Housing Market News

It seems implausible -- even impossible -- yet here we are again. For the 10th time in the last 11 weeks, conventional mortgage interest rates dropped to a new historic low. The average 30-year fixed rate hit 4.32 percent for the week finishing September 2, a drop from the previous week's 4.36 percent, according to Freddie Mac. Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages dropped to an average of 3.83 percent, down from last week's 3.86 percent. Unbeatable rates may encourage trigger-shy buyers to take a shot at homeownership this fall after the late-summer slump.

The federal government's Home Affordable Modification Program has a lot of work left to do if it hopes to catch up to the private sector. HAMP, with its promise of helping up to 4 million homeowners avoid foreclosure, completed 36,695 modifications in July. In the same period, private mortgage programs completed 120,351 – more than three times the federal program's rate. The numbers were tabulated by Hope Now, a private sector consortium of servicers and other mortgage counselors who offer alternatives to HAMP. So why is it that so few homeowners are taking advantage of the government's mod program? It's not for lack of trying: Including both HAMP and private program figures, servicers completed 1.13 million modifications so far this year -- a far cry from 4 million, and that's not counting the thousands who have dropped out of the program.

A Newport Beach, Calif., house once owned by actor John Wayne has come on the market for $2.263 million. To appreciate what a marketing boost it is to be able to claim that the Duke slept here, you need to know that Orange County, where Newport Beach is located, is the region that gave us Richard M. Nixon and where the GOP comes home to roost.

Among Orange Countians, John Wayne is a conservative god whom they named an airport after. The Texas Republican Party asked Wayne to run for national office more than once, an idea that Ronald Reagan was probably glad the Duke took a pass on.

While it's not known how much time Wayne spent at the house, books on the Hollywood icon recall him playing poker, bridge and backgammon, among other games, at the nearby Big Canyon Country Club.

After a gloomy month of frightening housing numbers, a ray of sunshine cut through the clouds. The Pending Home Sales Index for contracts signed in July rose 5.2 percent from June, according to the National Association of Realtors. While this is a 19.1 percent fall from last July's home sales numbers, economists had predicted a drop of 1 percent for this July. The new increase indicates that the housing decline following the end of the homebuyer tax credit incentives was nearing its end. It is hoped historically low mortgage interest rates and affordable housing prices will help the ailing housing market recover in the coming months.

In other good news, 17 major markets saw price increases in the latest monthly report. Find out how your market measures up.

Accidental landlords Amy and Lawrence LeVine are having trouble unloading their one-bedroom condominium in uptown Chicago, within walking distance from jogging and biking trails off Lake Michigan. They would love to put in a renter, rather than take a loss on the sale, but their condo association already booted out their one and only tenant due to a rental time-limit clause in the association's bylaws.The unit has been back on the market now since February 2010, sitting empty ever since their renter had to leave. "We were breaking even on the rent," says Lawrence, "but our renter would've liked to have stayed. We would have liked that too."

The LeVines are in an increasingly common predicament. Existing condominium and co-op sales fell 28.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 460,000 in July from 640,000 in June, and are 24.0 percent below the 605,000-unit level in July 2009, according to recent data from the National Association of Realtors. The median existing condo price nationally was $176,800 in July, down 1.7 percent from a year ago. The heavy supply makes it a good buyer's market.

This may be tough news for a condo owner to hear, especially given tales of homeowners associations causing some homeowners to lose their homes. However, there is hope for condo owners or those looking to buy a condo.

In the final days before his split from his wife of six years, Elin Nordegren, Tiger Woods clearly was on the prowl -- for some new luxury digs. On Sunday night at around 8 p.m., he was spotted in New York City's West Village neighborhood unloading boxes and golf clubs on his own from a double-parked BMW near his new apartment on Hudson Street, where he stopped to pet an attractive brunette's dog, according to the New York Daily News. Then it was reported that Woods had taken out a $54.5 million mortgage (that would be a jumbo mortgage, no doubt) for his new Florida estate, which is located on tony Jupiter Island and has a tennis court, oxygen therapy room, multiple pools and a fitness center. Despite his rocky divorce, public humiliation and peripatetic golf game, it's still apparently good to be Tiger.

Beware, real estate speculators: Your advantage is waning. The Obama administration announced today that major banks have agreed to allow local governments and nonprofit groups to purchase foreclosed properties before private investors. Congress granted $7 billion to enable local officials to acquire such properties with the intent of renovating or redeveloping them, and thus allow communities to stabilize themselves through reinvestment. The nonprofit National Community Stabilization Trust will compile data on available properties and advise communities about which ones best suit their needs. The largest mortgage lenders in the country, including Bank of America and Wells Fargo, have signed on to the agreement.

