Foreclosures Boost Commercial Real Estate Sales!
Carlton Procter from PNJ.com reports on the effect that foreclosures have had on commercial real estate sales. Specifically, he discusses how foreclosed commercial properties have amped up the overall sales of commercial properties in Pensacola Florida. That said, it is the authors opinion that sellers (banks or distressed owners) are still valuing their properties at […]
Homeowners Associations: The New Foreclosure
Diana Olick from CNBC brings us a very timely article regarding Home Owners Associations (HOA’s) foreclosing due to delinquent fees. While I will never give foreclosure advice to a homeowner (I leave that to the lawyers) I do add my opinions when asked. Homeowners do ask about staying current on their homeowners dues. I always […]
More Foreclosures Headed To Market In 2011
Mark Huffman from ConsumerAffairs.com reports on another blockbuster year for the foreclosure departments at our friendly neighborhood bank! Over 2.9M houses were foreclosed on in 2010, even after there were foreclosure moratoriums during the last month of the year (due to the robo signing debacle). 2011 is shaping up to be an even bigger year […]
The Truth About Servicing Companies
Prashant Gopal and Lorraine Woellert from Bloomberg have written an article about how loan servicing companies play a role in the “oh” so popular foreclosure crisis. There are changes looming for servicing companies. According to the article, “Changes being studied include a new fee structure for servicers, independent reviews of rejected requests to ease loan […]
This Cycle Is NOT Meant To Be Ridden!
Floyd Norris from the New York Times reports that the number of house sales has stabilized below the boom years of 2005-2006. The issue is that the majority of these sales are of distressed property. People can buy gently used distressed property for significantly less than what it takes to build a comparable home. With […]
Do You Want to Play Hide and Seek??!!
Bank of America never ceases to amaze me! Chris Nicholson from Dealbook reports, “A hacker organization known as Anonymous released a series of e-mails on Monday provided by a former Bank of America employee who claims they show how a division of the bank sought to hide information on foreclosures. The bank unit, Balboa Insurance, […]
Party Lines!
Alan Zibel from the Wall Street Journal reports that the house voted Wednesday, “….. to end a government effort to revitalize neighborhoods blighted by the recession and housing crisis.” It is said that the house will also vote to end HAMP, HAFA and one of the other dreamy acronyms that the government has thought up. […]
Foreclosure and Taxes…How They Relate
Tanya Marsh from the Huffington Post reports on yet another side effect of the foreclosure debacle. While most people, including myself, hate paying taxes, taxes do have a purpose. They help pay for our roads, our police officers, our firemen, our teachers, our sanitation works, our….well, you get the point. As a result of this […]
The Government Supports Short Sales??
Jim Puzzanghera and Alejandro Lazo from the Los Angeles Times report on a proposed settlement with banks that has some merit. The proposal would force banks/servicing companies to allow short sales which are less costly to tax payers in the long run. Short sales command higher prices than bank owned properties. Foreclosures also cost the […]
Rental Update
The press release (see below) just came across my desk. I commented, several weeks ago, about the government’s plan to rent out foreclosed properties (you know my opinion). What’s interesting is that they are soliciting advice from “investors”. It’s interesting that the government is reaching out to “investors” when it comes to houses that they […]
“Justice Foreclosed”
Andrew Cohen from the Atlantic reports on a legal case out of Massachusetts that pits Wells Fargo against a home owner. The article is lengthy (but worth the read) so I will break it down into a few short sentences. The crux of the article revolves around a family from Massachusetts trying to modify their […]
Let’s Demolish the Houses
Lindsey Rupp from Bloomberg News reports on yet another brilliant idea that has been hatched by Bank of America. Ms. Rupp writes, “Disposing of repossessed homes is one of the biggest headaches for lenders in the United States, where 1,679,125 houses, or one in every 77, were in some stage of foreclosure as of June, […]