The Duke Warner Market Trends and Bratton Reports have hit the Streets and Spring is Just Ahead…

You would never know it from today’s weather with temperatures in the mid sixty degree range. It is suppose to still be winter snowy and cold just like our friends to the east of us. There have been plenty of cyclist, runners, hikers and skiers out taking full advantage of this beautiful weather. It is days like today make you feel blessed to be in Central Oregon.

Both the Duke Warner Market Trends and Bratton Reports are available either through the link provided or you can go to my website shopbendhomes.com. The Bratton Report is showing a drop in the median price of a home in Bend for the month. Looking at this month’s Duke Warner Report we see a drop in the amount of sales in the $225,000 - $325,000 price range, this is the culprit in for the drop in the median price. I believe this to be a temporary drop as the number of pending sales in this grouping has increase by approximately the same amount that sales fell.  Overall the numbers are very similar to the month before and are very strong considering the time of year.

A problem for the next two to three months will be our lack of inventory. To help in relieving this builders have been pulling new home permits at a rate not seen until July of 2007. By early summer a good portion of these homes will hit the market and provide some relief. While consumer confidence is growing there are a good many homeowners that are not comfortable with the price their home will bring. The distressed homeowner’s property, a component that feed the market for so long, still remains on the sideline.  

There are a good number of distressed homes that have either been foreclosed on or are waiting to be processed as a foreclosed home. These homes have been missing from our inventory since last summer.  The main culprit in slowing down these homes from being processed is Oregon Senate Bill 1552. SB1552 requires lien holders to arbitrate with distressed homeowners to work out a solution/option to the foreclosure. The loan servicers have moved to the much slower judicial foreclosure process to evade the requirements of the bill.

The legislation is currently working on a revised version of SB1552 that will encompass the judicial process as well. I believe this new legislation will only continue to slow down the process. Our legislators are well intended but they are too late. Had they left the process that had been in place alone we would have a more stable inventory of homes and would be well on our way to working through the distressed inventory.

It will be interesting to see what spring brings; there are already rumblings of interest rates rising though out the summer. This might be the catalyst for bringing more homes to the market, as homeowners move off of the fence and make the decision to find that new place to call home with super low interest rates.     

 

Duke Warner Realty Market Trends Report for Bend, Oregon September 2012…

Across the board fewer is the key word for this Septembers Duke Warner Realty Market Trends Report.


The Bend market as a whole saw a dramatic decrease in the number of new listings that came into the market this past month. September dropped to 115 new listings the third fewest new listings to enter the market in the past three years. To contrast there have been upwards of 180 new properties entering the market every month since last March.

Sold and pending sales numbers for the month of September also cooled off a bit from the previous months. The $325,000 - $525,000 price range experienced a 46% decline from the previous month. This same class of properties had fewer new and active listings. This drop may be attribute to tighter underwriting standards for mortgages making it harder for folks to qualify for funding of these purchases. With the difficult time financing their next purchase, these same buyers are reluctant to put their current homes on the market.


In the still smokin’ hot $125,000 - $225,000 market there appears to be more cash buyers who are investors that do not have the same issues in funding. These cash buyers have been making it a challenge for first time home buyers to purchase due to the slower timeline of having to involve their lender. The homes in this class make a lot of sense to investors as they pencil out well for rental properties which remain in high demand.


A continued decrease in the number of available distressed properties will only add to the current inventory woes. The number of bank owned homes in Bend that have been recorded with Deschutes County is at the lowest point in the last twelve months of 73 properties. This number has been on a constant decline since January of this year. In tandem with this number is the decrease in the number of homes entering foreclosure, this while the number of rescissions for Notices of Default has doubled from the previous months. This trend may attributed to the failure of Oregon SB 1552 to gain traction with the larger lenders and recent circuit court rulings requiring lenders to document the chain of title.


Coming up in a few days will be the Bratton Report for the Bend real estate market, I would expect that that report will reflect the same trends as found here in the Duke Warner Realty Market Trends Report.

Feel free to contact me for a more thorough discussion about today’s real estate market in Bend and how it could affect your decisions to enter the market now or in the future.

