Real Estate May Struggle in 2011

Why American Real Estate is Struggling to Recover

Residential real estate is weak, in part, because the prices leading up to the peak in 2005 were wildly unrealistic and irrational. You can't explain it with inflation, building costs, or potential rental income. It was just a mania, fueled by ultra-low interest rates, super-EZ credit and the unshakeable belief that "real estate always goes up."

Look at every bubble of the recent past:

* The Tokyo stock exchange in 1989 - 75% lower today.

* The Nasdaq in March 2000 - 50% lower today.

Manias generally take decades to work out - and we're not even six years into this one.

Some analysts say housing is weak because of the tepid recovery and high unemployment. But that doesn't begin to tell the tale.

At the end of the third quarter, 10.8 million American mortgages were underwater (i.e. when borrowers owe more on their homes than what they're worth). This accounts for 22.5% of all U.S. homeowners with a mortgage.

Some housing experts say this is a positive development. After all, 11.3 million mortgages were underwater at the beginning of the year. However, this drop doesn't reflect a rebound in home prices. Rather, the number of underwater homes has declined, as banks have taken back the properties and wiped out their debt through foreclosure.

Unfortunately, foreclosure sales force market prices lower, which puts still more mortgage holders underwater. As time passes, more homeowners will realize that they're paying a mortgage that is far more than the value of the house and walk away - even if they can afford to keep paying.

This is a troubling development, but the stigma is already gone. It used to be a mark of dishonor to have the bank foreclose on your home. Today, it's increasingly viewed as a smart business move.

"Why should I keep paying my $400,000 mortgage when the house is worth less than $250,000?" a pharmaceutical rep asked me recently. "I'm not an idiot."

The Millstones Around the Housing Market's Neck

Homeowners are realizing that house prices aren't going to come roaring back anytime soon. And they're beginning to feel that paying on the mortgage is simply throwing good money after bad. In fact, financial advisors often encourage borrowers to walk away.

"A bad credit record hurts a lot less than a six-figure negative net worth," said one.

There are plenty of other pressures on the housing market, too...

~ Sales Trouble: Most potential buyers can't sell the house they're in. That makes it impossible for them to buy another.

~ Banks Get Tough: Duly chastened by all the no-money and low-money down-payments of the recent past, most banks now require a 10% downstroke or more. Plus a decent credit history. But many potential borrowers don't have both... or either. In turn, that dries up demand. Plus, mortgage rates are rising, making even attractively priced homes less affordable.

~ Sentiment: The psychology of the housing market is fragile. For years, people bought all the house they could afford (and then some) and didn't hesitate to invest in rental properties or vacation homes. Why? Because real estate always goes up, remember?

But now, a second home is more likely to be viewed as an albatross. Speculators rightly see the near-term appreciation potential as nil.

This doesn't mean there aren't bargains available. But buyers need to be extra careful. I know plenty of people who bought homes on the courthouse steps a couple of years ago and are now sitting on terrific losses.

If you can buy a home at a great price and find a renter to cover your costs, by all means, consider taking the plunge. But plan to hold on a few years. The chance of turning a home over for a quick profit - unless you're buying an absolutely distressed property - is remote.

The Real Estate Verdict is in: Another Rough Year Looming

To sum up, a weak economic recovery, high unemployment, rising interest rates, falling house prices, an inventory glut, increasing foreclosures, tight credit, poor psychology and mounting walk-aways will keep residential home prices under pressure in 2011.

And 2012 isn't likely to be any great shakes either. Please don't shoot the messenger.

Good investing,

Alexander Green
The Oxford Club

The good news is that regardless of what happens with housing in 2011 - or any other market for that matter - there's a simple way for you to profit next year.

If your worried about foreclosure American Eagle Realty can help you with solid answers about your rights and options before your house is foreclosed on! We are experts in the Short Sale Process and have the experience needed to work with your bank! Loan Mods, too. Contact us we can help, We have helped others we can help you...

American Eagle Realty
www.american-eagle-realty.com
502-969-1801

Bank of America Gets Low Marks for Delinquency Resolution

The time mortgage loan servicers take to resolve delinquent loans through modification or foreclosure varies widely. According to an analysis by Moody’s Investors Service, Bank of America has demonstrated

the weakest performance measured both by its speed in resolving the status of delinquent loans and by its proportion of delinquent loans that have yet to be resolved. The ratings agency found that GMAC Mortgage, on the other hand, has generally performed better than its peers.

