Give yourself $8000 for Christmas!

Buy a house for Christmas

If you're a First Time Home Buyer and have been waiting for the right time to buy a home, there may never be a better time. You know that interest rates are the lowest in 40 years, homes everywhere are affordable. Plus Uncle Sam is giving you $8000 to do something you wanted to do anyway.

So what are you waiting for?

Most First Time Home Buyers will tell you there is "no inventory" and they have to make multiple offers and are competing with 10-20 other First Time Home Buyers on every home.

According to the Wall Strreet Journal, Santa may be right around the corner.

WSJ sees foreclosure tidal wave

In a lead story, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) paints a dismal picture of the housing market in 2010. 

Uncertainty over the extension of a home-buyer tax credit sent new-home starts in October crashing down a full 10.6% from September, and starts of single-family houses fell 6.8%.   That's the lowest level since April, the Commerce Department said.

This news suggests that foreclosures are not only going to keep rolling in, but that they may actually increase. 

Richard Dugas,  chief executive of Pulte Homes Inc., the nation's largest home builder, warned investors: "As we look out to 2010, we are expecting difficult conditions to continue." 

Wednesday's data prompted some economists to revise their fourth-quarter forecasts down slightly. Macroeconomic Advisers moved its GDP estimate down to 3% from 3.2% and Nomura Securities predicts 3.4% growth, down from 3.6%. The data adds to the suggestion "that the recovery is a little bit rickety," said Zach Pandl, an economist from Nomura.  Given that 3.4% of U.S. households -- or about 1.9 million homeowners -- are 120 days or more overdue on their payments, and that millions of homes are expected to go through foreclosure over the next few years, adding to supply, it's a fair bet that foreclosure problem won't be gone anytime soon.
Rememeber to take advantage of the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit of $8000 you have to have an executed purchase contract by April 30, 2010 and closed by June 30.
Greg Cook
First Time Home Buyers Network
phone: 951-265-4532
fax: 951-848-9419
email: greg@homebuyerhelpnetwork.com
blog: http://firsttimehome.us:

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Stop Foreclosure - 10 must know items

Foreclosure Self-Defense For Dummies

By Ralph R. Roberts, Lois Maljak, and Paul Doroh, with Joe Kraynak

　

If you or someone you know is having trouble paying the monthly mortgage payment or has received a foreclosure notice or notice of default, the clock is ticking. The sooner you take action, the more options you have and the more time you have to pursue them.

Here are more steps you should be taking to avoid foreclosure.

4.Banks and other lending institutions do not want to foreclose. They make more money if you can make your payments. When they foreclose, they not only lose your monthly payments, but they also have the expense of foreclosing, rehabbing the home, and then selling it. There's a good chance they'll have to sell the home at a loss. This is all good news for you – it means the bank is highly motivated to make a deal with you.

5. If you own the home with your spouse or life partner, tell them immediately. Far too many people try to keep their partner in the dark. Eventually, the person will find out. It's always better if they find out from you earlier rather than from someone else when they have little or no time to do anything about it. Couples who work as a team almost always see much better results.

6. Call your lender – the sooner, the better. As soon as you stop making payments, the foreclosure clock starts ticking. The earlier you know your options, the more time you have to pursue those options.

7. Pursuing a too-good-to-be-true quick fix with a con artist is the absolute worst course of action. As soon as the notice of default or foreclosure notice is published (they are public knowledge), legitimate investors as well as con artists will try to contact you. If you choose to work with someone who contacts you, check their credentials and make sure they are legitimate.

You're usually better off working directly with your lender or a reputable professional – attorney, credit counselor, or real estate agent.

For more Help for Homeowners, visit our website: http://www.firsttimehome.us

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Help for Homeowners - Important Short Sale Information

The Saturday front page of our local newspaper (The Californian) announced a new short sale program from Wachovia Bank that is designed to provide incentives to Wachovia mortgage holders to sell their houses short rather than just letting them go into foreclosure.
Homeowners with Wachovia Mortgages who are upside down on their home can get 1% of the sales price with a minimum of $2500. The money is only payable after closing.
Wachovia is promoting the program quietly by inviting real estate agents to seminars run by employees from the bank’s short sale unit. The seminars will be coming to Southern California early next year.
Wachovia seems to be the leader in promoting short sales as an alternative to foreclosure. They have already reduced the amount of paperwork required for a short sale approval and look for them to streamline the process even further.
Short sales are the future of most local markets. If Wachovia (Wells) experiences success with their program you can expect the other banks to follow with their own “streamline” programs.

BofA (Countrywide) has already announced “equator” their automated short sale process.
Until the economy goes into a “real recovery” and homeowners are able to build some equity, short sales will be the rule rather than the exception.
REOs? There have always been and will continue to be REOs, but with the lenders taking aggressive steps to prevent foreclosures by stepping up their short sale processes, it’s easy to see short sales replacing REOs as the leading source of inventory.
 

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Help for First Time Home Buyers - Relief in sight?

First Time Home Buyers across the country have become extremely frustrated by the "lack of inventory" of bank owned homes.

The news reports hundreds of thousands of bank owned homes but the reality has First Time Home Buyers bidding against ten to twenty other FTHBs for each foreclosed home.

It appears the "shadow inventory" is lurking again and next year may see a significant increase in bank owned homes which should help calm the feeding frenzy.

Shadow inventory lurking in foreclosures

 

Diana Olick has some thoughts about foreclosures after noticing that the Treasury's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) status report this morning omitted information on how many of the 650,000 borrowers are keeping up with the payments on their trial modifications. 