Checking your home's value on websites has become an almost weekly obsession with many. That obsession is being fed by stories like one from The New York Times declaring that owning a home is no longer a way to build wealth.

As long as you're not planning to move, you should stop worrying about the long-term value for your home. Yes, prices are down and may even go down a little bit further, but all signs seem to indicate that we're the near the bottom -- if not at the bottom. So let's look at five reasons to stop worrying about whether or not you should have bought your home and where it's price might be going.


Reason 1: Your House Is Your Home

As long as you plan to live in that house for 10 or 20 or more years, think of your house as a place to build family memories, not as an asset that you have to worry about selling. One thing is certain about the housing market: Prices will go up and down many times when you own a house for the long term. This current market may be more volatile than we've ever seen, but the worst is over. Instead of thinking about it as a housing asset, think about it as your family's home -- a place to live, not an asset to be sold.

Burlesque revivalist Dita Von Teese on Monday filed a lawsuit against her former landlord, whom she says "went on Mel Gibson-like anti-Semitic tangents, personally attacking [Von Teese's] Jewish managers and business partners" when she sought the return of her $5,000 security deposit.

Von Teese, who lived for four years in the nearly 1,600 square foot, three-bedroom, three-bath single-family residence a block off Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, claimed in the lawsuit that she followed move-out procedure, complete with a final walk-through with landlord Lallubhai N. Patel.

She claims that Patel initially agreed to return the security deposit during the walk-through attended on her behalf by her business manager Eric Foumberg, but later reneged, saying thsome walls needed repainting and all the woodwork needed to be refinished (The floors do look very shiny in the listing photos).

It is very common for landlords to keep all or part of the deposit to repair items that are damaged beyond "normal wear and tear." If you think you haven't caused excessive damage to your rental, see steps that you can take in "Six Ways to Make Sure You Get Back Your Security Deposit."

This would be something to read in the disclosure forms when buying a home: Seven bodies were buried on this property.

That probably isn't the exact wording on the legal documents for the buyers of 1426 F St. in Sacramento, but that's what they had to know before the home was recently auctioned to winning bidders for $215,000 -- a more than 50 percent drop from the $500,000 price the home sold for in 2005.

Maybe it was the falling housing market or the spookiness of owning a home used by a serial killer, but the former Sacramento boarding house owned by Dorothea Puente took a long time to sell after going into foreclosure in 2009, and having a last reported for-sale price of $335,750.

Puente started taking in disabled tenants in 1985. In 1988 police found the bodies of seven people buried there. Puente was convicted of three murders and is in state prison.

Why did the house sell now?

National housing prices showed modest increases in 17 cities tracked by The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, according to its Tuesday news release. A look at the top 20 markets shows that home prices in Chicago, Detroit and Minneapolis rose by 2.5 percent in June, just ahead of the 1 percent national average increase, while Las Vegas was the only city to show a decline. Phoenix and Seattle were both flat.

Although housing prices appear to have rebounded from critical lows, other recent housing indicators, such as the expiration of tax credits, homeowners with conventional loans sliding toward foreclosure, and the influx of past homeowners now renting and likelihood of underwater homes to increase show that the housing crisis is not yet behind us.

Ah, to be a Real Housewife of Orange County. While many of her O.C. neighbors are being sucked down the foreclosure drain, Alexis Bellino -- she of "The Real Housewives of Orange County" fame -- and her husband, Jim, have been spared the pain and humiliation of losing their home in default of their $4.6 million loan. Perhaps there is enough pain and humiliation associated with starring in this show and the forces of karma needed to restore balance to the universe? It certainly isn't an everyday occurrence that Chase Bank gets to be a shining knight in loan-modification armor.

The Bellinos reportedly were behind $83,000 in payments on their Newport Beach home, according to The Orange County Register. The 4,200-square-foot house was set to be auctioned off on the old courthouse steps earlier this week, but the Bellinos were able to seal a loan modification deal with Chase. The newspaper confirmed the arrangement with Jim Bellino.

Their story appears pretty typical, up to a point.

Google may know where you live, but if you're in the market for low-income housing, they also might hold the keys. The all-seeing search behemoth is revving up its philanthropic efforts to create an $86-million Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) fund. The fund will subsidize the construction and operation of 480 affordable rental units in seven communities in the West and Midwest. Many of the complexes being built will include apartments with up to four bedrooms, which have a shared laundry room and community area. The fund will be managed by U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corp., a division of U.S. Bank. Google recently invested in two other low-income housing projects for seniors in the San Francisco Bay area and Inglewood in Los Angeles County. It's only a matter of time before renters can Google their Google-owned Googleplex.