Moody’s examined seven major servicers and their resolution of delinquent loans held in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). In addition to BofA and GMAC, the subjects of the analysis included Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, CitiMortgage, Ocwen, and Litton Loan Servicing.

The ratings agency looked at residential mortgage loans that were seriously delinquent or in default at any time between June 2009 and August 2010 and that belonged to 2005-2008 vintage RMBS loan pools. The analysis was book-ended with data as of the end of this August so that the results were not skewed by delays resulting from the recent foreclosure affidavit problems and moratoriums that began cropping up in September.

Servicer performance was measured across three main dimensions:

1. For delinquent loans that have neither been permanently modified nor liquidated, the average length of time they have been seriously delinquent;
2. For loans that have been liquidated or modified, the average time taken to liquidate or modify them since they first became seriously delinquent;
3. The relative proportions of a servicer’s loans that at some time in the study’s timeframe were 90 days delinquent and that now reside in each loan status (three or months past due, in foreclosure, or REO).

Overall, Moody’s concluded that Bank of America has performed the worst when it comes to resolving delinquent loans across all three asset classes examined – subprime,

Alt-A, and jumbo. The North Carolina-based bank holds the largest proportion of unresolved seriously delinquent loans, and its seriously delinquent loans have generally been delinquent longer than those of the other major servicers.

Moody’s says these observations are particularly true in the subprime sector, in which BofA inherited a large portfolio of poorly-performing loans when it acquired Countrywide.

The agency’s analysts explained that these loans have been unresolved for particularly long periods, primarily because Bank of America agreed in a multi-state settlement with attorneys general in October 2008 to evaluate each modification-eligible Countrywide loan on a case-by case basis and agreed not to initiate foreclosure proceedings until it had exhausted all modification efforts.

Moody’s described the variation in the approach adopted by different servicers in resolving delinquent loans as “large.” The agency highlights one such comparison that shows the migration of subprime loans serviced by BofA and GMAC Mortgage after becoming 90 or more days delinquent.

The analysis revealed that on average, Bank of America will resolve 50 percent of its loans within about 14 months of becoming 90 days delinquent, while GMAC will resolve 50 percent within only about 4 months.

Looking at the various loan groups, Moody’s says subprime loans have been 90-plus days delinquent longer than unresolved Alt-A and jumbo loans. This fact is due in part to the larger proportion of subprime borrowers that are eligible for the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) because they have have better loan documentation and owner occupancy levels than Alt-A borrowers and less income than jumbo borrowers, Moody’s explained.

A loan’s HAMP eligibility means that the servicer must spend more time exhausting all loss mitigation options before proceeding to foreclosure, and because of this fact, Moody’s says even subprime loans that are already in foreclosure are taking longer to be liquidated or modified than Alt-A or jumbo loans in foreclosure.

Not only does it takes longer to determine whether or not a subprime loan is eligible for HAMP, the ratings agency explained, but even in cases where servicers have exhausted all loss mitigation possibilities, properties backing subprime loans are typically in less desirable neighborhoods or lack proper maintenance when compared to properties backing Alt-A or jumbo loans and thus take longer time to market when they reach REO status. By: Carrie Bay from DSN News

If your worried about foreclosure American Eagle Realty can help you with solid answers about your rights and options before your house is foreclosed on! We are experts in the Short Sale Process and have the experience needed to work with your bank! Loan Mods, too. Contact us we can help, We have helped others we can help you...

American Eagle Realty
www.american-eagle-realty.com
502-969-1801 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              502-969-1801      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

The Christmas Guest

It happened one day at the year's white end,
Two neighbors called on an old-time friend

And they found his shop so meager and mean,
Made gay with a thousand boughs of green,

And Conrad was sitting with face a-shine
When he suddenly stopped as he stitched a twine

And said, "Old friends, at dawn today,
When the cock was crowing the night away,

The Lord appeared in a dream to me
And said, 'I am coming your guest to be'.

So I've been busy with feet astir,
Strewing my shop with branches of fir,

The table is spread and the kettle is shined
And over the rafters the holly is twined,

And now I will wait for my Lord to appear
And listen closely so I will hear

His step as He nears my humble place,
And I open the door and look in His face. . ."

