From USAToday.com:

When Sharon Sakson was laid off recently from her job as a television writer and producer, she burned through her savings to pay the $2,400 monthly mortgage on her home. But she soon decided it didn’t make sense: Her home was worth thousands less than the mortgage she carried on it.

The home had been appraised at $390,000 when she refinanced in 2006, but she estimates it’s not worth the $320,000 it initially cost in 2004. So Sakson did what a growing number of homeowners are doing today: She stopped paying and decided to let the bank take her home.

What Sakson did is called a strategic default, or a voluntary foreclosure, and it’s fast becoming a major challenge to the government’s $75 billion effort to keep distressed borrowers in their homes. Walking away from a mortgage is serious business — it can knock 100 points off your credit score and make you ineligible for a new mortgage for seven years. Yet, about 588,000 borrowers walked away from homes last year, double the number in 2007, according to a recent study by credit-scoring firm Experian and management consultants Oliver Wyman. While home prices are rising, the increases pale compared with overall drops in home prices since 2005 that threaten to push millions more homeowners into Sakson’s predicament, owing more than their homes are worth and seeing little chance of rebuilding equity soon.

Make sure you read the rest of the article. We get a lot of calls everyday from people in this same situation. I would never suggest someone simply walk away from their home. If someone was to do a Strategic Default it should be for the benefit of completing a loan modification or a short sale. There are times when a bank will refuse to accept either of those options, unless the owner goes late.

If you are considering walking away from your home, or are running through your savings to keep up on your payments, please don’t wait to give us a call: (480) 389-5199 We can help you understand what all of your options are. Call us today.

Post from: The Phoenix Real Estate Guide

Phoenix Real Estate: More People Area Walking Away From Their Home

This just in from The Phoenix News Times:

Banks Suing Governor over Reversal of Controversial “Anti-Deficiency” Law

Remember when we wrote about a bill that could financially devastate homeowners facing foreclosure? Remember when they reversed the bill?

Well, it might just be back.

Last Monday, the American Bankers Association — which represents more than 70 banks in the state — filed a lawsuit with the Arizona Supreme Court against Governor Jan Brewer, challenging the constitutionality of how the Legislature reversed controversial Senate Bill 1271.

Specifically, bankers are requesting that the court reverse Section 17 of House Bill 2008 –the exact same section that reversed Senate Bill 1271.

The essence of banking lobby’s case hangs on how 1271 was reversed. Brewer signed a bill reversing SB1271 in a special session. Because the bill reversing 1271 was unrelated to the four topics Brewer listed when calling the special session, the Arizona Banker’s Association says the reversal was unconstitutional, according to its petition.

It also argues that the entire house bill — one of nine sections of the long-awaited budget — may very well be unconstitutional. According to the Arizona Constitution, bills should stick to one topic. But, the petition argues, HB 2008 addresses many different issues (including 1271) that are not remotely similar.

Real estate lawyer Jim Eckley — a vocal critic of 1271 — calls the lawsuit absurd.

This could cause a lot of problems for the already troubled Phoenix real estate market.

Post from: The Phoenix Real Estate Guide

Phoenix Real Estate: Could Senate Bill 1271 be re-reversed?

It takes balls to call the bottom of any market. I think that there are too many homes facing foreclosure, too many Alt-A loans resetting, too much unemployment, etc. to be confident on where the bottom is. h/t to @timandjulie for the video.

Post from: The Phoenix Real Estate Guide

Phoenix Real Estate: Did We Hit The Bottom Of The Market?

Live music @ Carly’s on 2nd & Roosevelt in downtown PHX

Posted via email from thephoenixrealestateguide’s posterous

Post from: The Phoenix Real Estate Guide

Live music @ Carly’s on 2nd & Roosevelt in downtown PHX

The Tempe real estate market is still giving sellers headaches. Here is the only real positive:
Monthly Sales Days on Market is down quite compared to last month, quarter, and the last two years

There are other positives (green arrows) but they seem so minuscule to me that you can’t really say anything is turning around with it. We are still at 5 months of inventory, which is generally considered a sellers market, but the prices are so cheap (and falling) that this is definitely a time for buyers. Click on the image to see the enlarged statistics. Also, check out our Statistic Definitions & Explanations page for clarification.