Summer Has Finally Arrived on the High Desert…

While the rest of the nation has been sweltering for months Central Oregon is arriving to the party a little late but in grand style. After a false start right after the Fourth of July we have been enjoying days in the mid-eighties while cooling off in the evenings to the high 40’s or low 50’s. This has made attending our many outside events like our Farmer’s Markets, Chris Isaak or Counting Crows concerts and the low key “Alive After 5” concert series in the Old Mill district quite enjoyable.


Not late to the party is our local real estate market. We continue to see improvement across the board. Reviewing our Duke Warner Market Trends Report shows the market under $300,000 remains the hottest with almost 70% of the homes sold in July being in this category. Include in this category are homes under $225,000 which remain most sought after properties with first time homebuyers and investors squaring off against each other to compete for these properties.

To illustrate, the other day a client submitted an offer on home in the mid-one hundred thousand range only to find that they were one of thirteen offers. This was the third time within the month that they had missed out on a home. Not to worry this week they were successful in their bid to find a home, out bidding several other parties.

It is interesting to see the lag in perception to reality. Many folks who have been waiting to time the bottom of the market are now finding that they have missed the mark by several months. Most are surprised at how difficult it is to find a good property at the bargain pricing they have been hearing about for the last several years. Undaunted they continue to seek out their bargain property amongst a limited inventory.

Several are still waiting in the wings for the much vaunted shadow inventory. There is no doubt that there are number of distressed properties that lenders have not processed. Are their numbers significant enough to cause the market to shift once again? Probably not, lenders appear to process these properties as fast as they can, leaving a fairly stable number of homes on the market at any one time.

Complicating the picture is the recent enactment of Oregon Senate Bill 1552. This bill requires larger lenders to offer “foreclosure avoidance measures” including mediation between the lender and the borrower. The lender is required to provide a substantial amount of documentation as to the history of the loan, something that is not easily done in today’s world of tranching the loans into smaller parcels to be securitized for investors. The advent of this bill will most likely delay the inevitable for most distressed properties, eventually they will find their way to the market. The likelihood of this being a tidal wave of properties hitting the market is slim. Once they find their way to market the market conditions are likely to be more favorable for the seller.

The popular refrain of folks who missed the buying opportunities of the last downturn was “I wish I would have bought property when the market was down…” will once again be a popular refrain of those missing the opportunities of today’s market. Will you be one those who could of, would have or should have? Do not be one of those folks, contact me soon to discuss today’s market…

Mortgage Help for some of the Hardest Hit…

As most of us know the recession has hit Oregon especially hard. Oregon is hardly unique in this suffering and is one of 17 states to receive assistance from the U.S. Treasury Department to help those in need.


Coming December 10th the Oregon Homeownership Stabilization Initiative (OHSI) is going to be offering a Mortgage Payment Assistance program. This will be the first of several assistance programs to be offered through OHSI. The program is intended to help financially troubled homeowners avoid foreclosure. In Oregon it is anticipated that 5,000 unemployed or financially distressed homeowners will receive assistance by covering their mortgage payments for one year or up to $20,000 whichever comes first.

Visit http://www.oregonhomeownerhelp.org/ to get more information and take the eligibility test for the program. To stay informed on OHSI offerings make sure that you sign up for their newsletter.

Could this be a step in the right direction….

Bank of America announced a new program that will forgive up to 30% of the principal for those owing more than 120% of the value of their home. The program is slated to start this May is in response to a settlement reached with the commonwealth of Massachusetts regarding the type of loan modifications Bank of America could make on their Countrywide portfolio. And it may be a preemptive move to the Washington State suit that Bank of America is not doing enough to modify underwater loans.


While principal reduction has been practiced sparingly on a case to case basis by other large lenders, the Bank of America program will be more wide spread, yet focused to one group of its client base. Applying to only borrowers who have loans generated by Countrywide Financial will be eligible. Of those borrowers only the riskiest loans will be considered. You know the breed; option adjustable-rate, subprime and prime loans with a low initial fixed rate then annual increases. Bank representatives say there are approximately 45,000 loans in the portfolio that qualify. The average reduction will be in the $62,000 range.

Other qualifications are similar to those for a standard loan modification, you also must have missed at least two consecutive payments and be able to demonstrate that you are in financial hardship. Ones loan must have a balance of 120% of the estimated home value.