So his friends went home and left Conrad alone,
For this was the happiest day he had known,

For, long since, his family had passed away
And Conrad has spent a sad Christmas Day.

But he knew with the Lord as his Christmas guest
This Christmas would be the dearest and best,

And he listened with only joy in his heart.
And with every sound he would rise with a start

And look for the Lord to be standing there
In answer to his earnest prayer

So he ran to the window after hearing a sound,
But all that he saw on the snow-covered ground

Was a shabby beggar whose shoes were torn
And all of his clothes were ragged and worn.

So Conrad was touched and went to the door
And he said, "Your feet must be frozen and sore,

And I have some shoes in my shop for you
And a coat that will keep you warmer, too."

So with grateful heart the man went away,
But as Conrad noticed the time of day

He wondered what made the dear Lord so late
And how much longer he'd have to wait,

When he heard a knock and ran to the door,
But it was only a stranger once more,

A bent, old crone with a shawl of black,
A bundle of faggots piled on her back.

She asked for only a place to rest,
But that was reserved for Conrad's Great Guest.

But her voice seemed to plead, "Don't send me away
Let me rest awhile on Christmas day."

So Conrad brewed her a steaming cup
And told her to sit at the table and sip.

But after she left he was filled with dismay
For he saw that the hours were passing away

And the Lord had not come as He said He would,
And Conrad felt sure he had misunderstood.

When out of the stillness he heard a cry,
"Please help me and tell me where am I."

So again he opened his friendly door
And stood disappointed as twice before,

It was only a child who had wandered away
And was lost from her family on Christmas Day. .

Again Conrad's heart was heavy and sad,
But he knew he should make this little child glad,

So he called her in and wiped her tears
And quieted her childish fears.

Then he led her back to her home once more
But as he entered his own darkened door,

He knew that the Lord was not coming today
For the hours of Christmas had passed away.

So he went to his room and knelt down to pray
And he said, "Dear Lord, why did you delay,

What kept You from coming to call on me,
For I wanted so much Your face to see. . ."

When soft in the silence a voice he heard,
"Lift up your head for I kept My word--

Three times My shadow crossed your floor--
Three times I came to your lonely door--

For I was the beggar with bruised, cold feet,
I was the woman you gave to eat,
And I was the child on the homeless street."

Helen Steiner Rice

Merry Christmas

American Eagle Realty

Jesus is Lord

It was Dr. James Allan Francis who penned the following words that aptly describe the influence of Jesus through the history of mankind:

"Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

"He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. . . .

"While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth—His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

"Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.

"I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life."

The late Wilbur Smith, respected Bible scholar of the last generation, once wrote, “The latest edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica gives twenty thousand words to this person, Jesus, and does not even hint that He did not exist—more words, by the way, than are given to Aristotle, Alexander, Cicero, Julius Caesar, or Napoleon Bonaparte.”

George Buttrick, recognized as one of the ten greatest preachers of the twentieth century, wrote: “Jesus gave history a new beginning. In every land he is at home. . . . His birthday is kept across the world. His death-day set a gallows against every skyline.”

Even Napoleon himself admitted, "I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ was no mere man: between him and whoever else in the world there is no possible term of comparison."

Amen

American Eagle Realty

The Christmas Story of the Birth of Jesus

This Christmas story gives a biblical account of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ.
The Christmas story is paraphrased from the New Testament Books of Matthew and Luke in the Bible.

References:
Matthew 1:18-25; Matthew 2:1-12; Luke 1:26-38; Luke 2:1-20.

The Conception of Jesus Foretold

Mary, a virgin, was living in Galilee of Nazareth and was engaged to be married to Joseph, a Jewish carpenter. An angel visited her and explained to her that she would conceive a son by the power of the Holy Spirit. She would carry and give birth to this child and she would name him Jesus.
At first Mary was afraid and troubled by the angel's words. Being a virgin, Mary questioned the angel, "How will this be?" The angel explained that the child would be God's own Son and, therefore, "nothing is impossible with God." Humbled and in awe, Mary believed the angel of the Lord and rejoiced in God her Savior.
Surely Mary reflected with wonder on the words found in Isaiah 7:14 foretelling this event, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." (NIV)

