Free Republic

More than 70,000 Minnesota homeowners were behind on their mortgages and received pre-foreclosure notices last year, a warning that the housing market still faces serious hurdles in 2011. About 71,665 struggling homeowners got the notices in 2010, up 8 percent from 2009, according to the Minnesota Home Ownership Center, which released the numbers Thursday. The number of notices rose 3 percent in the Twin Cities metro area, but 15 percent elsewhere in Minnesota. The numbers suggest that despite glimmers of hope in the job market, the state could see more people lose homes this year than they did last year,...

Fannie Mae: Housing starts to triple by 2013 to nearly 1.5 millionby CHRISTINE RICCIARDI Wednesday, January 19th, 2011, 11:44 am Despite the still fragile housing market, Fannie Mae expects housing starts to triple by 2013. According to the agency's economic outlook, housing starts are predicted to increase 17.3% and hit 710,000 this year, with another 47% increase to 1.1 million in 2012 and another gain of 42% in 2013 to nearly 1.5 million. In 2010, there were about 510,000 housing starts. "We expect a small rise in home sales this year, but significant amounts of supply and shadow inventory of...

How To Restructure Without Getting Taken

TAMPA - The government launched a new effort on Monday to speed up the time-consuming, often-frustrating process of selling your home if you owe more than it's worth. The Obama administration will give $3,000 for moving expenses to homeowners who complete such a sale—known as a short sale—or agree to turn over the deed of the property to the lender. It's designed for homeowners who are in financial trouble but don't qualify for the administration's $75 billion mortgage modification program. Owners will still lose their homes, but a short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure doesn't hurt a borrower's...

I recently found a full time job after almost two years of not being able to find one but our home is scheduled to be auctioned in February. I have heard different things and am not sure what to do. My parents, who live out of state, want to buy the house with cash, free and clear, not for them, but for me and the kids so we have a place to live. Is this possible? I have heard realtors say it is forbidden, while others say it could be done. I have not notified the agency who has our...

A new wave of distressed home sales is rippling, more quietly this time, through American cities and suburbs. Its unsettling effects are playing out here in Manassas, along Brewer Creek Place, a modest, horseshoe-shaped street lined with 98 brick townhouses. Several years after the U.S. foreclosure crisis erupted, the U-Hauls are back. The last time, banks seized nearly every fourth house on the street through foreclosure. This time, homeowners are going another route: a short sale. Completed short sales have more than tripled since 2008, and 400,000 of these deals are projected to close this year, according to mortgage research...

For the first time in more than a decade, the median price of a home in Orlando has dropped to less than $100,000... Sales prices were down 22 percent from a year earlier. The last time existing houses were so cheap in Orlando was May 1998, when a mid-range home cost $98,984. In comparison, it was just three years ago when median prices peaked at $264,436... more than 70 percent of August sales were distress properties. " With foreclosures and short sales dominating the market, the median price continues to be lowered," said Kathleen Gallagher McIver, Re/Max Town & Country...

In an effort to end the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration has been trying to keep defaulting owners in their homes. Now it will take a new approach: paying some of them to leave. This latest program, which will allow owners to sell for less than they owe and will give them a little cash to speed them on their way, is one of the administration’s most aggressive attempts to grapple with a problem that has defied solutions. More than five million households are behind on their mortgages and risk foreclosure. The government’s $75 billion mortgage modification plan has helped...

Troubled homeowners may be losing a major lifeline: so-called short sales. To get bad loans off their books and spur home sales, lenders have been forgiving the difference between the outstanding mortgage balance and the purchase price. Banks were never eager participants in short sales, and now financial firms—even those that can offload losses to the government—are balking at such transactions. Some lenders are forcing the sellers to pay extra money at closing. Others want a promissory note for part of the amount due. The situation could be a setback for the already wobbly housing recovery. A record one-third of...

The Securities and Exchange Commission's ban on short selling, which sparked a series of similar bans around the globe, was intended to be a "time out" and "restore equilibrium to markets." By the time it expired Wednesday night, the general view was that it added to market confusion and didn't do much to halt the slide in financial stocks. "I think what we did was we gave these stocks an artificial boost for a while, but it was pretty short-lived," said Charles Jones, a professor at Columbia Business School. "It was just like a glass of orange juice, and then...