#8211; 5:30 p.m. Eastern</p>
<p>Q: Do I have to do anything differently when initiating or completing the short sale?<br />
A: No. As long as the homeowner&#8217;s short sale is initiated between September 26 and<br />
November 30, 2011, and the property closes by August 31, 2012, they will be<br />
eligible.<br />
Q: Will the relocation assistance funds be reported on the HUD-1?<br />
A: Yes, they will be documented on the HUD-1, and a 1099-MISC will be issued.<br />
Q: Can the relocation assistance funds be used to pay off existing liens?<br />
A: Yes, if the investor approves it.<br />
Q: Is the relocation assistance added to any other incentives, such as the HAFA or Bank<br />
of America proprietary program incentives?<br />
A: No. A homeowner will receive the $5,000 to $20,000 in place of the typical incentive<br />
paid out by these programs. The relocation assistance is essentially an<br />
enhancement to the standard payout offered on these programs.<br />
Q: Is the enhanced relocation assistance available for other programs?<br />
A: Currently, the enhanced relocation assistance is only available to short sale programs initiated without an offer<br />
Questions?<br />
. However, as we gauge the success we may extend this<br />
incentive to other programs.</p>
<p>Questions?  Call Beachy Properties at 941.371.8163 or email Davebeachy@gmail.com.</p>
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		<title>Freddie Mac Dispels Common Foreclosure Myths</title>
		<link>http://sarasotashortsale.com/?p=80</link>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 04 Jun 2011 21:39:08 +0000</pubDate>
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