The Birth of Jesus:

While Mary was still engaged to Joseph, she miraculously became pregnant through the Holy Spirit, as foretold to her by the angel. When Mary told Joseph she was pregnant, he had every right to feel disgraced. He knew the child was not his own, and Mary's apparent unfaithfulness carried a grave social stigma. Joseph not only had the right to divorce Mary, under Jewish law she could be put to death by stoning.
Although Joseph's initial reaction was to break the engagement, the appropriate thing for a righteous man to do, he treated Mary with extreme kindness. He did not want to cause her further shame, so he decided to act quietly. But God sent an angel to Joseph in a dream to verify Mary's story and reassure him that his marriage to her was God's will. The angel explained that the child within Mary was conceived by the Holy Spirit, that his name would be Jesus and that he was the Messiah, God with us.
When Joseph woke from his dream, he willingly obeyed God and took Mary home to be his wife, in spite of the public humiliation he would face. Perhaps this noble quality is one of the reasons God chose him to be the Messiah's earthly father.
Joseph too must have wondered in awe as he remembered the words found in Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." (NIV)
At that time, Caesar Augustus decreed that a census be taken, and every person in the entire Roman world had to go to his own town to register. Joseph, being of the line of David, was required to go to Bethlehem to register with Mary. While in Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to Jesus. Probably due to the census, the inn was too crowded, and Mary gave birth in a crude stable. She wrapped the baby in cloths and placed him in a manger.

The Shepherd's Worship the Savior:

Out in the fields, an angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds who were tending their flocks of sheep by night. The angel announced that the Savior had been born in the town of David. Suddenly a great host of heavenly beings appeared with the angels and began singing praises to God. As the angelic beings departed, the shepherds decided to travel to Bethlehem and see the Christ-child.
There they found Mary, Joseph and the baby, in the stable. After their visit, they began to spread the word about this amazing child and everything the angel had said about him. They went on their way still praising and glorifying God. But Mary kept quiet, treasuring their words and pondering them in her heart. It must have been beyond her ability to grasp, that sleeping in her arms—the tender child she had just borne—was the Savior of the world.

The Magi Bring Gifts:

After Jesus' birth, Herod was king of Judea. At this time wise men (Magi) from the east saw a star, they came in search, knowing the star signified the birth of the king of the Jews. The wise men came to the Jewish rulers in Jerusalem and asked where the Christ was to be born. The rulers explained, "In Bethlehem in Judea," referring to Micah 5:2. Herod secretly met with the Magi and asked them to report back after they had found the child. Herod told the Magi that he too wanted to go and worship the babe. But secretly Herod was plotting to kill the child.
So the wise men continued to follow the star in search of the new born king and found Jesus with his mother in Bethlehem. (Most likely Jesus was already two years of age by this time.) They bowed and worshipped him, offering treasures of gold, incense and myrrh. When they left, they did not return to Herod. They had been warned in a dream of his plot to destroy the child.

The Christmas Story of the Birth of Jesus
By Mary Fairchild, About.com Guide

To our customers we have been able to help this year, We hope we have brought joy back into your life.
To the customers we are in the middle of helping you solve the crisis you will come out of this!
To our future customers we can help you walk through this crisis and restore your self respect!

No matter what phase you are in you are our most important asset.

May God Keep you in the hollow of his hand

Merry Christmas to all.

American Eagle Realty
www-American-Eagle-Realty.com
502-969-1801 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              502-969-1801      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              502-969-1801      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              502-969-1801      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

National Home Prices Down 5.8%, Major Metros See Double Dip: Report

The November home market report from Clear Capital shows that prices nationally fell another 5.8 percent over the previous three months. The company says although the pace of decline has slowed, home prices show no signs of bottoming out yet.

Compared to a year ago, Clear Capital’s national home price index is down 2.7 percent, but is 5.5 percent above the record lows of early 2009.

Thirteen of the 50 major metros included in Clear Capital’s study have already entered into double-dip territory, indicating that their current price levels are the lowest since the housing downturn began.

Among them are Las Vegas, Seattle, Tucson, Philadelphia, Portland, and Nashville. Charlotte, North Carolina also

made the list, as did Virginia Beach and Richmond in Virginia, and the four biggest Florida markets of Miami, Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville.

