By:John Caulfield
Its formula of offering lease payments for unsold existing homes translated into 543 sales last year for its preferred builder network.
And you thought your salespeople were good.
Joel Parrot, who for the past 18 months has been a “solutions manager” for Marketplace Homes, helped that company’s preferred builders sell 144 new houses in 2011. Parrot was one of at least four of Marketplace’s 22 solutions managers who each negotiated more than 60 purchase agreements with buyers last year.
The Plymouth, Mich.-based Marketplace helped sell 543 homes last year, a 165% increase over 2010. The carrot that Marketplace has been dangling since 2003 to win over prospects is its guarantee of monthly lease payments on their existing homes for up to six years if they purchase a new house from one of the builders in Marketplace’s network. In many cases, those existing homes get rented instead of resold.
Mike Kalis, Marketplace Homes’ managing partner, believes that Parrot’s sales total might have been the highest for any individual seller in the industry last year. “We haven’t found too many other people who sold more than 50 [houses],” he tells Builder.
Parrot, who worked for Pulte for four years, has a master’s degree in real estate development and management. He attributes his success at Marketplace to the company’s leasing strategy. “Nearly every client I deal with feels stuck: They can’t move into a new house because they can’t sell their old home. We unstick them.” He says the majority of new homes he helped sell last year were priced in the low $200s to low $300s.
Parrot says he also benefits from the fact that he’s not tied to selling in just one area. On any given day he’s dealing with between four and six buyers in his two primary markets: Chicago, where he works with 10 builders; and Denver, where he works with four. In the fourth quarter of 2011 alone, Marketplace helped K Hovnanian sell more than 25 homes in Chicagoland, says Kalis.
Marketplace currently works with nearly 40 builders in 36 markets in 18 states. These include nationals such as PulteGroup and Lennar; regional players such as Ashton Woods, Orleans, The Drees Cos., William Ryan Homes, and Taylor Morrison; and market-specific builders such as Lombardo Homes, ICI, Maronda, and Goodall Homes.
Kalis says he’s seeing encouraging signs of improving consumer confidence. But home values in most markets are still a long way from being anywhere close to full recovery. These conditions are why Kalis projects that Marketplace can increase the number of purchase agreements it negotiates to 1,500 homes in 2012. He also predicts that a good number of new-home buyers’ existing houses will be converted to rental properties, some of them permanently.
As for Parrot, he’s shooting for 200 sales this year.
John Caulfield is senior editor for Builder magazine.
URL to original article: http://www.builderonline.com/sales/marketplace-homes-expands-in-weak-markets.aspx?cid=BP:011312:FULL
For further information on Fresno Real Estate check: http://www.londonproperties.com
Friday, January 13, 2012
A Good Rental History Can Help Borrowers
Source: The New York Times
IF you’re planning to buy a home for the first time later this year, your chances of qualifying for a mortgage might be better if you’ve had a history of paying the rent on time.
Last year Experian, one of the three leading credit-reporting companies, added a section to millions of credit reports showing on-time rent payments, and raised the credit scores of many people. The company said that this year it would add in negative marks, including mentions of bounced checks or of tenants’ leaving before a lease was up.
Now two other companies, CoreLogic and FICO, are planning a new credit report and score that incorporates payment histories from landlords, as well as payday and other nontraditional loans, child support and, later on perhaps, utility and mobile phone bills.
“Evidence of positive rental payments could be a plus for consumers,” said Joanne Gaskin, FICO’s director of product management global scoring. Rental history data could show up on one in five of the new CoreScore credit reports, she estimated.
Around 35 percent of households nationwide were renters in 2010, according to the most recent census data, while in parts of New York City, three-quarters or more rent.
Incorporating rental payments into credit scores could affect millions of people who have not established credit histories through credit cards, student loan repayments and other credit sources. That includes recent college graduates, students and some divorced people. “The biggest impact is on individuals who were not previously scoreable,” said Brannan Johnston, the managing director of Experian’s rent bureau.
Almost half of those higher-risk consumers experienced an increase of 100 points or more after their positive rental history was added, Mr. Johnston said. (Those with average or higher scores did not experience major movement.)
CoreLogic said it was too early to show the effects of its new credit report, which began in December. The changes are “intended to allow lenders and consumers to have greater transparency,” said Tim Grace, a senior vice president of CoreLogic, and that could lead to increased lending.
People who have lost their homes to foreclosure and are now leasing may be able to rebuild their credit histories by being “very responsible renters,” Mr. Grace added.
But consumer groups and advocates are skeptical, noting that reports are sometimes riddled with mistakes and some landlord-tenant disputes may be difficult to capture in a credit report. Rent may not have been paid, for example, because the furnace was left unrepaired for months.
Consumers can dispute any information they believe is inaccurate. “We check and recheck all the information,” Mr. Grace said, adding that consumers could order a copy of their new CoreLogic credit reports online.
CoreLogic’s Core Score will cover about 100 million people. The three other major credit reporting companies, which also include Equifax and TransUnion, have reports on 200 million; their reports are available free once every 12 months at annualcreditreport.com. TransUnion collects rental payment information and shares it with landlords, but Experian is the only one of the three so far to add rental history to credit reports.
Experian has mostly major property managers and apartment companies reporting rent histories, via their accounting software. Most small landlords are not, though Experian is considering a system that could allow more independents to report on-time and problem renters.
If your landlord is participating, your rental contract may show up as debts owed on your credit report for up to 12 months, said Maxine Sweet, Experian’s vice president for public education. If your landlord is not yet reporting to Experian or CoreLogic, she added, you can build your own rental history by documenting on-time payments.
URL to original article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/realestate/mortgages-a-good-rental-history-can-help-borrowers.html?_r=2&ref=realestate
For further information on Fresno Real Estate check: http://www.londonproperties.com
IF you’re planning to buy a home for the first time later this year, your chances of qualifying for a mortgage might be better if you’ve had a history of paying the rent on time.
Last year Experian, one of the three leading credit-reporting companies, added a section to millions of credit reports showing on-time rent payments, and raised the credit scores of many people. The company said that this year it would add in negative marks, including mentions of bounced checks or of tenants’ leaving before a lease was up.
Now two other companies, CoreLogic and FICO, are planning a new credit report and score that incorporates payment histories from landlords, as well as payday and other nontraditional loans, child support and, later on perhaps, utility and mobile phone bills.
“Evidence of positive rental payments could be a plus for consumers,” said Joanne Gaskin, FICO’s director of product management global scoring. Rental history data could show up on one in five of the new CoreScore credit reports, she estimated.
Around 35 percent of households nationwide were renters in 2010, according to the most recent census data, while in parts of New York City, three-quarters or more rent.
Incorporating rental payments into credit scores could affect millions of people who have not established credit histories through credit cards, student loan repayments and other credit sources. That includes recent college graduates, students and some divorced people. “The biggest impact is on individuals who were not previously scoreable,” said Brannan Johnston, the managing director of Experian’s rent bureau.
Almost half of those higher-risk consumers experienced an increase of 100 points or more after their positive rental history was added, Mr. Johnston said. (Those with average or higher scores did not experience major movement.)
