By Lois A. Vitt Are you stuck trying to make a housing decision? Small wonder. Your housing decisions are about everything in your life, not just the design and location of your home. They involve your inner motivations, desires, and well-being as surely as the objective circumstances of managing your housing-related finances or the logistics… Continue reading Finding Your Housing Value System
Category: News
Investors Slammed by Housing Crash
By Mike Colpitts Homeowners are facing an economic crunch from the housing crash, but investors often face even more severe repercussions. More than 1 in 3 foreclosures are of investment owned properties, and should the foreclosure epidemic worsen as forecast that number is expected to rise as more investors walk away from mortgages. During the… Continue reading Investors Slammed by Housing Crash
Congress Finally Proposes Homeowners Help
By Kevin Chiu A proposal to halt the record number of foreclosures and force lenders to work with homeowners to modify mortgages was introduced in the Senate Wednesday by Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed. Rhode Island is one of the worst 10 states to be affected by the foreclosure epidemic. The bill would establish a… Continue reading Congress Finally Proposes Homeowners Help
Pilot Program Could Help Home Foreclosures
By Mike Colpitts The federal government response has been painstakingly slow to the foreclosure epidemic. But one city councilman is proposing a pilot program that could give mortgage holders of distressed homes a chance to stay in their residences amid the worst economic downturn in a generation. The program, already approved by the Los Angeles… Continue reading Pilot Program Could Help Home Foreclosures
Appraisal Reforms Sought
By Kevin Chiu Already under attack for inaccurate and sometimes fraudulent appraisals, a coalition of real estate industry related organizations is banding together to reform appraisal practices in an effort to fix part of the system that triggered the worst real estate crash since the Great Depression. Appraisers have been named as defendants in a… Continue reading Appraisal Reforms Sought
Foreclosures Set New Records
Foreclosures reached the highest level on record in June as foreclosure filings rose for the fourth month in a row, according to the latest RealtyTrac foreclosure report. Notices of default, auction sale notices and bank repossessions were reported on more than 1.5-million properties in the first half of the year. Some 1,528,364 properties received notices… Continue reading Foreclosures Set New Records
Housing Market Conditions Improving
Housing Market Conditions Improving Housing indicators are showing that markets are making slow strides towards improving conditions. Boosted by the first time buyers’ $8,000 federal tax credit and other incentives, home sales are up in many of the hardest hit urban markets, including Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix. Additionally, government insured mortgage applications hit… Continue reading Housing Market Conditions Improving
Money Trail of Housing Bust Leads to Congress
By Mike Colpitts The repeal of the law that produced the current housing depression was made by Congress in 1999, and it took just eight years before it would nearly destroy the U.S. economy. At the peak of the real estate bubble lobbyists gave more than $350-million to members of Congress. Lawmakers passed laws that… Continue reading Money Trail of Housing Bust Leads to Congress
Graveyards of the Housing Bust are Zombie Developments
Graveyards of the Housing Bust By Mike Colpitts They are littered from coast to coast and do not discriminate. Zombie subdivisions and housing developments are scattered across the nation like nothing since the Great Depression. They are the wreckage of failed developments and urban sprawl gone mad during the real estate boom, left to rot… Continue reading Graveyards of the Housing Bust are Zombie Developments
Forecasting the Bottom of the Housing Market
As the U.S. government attempts to repair the broken capitalistic system and come up with a full housing rescue plan, hopes rise that the troubled market will recover from the worst economic housing depression in history. The bottom of housing market price deflation is now forecast by Housing Predictor to develop in the final quarter… Continue reading Forecasting the Bottom of the Housing Market