Dr. Alex Villacorta, Clear Capital’s senior statistician, notes that while a number of individual markets have distanced themselves from national price levels in a negative direction, there are a couple of bright spots in the company’s latest report.

Washington, D.C. maintained its positive price growth in November, with home values there now 15 percent above last year’s lows.

Home prices in Honolulu, Hawaii rose 2.4 percent during the September to November period, pushing them 6.9 percent above year-ago levels.

Although they experienced quarterly price declines of nearly 2 percent, the two California metropolitan statistical areas that include Los Angeles and Riverside are also on the positive end of the scale when looking at the year-over-year price change, up 5.4 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively.

Dr. Alex Villacorta, Clear Capital’s senior statistician, said, “It’s encouraging that the immediate and dramatic decline in prices that we observed since mid August appears to be softening. But any optimism should be tempered by the fact that November’s numbers show continued significant downward pressure for home prices.”

If your worried about foreclosure American Eagle Realty can help you with solid answers about your rights and options before your house is foreclosed on! We are experts in the Short Sale Process and have the experience needed to work with your bank! Loan Mods, too. Contact us we can help, We have helped others we can help you...

If your looking for the right investment property we can help!

American Eagle Realty
www.american-eagle-realty.com
502-969-1801

HAMP Program will Fall Short of Helping People

The Obama administration’s signature foreclosure prevention
program will help only 700,000 Americans save their homes,
according to a scathing report released Tuesday by the
Congressional Oversight Panel (COP).

The group’s assessment falls far short of the 3 to 4 million
homeowners that the president pledged would receive more
sustainable mortgage loans when the Home Affordable
Modification Program (HAMP) was launched in March of last
year, and is well below the 8 to 13 million foreclosures COP
says are expected by 2012.

Treasury initially committed $75 billion of Troubled Asset
Relief Program (TARP) funds to the HAMP initiative, which
pays incentives to servicers, investors, and homeowners for
each loan that is successfully modified. COP, which is
charged with overseeing the use of TARP money, says it now
appears Treasury will spend only $4 billion on HAMP
incentives.

“Absent a dramatic and unexpected increase in HAMP
enrollment, many billions of dollars set aside for
foreclosure mitigation may well be left unused. As a result,
an untold number of borrowers may go without help,” the
report said.

The members of the congressionally appointed panel went so
far as to call the government’s loan modification program
“ineffective,” and they said Treasury’s reluctance to
acknowledge HAMP’s shortcomings has had “real
consequences.”

Since COP’s last report on HAMP eight months ago, the panel
noted that Treasury has made “minor tweaks” to the program,
but COP says the changes have not resolved its core
concerns.

Treasury’s authority to restructure HAMP ended on October 3,
when TARP expired, and COP says because the deadline has
come and gone for any major overhaul, “the program’s
prospects are unlikely to improve substantially in the
future.”

“Many of the problems now plaguing HAMP are inherent in its
design and cannot be resolved at this late date,” the panel
said in its latest report. “Other problems, however, can
still be mitigated.”

If your worried about foreclosure American Eagle Realty can help you with solid answers about your rights and options before your house is foreclosed on! We are experts in the Short Sale Process and have the experience needed to work with your bank! Loan Mods, too. Contact us we can help, We have helped others we can help you...

American Eagle Realty
www.american-eagle-realty.com
502-969-1801

Pressure Mounts for Fannie and Freddie to Write Down Mortgages

With property values still tumbling, it comes as no surprise that nearly a quarter of the nation’s mortgage borrowers owe more on their loan than the home is worth. Industry studies support the consensus that the farther a borrower sinks into negative equity, the more likely they are to throw in the towel.

The severity of this catch-22 is now top-of-mind for government officials. The administration is reportedly pressuring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – who together own or guarantee half of the nation’s home mortgages – to make principal write-downs a key component of their foreclosure prevention efforts.

The two GSEs are currently in talks with the White House and federal housing officials who are advocating for Fannie and Freddie’s participation in the government’s newest initiatives to reduce loan balances for borrowers who are underwater, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing “people familiar with the situation.”

Right now, homeowners who have loans with the nation’s two largest mortgage financiers are not eligible for the principal reduction option under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), which was introduced by the Treasury back in March.