Once you qualify the program will reduce the principal balance and place the determined amount in an interest free account. For every five year period that you make your payments the bank will forgive a little more of the principal balance until the balance has reached the 100% loan to value ratio. To protect Bank of Americas interests should the homes price recover in the fourth or fifth year to the loan balance the forgiveness to the interest free account would stop and would have to be paid off when the home is sold or the home is refinanced.

Now before you run out and call your Bank of America representative you should know that it will be Bank of America that will reach out to you should you qualify for this program. While this is not ideal it could be a step in the right direction in providing relief that makes sense.

Help is coming for distressed property owners…

Are you one of the legions who for a myriad of reasons need to sell your home and have found that your equity has evaporated? Has your lender sent a notice letting you know that foreclosure may be in your future? Have you explored your options and determined that a short sale is your best avenue of retreat? Have you dreaded the long drawn out and uncertain process of the short sale? Help could be right around the corner, that is if your loans are backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac and your lender is one of those who have volunteered for the program.


The federal government’s Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative program (or HAFA) is set to start providing relief to qualifying homeowners starting April 5 running through December 31, 2012. HAFA establishes short sale rules and incentivizes borrowers and lenders to work together to avoid foreclosure. The new guidelines will have the borrowers receiving preapproved short sale terms from their lenders before they put the home on the market. The predefined steps will make the process easier to understand for all involved in the sale.

The first step is to determine your loan is backed by either Fannie or Freddie. This can be done by going to http://loanlookup.fanniemae.com/loanlookup/ or https://ww3.freddiemac.com/corporate/. If you have a loan back by either you can then apply for a home loan modification through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov/. If you are backed and you do not qualify for a home loan modification or you have started the loan modification process and have missed a payment during the trial modification period you will qualify for the HAFA program.

A few more stumbling blocks include:

• That you are delinquent or you will be defaulting in the near future,

• You can demonstrate that you have a hardship,

• The home is your principal residence,

• Your mortgage was originated before January 1, 2009,

• Your monthly housing payments exceed 31% of your gross income,

With the new HAFA rules, if you do not qualify for a home loan modification your lenders will have to offer you a short sale within thirty days. You the borrower will then have fourteen days to respond to the lenders short sale agreement.

Once an offer to purchase has been made you and your broker will have three days to submit the offer to the lender along with the buyers’ mortgage pre-approval letter. Should there be any other liens on the property you will need to include the status of negotiations with those lien holders. Once all has been submitted the lender will have ten days to approve or deny the offer.

One of the great benefits of the program is the requirement that the lenders release you from any further obligation to repay the difference between the balance of the loan and the sale amount. The ability of the lenders to pursue deficiency judgments has been a black cloud over many a short sale. Lenders (or the collection agencies that they sell the bad debt to) have the ability to pursue a deficiency judgment for up to ten years and in some cases up to twenty years. They can do this because in a short sale the terms of the loan have been modified and the foreclosure process is avoided. No foreclosure means no protect by state foreclosure statues (a discussion for another time).

To get more lenders on board HAFA provides incentives for second mortgages lien holders, up to $3000. While this may not seem like much when tens of thousands may be owed on a note it is far better than the big goose egg they would have received previously. Not forgetting the role that loan servicers play in moving the short sale process along HAFA offers them up to $1000. HAFA also offers the mortgage investors who agree to share the short sale proceeds with the second lien holder up to $1000. And last but not least HAFA provides up to $1500 to assist the homeowner in relocating.

If sounds like a good fix for you and you would like help in navigating this process, call or email me. I would love to provide you with some relief.

Will your lender be seeking a deficiency judgment against you ….

The other day I was interviewing with a prospective client about their distressed property and the options available to them. After researching their options on the internet they were confused about whether a lender has the right to pursue a deficiency judgment against them if they were to short sell their home. Not wanting to go through the ordeal of selling their home only to have the unresolved debt stall their fresh start they asked for my take on the subject.


The first recommendation was that they seek professional counsel from a qualified real estate attorney and CPA. I then shared some of the research that the Oregon Realtors legal hotline had recently provided its members. The hotline offered that currently in Oregon since the short sale of a property is a voluntary modification of terms of the loan agreement, the new agreement can contain any terms the parties agree to. In a voluntary modification like a short sale the deficiency is the unpaid balance of the note. A note holder can sue in court for the unpaid balance of the note unless the maker of the note bargains for and gets “full satisfaction” of the note. Should the borrower get only the note holders verbal agreement to waive their lien and not foreclose that would leave the borrower exposed for the unpaid balance.

