Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Highest Increase in 3 years for Orlando homes

As I look around my neighborhood, I have noticed an upward shift in sales and price.  It's great to see that the upward swing is being felt throughout Central Florida: 

November’s median price for existing homes in Orlando was $129,000, up 12 percent compared to last year, and the midpoint price reached its highest level in three years, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

The Orlando Regional Realtor Association reported that its members sold 2,430 houses last month – a 20 percent increase from the year-ago period – and the average interest rate paid by homebuyers in Orlando was 3.47 percent compared to 4.1 percent in November 2011.

To read the Orlando Sentinel article, click here.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Delinquency Rates Down in Third Quarter

Our commercial lenders, buyers, and sellers have been hit hard over the last few years.  However, over the last few months, we have noticed commercial projects starting back up along 17-92 in Orlando and Winter Park.  A good sign that the economy is improving.  

The following press release from Mortgage Bankers' Association  continues the good news for all of us:
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 6, 2012) – Delinquency rates decreased for commercial and multifamily mortgage loans in the third quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Commercial/Multifamily Delinquency Report. 



“Commercial and multifamily mortgage delinquency rates for loans held by life companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac all remain extremely low,” said Jamie Woodwell, MBA’s Vice President of Commercial Real Estate Research. “The delinquency rate on bank-held loans is at its lowest level since the beginning of 2009 and the delinquency rate for loans held in commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) – while still elevated – continues to stabilize. If one removes the CMBS loans that are in foreclosure or REO, that delinquency rate is at its lowest since late 2009.” 



During the third quarter of 2012, the 60+ day delinquency rate for commercial and multifamily mortgages held in life company portfolios decreased 0.03 percentage points to 0.12 percent. The 60+ day delinquency rate for multifamily loans held or insured by Fannie Mae decreased 0.01 percentage points to 0.28 percent. The 90+ day delinquency rate for loans held by FDIC-insured banks and thrifts decreased 0.18 percentage points to 2.93 percent. The 30+ day delinquency rate for loans held in commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) decreased 0.11 percentage points to 8.86 percent. The 60+ day delinquency rate for multifamily loans held or insured by Freddie Mac remained the same at 0.27 percent.

The third quarter 2012 delinquency rate for commercial and multifamily mortgages held in life insurance company portfolios was 7.41 percentage points lower than the series high (7.53 percent, reached during the second quarter of 1992). The delinquency rate for multifamily loans held by Freddie Mac was 6.54 percentage points lower than the series high (6.81 percent, reached in the fourth quarter of 1992). The delinquency rate for multifamily loans held by Fannie Mae was 3.34 percentage points below the series high (3.62 percent, reached during the fourth quarter of 1991). The rate for commercial and multifamily mortgages held by banks and thrifts was 3.65 percentage points lower than the series high (6.58 percent, reached in the second quarter of 1991). The rate for loans held in CMBS was 0.16 percentage points below the series high (9.02 percent, reached in the second quarter of 2011).

Please note: In March 2012, MBA released a DataNote covering the performance of commercial and multifamily mortgages at commercial banks and thrifts over the entire year 2011. The DataNote found that commercial and multifamily mortgages had the lowest charge-off rates of any major loan type and had delinquency rates lower than the overall book of loans and leases held by banks and thrifts. The DataNote can be found at:  www.mortgagebankers.org/research.

Construction and development loans are not included in the numbers presented here, but are included in many regulatory definitions of ‘commercial real estate’ despite the fact that they are often backed by single-family residential development projects rather than by office buildings, apartment buildings, shopping centers or other income-producing properties. The FDIC delinquency rates for bank and thrift held mortgages reported here do include loans backed by owner-occupied commercial properties.

The MBA analysis looks at commercial/multifamily delinquency rates for five of the largest investor-groups: commercial banks and thrifts, commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), life insurance companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Together these groups hold more than 80 percent of commercial/multifamily mortgage debt outstanding.

The analysis incorporates the same measures used by each individual investor group to track the performance of their loans. Because each investor group tracks delinquencies in its own way, delinquency rates are not comparable from one group to another.