If you find your self hurting to make your mortgage payments, you do have options. Don’t hesitate to give us a call and see what is available to you. We help people create a game plan for both Loan Modifications and Short Sales in the Tempe area. (480) 389-5199 Or just click the call me button in the sidebar

Post from: The Phoenix Real Estate Guide

Tempe Real Estate Snapshot For October 22nd 2009

Here are some of the latest numbers for the Phoenix real estate market. For definitions please check out our Statistic Definitions & Explanations page.

Here is what stood out to me:

• The total number of active listings is up for the month and the quarter, but WAY less then this time last year
• At the same time the number of sales in Phoenix has dropped as well
• Active listing prices per square foot is $135.82
• Monthly Sales price per square foot is ~$80 and Annually it is at ~$75

*This could be for two reasons: The active listings are the more expensive luxury homes and they are just not selling, or the sellers (or their agents) are completely oblivious to the market.

• The median sales price is just about $100k.  So unless you are priced in this area, be prepared to drop the price.

If you are falling behind on your mortgage payments and need information about a what your options are, please don’t hesitate to give me a call. (480) 389-5199

Post from: The Phoenix Real Estate Guide

Phoenix Real Estate Statistics October 22nd 2009

I am telling this to everybody I know. If you want to get your home sold, price it where the homes that are selling are priced. For Short Sales in Phoenix, the homes that are selling are priced at ~$87 a square foot. The ones that are listed? ~$97 per square foot. One a 2000 square foot home, it will sell around $174k but it is priced at $194k. See the problem? Do you see why we have 9.4 months of supply for Short Sale homes?

Unfortunately I have talked to a couple of other agents about this. One of them responded, “we don’t want to drive the value of homes down.” Screw that. The fiduciary responsibility is to get your home sold through a short sale before the foreclosure date.

If you or someone you know need to sell your home for less then what you owe on it, please don’t wait to get started. It can be a long process and the sooner you can get started the better. (480) 389-5199

Post from: The Phoenix Real Estate Guide

Short Sales In Phoenix: Snapshot of Short Sale Statistics October 17 2009

From Loansafe.org:
I re-read my forbearance; I want to request a short sale
“…one lady was actually given the imfamous “trial payments” and still resided in her home while the other, a 64 year old lady, had a knock at her door on Oct 1st saying her house was foreclosed on and she had to leave. To her understanding she was in a forbearance till Dec….so she had to leave her property. Currently she is fighting to try to get WHATS LEFT of her stuff out of the foreclosed house. When the news crew panned over the looks of the said house the windows had been broken out, clearly vandalized and she had said friends of hers had said they saw stuff that belonged to her for sale on the street!…

…First and foremost I should have trusted my instinct that the young sounding kid on the other end of the line had no idea what he was talking about when I asked him if the dam MHA was even a real program. His response, yes it is we have done thousands….My response well I sent my paperwork 2 times and no one seems to have it! he tells me to resend it again…
…She says get all your docs together fax them to me and i will call you personally to let you know i recieved them…i told her this was my last shot. I faxed them and didnt get a call. No surprise…but she did call on Monday to let me know she got them and would be working the mod. Long story shot it ended up ina forbearance…
…So after last nights news i decided i needed to totally review my papers and saw that it says “Chase home finance LLC is writing in response to your request for a forbearance plan on the above referenced account.” ok number 1!!!! i didnt request a dam forbearance! does that mean that thats what Amaya had been working on for the past 60 days? not the MHA? So i tried to call chase this morning and guess what….as per my account, SSN, and zip code, there is no property that matches that info!. WTF is really goin on?… I wanted to request short sale papers.

With the other property we have, that we havent paid for since OCT 08. Its with countrywide/BofA….we requested short-sale papers at that time and recieved trial payments for 500.00 less then our normal payment….and A lady at my church requested short sale papers and was also offered trial payments instead of short sale papers for 600 less then her normal monthly payment. Again not chase but it seems to be the way to go??? ” (emphasis mine)

Sadly, this is not an uncommon story. If you are going to pursue a loan modification on your own, be prepared to lose all faith in humanity work for it. There was one instance where we had to send a full package in 18 times! We would call to confirm receipt and they would say they are missing a page that is right out of the middle. I can understand if they are missing the first or the last page, but right out of the middle? And if we are missing one page, why do we need to send in the whole package? Easy, if the package is not complete, they have no problem throwing your package in the trash round file cabinet.