She cites Lender Processing Services, which is a huge mortgage data aggregate, and suggests the news is not good:  "LPS' October Mortgage Monitor also cites large "shadow" foreclosure and REO inventories. The number of loans deteriorating further into delinquent status is now more than twice the number of foreclosure starts, indicating another major wave of troubled loans in an already clogged loan pipeline.

Nearly one-third of foreclosures remain in pre-sale status after 12 months - twice as many as the year prior. The six-month average deterioration ratio has risen the past two months to 300 percent, showing that for every loan that improves in status, three more deteriorate further." 

She also cites Howard Glaser, an expert on the expanding subprime lending crisis:  "What I am most worried about is March and April of next year. 

What happens to a housing market that seems like it is finding its footing at that point?  Because several things will happen simultaneously: 

You've got the option ARM resets beginning to kick in, you have the home buyer tax credit expiring, maybe for  real that time, and you have the Federal Reserve maybe running out of money to buy mortgage-backed securities. If we add on top of that, banks beginning to release some of this inventory,which they have been holding on to for a long time, those three items are potentially very destabilizing to the  marketplace."

What does it all mean? Of course time will tell, but it seems likely there will be a increase in inventory at the beginning of the year and a rush of First Time Home Buyers looking to close before the $8000 tax credit expires.

First Time Home Buyers should not overlook the fact that "the Federal Reserve maybe running out of money to buy mortgage-backed securities." The Fed's purchase of mortgage backed securities has stabilized that market and kept rates at historic levels this year. If they get out of the market, rates will undoubtedly increase, which would negate the savings you might get from waiting to buy your first home at a lower price! 
Greg Cook
First Time Home Buyers Network
phone: 951-265-4532
fax: 951-848-9419
email: greg@homebuyerhelpnetwork.com
blog: http://firsttimehome.us:

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1 in 20 to buy a home next year- Will you be one?

Poll - 1 in 20 will buy a home next year

• According to a survey conducted for Move Inc., one in twenty Americans say they plan to buy a home within the next year, and they're most likely to be 34 years old or younger and living in the South or West. 
• A quarter of potential buyers said the No. 1 reason they would buy now is because prices have bottomed out.
• That reason topped bargain-priced foreclosures, worries about rising interest rates and a wide selection of homes. 
• The percentage of buyers thinking of jumping into the market was down slightly from a March survey, but up about 1 point from a poll in June. 
• Home prices rebounded this summer at an annualized pace of almost 7 percent, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index, but with high unemployment and foreclosures, economists debate whether prices will dip again. 
• Those surveyed widely favored federal policies that kept interest rates low and helped troubled homeowners avoid foreclosure over those that helped first-time homebuyers purchase a home.
• And, overall, 48 percent of those polled didn't think the government was doing enough to stabilize the housing market, whereas 42 percent thought it was.
• Forty-five percent of Americans worry that they or someone they know will face foreclosure in the next year.
• And almost 30 percent of those with a mortgage have contacted their lender in the past year to reduce their payments.

For more valuable First Time Home Buyer information visit our website: http://firstimehome.us

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Bank of America can't hide from YouTube

I know many of you have been involved in short sales involving BofA/Countrywide and found them to be “dazed and confused”. Well here’s the story (with video) of one borrower who got sick of the run around and did something about it. If you like it, please share it.

Darren Bryant of Pensacola, Fla. spent hours in what he calls Bank of America's "phone maze," getting bounced from person to person, never reaching somebody who could address his situation.
Finally, in one last desperate attempt to get someone's attention, he uploaded a five-minute video to YouTube in which he explains his predicament and gives his phone number and email address. Darren’s video:

"The reason I'm making this video is to get in contact with somebody from Bank of America that can make a decision," Bryant says in the video, which he uploaded on Monday. He then emailed a link to over a dozen Bank of America email addresses he said he found online.
Within four hours of posting the rant, Bryant got a phone call. It was somebody from the office of David Darnell, president of Global Commercial Banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
"She says, 'We received your video and I'm calling you to see what the deal is and to go over the situation with you,'" Bryant said. The woman asked for his account number and said the bank would investigate.
"She said, 'We take this very seriously when somebody posts a video.'"
Bank of America has proven responsive to other videos from its customers. Ann Minch of Red Bluff, Calif., made a huge splash in September when she declared via YouTube that she wouldn't pay off her credit card debt unless the "evil, thieving bastards" at Bank of America lowered her interest rate. The video went viral, and within a week of its posting an executive got in touch with Minch and agreed to her demand.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/30/bank-of-america-another-c_n_304630.html

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First Time Home Buyer Credit

Too many potential First time Home Buyers think the time to be concerned about their credit is when they actually begin looking at houses. Trying to repair credit while in the home buying process is like trying to fix your car while driving 70 miles an hour. It can be done, but chances are there's a crash heading your way.

First Time Home Buyers curious about their credit scores likely have visited a number of sites claiming to offer free credit information only to find out they have to pay to get their credit scores.

Now you can get a glimpse of your scores FREE. Sites such as www.credit.com , www.creditkarma.com and www.quizzle.com offer the ability to look into the key factors used in calculating credit scores, what consumers can do to improve their scores and how their credit compares with others.

I've visited these sites and they seem very simple to navigate and most importantly they provide a road map from credit experts on how First Time Home Buyers can improve their scores.

For more valuable First Time Home Buyer information, visit our website: http://firsttimehome.us

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