Based on the unpaid principal balance (UPB) of loans, delinquency rates for each group at the end of the third quarter were as follows:

• Life company portfolios: 0.12 percent (60 or more delinquent);
• Freddie Mac:  0.27 percent (60 or more days delinquent);
• Fannie Mae:  0.28 percent (60 or more days delinquent);
• Banks and thrifts:  2.93 percent (90 or more days delinquent or in non-accrual);
• CMBS:  8.86 percent (30 or more days delinquent or in REO).

Differences between the delinquency measures are detailed in Appendix A.
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To view the report, please visit the following Web link: click here

Friday, December 7, 2012

Short Sales outpace Foreclosures

This recent news story is not a surprise to our office.  Our clients, both homeowners and banks, have been more successful and willing over the last year to "work it out" instead of pursuing the court ordered sale.  That is not to say that numbers are not still high in Florida for foreclosure-related sales.  Currently, RealtyTrac says Arizona continues to log the most foreclosure-related sales at 34% followed by Nevada (31%), Florida (26%), Illinois (24%) and Michigan (24%).

To view the official link, click here.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) – Dec. 6, 2012 – Sales of U.S. homes facing foreclosure are on the rise and outpacing sales of bank-owned homes, a reflection of stepped-up efforts this year by lenders to avoid foreclosing on homes with mortgages gone unpaid.

In the third quarter, sales of homes already in the foreclosure process jumped 22 percent compared to the previous quarter and a year earlier, foreclosure tracker RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

Short sales, when a lender agrees to accept less than what the homeowner owes on their mortgage, accounted for 65 percent of those so-called preforeclosure sales in the quarter, the firm said.

Banks have become more amenable to short sales as an alternative to foreclosure, which can often end up leading to bigger losses, and mire lenders and borrowers in a time-consuming and expensive process.

“More and more, they’re seeing that they’re going to lose less by approving a short sale than by dealing with the foreclosure process,” said Daren Blomquist, a vice president at RealtyTrac.

Attempts to fast-track that process, particularly in states where the courts must sign off on foreclosures, led to allegations last year that many banks and mortgage servicers processed foreclosures without verifying documents. Five of the biggest U.S. banks agreed in February to pay $25 billion to settle the claims as part of a deal with federal and state officials.

In the months since, the banks have increasingly used short sales as a way to provide mortgage relief to borrowers.

The lenders have reported that they provided $26 billion in home-loan relief between March 1 and Sept. 30, with about half of that stemming from short sales.

Some banks, like JPMorgan Chase & Co., have been giving borrowers financial incentives to pursue a short sale. Others are trying to speed up the transactions, which in years past could easily take six months or more before being finalized.

“A lot of the banks right now are setting the expectation that it will take about 60 days to process, some even faster,” said Jenna Smith, a listing agent for real estate website Redfin in Chicago. “In prior years I’ve had them drag out for nine to 12 months.”

Banks also have been approving short sales for borrowers who have yet to enter the foreclosure process.

These types of short sales increased by 15 percent in the third quarter versus the previous three months, and were up 22 percent from the third quarter of last year, RealtyTrac said.

As short sales and other preforeclosure sales have become more common, they have begun to outpace sales of bank-owned homes.

Some 98,125 homes in some stage of foreclosure were sold in the third quarter, while 94,934 bank-owned homes were sold in the same period. Preforeclosures have outnumbered sales of bank-owned homes through the first nine months of the year, RealtyTrac said.

Sales of bank-owned homes rose 19 percent versus the second quarter, but fell 20 percent from a year earlier.

All told, foreclosure sales totaled 193,059 in the July-to-September period, an increase of 21 percent from the second quarter, but a drop of 3 percent from a year earlier, RealtyTrac said.

Despite the growth in short sales, foreclosure sales made up a slightly smaller share of all U.S. home sales in the third quarter. They accounted for 19 percent of all residential sales, down from 20 percent in the previous quarter, and unchanged from the third quarter of 2011.

Buyers who purchased a bank-owned home or a preforeclosure property in the third quarter got a bigger discount relative to other types of homes.

The average price of a foreclosure sale in the third quarter was 32 percent below the average sale price of non-foreclosure homes, RealtyTrac said.

That’s up from a 29 percent discount in the second quarter and a 31 percent discount in the third quarter of 2011.

Homebuyers who purchased a foreclosure sale in the third quarter paid an average of $177,430. That’s down 4 percent from the second quarter and up 3 percent from a year earlier.
AP Logo Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press, Alex Veiga, AP real estate writer.