CoreLogic said it was too early to show the effects of its new credit report, which began in December. The changes are “intended to allow lenders and consumers to have greater transparency,” said Tim Grace, a senior vice president of CoreLogic, and that could lead to increased lending.
People who have lost their homes to foreclosure and are now leasing may be able to rebuild their credit histories by being “very responsible renters,” Mr. Grace added.
But consumer groups and advocates are skeptical, noting that reports are sometimes riddled with mistakes and some landlord-tenant disputes may be difficult to capture in a credit report. Rent may not have been paid, for example, because the furnace was left unrepaired for months.
Consumers can dispute any information they believe is inaccurate. “We check and recheck all the information,” Mr. Grace said, adding that consumers could order a copy of their new CoreLogic credit reports online.
CoreLogic’s Core Score will cover about 100 million people. The three other major credit reporting companies, which also include Equifax and TransUnion, have reports on 200 million; their reports are available free once every 12 months at annualcreditreport.com. TransUnion collects rental payment information and shares it with landlords, but Experian is the only one of the three so far to add rental history to credit reports.
Experian has mostly major property managers and apartment companies reporting rent histories, via their accounting software. Most small landlords are not, though Experian is considering a system that could allow more independents to report on-time and problem renters.
If your landlord is participating, your rental contract may show up as debts owed on your credit report for up to 12 months, said Maxine Sweet, Experian’s vice president for public education. If your landlord is not yet reporting to Experian or CoreLogic, she added, you can build your own rental history by documenting on-time payments.
URL to original article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/realestate/mortgages-a-good-rental-history-can-help-borrowers.html?_r=2&ref=realestate
For further information on Fresno Real Estate check: http://www.londonproperties.com
Thursday, January 12, 2012
NeighborWorks invests $1.3 billion into rental homes
by JON PRIOR
NeighborWorks America, which finances community development around the country, invested more than $1.3 billion in rental housing over its fiscal year ended Sept. 30.
The NeighborWorks network consists of 235 independent nonprofit organizations. It owns or manages more than 90,000 rental homes, according to its latest data. The investment of the last year included more than 5,100 homes and 2,800 apartments NeighborWorks built or purchased.
The organization's CEO Eileen Fitzgerald expects to grow the portfolio past 100,000 rental homes through 2013. It plans to acquire properties and construct some as well. The Washington firm expects additional nonprofits to join its network.
"Government housing budgets at all levels are under stress and the competition for capital priced at rates that make housing accessible for working families, while improved from a year ago, is still a factor in creating quality affordable rental homes for families with modest incomes," Fitzgerald said. "In short, the cost to construct, purchase and refinance homes to ensure tenant affordability remains a challenge."
The NeighborWorks money came from a variety of avenues. Community Housing Capital based in Georgia lends to NeighborWorks and helps it raise funds from other firms. NeighborWorks Capital in Maryland is another loan fund within the network that coordinates with other sources of private dollars such as the Calvert Foundation and the S.H. Cowell Foundation.
Acquiring and managing rental properties is becoming a growing interest. In August, the White House along with the Federal Housing Finance Agency began working on plans to sell large amounts of government-owned, repossessed homes in bulk to investors, who would possibly rent them out. The first transactions are expected in early 2012.
As a result, several firms are building out property management divisions. TenantAccess launched PropertyAccess in August to sell investors systems for management, billing and reporting. Green River Capital, an asset management firm that handles REO for Freddie Mac, also launched an REO rental program in September.
The challenge for these potential investors is gathering enough cash to meet the supply. NeighborWorks said it will continue reaching out to "social investors" to build out its portfolio as borrowing costs have risen and underwriting standards remain tight.
"In one of the toughest markets for securing capital for quality, affordable rental housing, the NeighborWorks network pushed ahead and found the partners they needed to create great housing for families," Fitzgerald said.
URL to original article: http://www.housingwire.com/2012/01/12/neighborworks-invests-1-3-billion-into-rental-homes
For further information on Fresno Real Estate check: http://www.londonproperties.com
NeighborWorks America, which finances community development around the country, invested more than $1.3 billion in rental housing over its fiscal year ended Sept. 30.
The NeighborWorks network consists of 235 independent nonprofit organizations. It owns or manages more than 90,000 rental homes, according to its latest data. The investment of the last year included more than 5,100 homes and 2,800 apartments NeighborWorks built or purchased.
The organization's CEO Eileen Fitzgerald expects to grow the portfolio past 100,000 rental homes through 2013. It plans to acquire properties and construct some as well. The Washington firm expects additional nonprofits to join its network.
"Government housing budgets at all levels are under stress and the competition for capital priced at rates that make housing accessible for working families, while improved from a year ago, is still a factor in creating quality affordable rental homes for families with modest incomes," Fitzgerald said. "In short, the cost to construct, purchase and refinance homes to ensure tenant affordability remains a challenge."
The NeighborWorks money came from a variety of avenues. Community Housing Capital based in Georgia lends to NeighborWorks and helps it raise funds from other firms. NeighborWorks Capital in Maryland is another loan fund within the network that coordinates with other sources of private dollars such as the Calvert Foundation and the S.H. Cowell Foundation.
Acquiring and managing rental properties is becoming a growing interest. In August, the White House along with the Federal Housing Finance Agency began working on plans to sell large amounts of government-owned, repossessed homes in bulk to investors, who would possibly rent them out. The first transactions are expected in early 2012.
As a result, several firms are building out property management divisions. TenantAccess launched PropertyAccess in August to sell investors systems for management, billing and reporting. Green River Capital, an asset management firm that handles REO for Freddie Mac, also launched an REO rental program in September.
The challenge for these potential investors is gathering enough cash to meet the supply. NeighborWorks said it will continue reaching out to "social investors" to build out its portfolio as borrowing costs have risen and underwriting standards remain tight.
"In one of the toughest markets for securing capital for quality, affordable rental housing, the NeighborWorks network pushed ahead and found the partners they needed to create great housing for families," Fitzgerald said.
URL to original article: http://www.housingwire.com/2012/01/12/neighborworks-invests-1-3-billion-into-rental-homes
For further information on Fresno Real Estate check: http://www.londonproperties.com
Foreclosures drop to lowest level since 2007
by JON PRIOR
Banks filed foreclosures on roughly 205,000 homes in December, the lowest monthly total since November 2007, according to RealtyTrac.
The 1.8 million foreclosures for 2011 dropped nearly 35% from 2010.
Unexpected delays kept 2011 numbers from passing the previous year's total as was originally expected. Still, one in every 69 homes received at least one filing.
"Foreclosures were in full delay mode in 2011, resulting in a dramatic drop in foreclosure activity for the year," said Brandon Moore, RealtyTrac's new CEO. "The lack of clarity regarding many of the documentation and legal issues plaguing the foreclosure industry means that we are continuing to see a highly dysfunctional foreclosure process that is inefficiently dealing with delinquent mortgages — particularly in states with a judicial foreclosure process."
Problems arose late in 2010 of improper filings at the state courthouses. Mortgage servicers and third-party firms will spend much of 2012 sorting through any financial harm done to borrowers, and settlement talks with the state attorneys general continue.
