Not only are homeowners in Western states dealing with the rising possibility or even fight against wildfires, they are also fighting insurance companies and their ever-increasing requirements for fire insurance. “The situation is reminiscent of recent trends on the East and Golf coasts, where millions of homeowners lost coverage because of insurers’ worries about rising property losses from hurricanes. Unlike in the East, however, few Western homeowners have been forced into their states’ high-risk pools, officials say. Instead, many homeowners living in hazardous areas face fewer choices in residential coverage and are being told to fire-safe their homes.” Continue Reading…
Not a surprise, the developers of a 1,230 unit apartment building in Manhattan’s Harlem district may default on the $225 million mortgage it holds. If it does it will mark “one of the housing bust’s largest collapses of a New York City residential development.” Continue Reading…
It appears that Freddie Mac’s chief executive Richard Syron dismissed initial warnings of the impending mortgage mess and real estate crisis at hand. Had the warning resulted in some sort of action, he may have been able to protect Freddie Mac from the current problems it is facing. But can we really blame him? Continue Reading…
Cities in Ohio leads the pack: Youngstown, Canton, Dayton, and Cleveland suffering the most from the real estate crisis. Continue Reading…
Foreclosures and short sales have been one of the leading reasons behind falling home prices, which have been an increasing worry over the past couple years. “Banks price homes to sell,” said Patrick Newport, real estate economic with Global Insight, a forecasting firm. “When demand for home drops, ordinary sellers will take their homes off the market, let them sit or reduce their prices in small increments. But banks will slash prices to where the homes will sell quickly.” This combined with suffering economic conditions results in a lack of homebuyers with people either not “wealthy” enough to buy a home or too scared altogether. Continue Reading…
It appears that the real estate crisis that has gripped our nation doesn’t leave anyone out. In the recent months past we have seen many a famous name in the papers with “foreclosure” stamped on their pictures. Read on for these celebs and others facing real estate difficulty. Continue Reading…
In the latest round of financial difficulties banks have begun freezing homeowners’ existing lines of credit. Oftentimes with no more notice than a letter in the mail. This action began due to the fact that many homes have suffered from declining values and increasing mortgage defaults.
For homeowners that believe their properties are averse to falling home values they can contact their bank and argue their case. Worst case if for any reason their equity line check bounces they may be reimbursed with the property proof of fee. Continue Reading…
Yet another blow to Countrywide’s stable and “spotless” reputation.
“The Florida attorney general on Monday [June 30, 2008] filed a civil lawsuit against Countrywide Financial Corp. and its chief executive, Angelo Mozilo, alleging the company engaged in deceptive and unfair trade practices. The lawsuite, filed in state court in Broward County by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, alleges that Countrywide put borrowers into mortgages they couldn’t afford or loans with rates and penalties that were misleading. It seeks civil penalties and damages.”
Think anything will come of it?
The real estate crunch has produced some useful websites and resources in today’s information highway.
Nowadays with so many homeowners renting out their homes after failed attempts to sell, it has been difficult figuring out ways to find the right tenant. After all there is a reason not everybody could enter the field of real estate investment with apartments and investment properties — not only was capital not so easy to access, it was hard to tell the difference between a really good “liar” and a genuinely good tenant. Now a website called RentBureau.com is offering landlords a way to screen potential tenants and for the most part, be able to tell whether or not it’s a good idea to rent to them. It takes into consideration the tenants’ past history with renting or home owning and is able to give you a score to rate them — 900 and above is good and 850 and below is considered “risky.” However this service is not free. It costs $9.95 per inquiry in addition to a one-time $10 set up fee.
Just keep in mind that this site is relatively new and is not comprehensive. If you are a landlord looking to find more information about your potential tenant there are many other steps to take besides just relying on RentBureau.com for a report. Remember to pull credit from all three credit bureaus, check criminal and sex-offender registries, and if possible run a background check on the individual.
We’ve seen it everywhere else: the consequences of a real estate market crisis. But Manhattan seemed to be the one place that was in its own little world. Not anymore. Sales records show that the sale of new and existing properties in New York is beginning to fall and the real estate market in the Big Apple is beginning to soften.
Despite falling sales numbers, it appears that the median price range for highly-sought after units in the city are still on the rise. High-end apartments and condos, new and existing, are still rising in comparison to the sales prices of last year. Continue Reading…
