Tag Archives: Home Sales

North Dakota is the 27th state to restrict home resale fees, also known as ""private transfer fees."" Governor Jack Dalrymple recently signed bill SB 2149 to ban them. Private transfer fees require that a private third party receive a percentage of the final sale price of a home every time the property is sold, typically for 99 years.

An industry study released Monday shows that nearly half of home sales activity last month involved distressed properties, a trend that is likely to continue as the backlog of foreclosures and mortgage defaults make their way through the pipeline. Within this distressed property segment, the market analysis shows a boom in short sales during the month of March to a record-high 19.6 percent, and a drop in the proportion of damaged REO, which the report says should be a positive for home values in future months.

While the share of distressed sales - REOs and short sales - is on the rise when tallying numbers nationwide, it's falling in California. The California Association of Realtors reports that the total ratio of all distressed property types sold statewide declined in March to 51 percent, down from 56 percent in February. REOs sold last month went for 88 percent less than non-distressed properties, while short sales had a median discount of 41 percent.

Freddie Mac is offering a $1,000 selling agent bonus on its REO homes in the Las Vegas area, for which an offer is received by May 16, with escrow closed by July 1. REO buyers are getting an incentive too. Freddie Mac will pay up to 3.5 percent of the closing cost on purchases that meet the offer and escrow deadlines outlined above. Some homes will also come with a two-year limited home warranty.

Greg Rand, a 20-year real estate veteran and CEO of OwnAmerica, says now is the time to invest in real estate. Rand compares the current market to the years following the Great Depression when market conditions sparked a boom that sustained 65 years of appreciation in real estate. ""It is true that this is a once-in-a-generation crisis. It is also true that this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. It's time to focus on the other side of the coin,"" according to Rand.

The National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday that sales of previously owned homes rose 3.7 percent last month, following the 9.6 drop recorded in February. The results were slightly better than forecast, but reaction was mixed after the release of the report. One economist says sales have now stabilized at a level no higher than that seen during the recession, and with so many forced foreclosed sales, a recovery is not even on the horizon. But another points out that it's distressed properties that are helping to elevate sales activity as investors line up for a bargain.

Distressed homes - typically REOs and short sales - accounted for 40 percent of the existing homes sold in March, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Wednesday. The trade group notes that these properties generally sell at discounts in the vicinity of 20 percent. Their large market share served to dampen the median existing-home price. For all housing types, it came in at $159,600 in March, down 5.9 percent from March 2010. Overall, sales of previously owned homes rose 3.7 percent last month as the spring buying season began to take hold.

Foreclosure sales accounted for roughly 43 percent of home sale closings in the Twin Cities metropolitan area of Minnesota last month, and 40 percent of pending home sales contracts. While those market shares are in line with recent trends, Brad Fisher, president of the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors, says they're still higher than what he'd like to see. While overall purchase activity in March was down 17 percent, the foreclosure segment saw a 30 percent jump in closed sales.

Freddie Mac forecasts a 5 percent increase in 2011 home sales over 2010, according to its U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook for April. The expected pick-up in home sales is due to recent positive employment reports, including gains in the real estate sector. The GSE's outlook also contends that refinancing will likely account for a smaller share of loan applications later this year as wealthy borrowers decrease and mortgage rates increase.

Fannie Mae announced Monday that borrowers purchasing a Fannie Mae-owned property through HomePath, the GSE's REO disposition operation, will receive up to 3.5 percent in closing cost assistance. The company has implemented this temporary buyer assistance program fairly regularly since the beginning of last year -- a strategy aimed at helping the GSE unload a bloated supply of repossessed homes. Fannie Mae acquired 262,078 single-family REO properties through foreclosure in 2010, compared with 145,617 in 2009.