Foreclosure timelines vary wildly from state to state. It takes the longest in New York. The foreclosures completed there in the fourth quarter of 2011 took an average 1,019 days to complete, up 37% from the same period one year ago. The next longest was Florida at 964 days.
In Texas, a nonjudicial state, foreclosures took an average of 90 days to complete. The national average for the foreclosure process increased to nearly one year from start to finish: 348 days.
One in 16 Nevada homes received a foreclosure filing in 2011, according to RealtyTrac. It's still the highest foreclosure rate in the country despite dropping 31% from the year before.
Scheduled foreclosure auctions in Arizona dropped 41% from November to December alone. Still, the state registered the second highest foreclosure rate for the third year in a row with one in 24 homes there receiving a filing.
One in 14 homes in Las Vegas received a foreclosure filing in 2011, the highest rate for metro areas of 200,000 population or more. Ten of the top 20 cities were in California, RealtyTrac said.
Moore said lenders showed signs of pushing through the backlogs in the second half of last year.
"We expect that trend to continue this year, boosting foreclosure activity for 2012 higher than it was in 2011, though still below the peak of 2010," he said.
URL to original article: http://www.housingwire.com/2012/01/11/foreclosures-drop-to-lowest-level-since-2007
For further information on Fresno Real Estate check: http://www.londonproperties.com
Banks filed foreclosures on roughly 205,000 homes in December, the lowest monthly total since November 2007, according to RealtyTrac.
The 1.8 million foreclosures for 2011 dropped nearly 35% from 2010.
Unexpected delays kept 2011 numbers from passing the previous year's total as was originally expected. Still, one in every 69 homes received at least one filing.
"Foreclosures were in full delay mode in 2011, resulting in a dramatic drop in foreclosure activity for the year," said Brandon Moore, RealtyTrac's new CEO. "The lack of clarity regarding many of the documentation and legal issues plaguing the foreclosure industry means that we are continuing to see a highly dysfunctional foreclosure process that is inefficiently dealing with delinquent mortgages — particularly in states with a judicial foreclosure process."
Problems arose late in 2010 of improper filings at the state courthouses. Mortgage servicers and third-party firms will spend much of 2012 sorting through any financial harm done to borrowers, and settlement talks with the state attorneys general continue.
Foreclosure timelines vary wildly from state to state. It takes the longest in New York. The foreclosures completed there in the fourth quarter of 2011 took an average 1,019 days to complete, up 37% from the same period one year ago. The next longest was Florida at 964 days.
In Texas, a nonjudicial state, foreclosures took an average of 90 days to complete. The national average for the foreclosure process increased to nearly one year from start to finish: 348 days.
One in 16 Nevada homes received a foreclosure filing in 2011, according to RealtyTrac. It's still the highest foreclosure rate in the country despite dropping 31% from the year before.
Scheduled foreclosure auctions in Arizona dropped 41% from November to December alone. Still, the state registered the second highest foreclosure rate for the third year in a row with one in 24 homes there receiving a filing.
One in 14 homes in Las Vegas received a foreclosure filing in 2011, the highest rate for metro areas of 200,000 population or more. Ten of the top 20 cities were in California, RealtyTrac said.
Moore said lenders showed signs of pushing through the backlogs in the second half of last year.
"We expect that trend to continue this year, boosting foreclosure activity for 2012 higher than it was in 2011, though still below the peak of 2010," he said.
URL to original article: http://www.housingwire.com/2012/01/11/foreclosures-drop-to-lowest-level-since-2007
For further information on Fresno Real Estate check: http://www.londonproperties.com
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
America's robo-recovery
Source: Bloomberg/Business Week
It's a Man vs. Machine Recovery
Companies have been buying technology instead of hiring, and Okun's Law is broken
The U.S. produces almost one-quarter more goods and services today than it did in 1999, while using almost precisely the same number of workers. It’s as if $2.5 trillion worth of stuff—the equivalent of the entire U.S. economy circa 1958—materialized out of thin air.
Although businesses haven’t added many people, they’ve certainly bulked up on machines. Spending on equipment and software hit an all-time high in the third quarter of 2011. “Huge advances in technology have allowed businesses to do more with less,” vaporizing jobs for everyone from steelworkers to travel agents, President Barack Obama warned in December.
So are robots getting all the good jobs? This year may provide the answer as the economy gathers steam. Most economists, cheered by 540,000 hires since Labor Day, say technology inevitably destroys some jobs even as it ultimately creates new ones. But with more than 20 million Americans still jobless or underemployed, others worry that something fundamental has changed. “What’s different now is the speed and scale of what’s happening,” says Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the MIT Center for Digital Business. Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, co-authors of the recently published book Race Against the Machine, argue that the economy is in the early stages of a “Great Restructuring” that is hollowing out the labor market and exacerbating inequality.
Nonsense, say economists including James D. Hamilton of the University of California at San Diego. There’s nothing new about machines replacing people. In 1900, 41 percent of Americans worked on farms. Today, thanks to labor-saving tractors and combines, the figure is less than 2 percent. Yet ex-farm workers found new jobs. And as manufacturing grew leaner in recent decades, factory workers—or their children—migrated to finance, health care, computers, and other growing industries.
“In 2005 the average U.S. worker could produce what would have required two people to do in 1970, what would have required four people in 1940, and would have required six people in 1910,” Hamilton writes in an e-mail. “The result of this technological progress was not higher unemployment but instead rising real wages. The evidence from the last two centuries is unambiguous—productivity gains lead to more wealth, not poverty.”
Americans have fretted about a dystopian future since the first industrial robot (called “Unimate”) started work at a General Motors (GM) plant in Ewing Township, N.J., in 1961. The worries grew more acute last year as the jobs-poor recovery ground on. Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s Hardball, recently ruminated on air about ubiquitous automated kiosks as well as the replacement of “seven or eight cameramen” on his program with machines. “Everywhere we go, it’s robots,” he said.
Google (GOOG) last year unveiled driverless cars. Lionbridge Technologies (LIOX) is taking orders for an automated translation service. Medical device maker Boston Scientific (BSX) is automating its Quincy (Mass.) distribution center, the company’s largest, with robots made by Kiva Systems of North Reading, Mass.
Technology is not just revolutionizing the assembly line. Paralegals can’t match software in accurately searching thousands of documents for specific words or patterns. New software apps easily best journeyman sportswriters at penning routine game wrap-ups. “The era we’re in is one in which the scope of tasks that can be automated is increasing rapidly, and in areas where we used to think those were our best skills, things that require thinking,” says David Autor, a labor economist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
As digital technology spreads, the classic relationship between rising output and rising employment—known as Okun’s Law—now appears to be broken. If the law, which postulates that every 3 percent gain in output should reduce the jobless rate by a percentage point, still applied, then today’s nearly 9 percent rate would be about 1 percent.
Crowded unemployment lines, however, aren’t necessarily a sign that machines are winning a zero-sum fight with humans. The surge of spending on automation and IT systems, for example, is one of the economy’s strongest props. In the third quarter, nonresidential investment, which includes labor-saving machinery, contributed 1.41 percentage points to gross domestic product growth, second only to consumer spending. Lincoln Electric Holdings (LECO), a maker of robotic welding gear, reported $55.5 million in third-quarter profits, up 71 percent from the same period in 2010.