Remember, before you sign the paperwork the bank has sent you, read it carefully. If you requested a loan modification, you need to get a loan modification. And it has to be something affordable, not a couple hundred dollars off for the next 6 months. If your payment doesn’t drop 40% it’s not a good loan modification.

If you are working on a loan modification or have received a forbearance instead of a modification, give us a call. We literally do a hundred (or more) of these a month. We can tell you what your chances are of getting a loan modification through. We can also help you plan if a loan modification does not work out. (480) 389-5199

Post from: The Phoenix Real Estate Guide

Phoenix Loan Modifications: Read Your Modification Carefully

From RealtyTrac: U.S. FORECLOSURE ACTIVITY INCREASES 5 PERCENT IN Q3

RealtyTrac® … today released its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™ for Q3 2009, which shows that foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 937,840 properties in the third quarter, a 5 percent increase from the previous quarter and an increase of nearly 23 percent from Q3 2008. One in every 136 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the quarter — the highest quarterly foreclosure rate since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in the first quarter of 2005.

Foreclosure filings were reported on 343,638 properties in September, a 4 percent decrease from the previous month but a 29 percent increase from September 2008. Despite the monthly decrease, September’s total was still the third highest monthly total since the RealtyTrac report began in January 2005, behind only July and August of this year.

Arizona posted the nation’s second highest state foreclosure rate in the third quarter, with one in every 53 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing, and California posted the nation’s third highest state foreclosure rate, also with one in every 53 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing during the quarter.

If you are the 1 in 53, don’t wait any longer. Give us a call to see if there can be some relief for you. We help people everyday with Loan Modifications and Short Sales. (480) 389-5199 Let’s get a game plan together to help you get things right.

Post from: The Phoenix Real Estate Guide

Phoenix Foreclosures: 1 in 53 Homes Received a Foreclosure Notice

From Housingwire.com: “The Making Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) adds another layer of uncertainty for private label securitization investors, making it more difficult to predict cash flows, according to a report by analysts at Amherst Securities Group, who added they expect relatively few HAMP workouts to be successful.

Additionally, it’s taking longer for bad mortgages to move from last payment to liquidation, and the pace varies by servicer: “The trial modification period essentially holds the loan in a suspended state for 90 days, making it difficult to assess what is happening with modifications,” the report said …

While HAMP workouts are keeping the pools of real estate owned (REO) property relatively small, Amherst predicts a low percentage of eventual success of HAMP modifications is inevitable.”

Calculated Risk had some notes on the same article:
The trial period has been extended for an additional 60 days – so make it suspended animation for 150 days! See One Company Responsible For Nearly Half Of All Permanent Mortgage Modifications
Treasury and COP note that many of those temporary modifications may be in process of getting paperwork
submitted in order for them to achieve permanent status. Treasury granted a two-month extension — on
top of the three-month trial — for borrowers and servicers to get their documentation ready.

Much depends on the success of HAMP. If many of these modifications don’t become permanent there will be another flood of foreclosures on the market. BofA has already promised a “spike” in foreclosure at the end of this year, see: Delayed Foreclosures Stalk Market
We are going to see a spike from now to the end of the year in foreclosures as we take people out of the
running” for a loan modification or other alternatives, says a Bank of America Corp. spokeswoman.

Here’s my take:
I work with people who are trying to get loan modifications. I see the results that many people get when they do their own modifications.

I have seen a homeowner 3 months behind on their payments, work with the bank for more then 6 months, only to have the bank tell them if they bring in all of the back payments they will lower the mortgage payment $200 bucks for a year. Then it goes back to their normal payment.

I’ve also seen people come in who worked with the bank to get a loan modification only to see their new payment higher then before! How does that help anybody?

I think the issue is that homeowners, trying to do their own modification, don’t push the bank hard enough to get a payment that will substantially save them money. By all means, homeowners can do their own modifications. But unless they know what results they COULD get, they won’t know if they are being screwed over or not.

If you would like to see what a real loan modification looks like, please give me a call. (480) 389-5199 In about an hour, we can run through your situation and see an idea of what we could expect from completing a modification. Sometimes a modification isn’t the right choice. We can help you lay out all of your options. Don’t wait until it’s too late. (480) 389-5199

Post from: The Phoenix Real Estate Guide

Your HAMP Modification Won’t Work. Wanna Bet?