hysteria and 
blogpimping!
Get yours now!
Nevada ranks second in the nation at 61.3 percent, behind only California (69 percent; in 2004, it was 46 percent), in the percentage of potentially negative-amortizing mortgages, including interest-only and products with ARM options, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's most-recent numbers.
The perfect storm is coming for California home owners! Nationwide, nearly half the people who bought a home in the past three years are in for major trouble. Their home loans will reset at 'current interest rates' plus. (Today that is about 6.8 % or 7.3% APR for most borrowers). Major trouble exists if the mortgage was automatically deferring unpaid interest and adding it to the total sum due. [Learn More?] Time to wake up and smell the coffee. For my naysaying friends out there I reiterate your mantras: 'Nothing is really going on. Nothing to see in my neck of the woods. Time to move on.'
Yup. For the past 6 mos. home sales are down and unsold inventories are up. Prices have nowhere to go but down.
I don't know anything about the housing market but the new interest only loans just feel wrong to me.
If all these lenders want to become real estate companies, have at it. I'm sure their loan portfolios aren't going to be helped much by massive foreclosures and being stuck with unsaleable properties.
Not saying I like ARMs, mind you.
hysteria and blogpimping!Get yours now!
And the crowd that can afford to flip houses for a quick windfall...these are the things that are going to bust the bubble...and like in a Ponzi scheme, the folk that buy in the period just before the bust are going to be left holding the bag.
In the meantime, these schemes have served to drive home prices into an insane range. This leaves a lot of people out of the housing market - unless they leave a lot of high end areas.
Rents rise along with it all - and pretty soon, the service providers wont be able to live close enough to clean the houses and mow the lawns - ;O)
Now the lenders are left to complain about the looming defaults caused by their easy credit policies (sigh).
It is fitting that Nevada has a housing market that is based on SEE 'EM and RAISE 'EM.
Another version of casino gambling.
(yawn!!) aren't you done yet?
County median home price reaches $604,000
San Luis Obispo Tribune ^ | Fri, Mar. 24, 2006 | Jeanne Kinney
Posted on 03/24/2006 7:05:10 PM PST by Porterville
County median home price reaches $604,000 San Luis Obispo County’s median home price inched past the $600,000 mark last month, reaching $604,170, according to data released by the California Association of Realtors. This was a 2 percent gain from January and a 21.7 percent gain from February 2005, when the median price was $496,430.
February’s median was still lower than the record set in November 2005 of $605,160.
The county saw an 8.1 percent increase in the number of sales of single-family detached homes compared with February of last year. During the same period, the median price of an existing home statewide increased 13.7 percent as the number of sales decreased 15.5 percent.
"As expected, year-over-year sales continued to decline from the robust levels of a year ago," said Vince Malta, association president.
Statewide, there is an unsold inventory estimated at 6.7 months. In San Luis Obispo County, unsold inventory was 7.6 months in February. That compares with 5.6 months in February 2005.
The California Association of Realtors bases its figures and projections on the reported closed escrow sales of single-family detached homes (no condominiums) provided by member associations. — Jeanne Kinney
"Statewide, home prices rose 18 percent during 2005 and 37 percent in 2004, which enabled buyers to flip their properties if they couldn't afford to pay their mortgages, Anderlik said. "If they've been in them two or three years, they have pretty good price appreciation. That's the reason we have seen very few foreclosures."
A recent survey conducted by the Mortgage Bankers Association found that only 0.3 percent of the home mortgages in Nevada were in foreclosure as of the end of 2005, making it the 48th-lowest out of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Nevada also showed one of the lowest home-loan delinquency rates in the country at 3 percent, according to the Mortgage Bankers' report."
Those statistics mean Nevada homeowners have enjoyed high appreciation, have substantial equity, and are NOT letting their loans go delinquent.
This proves the OPPOSITE case, from that posited by our erstwhile poster.
Sure, real estate across the nation has slowed, after years of big price gains.
The national homeownership percent is at an all time high.
And as has always been so, a few homeowners will get in trouble and let the home go all the way to foreclosure.
That will be the exception, because well before foreclosure, strapped owners will SELL, REFINANCE, etc. because they have EQUITY to protect or withdraw.
So if somebody is waiting for foreclosures, good luck. First off, you have to have ALL CASH in my area. And it is reported a few really big players go to the courthouse with big cashiers checks, to buy every property offered.
If you have never bought foreclosures, investigate the facts before getting hopes too high.
Another thing I have observed over 18 years as a RE broker: the banks take the properties back themselves, and market them for going market prices.
Investigate the facts.
I read that GMAC Finance now has some monkey business with their numbers...GM is trying to sell the unit but there are some accounting errors in it.
How long have you been pushing these 'bursting bubble' stories? It's been over a year, hasn't it?
That last paragraph is a doozy. If I read that right we should all just swap houses every six months or so and hence never let the market drop.
I am not in one of those insane markets, and even here locally they are predicting a 16% default rate in the coming year.....
People who think there is no housing bubble, and that it won't have any impact on them... are in la la land.