Businesses are spending more on technology now because they spent so little during the recession. Yet total capital expenditures are still barely running ahead of replacement costs. “Most of the investment we’re seeing is simply replacing worn-out stuff,” says economist Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics.
So if machines aren’t responsible for the dearth of jobs, what is? Simple: lack of demand. Industry is using less of its productive capacity today than it did at the low point of the 1990-91 recession, according to the Federal Reserve. “We need a new source of demand,” says MIT’s Autor. “If people aren’t buying stuff, then no one’s hiring workers.”
The prosperous 1990s revealed the power of demand to simultaneously boost employment and spending on machines. Companies binged on new equipment and software in the late 1990s even more than today, yet the unemployment rate averaged 4.4 percent, notes economist Dean Baker of the Center for Economic & Policy Research in Washington, D.C. From the first quarter of 1997 through the end of 2000, even as productivity increased 14 percent, demand for goods and services was so great that the private sector created more than 9 million jobs.
One thing that’s different now: Instead of lifting all boats, as it once did, technology is sorting workers into winners and losers. Over the past three decades job growth has been fastest among high- and low-skill jobs, while mid-skill occupations atrophied, according to economists Jaison Abel and Richard Deitz of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Although the economy created nearly 50 million new nonfarm positions in that period, technology cut the ranks of some workforce mainstays, such as machine operators, by more than half.
Flat-lining living standards and a rich-man, poor-man job market add up to a scary new era. Despite their concerns, Brynjolfsson and McAfee remain “digital optimists.” Eventually, they say, revolutionary technologies will spawn unimagined new businesses and jobs. There’s certainly room for them. By the Congressional Budget Office’s reckoning, total output in the third quarter was 5 percent below potential. That amounts to almost $800 billion of missing demand—enough to occupy both man and machine.
The bottom line: Although machines may appear to get all the good jobs, there’s nothing wrong with the labor market that resurgent demand wouldn’t fix.
URl to original article: http://www.builderonline.com/builder-pulse/america-s-robo-recovery.aspx?cid=BP:011112:JUMP
For further information on Fresno Real Estate check: http://www.londonproperties.com
It's a Man vs. Machine Recovery
Companies have been buying technology instead of hiring, and Okun's Law is broken
The U.S. produces almost one-quarter more goods and services today than it did in 1999, while using almost precisely the same number of workers. It’s as if $2.5 trillion worth of stuff—the equivalent of the entire U.S. economy circa 1958—materialized out of thin air.
Although businesses haven’t added many people, they’ve certainly bulked up on machines. Spending on equipment and software hit an all-time high in the third quarter of 2011. “Huge advances in technology have allowed businesses to do more with less,” vaporizing jobs for everyone from steelworkers to travel agents, President Barack Obama warned in December.
So are robots getting all the good jobs? This year may provide the answer as the economy gathers steam. Most economists, cheered by 540,000 hires since Labor Day, say technology inevitably destroys some jobs even as it ultimately creates new ones. But with more than 20 million Americans still jobless or underemployed, others worry that something fundamental has changed. “What’s different now is the speed and scale of what’s happening,” says Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the MIT Center for Digital Business. Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, co-authors of the recently published book Race Against the Machine, argue that the economy is in the early stages of a “Great Restructuring” that is hollowing out the labor market and exacerbating inequality.
Nonsense, say economists including James D. Hamilton of the University of California at San Diego. There’s nothing new about machines replacing people. In 1900, 41 percent of Americans worked on farms. Today, thanks to labor-saving tractors and combines, the figure is less than 2 percent. Yet ex-farm workers found new jobs. And as manufacturing grew leaner in recent decades, factory workers—or their children—migrated to finance, health care, computers, and other growing industries.
“In 2005 the average U.S. worker could produce what would have required two people to do in 1970, what would have required four people in 1940, and would have required six people in 1910,” Hamilton writes in an e-mail. “The result of this technological progress was not higher unemployment but instead rising real wages. The evidence from the last two centuries is unambiguous—productivity gains lead to more wealth, not poverty.”
Americans have fretted about a dystopian future since the first industrial robot (called “Unimate”) started work at a General Motors (GM) plant in Ewing Township, N.J., in 1961. The worries grew more acute last year as the jobs-poor recovery ground on. Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s Hardball, recently ruminated on air about ubiquitous automated kiosks as well as the replacement of “seven or eight cameramen” on his program with machines. “Everywhere we go, it’s robots,” he said.
Google (GOOG) last year unveiled driverless cars. Lionbridge Technologies (LIOX) is taking orders for an automated translation service. Medical device maker Boston Scientific (BSX) is automating its Quincy (Mass.) distribution center, the company’s largest, with robots made by Kiva Systems of North Reading, Mass.
Technology is not just revolutionizing the assembly line. Paralegals can’t match software in accurately searching thousands of documents for specific words or patterns. New software apps easily best journeyman sportswriters at penning routine game wrap-ups. “The era we’re in is one in which the scope of tasks that can be automated is increasing rapidly, and in areas where we used to think those were our best skills, things that require thinking,” says David Autor, a labor economist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
As digital technology spreads, the classic relationship between rising output and rising employment—known as Okun’s Law—now appears to be broken. If the law, which postulates that every 3 percent gain in output should reduce the jobless rate by a percentage point, still applied, then today’s nearly 9 percent rate would be about 1 percent.
Crowded unemployment lines, however, aren’t necessarily a sign that machines are winning a zero-sum fight with humans. The surge of spending on automation and IT systems, for example, is one of the economy’s strongest props. In the third quarter, nonresidential investment, which includes labor-saving machinery, contributed 1.41 percentage points to gross domestic product growth, second only to consumer spending. Lincoln Electric Holdings (LECO), a maker of robotic welding gear, reported $55.5 million in third-quarter profits, up 71 percent from the same period in 2010.
Businesses are spending more on technology now because they spent so little during the recession. Yet total capital expenditures are still barely running ahead of replacement costs. “Most of the investment we’re seeing is simply replacing worn-out stuff,” says economist Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics.
So if machines aren’t responsible for the dearth of jobs, what is? Simple: lack of demand. Industry is using less of its productive capacity today than it did at the low point of the 1990-91 recession, according to the Federal Reserve. “We need a new source of demand,” says MIT’s Autor. “If people aren’t buying stuff, then no one’s hiring workers.”
The prosperous 1990s revealed the power of demand to simultaneously boost employment and spending on machines. Companies binged on new equipment and software in the late 1990s even more than today, yet the unemployment rate averaged 4.4 percent, notes economist Dean Baker of the Center for Economic & Policy Research in Washington, D.C. From the first quarter of 1997 through the end of 2000, even as productivity increased 14 percent, demand for goods and services was so great that the private sector created more than 9 million jobs.
One thing that’s different now: Instead of lifting all boats, as it once did, technology is sorting workers into winners and losers. Over the past three decades job growth has been fastest among high- and low-skill jobs, while mid-skill occupations atrophied, according to economists Jaison Abel and Richard Deitz of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Although the economy created nearly 50 million new nonfarm positions in that period, technology cut the ranks of some workforce mainstays, such as machine operators, by more than half.