It calls for reducing the principal on loans that are more than 115 percent of the current value of the property and includes incentive payments for each dollar written down by servicers and investors. But this alternative modification approach is voluntary, and both Fannie and Freddie have opted against using it.

A second initiative that the GSEs have yet to sign on to is the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) refinance program for underwater borrowers, which was rolled out in early August. Under the program, which is also voluntary, the federal agency will offer new FHA-insured mortgages to borrowers whose lenders agree to write off at least 10 percent of the unpaid principal balance.

Federal officials have said FHA’s program could help 500,000 to 1.5 million homeowners. But the Journal says during its first three months, the program received only 61 applications and completed just three refinances for new loans.

Industry groups and regulators say without Fannie and Freddie’s participation, the impact of the government’s principal reduction programs will be minimal and other lenders won’t feel compelled to follow their lead.

But it would be another catch-22. Writing down principals would add to the GSEs’ losses. The two companies are already into taxpayers for nearly $150 billion.

There are two very distinct schools of thought when it comes to principal write-downs and the effects – some positive, some negative – that widespread use could have on the market.

On one side, proponents argue that negative equity has become one of the primary triggers of default, and of re-default even after the original mortgage is modified using the typical waterfall of rate reductions and term extensions.

When plagued with negative equity, borrowers essentially have little at stake in keeping their homes. Supporters of an industry-wide initiative to slash outstanding principal when it towers above the property’s value say it’s a strong incentive for homeowners to stay current and could deter delinquencies in a market already saturated with defaults.

On the other side of the fence, critics question the fairness of the principal write-down practice when most homeowners are continuing to pay their mortgages every month, some of them cutting corners and tightening their belts to do so.

Other opponents are asking just where do you draw the line – is a mortgage no longer a contract that carries with it a pledge by the borrower to repay the amount of money agreed upon? They say mandates to retroactively rewrite the loan amount could have serious implications for the future of lending and the risks associated with extending credit.

Lenders and even several top administration officials have stressed that dealing with the nation’s still-growing population of delinquent mortgage borrowers has become a delicate balancing act of understanding the necessity to help responsible homeowners struggling with hardships and recognizing that they “cannot and should not help everyone,” as FHA Commissioner David Stevens put it when he testified at a congressional hearing on principal write-downs earlier this year.
By Carrie Bay DSN News

If your worried about foreclosure American Eagle Realty can help you with solid answers about your rights and options before your house is foreclosed on! We are experts in the Short Sale Process and have the experience needed to work with your bank! Loan Mods, too! Contact us we can help, We have helped others we can help you...

American Eagle Realty
www.american-eagle-realty.com
502-969-1801

Wells Fargo Ranked Top Mortgage Originator, BofA Largest Servicer

Mortgage lenders are ranked based both on how many new loans they originate and how many loans they service. By those measures, industry data released Monday shows that the biggest originator of home loans is based on the West Coast, while the biggest mortgage servicer is based on the East Coast.

Wells Fargo & Co. held onto the top spot among mortgage originators during the third quarter of this year. Bank of America took the lead spot in the mortgage servicer rankings.

Mortgage originations represent transactions where the purchase of a home is financed or an existing mortgage is refinanced. According to industry data compiled by the online industry resource MortgageDaily.com, during the third quarter, total U.S. mortgage originations were up one-third from the second quarter. Business was down 37 percent, however, from the third quarter of 2009.

Based on origination volume, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo — with more than $100 billion in residential originations — was the biggest mortgage lender during the third quarter. The company’s mortgage subsidiary, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, operates from Des Moines, Iowa.

Bank of America was ranked as the second largest mortgage originator, followed by Chase, GMAC Mortgage, and CitiMortgage.

Rounding out the top ten in Mortgage Daily’s rankings were US Bank, PHH Mortgage, Quicken Loans, SunTrust, and Flagstar. Quicken Loans managed to move up two spots from the previous quarter’s report to claim the No. 8 slot on the top-10 list.

The second measure of mortgage lender size is the amount of mortgages they service, including loans originated in prior periods. Servicers collect payments each month and pass on interest earned to investors or to their own bottom lines.