To get “full satisfaction” the borrower needs to ask for it!! Otherwise the lender is allowed to waive their lien on the property, forego foreclosure and continue to hold the note as an unsecured debt. Since the note is no longer secured by the property and has become a personal debt, the lender is no longer bound by the foreclosure laws of Oregon. The lender is now free to pursue a judicial judgment for the unsecured debt. In Oregon the statue of limitations for pursuing a judgment is ten years, with the possibility of an extension for another ten years. Just when you thought you would be rebuilding your credit in the next two to four years this dog could be following you around for the next ten years if you do not ask for and receive in writing “full satisfaction” to your lien.

You like the home but wish it had newer kitchen, larger bedrooms or a newer roof….

You have been searching and have found a property you really like but it needs a little love or maybe the rooms are too small and you want to expand them to make it the home you desire. Since 1978 HUD has provide a program design specifically for the buyer who is has found a home they like but needs some immediate attention. The program is designed to help provide a loan package for you to purchase and rehabilitate a home that has been completed for at least one year. The beauty of the program is that it rolls both the purchase price and renovation costs into one loan with a down payment as low as 3.5%.


There are two versions of this program available 203(k) and the 203(k) streamline. Both offer a loan to value rate maximum of 96.5% on the purchase and 110% on the renovation. The streamline program offers fewer restrictions, in this program there is no minimum renovation expense but it does have a capped at $35,000. All properties must be appraised prior to the loan and a value must be determined for the work to be performed. All work done must start within thirty days of closing and be completed within six months of closing. If you can keep your costs down to $15,000 no inspection of the completed work is required.

There are limits to the scope of work that can performed, slab granite counter tops won’t make the grade but a new roof, new appliances, upgrades to heating/cooling systems, flooring, new windows and much more are acceptable.

Ask your mortgage broker to explain the full benefits of how this program can benefit you! If your broker is unfamiliar with the program contact me and I would be glad refer you to a mortgage specialist who is familiar with all aspects of this great program.

I’ve fallen, can you help me find my way!

Are you like many of my clients where the last few years have not been kind to your finances? Do you owe more on your home than what it would sell for in today’s market? Have you been exploring your options; loan modification, deed-in-lieu, short sale, foreclosure or gutting it out and wait for the market value to return? With such a dizzying array of choices, all with serious repercussions, where should you start?

Seeking the wisdom of professionals well versed in today’s ever changing real estate landscape is your best chance to make the best of an unfortunate situation. Real estate agents/brokers are on frontline in this battle and can help provide direction and insight to current market conditions but few are licensed to practice law or give financial advice. The advice of a real estate attorney and a certified public accountant is essential to mapping out a strategy that could affect your finances for the next twenty years.

While most folks who find themselves in this ever evolving nightmare cannot begin to afford a $275 an hour attorney or accountant, there is alternative help available. Here are a few contacts to start with; Legal Aid Services of Oregon, LASO, 541-385-6944 for the Bend office or visit their web site at http://www.lasoregon.org/. Another option is Free Legal Aid at http://www.usattorneylegalservices.com/; this website will refer you to LASO, but also has a lot of good resources that will help depending on what path you take. The Free Legal Aid site has good examples of a sample hardship letter, debt settlement letter and more. Last but not least there is Neighbor Impact their mission is to help the economically disadvantaged in our area. Neighbor Impact offers mortgage default counseling amongst several other financial counseling programs. They can be reached at 541-548-2380 or visit their website at http://www.neighborimpact.org/.

No matter the path you chose, start your journey by collecting and organizing your financial information. Being prepared to provide the most intimate details of your finances will lessen the stress involved in discussing and planning your exit strategy.

You will need to collect a list of your income, assets and liabilities. Two months is the standard for providing pay stubs, bank, mortgage and other monthly statements. Have complete tax returns for the last two years at the ready. In your packet include all correspondence from your lender(s) pertaining to foreclosure of your property; if you have received a Notice of Default include it too. Rounding out your information packet, draft a letter that describes why you are in financial hardship. To say that your house is no longer of the value it once was will not suffice as a reason for your hardship, though it may be a large contributor to your situation.

Mentally prepare yourself for journey of twist and turns that will take months and possibly years to complete. Be strong as all things do pass and life will get better.