Flat-lining living standards and a rich-man, poor-man job market add up to a scary new era. Despite their concerns, Brynjolfsson and McAfee remain “digital optimists.” Eventually, they say, revolutionary technologies will spawn unimagined new businesses and jobs. There’s certainly room for them. By the Congressional Budget Office’s reckoning, total output in the third quarter was 5 percent below potential. That amounts to almost $800 billion of missing demand—enough to occupy both man and machine.
The bottom line: Although machines may appear to get all the good jobs, there’s nothing wrong with the labor market that resurgent demand wouldn’t fix.
URl to original article: http://www.builderonline.com/builder-pulse/america-s-robo-recovery.aspx?cid=BP:011112:JUMP
For further information on Fresno Real Estate check: http://www.londonproperties.com
As Eurozone crisis mounts, searches for U.S. real estate safe havens grow
Source: Wall Street Journal
Web traffic to a U.S. real-estate website jumped in the fourth quarter from countries at the center of the euro-zone crisis, suggesting that low prices could be luring foreign and domestic buyers alike.
But looking at home listings online is a long way from actually buying a new house, so the bump could be fleeting, fueled by Greeks and Italians admiring photos of Florida condos instead of reading more depressing financial news. Foreign buyers can play a significant role in a few U.S. markets such as Miami, but frequently searched cities such as New York and Los Angeles are unlikely to be altered by this traffic uptick.
The online traffic was measured by Trulia, a San Francisco-based company that aggregates U.S. real-estate listings and provides other real-estate analysis. Trulia only started tracking data on international visitors to its site in 2011, meaning it’s not possible to see how past crises might have affected Web traffic.
While Trulia saw an increase in traffic from Greece and Italy (and, to a lesser degree, Spain), clicks on its website were down from other European countries, led by a steep decline from the Netherlands. And some of those other countries, including Ireland, have seen their fair share of trouble from the debt crisis.
Guessing what’s behind the Web traffic is, to a certain extent, just that: Trulia doesn’t know the demographic makeup of the users other than where they are located. In other words, it might be someone who considers the U.S. market a safe bet, or just as easily someone waiting for prices to drop further.
European countries also have housing problems of their own. The Economist recently pointed out that several markets still appear to be overvalued by about 25% or more, including Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Spain — among others. As the Economist said, U.S. home prices look cheap in comparison.
Of course, as The Journal has written, falling prices in some European housing markets could make it a good time for American buyers fortunate enough to be looking for a vacation villa on the Continent.
URL to original article: http://www.builderonline.com/builder-pulse/as-eurozone-crisis-mounts--searches-for-u-s--real-estate-safe-havens-grow.aspx?cid=BP:011112:JUMP
For further information on Fresno Real Estate check: http://www.londonproperties.com
Web traffic to a U.S. real-estate website jumped in the fourth quarter from countries at the center of the euro-zone crisis, suggesting that low prices could be luring foreign and domestic buyers alike.
But looking at home listings online is a long way from actually buying a new house, so the bump could be fleeting, fueled by Greeks and Italians admiring photos of Florida condos instead of reading more depressing financial news. Foreign buyers can play a significant role in a few U.S. markets such as Miami, but frequently searched cities such as New York and Los Angeles are unlikely to be altered by this traffic uptick.
The online traffic was measured by Trulia, a San Francisco-based company that aggregates U.S. real-estate listings and provides other real-estate analysis. Trulia only started tracking data on international visitors to its site in 2011, meaning it’s not possible to see how past crises might have affected Web traffic.
While Trulia saw an increase in traffic from Greece and Italy (and, to a lesser degree, Spain), clicks on its website were down from other European countries, led by a steep decline from the Netherlands. And some of those other countries, including Ireland, have seen their fair share of trouble from the debt crisis.
Guessing what’s behind the Web traffic is, to a certain extent, just that: Trulia doesn’t know the demographic makeup of the users other than where they are located. In other words, it might be someone who considers the U.S. market a safe bet, or just as easily someone waiting for prices to drop further.
European countries also have housing problems of their own. The Economist recently pointed out that several markets still appear to be overvalued by about 25% or more, including Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Spain — among others. As the Economist said, U.S. home prices look cheap in comparison.
Of course, as The Journal has written, falling prices in some European housing markets could make it a good time for American buyers fortunate enough to be looking for a vacation villa on the Continent.
URL to original article: http://www.builderonline.com/builder-pulse/as-eurozone-crisis-mounts--searches-for-u-s--real-estate-safe-havens-grow.aspx?cid=BP:011112:JUMP
For further information on Fresno Real Estate check: http://www.londonproperties.com
Mortgage applications rise 4.5%
by KERRI PANCHUK
Mortgage applications edged up 4.5% last week when compared to a week earlier, an industry trade group said Wednesday.
The Mortgage Bankers Association released its market composite index, which shows applications up 4.5%.
Refinancing activity also grew with the refinance index increasing 3.3% from a week earlier. The purchase index also grew 8.1%, while the unadjusted purchase index is now 41.9% higher than last year.
Refinancing activity overall represented 80.8% of all new mortgage applications, down from 81.9% a week earlier.
Interest rates still remain well below 5% with the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage with a conforming loan limit edging up to 4.11%, compared to 4.07% a week ago.
The average interest rate on a 30-year, FRM with a jumbo-loan balance declined to 4.34% from 4.41% the previous week. The average 30-year, FRM backed by the FHA remained unchanged at 3.96%.
In addition, the 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage increased to 3.40% from 3.37%, while the 5/1 ARMs rate declined to 2.90% from 2.91% last week.
URL to original article: http://www.housingwire.com/2012/01/11/mortgage-applications-jump-4-5
For further information on Fresno Real Estate check: http://www.londonproperties.com
Mortgage applications edged up 4.5% last week when compared to a week earlier, an industry trade group said Wednesday.
The Mortgage Bankers Association released its market composite index, which shows applications up 4.5%.
Refinancing activity also grew with the refinance index increasing 3.3% from a week earlier. The purchase index also grew 8.1%, while the unadjusted purchase index is now 41.9% higher than last year.
Refinancing activity overall represented 80.8% of all new mortgage applications, down from 81.9% a week earlier.
Interest rates still remain well below 5% with the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage with a conforming loan limit edging up to 4.11%, compared to 4.07% a week ago.
The average interest rate on a 30-year, FRM with a jumbo-loan balance declined to 4.34% from 4.41% the previous week. The average 30-year, FRM backed by the FHA remained unchanged at 3.96%.
In addition, the 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage increased to 3.40% from 3.37%, while the 5/1 ARMs rate declined to 2.90% from 2.91% last week.
URL to original article: http://www.housingwire.com/2012/01/11/mortgage-applications-jump-4-5
For further information on Fresno Real Estate check: http://www.londonproperties.com
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Mortgage modifications fall short of previous year
by JON PRIOR
Mortgage servicers are on track to modify far fewer loans in 2011 than the previous year, according to the most recent data provided by the Hope Now alliance formed by these firms and others in the industry.