Based on mortgage servicing portfolio size, Bank of America is the biggest U.S. servicer, according to Mortgage Daily’s rankings, with just over $2 trillion in residential home loans in its servicing portfolio as of September 30th. While BofA is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, its mortgage subsidiary, Bank of America Home Loans, is based in Calabasas, California.

Wells Fargo took the No. 2 spot on the servicing list, with $1.8 trillion in residential mortgages serviced. Chase came in third, followed by Citi and then GMAC.

Making up the bottom half of the top-10 servicer list is US Bank, PNC Bank, SunTrust, PHH, and OneWest Bank. OneWest was formed out of the old IndyMac Bank.

If your worried about foreclosure American Eagle Realty can help you with solid answers about your rights and options before your house is foreclosed on! We are experts in the Short Sale Process and have the experience needed to work with your bank! Loan Mods, too. Contact us we can help, We have helped others we can help you...

American Eagle Realty
www.american-eagle-realty.com
502-969-1801

Industry completes 1.5 Million Loan Modifications the first 10 Months of 2010

New data from HOPE NOW shows that the industry completed more than 1.5 million loan modifications for at-risk homeowners from January through October of this

year. That translates to an average of 154,000 homeowners per month who have been able to remain in their homes with an affordable loan modification solution.

It’s a notable accomplishment, but the report makes it clear that there’s far more work to be done. HOPE NOW says there are currently 3.4 million homeowners 60 or more days behind on their mortgage payments.

The reported data for October shows mortgage servicers completed approximately 101,000 proprietary loan modifications for homeowners and 24,000 Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) modifications during the month, for an estimated total of 125,000.

Of particular note in October’s data is the effect foreclosure delays and the temporary freezes initiated by some servicers due to the robo-signing scandal had on the delinquency and foreclosure numbers for the month.

Specifically foreclosure starts and sales dropped to 205,000 and 69,000, respectively. That’s down from 245,000 foreclosure starts and 118,000 foreclosure sales the month prior.

“There were anomalies in the October data that affected 60 day plus delinquency, as well as foreclosure, metrics which we believe may be largely attributed to widespread foreclosure delays across the country,” said Faith Schwartz, senior adviser for HOPE NOW.

“Despite these irregularities the mortgage industry’s efforts to keep homeowners in their homes and offer viable mortgage solutions continues to show strong results each month. Far more homeowners are receiving workout solutions — including loan modifications — than are going to foreclosure sale each month,” Schwartz said. By Carrie Bay of DSN News

If your worried about foreclosure American Eagle Realty can help you with solid answers about your rights and options before your house is foreclosed on! We are experts in the Short Sale Process and have the experience needed to work with your bank! Loan Mods, too. Contact us we can help, We have helped others we can help you...

American Eagle Realty
www.american-eagle-realty.com
502-969-1801

Citi-Group to Refile 14,000 Foreclosure Cases

A Citigroup official told lawmakers at a congressional hearing last week that the company’s review of foreclosure cases has uncovered some 14,000 affidavits that will likely need to be re-filed with the courts.

Since the paperwork controversy surfaced and triggered foreclosure suspensions by several major mortgage servicers, Citi has been unwavering in its claims that the foreclosure processes it has in place are “sound.”

Compared to the problems uncovered by its big-bank counterparts, it would appear that Citi’s processes are at least sound-er. In mid-October, Bank of America said it had begun re-submitting 102,000 affidavits in which foreclosure judgment was pending. Although it never implemented a foreclosure freeze, Wells Fargo acknowledged in late October that it had found errors in about 55,000 foreclosure affidavits.

Harold Lewis, managing director of CitiMortgage and head of Citi’s homeowner assistance program, explained to a House subcommittee last week that for the most part, his

company has been able to steer clear of the robo-signing controversy because of a restructuring that began more than a year ago.

Lewis said Citi centralized its foreclosure operations into one unit, added staff, and improved its internal training program to ensure foreclosures were being processed correctly. According to Lewis, Citi currently has 21 employees in its foreclosure affidavit group, and each employee reviews and executes about 35 affidavits a day.

Lewis explained that Citi is currently reviewing approximately 10,000 affidavits that were executed in pending judicial foreclosures initiated before the process improvements he outlined were fully implemented at the company’s St. Louis processing center in February of 2010. Citi expects that affidavits executed prior to the fall of 2009 will need to be re-filed, Lewis told lawmakers.