Through November, servicers modified roughly 969,000 mortgages through both private initiatives and the administration's flagship Home Affordable Modification Program. The 639,000 private workouts nearly double the 330,000 under HAMP.
Servicers completed 84,000 permanent modifications in November, up 6.3% from the month before.
With the December data yet to be released, the 2011 total currently stands just more than half of the 1.76 million modifications completed in 2010.
In November, foreclosure starts doubled the amount of modifications completed. Servicers started 166,000 in November, down from 209,000 the month before. Through the first 11 months of 2011, nearly 2.1 million foreclosure starts were reported. The total will likely fall short of the more than 2.6 million starts for all of 2010.
The slowdown across almost all servicer duties will result in a delayed recovery in housing. The amount of delinquent mortgages isn't subsiding, according to Lender Processing Services (LPS: 15.38 -0.39%) data. More than 7% of all outstanding mortgages in the U.S. are overdue by more than 90 days. The rate hasn't changed for the past six months.
But the slowdown itself is a result of several missteps by the servicers themselves, most notably the robo-signing scandal and constant paperwork problems. Consent orders signed in April with federal regulators forced servicers to install single points of contact and ended the practice of foreclosing on borrowers who are in the modification process.
Other shifts occurred. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are aligning servicing guidelines. Federal agencies are constructing national servicing standards. State and local governments are passing new laws and ordinances changing decades-old foreclosure rules.
Hope Now Executive Director Faith Schwartz said delinquencies have come down from the heights of nearly 4 million mortgages more than 60 days past due. She said the slowdown in assistance has been the result of an entire industry shift.
"Clearly, a combination of regulatory consent orders, litigation, mediation extended timelines adds to the timeframe a solution takes place," Schwartz said Tuesday. "As a reminder, we will exceed 1 million modifications this year which is still a material and important impact on foreclosure prevention. So we continued to be pleased with the focus and energy on helping homeowners keep their homes. "
Hope Now said several homeowner events are in the final stages of planning across the country. In the first quarter, the group will host gatherings in Charlotte, N.C.; Miami; Tampa, Fla.; Las Vegas; Sacramento, Calif.; and Los Angeles.
"There are more alternatives to foreclosure than ever before for homeowners through federal programs, proprietary modifications, and state level initiatives such as Hardest Hit Funds," Schwartz said. "Mortgage servicers and non-profit, housing counselors are using all tools at their disposal to find options that fit each individual homeowner’s situation whenever possible."
URL to original article: http://www.housingwire.com/2012/01/10/mortgage-modifications-in-2011-to-fall-short-of-previous-year
For further information on Fresno Real Estate check: http://www.londonproperties.com
Mortgage servicers are on track to modify far fewer loans in 2011 than the previous year, according to the most recent data provided by the Hope Now alliance formed by these firms and others in the industry.
Through November, servicers modified roughly 969,000 mortgages through both private initiatives and the administration's flagship Home Affordable Modification Program. The 639,000 private workouts nearly double the 330,000 under HAMP.
Servicers completed 84,000 permanent modifications in November, up 6.3% from the month before.
With the December data yet to be released, the 2011 total currently stands just more than half of the 1.76 million modifications completed in 2010.
In November, foreclosure starts doubled the amount of modifications completed. Servicers started 166,000 in November, down from 209,000 the month before. Through the first 11 months of 2011, nearly 2.1 million foreclosure starts were reported. The total will likely fall short of the more than 2.6 million starts for all of 2010.
The slowdown across almost all servicer duties will result in a delayed recovery in housing. The amount of delinquent mortgages isn't subsiding, according to Lender Processing Services (LPS: 15.38 -0.39%) data. More than 7% of all outstanding mortgages in the U.S. are overdue by more than 90 days. The rate hasn't changed for the past six months.
But the slowdown itself is a result of several missteps by the servicers themselves, most notably the robo-signing scandal and constant paperwork problems. Consent orders signed in April with federal regulators forced servicers to install single points of contact and ended the practice of foreclosing on borrowers who are in the modification process.
Other shifts occurred. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are aligning servicing guidelines. Federal agencies are constructing national servicing standards. State and local governments are passing new laws and ordinances changing decades-old foreclosure rules.
Hope Now Executive Director Faith Schwartz said delinquencies have come down from the heights of nearly 4 million mortgages more than 60 days past due. She said the slowdown in assistance has been the result of an entire industry shift.
"Clearly, a combination of regulatory consent orders, litigation, mediation extended timelines adds to the timeframe a solution takes place," Schwartz said Tuesday. "As a reminder, we will exceed 1 million modifications this year which is still a material and important impact on foreclosure prevention. So we continued to be pleased with the focus and energy on helping homeowners keep their homes. "
Hope Now said several homeowner events are in the final stages of planning across the country. In the first quarter, the group will host gatherings in Charlotte, N.C.; Miami; Tampa, Fla.; Las Vegas; Sacramento, Calif.; and Los Angeles.
"There are more alternatives to foreclosure than ever before for homeowners through federal programs, proprietary modifications, and state level initiatives such as Hardest Hit Funds," Schwartz said. "Mortgage servicers and non-profit, housing counselors are using all tools at their disposal to find options that fit each individual homeowner’s situation whenever possible."
URL to original article: http://www.housingwire.com/2012/01/10/mortgage-modifications-in-2011-to-fall-short-of-previous-year
For further information on Fresno Real Estate check: http://www.londonproperties.com
Monday, January 9, 2012
Foreclosure victory pays little for Reno man
Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal
If you told Emiliano Pasillas that he would be making history when he bought his new house in 2006, he likely would have a different kind of history in mind.
"My family and I used to live in a condominium before we moved to our new home," Pasillas said. "So this was the first house that I ever bought. I just felt wonderfully happy when we first moved in. It's our dream house."
Five years after buying his Reno home, however, Pasillas made a different kind of history. In July 2011, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled in his favor after determining that lender HSBC Bank did not negotiate in good faith during two foreclosure mediation sessions with Pasillas.
Along with the case of Southern Nevada resident Moises Leyva, which also reached the state Supreme Court, Pasillas' case set a precedent for the Nevada Foreclosure Mediation Program.
More specifically, both cases affirmed the need for banks and lenders to do their due diligence during foreclosure mediations with distressed borrowers who are trying to keep their homes. Otherwise, they will face sanctions for negotiating in bad faith.
The mediation program was created in 2009 after Assembly Bill 149 was passed by the Nevada Legislature.
"It was one of two seminal cases" defining how the foreclosure mediation program works, Reno lawyer Geoffrey Giles said.
"Prior to those cases, all we had was a statute that was very vague and gave broad discretion to judges. We had no guidance, which these two cases gave us. They're really quite important and shifted the direction of the foreclosure mediation process."
HOLLOW VICTORY
Today, however, Pasillas' victory at the state Supreme Court rings hollow.
Before appealing to the Supreme Court, Pasillas' petition for a judicial review was denied by District Judge Patrick Flanagan, who authorized foreclosure proceedings to move forward against the homeowner.
After the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Reno resident, his case was remanded back to Washoe County District Court.
There, Flanagan reached a new judgment in November, ordering another round of mediation for Pasillas.
Flanagan also sanctioned HSBC to pay for all mediation costs plus an additional $2,500 to be payable to Washoe Legal Services, a nonprofit that provides legal services to low-income county residents. That meant Pasillas could not use the money to pay his lawyer.
The decision was just about the most lenient interpretation of the state Supreme Court opinion, which gave the District Court leeway to impose tougher penalties on the bank, Reno lawyer Keith Tierney said.
"That decision is not normal," Tierney said. "What's normal is to have the prevailing party request sanctions with attorney's fees going to the homeowner. At least that's what you see in the East Coast, where courts have been coming down strongly on the side of homeowners in cases like this."
Giles also thought the judgment against HSBC was lighter than he expected, given the latitude provided by the state Supreme Court decision for sanctions.
"The Supreme Court reversed the District Court decision and imposed sanctions" on HSBC, Giles said. "A new mediation isn't much of a sanction."
Pasillas' lawyer Terry Thomas was particularly critical of Flanagan's order. Such a light sanction won't serve as a deterrent for banks that do not negotiate in good faith at foreclosure mediations, Thomas said.
"This sanction is a perpetual do-over, plus a few bucks to charity, which (the lender) can deduct as a contribution to a 501c3," Thomas said.
"Paying $2,500 isn't even a slap on the wrist for the banks. This order means simply that banks may do absolutely anything in bad faith at the mediation ... because there basically are no sanctions. It makes mediation a farce."
NOT ONLY PRECEDENT
Flanagan made some history of his own in early 2011 after coming down hard on Wells Fargo in the case of a Reno couple, Duke and Tina Renslow.
Flanagan used a provision in Nevada's foreclosure mediation law to modify Duke Renslow's mortgage, setting his payment to $1,145 a month and reducing his interest rate for the life of the note to 2 percent.
It was the first time a Nevada District Court judge used the provision, which is being challenged by lenders as unconstitutional.
At the time, lawyers such as Giles and Tierney lauded Flanagan's decision, calling it a game-changer for the foreclosure mediation program.
With other mediation-related cases scheduled to appear before Flanagan in District Court, lawyers wonder what kind of judgment they will get: one more in line with Pasillas or one that's closer to the Renslow case.
"That's the $64,000 question," Giles said. "On what basis does it go either way?"
A MATTER OF FAITH
In court documents explaining his decision, Flanagan cited an extraordinary display of bad faith by the bank as the reason he modified the Renslow mortgage.
Duke Renslow said he was meticulous in keeping records, including records and correspondence from the bank that proved his claims.
Meanwhile, Pasillas remains stuck in a quagmire that started back in 2008 after he lost his job.
Later that year, Pasillas stopped making house payments because his lender said he couldn't qualify for a loan modification unless he was late on his mortgage.
These days, Pasillas works part-time at a church, Iglesia de Cristo Miel, where he is a pastor. Pasillas already has paid $3,000 to his lawyer for his initial case.
He intends to pay Thomas the remaining $3,000 in legal fees he owes him for the services provided during his appeal.
Pasillas is puzzled that he did not get his legal fees reimbursed after the state Supreme Court ruled in his favor.
Given that his first two mediations failed because the bank did not bring the required paperwork both times, Pasillas worries the same thing will happen in his upcoming mediation.
The mediation will take place either this month or in February.
For now, Pasillas' hope is to get his payments lowered to $1,400 per month. With his $340,000 mortgage debt ballooning to $450,000 after late fees and penalties, however, he is uncertain about his prospects.
Meanwhile, his wrecked credit will make searching for an apartment tough if he loses his home, Pasillas said.
All he wants is for his family to get a chance to stay in their home, Pasillas said.
"I got a wife and six kids and this is our first house. We love this house. We love this neighborhood. Hopefully, we can continue to raise our kids here."
URL to original article: http://www.housingwire.com/2012/01/09/foreclosure-victory-pays-little-for-reno-man
For further information on Fresno Real Estate check: http://www.londonproperties.com
If you told Emiliano Pasillas that he would be making history when he bought his new house in 2006, he likely would have a different kind of history in mind.
"My family and I used to live in a condominium before we moved to our new home," Pasillas said. "So this was the first house that I ever bought. I just felt wonderfully happy when we first moved in. It's our dream house."
Five years after buying his Reno home, however, Pasillas made a different kind of history. In July 2011, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled in his favor after determining that lender HSBC Bank did not negotiate in good faith during two foreclosure mediation sessions with Pasillas.
Along with the case of Southern Nevada resident Moises Leyva, which also reached the state Supreme Court, Pasillas' case set a precedent for the Nevada Foreclosure Mediation Program.
More specifically, both cases affirmed the need for banks and lenders to do their due diligence during foreclosure mediations with distressed borrowers who are trying to keep their homes. Otherwise, they will face sanctions for negotiating in bad faith.
The mediation program was created in 2009 after Assembly Bill 149 was passed by the Nevada Legislature.
"It was one of two seminal cases" defining how the foreclosure mediation program works, Reno lawyer Geoffrey Giles said.
"Prior to those cases, all we had was a statute that was very vague and gave broad discretion to judges. We had no guidance, which these two cases gave us. They're really quite important and shifted the direction of the foreclosure mediation process."
HOLLOW VICTORY
Today, however, Pasillas' victory at the state Supreme Court rings hollow.
Before appealing to the Supreme Court, Pasillas' petition for a judicial review was denied by District Judge Patrick Flanagan, who authorized foreclosure proceedings to move forward against the homeowner.
After the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Reno resident, his case was remanded back to Washoe County District Court.
There, Flanagan reached a new judgment in November, ordering another round of mediation for Pasillas.
Flanagan also sanctioned HSBC to pay for all mediation costs plus an additional $2,500 to be payable to Washoe Legal Services, a nonprofit that provides legal services to low-income county residents. That meant Pasillas could not use the money to pay his lawyer.
The decision was just about the most lenient interpretation of the state Supreme Court opinion, which gave the District Court leeway to impose tougher penalties on the bank, Reno lawyer Keith Tierney said.
"That decision is not normal," Tierney said. "What's normal is to have the prevailing party request sanctions with attorney's fees going to the homeowner. At least that's what you see in the East Coast, where courts have been coming down strongly on the side of homeowners in cases like this."
Giles also thought the judgment against HSBC was lighter than he expected, given the latitude provided by the state Supreme Court decision for sanctions.
"The Supreme Court reversed the District Court decision and imposed sanctions" on HSBC, Giles said. "A new mediation isn't much of a sanction."
Pasillas' lawyer Terry Thomas was particularly critical of Flanagan's order. Such a light sanction won't serve as a deterrent for banks that do not negotiate in good faith at foreclosure mediations, Thomas said.
"This sanction is a perpetual do-over, plus a few bucks to charity, which (the lender) can deduct as a contribution to a 501c3," Thomas said.
"Paying $2,500 isn't even a slap on the wrist for the banks. This order means simply that banks may do absolutely anything in bad faith at the mediation ... because there basically are no sanctions. It makes mediation a farce."
NOT ONLY PRECEDENT
Flanagan made some history of his own in early 2011 after coming down hard on Wells Fargo in the case of a Reno couple, Duke and Tina Renslow.