Separately, he said, Citi is also reviewing approximately 4,000 pending foreclosure affidavits in judicial states that were executed at the company’s Dallas processing center and may not have been signed in the presence of a notary. Citi expects that it will re-file these affidavits, Lewis said.

In addition, Citi stopped referring new matters to the Florida law offices of David J. Stern, P.A. in September of 2010 and has since withdrawn all pending matters from the so-called foreclosure mill, which is under investigation for forging foreclosure documents and has been blacklisted by both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

As an added precaution, Citi is transferring approximately 8,500 pending foreclosure files from the Stern law firm to new counsel. New affidavits for these cases will be prepared and re-filed by new counsel under Citi’s current procedures, Lewis said.

If your worried about foreclosure American Eagle Realty can help you with solid answers about your rights and options before your house is foreclosed on! We are experts in the Short Sale Process and have the experience needed to work with your bank! Loan Mods, too! Contact us we can help, We have helped others we can help you...

American Eagle Realty
www.american-eagle-realty.com
502-969-1801

Is the Foreclosure Peak Still Ahead?

Whalen: Foreclosure Peak Still Ahead for US

By Greg Brown and Kathleen Walter

The foreclosure crisis will peak sometime next year, causing the economy to struggle to stay in positive territory, pressuring California and other states into default, and likely triggering the restructuring of an “insolvent” Bank of America, predicts banking analyst Christopher Whalen.

Whalen says that the data and discussions regarding earnings on bank conference calls lead him to believe that the housing problem is still very much ahead of us. One of the founders of Institutional Risk Analytics, Whalen just published a new book, “Inflated: How Money and Debt Built the American Dream.”

“It’s going to peak next year. We’re not nearly a third of the way through the backlog of foreclosures, in part because the banks, operationally, just couldn’t deal with it,” Whalen said.

Chris Whalen editor of The Institutional Risk Analyst a weekly commentary on the institutions and financial markets that comprise the global political economy

It takes a year for a foreclosed home to work its way through the entire legal process. That means much of the foreclosures making headlines now will not be completed until well into 2011 and perhaps 2012, Whalen said.

Major banks are just now talking about how to add operational capacity to handle the work to come, he said.

“My big concern is that by next year most of the home sales in the United States are going to be involuntary, they’re going to be the result of foreclosures,” Whalen said. “This is going to pull down all the comparable prices for homes that are still performing.”

If that happens, expect the impact on property-tax collection to exacerbate the risk of default among major states, including California, New York, and Illinois.

State spending on pensions and other mandates is going up while revenues are going down or are flat, Whalen said. Sales taxes and property taxes are the two major sources of revenue for a state like California.

“What if we have a down economy next year and we have down real-estate prices? I think you’re going to see a situation where the accumulation of foreclosures is going to start hurting property-tax revenues for cities and counties, and that is going to just snowball,” Whalen said.

As a result of slowing growth and problems like delayed property-tax payments, coupled with a lack of political will to cut spending, Whalen expects a series of sovereign defaults or near defaults in Europe and in the United States.

Whalen said that the United States is living through both inflation and deflation, where real growth isn't happening but prices are rising at the grocery store just the same.

“While we had nominal growth for the last 20 years, for example, we’re not keeping up in real terms,” Whalen said, that is, adjusted for inflation.

As long as foreclosures are a problem, it will be hard for the United States to post positive growth, Whalen said.

Meanwhile, thanks to the foreclosure problem on top of other liabilities, Bank of America is likely to be restructured, wiping out its bondholders, Whalen said.

“I think Bank of America is going to have to be restructured. I think the bondholders at Bank of America, specifically, are going to have to be compelled to convert into equity,” Whalen said.

Bank of America has told the United States that is has completed repayment of its $45 billion bailout under the much-maligned TARP program, reports the Financial Times.

The bank said it was able to raise $3 billion in capital through asset sales, the newspaper reported.

If your worried about foreclosure American Eagle Realty can help you with solid answers about your rights and options before your house is foreclosed on! We are experts in the Short Sale Process and have the experience needed to work with your bank! Contact us we can help, We have helped others we can help you...

American Eagle Realty
www.american-eagle-realty.com
502-969-1801 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              502-969-1801      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              502-969-1801      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              502-969-1801      end_of_the_skype_highlighting