Flanagan used a provision in Nevada's foreclosure mediation law to modify Duke Renslow's mortgage, setting his payment to $1,145 a month and reducing his interest rate for the life of the note to 2 percent.
It was the first time a Nevada District Court judge used the provision, which is being challenged by lenders as unconstitutional.
At the time, lawyers such as Giles and Tierney lauded Flanagan's decision, calling it a game-changer for the foreclosure mediation program.
With other mediation-related cases scheduled to appear before Flanagan in District Court, lawyers wonder what kind of judgment they will get: one more in line with Pasillas or one that's closer to the Renslow case.
"That's the $64,000 question," Giles said. "On what basis does it go either way?"
A MATTER OF FAITH
In court documents explaining his decision, Flanagan cited an extraordinary display of bad faith by the bank as the reason he modified the Renslow mortgage.
Duke Renslow said he was meticulous in keeping records, including records and correspondence from the bank that proved his claims.
Meanwhile, Pasillas remains stuck in a quagmire that started back in 2008 after he lost his job.
Later that year, Pasillas stopped making house payments because his lender said he couldn't qualify for a loan modification unless he was late on his mortgage.
These days, Pasillas works part-time at a church, Iglesia de Cristo Miel, where he is a pastor. Pasillas already has paid $3,000 to his lawyer for his initial case.
He intends to pay Thomas the remaining $3,000 in legal fees he owes him for the services provided during his appeal.
Pasillas is puzzled that he did not get his legal fees reimbursed after the state Supreme Court ruled in his favor.
Given that his first two mediations failed because the bank did not bring the required paperwork both times, Pasillas worries the same thing will happen in his upcoming mediation.
The mediation will take place either this month or in February.
For now, Pasillas' hope is to get his payments lowered to $1,400 per month. With his $340,000 mortgage debt ballooning to $450,000 after late fees and penalties, however, he is uncertain about his prospects.
Meanwhile, his wrecked credit will make searching for an apartment tough if he loses his home, Pasillas said.
All he wants is for his family to get a chance to stay in their home, Pasillas said.
"I got a wife and six kids and this is our first house. We love this house. We love this neighborhood. Hopefully, we can continue to raise our kids here."
URL to original article: http://www.housingwire.com/2012/01/09/foreclosure-victory-pays-little-for-reno-man
For further information on Fresno Real Estate check: http://www.londonproperties.com
Presidential candidates must address housing
by KERRI PANCHUK
The sky has been falling on housing for four years, and the 2012 presidential election cycle continues to be defined by arguments over the same namby-pamby sound bytes that defined U.S. elections before the housing crisis.
But don't bother sending an SOS to the leaders of the free world. They just don't get it.
The candidates have largely avoided this issue; and the president has tip-toed over it. A few months ago, the president told the public many of their fellow Americans are underwater on their mortgages. Really?
The Federal Reserve – even though it's not exactly popular itself – has been dropping subtle hints about housing to the president, Congress, the candidates and anyone who will listen.
Federal Reserve Board Governor Elizabeth Duke recently reiterated Chairman Ben Bernanke's plea for a focus on housing. Duke suggested overly restrictive lending standards, low consumer confidence and falling home prices remain major concerns. Indeed, investors of residential mortgage-backed securities refuse to jump back into a nascent private-label market until sounder, clearer securitization structures and practices are in place.
After all, these are true capitalists, and they need sound rules to play the game.
But what do we get from the presidential contenders? Honestly, very little detail on housing or what they will do with the mortgage finance space. Do they support bulk REO sales to clear the inventory of REOs held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? What about Bernanke's call for a national rental program? No one knows because no one is talking about it in their platforms in a forward-looking way.
Telling the American people one's thoughts on housing may be dangerous territory with RMBS litigation exploding and former GSE executives on the opposite end of a Securities and Exchange Commission suit. Then there are millions of homeowners who have already lost their homes to foreclosure with nearly 2 million behind in their payments. Servicers initiated an average of more than 200,000 foreclosure starts every month in 2011, according to statistics through the month of November, according to Lender Processing Services. (LPS: 15.44 -1.97%).
While staying alive on the campaign trail often means living without specifics, it's time for the president and the candidates to provide a comprehensive, well-thought out housing and mortgage market plan.
Make it specific: Does the Corker plan to wind down the GSEs make sense or do you have another idea to get private-label moving again? What about reps and warranties issues? How would you handle the foreclosure backlog and the shadow inventory? What about underwater borrowers and tighter lending standards? Do you support the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?
A leader who can discuss these issues intelligently is one who has the potential to capture attention. Times have changed. People are awake … and housing needs help.
SOS
Is anyone listening?
URL to original article: http://www.housingwire.com/2012/01/06/can-the-presidential-candidates-look-to-the-future-of-housing
For further information on Fresno Real Estate check: http://www.londonproperties.com
The sky has been falling on housing for four years, and the 2012 presidential election cycle continues to be defined by arguments over the same namby-pamby sound bytes that defined U.S. elections before the housing crisis.
But don't bother sending an SOS to the leaders of the free world. They just don't get it.
The candidates have largely avoided this issue; and the president has tip-toed over it. A few months ago, the president told the public many of their fellow Americans are underwater on their mortgages. Really?
The Federal Reserve – even though it's not exactly popular itself – has been dropping subtle hints about housing to the president, Congress, the candidates and anyone who will listen.
Federal Reserve Board Governor Elizabeth Duke recently reiterated Chairman Ben Bernanke's plea for a focus on housing. Duke suggested overly restrictive lending standards, low consumer confidence and falling home prices remain major concerns. Indeed, investors of residential mortgage-backed securities refuse to jump back into a nascent private-label market until sounder, clearer securitization structures and practices are in place.
After all, these are true capitalists, and they need sound rules to play the game.
But what do we get from the presidential contenders? Honestly, very little detail on housing or what they will do with the mortgage finance space. Do they support bulk REO sales to clear the inventory of REOs held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? What about Bernanke's call for a national rental program? No one knows because no one is talking about it in their platforms in a forward-looking way.
Telling the American people one's thoughts on housing may be dangerous territory with RMBS litigation exploding and former GSE executives on the opposite end of a Securities and Exchange Commission suit. Then there are millions of homeowners who have already lost their homes to foreclosure with nearly 2 million behind in their payments. Servicers initiated an average of more than 200,000 foreclosure starts every month in 2011, according to statistics through the month of November, according to Lender Processing Services. (LPS: 15.44 -1.97%).
While staying alive on the campaign trail often means living without specifics, it's time for the president and the candidates to provide a comprehensive, well-thought out housing and mortgage market plan.
Make it specific: Does the Corker plan to wind down the GSEs make sense or do you have another idea to get private-label moving again? What about reps and warranties issues? How would you handle the foreclosure backlog and the shadow inventory? What about underwater borrowers and tighter lending standards? Do you support the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?
A leader who can discuss these issues intelligently is one who has the potential to capture attention. Times have changed. People are awake … and housing needs help.
SOS
Is anyone listening?
URL to original article: http://www.housingwire.com/2012/01/06/can-the-presidential-candidates-look-to-the-future-of-housing
For further information on Fresno Real Estate check: http://www.londonproperties.com
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